Nothing

Nothing to post. Life is packing the house, packing the suitcase, unpacking at Chuck's. Do I have the converter? Do we have tickets for ___? Where is the dutch phrase book? (in a box in storage). Nothing but small details that annoy you in your own life, so I am not going to bore you anymore with them.
See you on the 5th.

SF & BF

I have one small piece of advice: never go to a good St. Louis restaurant after you have just gotten back from food heaven.

San Fran was great. As I have eluded, the food was phenomenal. Too many fish options to count, salads, salads, salads, and hardly a fried option in the bunch. It was refreshing, not to have to search for decent food. Saturday we went sailing in the bay, which rocked. Definitely an experience to remember. The rest of the time, Sarah and I just walked around. I broke in the new shoes for Europe (see photo...and they are environmentally sound). The conference was fab. I learned lots and lots that I won't bore you with except for a 2 things. One is a video from World Wildlife Federation about changing the way you think: http://www.worldwildlife.org/ted/latteflash.html

The water footprint site (did you know it takes 50 gallons of water to make a latte?!): http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=files/home

This leads me to last night. I returned from SF on Wednesday night and had Bodily Fluids last night. We went to Jimmy's. Yes, Jimmy's, one of my top 10 restaurants. This is why my new rule is in effect. I felt like Monica in the wedding dress episode (on Friends). She had experienced the ultimate and now nothing could compare. I had a very good dinner. Delish, the caprese salad was tasty, but none of the fish on the menu was sustainable. I found myseld continuously comparing the experience to SF. It was unfair to me and Jimmy's. It was great conversation though. The last few dinners in SF were business small talk so I welcomed conversations among friends again. BF Becky showed up and I avoided her as much as possible. At the end of the dinner I did hear the words "poop," "placenta," and "my breast milk smelled like gin," come out of her mouth. Ugh, seriously, she has issues with personal boundaries. Doesn't she EVER stop?! We will see next month.

A Moment of Panic

I am having a moment and I need to release. HOW THE $%&@@ am I going to do this?! I admit it, I am not a multi-tasker. I will lie through my teeth in an interview because I know I am not. Give me a task, let me complete it in its entirety and then I will move on to the next. This is how I function and I come from a LONG line of hard-headed stubborn schedulers.

This weekend was pretty good. I have 2 rooms moved, My very very very generous brother Jeremy offered his spare garage (you have those when you live on a farm in the middle of Ferguson) for me to store things. My green room and spare bedroom are packed up and gone. There are some things I still need to clean out in there and the closets are currently in use, but the 12 boxes of books are gone along with some furniture. Now I am at a kind of a stand still. I don't want to live in a house for a month with the bare essentials and echo's, so I don't know what else to pack. Chuck had the obvious idea that I missed and told me to get all of my needed stuff over to his house and then move the rest of the house. OK, I admit that works. Now I am at the issue of vacation. Yes, Anna is stressing about going away for pleasure (see where I fail at the multi-tasking?!). On Friday I leave for San Francisco. I am so excited about going and can't wait to visit one of my favorite cities and trust me, I will have a good time. It just puts off packing and moving for 6 days. After I get home from SF, I am home for 6 days and leave again. Besides having plans the majority of those nights, packing still wouldn't get done because I can't move in to Chuck's AND try to pack for a 10 day vacation.

That puts me to September 5th. Let's face it, I am not going to pack up my house immediately when I get home. I am gone 2 days that week for work. Hopefully, I will be able to do it the weekend of the 12th juggling the other things going on (it's United Way campaign time and there are some volunteer events, many I am missing for vacation, so I can't miss these too). My goal is to be completely out of the house by September 20th. That leaves me with 3 whole days with nothing planned at this point. I realize there are days after work, but that's another 3 days (of things I don't have already scheduled). It will get done. It's amazing how many stolen moments you can find when you need them.

So that leads to the next panic...what do I need right now? What do I need in 6 months? I have to move into a full house that needs to sell. I have to immediately tuck everything away and choose carefully what I do bring so that I don't clutter the house. You may say pack everything into storage until you realize that you are moving in to a boy's house and are expected to host Christmas this year. Then you realize you are hosting Christmas without a back-up house to detox in. What am I doing? I am way to much of an introvert to ever live with people. Holy crap.

OK, update on the panic. Tuesday, Karla and I had to get the occupancy permit, which took seconds to complete (I thought: government agency=hours of waiting). I got home on Tuesday with a few hours to "pack." It was more of an excercise in making my house more of a disaster, but some things were accomplished. Then last night, plans fell through so after the United Way meeting, I went over to Chuck's and we unpack some of my boxes I brought over. I am not as busy as I think I am. This will work out. Chuck isn't going to San Fran with me anymore so he gets to stay home all weekend and work on some things done. Whew. It's still going to be tight, but managable. Stay tuned for the next panic attack.

Well, it's official

So I am moving. I have rented my house. I have to be out by October 1st. There are a few repairs to be done and some paint to be sloshed, but I am out. It's bittersweet, but good. This is what I want, but I will say I am a little sad to move my house that has been my fortress for the last seven years. Through thick and thin, good times and bad, she has been good to me, but let's face it, it's a house. It's time for someone else to love this house.

So here is the plan. I am moving in with Chuck (yes, right next to the devil house). We will put his house up for sale and then find a place together (most likely in the city).

That's the plan. I am excited to move. I am excited that there is only one house to sell at the present moment. This is the first step of many, many, I will keep you all updated!