It's Saturday, July 28. I am at my daughter's house in Tecumseh, MI...the last stop before we fly out on Monday, July 30 from Detroit to Anchorage. We'll spend a few days there sightseeing and bush shopping. Then we'll spend a couple days in Nome before flying into Shishmaref. Jessie will stay a few days to see where "Mom works and lives" during the school year.
The weeks/days leading up to this day have been insanely busy! I have had many visits with friends and family. Packing and shipping took up a ton of time and kept me up to the wee hours of the morning more often than I would have wanted. How things panned out today was typical of the last few weeks.
After staying up until 2:00 a.m. working on my "list of tasks", I crashed for the last night in my "beloved" bed. I was up before 8:00 a.m. to finish up my list. It quickly became apparent that I was not going to get everything done before my designated departure time of 11:00 a.m. I called my cousin, Pat, and asked him to make the dump run at some point....he said he would.
As I was feverishly trying to get my packing done, there was a knock on the front door. It turned out to be the pest control guy to take care of the paper wasp nest I mentioned on Facebook. He'll work on my house and send the bill to Alaska. Good deal....and back to work I went.
Time was dwindling so I gave up the idea of one final load of laundry. Thus, the sheets on my bed will have to wait until I return next spring and....I might have to carry a small plastic bag of dirty undies in my suitcase back to Alaska. I should put a "hazardous waste" sign on it because I know my luggage gets searched in security!
Speaking of airport security, I have a funny story to relate. Last year on my way up during one of the security checks, the guard said, "Are you married or are you happy?" Cracked me right up!
The clock was ticking away and I still had way too much to do. At that point, I literally scooped up things off the counter tops and dining room table and stuffed them into boxes. I did the same thing with my suitcase and clothes. It had been my plan to sort through things in an orderly fashion before I left. Oh, well...I piled them into the car and took them with me to my daughter's where I will try to do some sorting and shipping before we leave.
At this point, it was about an hour after my original 11:00 deadline and I absolutely had to leave....I had a long trip ahead of me downstate. Before leaving the house, I sprawled out on the top of my bed one last time! I would loved to have taken a nap right about then. I slowly walked through the house making my peace with leaving and catching one last glimpse of the Olympics. I will miss most of it this year....bummer! Off to the post office one last time and then to my cousin's to drop off my keys.
I headed towards Boyne City because I had told my BFF, Diane, that I wanted her to be the last person I hugged before I left East Jordan this year. I called her up to tell her I was on my way. I'll tell you right now that it was a mistake to have done that. We had had dinner together a couple nights ago at one of my favorite Chinese restaurants and we should have just said our farewells then. It would have been easier. As it was, Diane and I hugged and cried like little babies!!!
As I was driving away, my stomach reminded me that it was after noon and I had yet to eat anything. I decided to go to the local McDonald's. Have you ever had that "nagging feeling" that you have forgotten something? Thank goodness I had that nagging feeling. After getting my order at the drive-thru, I parked and started pawing through the two boxes of scooped up items from my counter tops. What I was looking for was nowhere to be found. So.....
I drove the nine miles back to East Jordan and retrieved my house keys from my cousin. I then went back to the house and started searching for that forgotten item.....and couldn't find it right away. Now I started to panic because....the forgotten item was a bank envelope holding a tidy sum of bills. I backtracked my steps from last night to the moment I left and finally found where I had hid it....so no one would find it....including me!
Once again I said good-bye to my house....remembering that last year when I left I had to say good-bye to my beloved cat (much more important than my bed). I knew when I left last year that it would be the last time I saw my 19 year old cat because he was on his last leg at that point. As I have written before, my kids had to take the cat to the vet last November to be put to sleep. We Skyped the night before so I could see Dusty one last time. Sad memories....but life goes on.
Consequently, after a delay of two days and a couple hours (I had originally planned to leave for downstate on Thursday), I was on the road. I decided to take a different route to my daughter's which would take me near my sister's house down in Coopersville....oh, ok....so it was a little bit out of my way. But, do you ever get that "nagging feeling".....? I called my daughter and told her of my plans to say good-bye to my sister....something kept telling me I needed to do it. Our visit and farewell was ever so brief and I was back on the road again. It was a good thing that Jess and Chris decided we'd eat at their house tonight instead of going into Ann Arbor as originally planned. I was way behind schedule and had many miles to go yet.
Yeah, right....! I took the wrong road out of Lansing (capital of Michigan) and realized my mistake a few miles down the road. I pulled over, checked the map and rerouted my trip. It took me into Jackson (home of the State prison....and the Cascades which I got to see on a Girl Scout trip many, many years ago) where I really got turned around because of some crazy detours throughout the city. Grrrr! I wanted to call my daughter but I was using my Michigan cell phone (as opposed to my Alaskan cell phone that I know how to easily bring up everyone's phone numbers) and couldn't remember her phone number. I wasn't about to stop and dig through the boxes of counter top scoopings. So I kept on driving....and arrived in Tecumseh....only about five hours later than I had originally planned...to a most delightful dinner of homemade vegetarian pizzas....four different kinds. Chris can definitely put together a meal to enjoy.
So, I am now zipping out this blog posting to commemorate the beginning of my second year of teaching and living in Shishmaref, Alaska. Leaving East Jordan after a two-month hiatus was a little more difficult this year compared to last. I think that last year I was so enthralled with the idea of finally reaching my decades-old dream of teaching in Alaska that leaving was just a necessary part of starting my adventure. Now that I have a year in and I know a lot of what to expect, my mind was wrapped around other things....like how much I like my own bed....and how much I will miss my friends and family. Don't get me wrong....I am equally excited to be going back to Shishmaref for another school year and I genuinely miss the folks up there. I understand work has been done this past month in the house I live in. It'll be interesting to see what changes were made and I'm excited to have my daughter with me for a couple weeks in Alaska. My son (currently out on the Appalachian Trail with over 1500 miles walked so far...about 600 to go) will probably come visit next spring.
There you have it....the beginning of the next chapter of "My Next Thirty Years!" I am so very tired right now....it's been a hard day....and it's now time to go to bed.....while I can still enjoy the fact that it's dark outside right now. In another week or so, I will have to deal with it being light late into the night. But that's ok....it's part of the Alaskan adventure!
Good night! Oh, one more thing.....who's winning what in the Olympics?
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