Let's start with today and work backwards:

It is bright and early on Sunday morning.  I am sitting on the couch with a cup of earl grey tea in a sea foam green cup and we finally have our own internet connection.  It is quiet, except for the air conditioner. Josh is still asleep.  This is kind of our habit now:  I get up early and sit quietly doing this or that, but always with a warm something to drink.  He sleeps in and when he finally starts drifting between asleep and awake, he'll realize I'm not there and come searching.  These are good mornings.

Yesterday I realized the job I thought I was almost certainly getting isn't happening.  I suppose in the long run this is best.  I'll just have to keep looking.  While the money would have been wonderful, Josh is actually relieved I didn't get it.  I applied to be a car sales(wo)man at the Mazda dealership a few blocks down the road.  In all reality, I'd be pretty good at it.  In all actuality, it would eat away at my soul until there wasn't one left.  I was kind of looking forward to having such a surreal experience.  Cars aren't exactly the most interesting thing to me, but I figured that working around them would give me a new knowledge and therefore appreciation for them.

At this point I'm not totally concerned with what kind of job I get, I just need an income.  And something to do so that it doesn't feel like vacation all the time because feeling like you're on vacation owing to the fact that you're jobless is a little troubling.  Like a dream where you know you're dreaming.  It's a bit eerie yet wonderful and off and you know it.

So Thursday we climbed a mountain!  We conquered the West!  We rose to the top of Horsetooth!  Horsetooth is the rock at the top of one of these lower mountains that when viewed from afar looks like the teeth of a horse.  Very aptly named.  Mind you, we are at an elevation of 14 feet shy of 5,000 here in Fort Collins.  The summit of Horsetooth is over 7,000 feet.  You have to drive to the park which is literally minutes away.  That elevation gain is about 500 feet.  Then you climb the remaining 1,500 feet to the top.  We did it in 2 hours which is not bad at all for for us low-elevation midwesterners!  The mean elevation of Indianapolis is about 715.  I'm definitely not as sore as I thought I'd be.  My legs hurt more when we moved out here with the UHaul and were climbing 2 flights of stairs with all our earthly belongings.
There are certain hikes called "14ers." Much like Horsetooth, they are well named.  These hikes take you to an elevation of 14,000 feet or higher.  There are 53 of them in Colorado alone.    I think we'll do some in between ones before we attempt any 14ers.

We're biking everyday, except for Friday because we climbed a mountain, stuffed ourselves with some alright pizza and napped the rest of the afternoon.  There are tons of trails and just about every road as a bike lane.  We are driving less and less, which is good because my car won't last long.  We have a group of neighbor friends and we make the pub quiz rounds every week and we even met some cool people on the way up to Horsetooth.

Josh and I have been discussing plans for a pizza place.  It might be the best way for us to leave a good mark on this world.  We have been testing and rating all the pizza places here in Fort Collins via Pizza Friday.  Two Fridays ago it was Justine's Pizza, a very solid pizza with ample toppings and a flavorful sause.  Last Friday it was Mama Roni's Pizza which was pretty nondescript.  The toppings weren't anything special nor were the defining characteristics of a pizza:  the crust and sause.  Look, you can use just about any toppings as along as they're legit fresh, but your crust and your sause set you apart from every other pizza out there.  If you haven't the sause or the crust, you haven't the pizza.  You might as well be eating a Jack's Frozen Pizza.  So once we survey the pizza market, we'll see if there's a wedge-shaped void we need to fill.

Oh! The Grandeur!

The Morning has arrived!

We will be loading the 14 foot UHaul truck in a matter of time.  A little unsure about when exactly.  We were supposed to pick it up at 7 am but when I called last night to confirm the rental, they said 10 am.  I thought that sounded a little late, but Joshua was the one who made the reservation so I said fine.  Anyway, here it is 8 after 8 and Josh is going to try his luck picking it up early.  Hope all goes well because it would save us a bit of time.

We don't actually leave for Colorado today.  We head to Elkhart to gather the last of our large belongings:  a bookshelf, 2 dressers, and who knows what else.

We left Joshua's car at a friends for safe keeping while we drag the ever-worsening Taurus to Colorado.  Yesterday it kind of stopped working at a red light.  I mean, I got it going again.  But it made me doubt the ability of my car. 

So!  I'm going to make a pot of coffee, rally the troops of friends volunteered to help load the truck, and take on the move!

Still Packing

It is almost 3 pm on Saturday the 26th.  It seems like many many things have happened in the past few weeks.  I guess that's because it's simply true.  Many little changes have been made and are coming and oh my god we are adults now.

Let me start with a bicycle wreck.  It was around June 13th.  I had my laptop in my backpack and was riding furiously in the rain, I was trying to beat it, mind you.  I Crashed!  I slid into home plate!  A bruised and scraped right side was simply an inconvenience compared to my waterlogged, jarred laptop.  I lost several thousand European photos not to mention some (regenerate-able) academic research.  I also have several thousand songs that are now confined to the cramped life of ipod use only.  You see, you cannot transfer music from an ipod to a laptop.  I bought a new (used) laptop of a dear friend and it came with about 10,000 of HIS songs.  

My music life has been revolutionized.

Because Joshua and I will be making the drive to CO x2 we needed new music.  Not just the 10,000 songs Scott randomly dumped into our laps, but music specially selected for the 36+ hours we will spend in the car.  We invited friends to donated mixed CD's to our Manifest Destiny cause and we are pleased to say that we have at least 15 new CD's.  Some came with the "Do Not Open Till..." instructions.  Some we've already sampled, and some we've simply looked at the song listings.

