Touchdown

Oh, moving. It is so humbling to constrain your life within cardboard, so frustrating to realize how much junk you own, so scary, in it's way to scuttle like a hermit crab between shells. In packing up our belongings I was rather gratified to learn that by volume we own more books than anything else, though kitchen implements and clothing were jockeying for a close second.
Needs are needs and I can't really gainsay that, but there are so few material belongings that I actually care about when the chips are down - it makes me wonder at the fact that we haul all of this other nonsense through life with us. There are days I really yearn for a simple and somewhat ascetic life - I think my ideal retirement would be setting up a secular "monastery" with simple furnishings and a sustainable farm and a really good library and some excuse for communal singing. You know, we're all so used to putting in eight hour days for our livelihood already, I wonder if that wouldn't cover the chores are work necessary to meet the needs of a small group of people. Because having eight hours to sleep and eight hours to read and discuss and break bread and make music sounds pretty ideal. Maybe that'll be the next next project.
All this to say we've arrived safely in Arizona, are settling in, and have managed to avoid both melting and spontaneously combusting so far.
After loitering around for three hours waiting for our number to come up, Christine and I were both informed by our respective academic advisors that we had been hopeless optimistic about our educational timetables. We're gonna be here a while. But it's good. I miss Seattle, but I feel being here really brings a sharper focus to our goals. And it is so wonderful watch Christine interact with my family, I am a heartily blessed man.
Postings should become more regular as a routine (Ha!) is established. Thanks all for reading, and I'll blather at you again soon.
-Ian

Well, to catch things up a bit: We have less than a week now before we head out to Arizona. I have had a few phone interviews and have some face to face interviews coming up when we get there. Ian's been pretty much guaranteed a job at the restaurant he used to work at.

Packing is most certainly not my favorite past time. We have way more meaningless belongings than I thought we had, not to mention the amount of clothing that people have given to me that i just never say no to--even though it doesn't fit! But this is why i love moving. I love to purge. (not to mention my nomadic tendencies) We never really realize how much useless stuff we keep around until we have to fit it all neatly into boxes.

So next on the agenda is a goodwill run. Which brings me to a little rant. Thrift stores. Around Seattle we have two main options in thrift stores: Good Will and Value Village. There are a few others but more or less these are the two that the masses frequent. I will be taking our no-longer-needed belongings to Good Will because Value Village, though marketed like a non-profit is just the opposite. You take your clothes there, they sell them for their own profit. You take your clothes to Good Will, and they are sold so the company can offer education, occupation and training to people who are: welfare dependant, homeless, and who lack the education or work experience needed to find a job, as well as those with physical, mental and emotional disabilities (directly quoted from goodwill.org). So friends, take a second, wherever you are, and look up the info on your local thrift store. If it's not a non-profit please find one that is. It's really an easy way to help out the community.

-Christine