Moving, Muppet Babies and Purging Your Facebook Friends

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What is it about moving that sucks so bad? Oh wait, everything.

This weekend we helped my father-in-law pack and move his apartment near Virginia Beach. It's not that he was unprepared to move or didn't have a plan, or anything else. Moving just sucks and I have done my fair share. I have move one time (actually twice in 2008) every year for approximately 9 years.

One would think that with all my experiences with moving, I might enjoy it or be proficient in the science of it. One would be wrong on both counts. Moving, or even helping someone move is painful, stressful and sweaty work. It absolutely brings out the worst in me. I hate a mess and disorder makes me a grouch! Not to mention, packing away someone else's stuff is nothing short of awkward. It puts you in situations like, "sure I'll pack your flight simulator and wireless walky-talky headsets." Then you find yourself deleting this person from facebook and cell phones because you can't believe how WEIRD they are. If I hadn't helped you move, we'd still be friends. Such a senseless loss...

But I suppose being weird is no real reason to cut someone out of your life (although creating a little healthy distance between you and your bizarre-o buddy might be a good idea). We all have our weird stuff! I admit to owning a collection of old 80's happy meal toys. I don't have them at my place, they are with my Mom and Dad and I will not allow them to be discarded. Somewhere in my mind, that McNugget dressed like Crocodile Dundee has real value and should not be disposed of. A little irrational, I know.

Hey, in my defense, my nieces and nephews love to play with them in the bathtub though they have no idea about these weird characters I keep naming off. Fozzy Bear? Miss Piggy? Gonzo? I'm thinking, "come on, they're the Muppet Babies! They're classic treasures! Kids today... If the character doesn't have their own iphone, they're not cool." Then I promptly call myself an old curmudgeon.

I'm sure a day will come, maybe soon, maybe in the future, when I part with some of the knick-knacks of my childhood. Perhaps I will simply tire of them or perhaps I will lose so many acquaintances by asking their help in moving them in the next few years (because I'm sure I'll be moving more than once), that I'll be forced to be rid of them. Either way... moving sucks!

The weekend that was..

Thanks to Toothpastefordinner.com for this morsel

What a weird weekend! Looking back to Friday it feels like it was really long and normally that's a great thing and means that I had an awesome weekend, full of fun and generally little sleep.

But this was a different weekend. Friday I was home basically the whole day. I didn't accomplish much, but sometimes that's a good day. Friday night, we wento Cafe Bruge, in Carlisle, PA.

This is our favorite place by far in Central PA. We love to sit at the bar and chat with owner/bartender Garrett and scarf up the amazing food. An order of frites to start is a must, the rest our menu changes every visit. This time we had stoemp saucisse. Yum!!


Saturday, I completed my volunteer shift from 10 - 1 at the Susquehanna Art Museum and proceeded to have a meltdown on the way home. Over nothing! I'm blaming it solely on hormones. The meltdown took about an hour, from during my drive home and then the comforting from my befuddled husband.*

Saturday afternoon, is a complete blank for me? What did I do? I know we took the dog for a walk, but what else? I'm not sure. Saturday night we drove to Hershey to go to dinner at a place we like, called Houlihan's. Unfortunately, most of the residents of Hershey had the same idea. So, we drove around a bit till we found The Chocolate Avenue Grill. We went in with no expectations and found a very nice place to share a Saturday night! We started with the best spanikopita I have ever had and ended with a slice of lemon marscapone cake. My man had the steak special that came with sweet potato fries (his fav) and a giant tree of steamed broccoli. And I had the seared tuna encrusted in sesame and poppy seeds and a strawberry, papaya salsa. Delish!

So Saturday started with tears and ended with cake. A pretty good save!

Sunday was interesting! We ventured to Ski Roundtop to try our hands at skiing. I was excited all the way there and ready for the challenge! I was armed with all the advice and tips from friends and blogfriends alike. We got there, bought our passes, rented our equipment and lined up under the sign stating "First Time Skiers" and waited for our instructor.

Keith was his name and he was extremely helpful and knowledgeable and led us through a two-hour course on turning and sort of stopping and proper stance and proper pole position and side stepping up the mountain. It was all positive! I fell only once during our two hour class and didn't even a bad one. My butt didn't touch the ground.

I did however, manage to impale myself with my own ski pole while we were on the kiddo lift. Some lady hit the emergency stop button (so she could get the perfect shot of her lil angel exiting the lift) throwing everyone on the lift forward at the exact moment that I had my head down to put my glove in my pocket. There was a little blood and swelling. But I was being a trooper, no biggie! Still going to be a great day on the slopes!

After our class we decided to head down the bunny slope one more time just for good measure and did it successfully, gliding towards the chair lift up to the "easy" slope. We took the lift with a five-year old and her dad who told me the trick to skiing was just to "follow your Daddy and do what he does." I looked at my husband, who was not comfortable with this label, but it generally much more adept and athletic. He would have to be my Daddy.

Time to get off the lift and.... fall. Fall #1 was a simple tangling of poles and not standing up soon enough. Ok... back up! Hubs asked if I was ready, I said "No, but if I don't go down now, I won't go at all."

And we're off, skiing, building speed, losing control and... fall. This was the big one. My right knee was contorted behind me in a very unpleasant way. Trying to get up... fall. Thinking and saying out loud, "Why didn't they teach us how to fall and not kill ourselves? People die doing this? Why wouldn't they teach us?" I managed to get myself over to a poll (it was padded, thank goodness) and get my skis off. I then walked up the hill, and let the nice man from the ski patrol sled me down the hill.

Was this humiliating? Yes. Could I have skied down that hill? Probably not and walked away under my own control.

So, what happened? I was in control of myself earlier, where did it all go wrong? I'll tell you where: panic. I have a teensy tendency to panic when things go awry. So when I started going fast, all my previous skills like turning myself to slow down went OUT THE WINDOW.

I skied the bunny slope a few more times, feeling much less than confident. Then decided that's about enough for one day and took the skis off for good.

Today, I'm nursing a wonky right knee (it'll heal, I'm pretty sure) and a little cut on my very sore jaw. I am undeterred, however. I will go back to try it again in the future. I might even spring for a one-on-one lesson as I am not ashamed to say that I may be a challenging case.

It looks like so much fun for those who can do it! My husband had a great time and said that he feels he would enjoy it much more with me along. There's motivation right there!

And now here we are at Monday morning. I feel like that weekend had to be at least five days and I'm pooped.

*In my defense, we are experiencing the arrival of some major life changes. And while things are very exciting, they're also a little scary. Scary life changes + hormones = teary meltdown

Wow, what a day

I haven't really posted anything in a couple of days due to complete lack of original thought. My mind has been wound into a taught, little knot thinking about plans for the future. News has just arrived that we will be moving to an undisclosed location in the next five months. I may be moving from my current residence within the next month and a half. We have no idea where we'll be going.

It's a lot to process. It's a lot of packing and work, not to mention, a major career shift for both my husband and me. Oh boy, just typing about it is giving me a headache. All of the accounts to cancel, addresses to change... again with the headache. I need some tea, or maybe a stiff drink.

Change is exciting and the possibilities for our life are wide-open. But I literally feel like I'm stepping of the roof of my house and expecting not to fall. One tactic I take to keep myself feeling in control is focusing on the present. Worrying about today's decisions and making them with careful consideration.

And while I am doing this, I am still feeling the panic bouncing around in the periphery of my mind.

How do you keep your cool in the face of big change? Or are you someone who takes big changes in stride without a problem? If you are one of these people, please tell me how!!