Driving Update!

Josh and I are no longer driving separately the second go.  A friend, Kevin Willis, suggested we haul one car and drive the other.  This is an excellent idea we had not thought of.  So we shall haul the Taurus.  This is both a blessing and a curse.  If we haul the Taurus, fine.  Josh and I will take turns driving the UHaul.  When we drive the Scion, we will also take turns.  This is a bit trickier, because I cannot exactly drive a stick.  I shall be receiving a crash course in manual transmissions in a matter of days so that Josh isn't burdened with 20 hours of driving.  

We're also planning to leave from Elkhart, so that changes our trajectory just a smidgen.   We really will be taking I-80 for about 900 miles.  From Indy we'd take I-72 for a large chunk of Missouri before connecting to I-80 in Nebraska City, Nebraska.  We will basically avoid Kansas at all costs.  Every single person who hears we are driving to Colorado first assumes we're going to Denver and thus assumes we will take I-70 straight through desolate, forsaken Kansas.  One the one hand I'm glad we're going a slightly different route, but on the other I feel as if we're missing some bizarre right of passage.  To suffer through Kansas would be to join the ranks of those who can nobly remember the trial and slyly smile at the next couple of schmucks and warn them of a strange and tiring beauty they are about to experience.

So today I must purchase bubble wrap for all the paintings and picture frames.  

Tomorrow is Sunday.  The day after is Monday.  There's just nothing left to do but go.

Boxes.

It is nearly 7 pm on Tuesday, June 22nd.  We are packing.  We've technically been at it for days, but that's not saying much for how much we actually have done.  All of my books and dvds are packed.  Most of my clothes either found their way into a Goodwill bag, the laundry, or a box.  When going through the kitchen we packed a total of 10 glasses (wine, coffee mugs, and King David's Hotdog cups).  We have no silverware, a box of pots and pans, and a box of old Fiesta Ware.  Today I packed all my records.  I know why moving to cassette tapes thrilled everyone.  LPs are obnoxiously large and when stacked in boxes, quickly outweigh a medium sized dog.

Josh and I toss each other items for review:
      "Is Count of Monte Cristo out for a reason?"
      "Box it."

      "Any of these papers important?  I'm about to throw them out."
      "Uh....Marriage license, your Social Security Card, Birth Certificate...keep this stuff."

Slowly but surely.  It all comes together.

Overcast for the Next 6 Hours

So I hopped on the laptop today and thought, "I should look at the weather."  I directed my curser to the top left corner of my laptop screen and my dashboard popped up.  This is where I keep things like a calculator, dictionary.com, BBC world news headlines, the weather for Fairbanks, Indy, Elkhart, Aix-en-Provence, Oxford, and Fort Collins.  This is also where I keep various countdowns.  Some of the more famous of the countdowns include days till leaving for Europe, days till returning from Europe, days until Josh's return, days until my birthday, and days until moving to Colorado.

I was shocked to discover that we are 15 days away from driving a UHaul to Fort Collins.

It is shocking.

Between job hunting from across the country, play practice, attempting to write a paper, spending quality time with friends and family, preparing to move, planning a wedding, playing video games, and still trying to sleep at night, I've only made small advancements in each category (except for Fallout 3, in which I'm a level 24 defender of the defenseless).

So today I'm listening to Vladimir Horowitz's piano encores to make me feel triumphant and capable.  I shall succeed with energy to spare as long as I have "Stars and Stripes Forever" on my day's soundtrack!

The first thing Joshua said to me this morning when I exclaimed that we have 15 days and need to PACK was to stop by the liquor store.  What!?  To get boxes.  Apparently liquor stores have a plethora of empty boxes that are perfect for packing.

Just How Far Is It?

1,126 miles from doorstep to doorstep.  18 hours and 9 minutes if we don't take any pit stops.

Someone made the comment that you could drive to Russia in that time from London.  This might be an exaggeration.  But then again I've not been able to successfully google map it.

If we just take I-80 west for about a thousand miles we'll drive the radius of Indiana, slice Illinois in half, divide Missouri by quarters, trim Nebraska into a rectangle, and take the southwestern tip of Wyoming right off before coming to a screeching halt in Fort Collins, Colorado.

We'll make this drive twice in about two weeks.  We haul all of our worldly possessions, minus what will fit in Joshua's 2 door Scion on June 28th then fly back to Indiana for a wedding.  That drive we get to make together.  On July 14th (or thereabouts) we drive our cars separately.  My car will be empty but for myself, a bag of trail mix, a coffee, and my ipod.  You see, my Taurus might not make it.  It's a little rickety and honestly, I am bit worried to drive it even to Elkhart, which is only 3 hours.  If the car doesn't make it then we can ditch it at any junkyard and just nod, "Glad to be rid of the weight."

Now to book flights home!  Er, now to book flights back to Indiana!

Go West, Young Man!

We have been moving west since our immigration.

West from the British Isles.  West from Slavic Europe.  West from the East Coast and spilling over the Appalachians.  Something about expanding, exploring, discovering, and making a new way from the little traditions and foundations of our fathers draws us further and further to the lands that lie west of where ever we are.

So from Indiana we Lewis-and-Clark our way to Colorado and through life.  Our Sacagawea is a GPS.

This trek has become inevitable; we must Manifest Destiny!  The westward expansion of our lives is written in the stars and upon our brows and the backs of our hands and in the unadulterated spirit of Adventure!

The West calls.