Driving through Utah

It’s 2010. Happy New Year! I landed in Grand Junction, Colorado on the afternoon of December 31st, and spent the next four days with Lee Lee and kids. I even got to see Debra and her daughter, Jessica,  before they headed back to Virginia New Years’ Day. Our eve of the new year was incredibly wild and fun-filled and I can’t repeat any of it here. Right!? Well, the kids went out but the three of us stayed home, watched movies, talked, laughed and had a blast.

Yesterday I had a little bit of a meltdown. Lee Lee was there to catch the pieces and quickly put them back together again. I think it was a mixture of being without the dogs for a few days (they stayed in the puppy spa up the road) and feeling the distance between family and me after so many hours on the road. Really, you can drive to LA from VA in 4 days, but I’ve spread it out over a little over a week. Being in Colorado with Jen and Alexa and then Lee Lee was the highlight of the whole traveling experience and well worth the detour. I can’t wait to go back now that I’ll be so much closer.

It’s easy to feel alone when you have so much change in front of you, and traveling is a discombobulating experience at times. The people that love you, I’ve found, are there to ground you and remind you that you are not alone. At it’s best, the freedom that comes with travel gives you many opportunities to experience who you are when you are alone to do things by yourself. It wasn’t until Colorado that I began to relax and enjoy the spontaneity that goes along with being on the road, and I don’t know if that was due to the change in altitude and atmosphere, or because I spent time with the women that know me well. I just know that I feel like I have more air around me now, and I’m almost sad to see the journey come to an end. I have 350.52 miles to go (5 hours and 19 minutes) before arriving in LA. I guess that’s when the journey really begins.

©2010 the orange chair. All Rights Reserved.

Moon over downtown Denver

After 4 days on the road, I landed in Denver around 6pm and am staying with my friend Jen and her husband, daughter and 2 dogs.  I am in awe of the Rockies, enough that I found myself holding the camera with one hand and the wheel with the other, snapping pictures as I drove into the city last night. I did keep my eyes on the road, and not in the viewfinder, though, so nothing really turned out. The picture above I took from Jen’s car this afternoon.

Sleep ~ in a real bed in a real room in a real house ~ was good! The dogs are happy happy to have other dogs to socialize with, but every time we leave the house we return to find them sitting on the back of the chair in the window watching and waiting. Last night was dinner at Sushi Sasa in downtown Denver. Try saying Sushi Sasa fast 3 times ~ I can’t! But dinner was excellent and Jen and her family go there enough that her 20 month old daughter knows each sushi chef by name. I think there is one in LA too, at least I hope so.  Ah, nope. There’s only one Sushi Sasa ~ and that’s in Denver.

Today started with the dogs waking me at 4:30 to go outside ~ because they are an hour or so ahead of themselves. I stood on the back porch under an almost full moon and took a deep breath of crisp Rocky Mountain air, let them do their business, then jumped back into bed under a down comforter and tons of pillows for another two hours. After a big ol’ cup of French press coffee, we took the dogs for a walk around Sloan’s Lake, which is right down from Jen’s house. There’s a great view of the Rockies from the lake, though today was a little overcast.

The highlight of the day was driving down to Littleton to have a late lunch with our friend Alexa at her Melting Pot restaurant. It’s in a beautiful historic building that served as a police station and library back in the old west days. Alexa, Jen and I all met when we worked at Inlet Fitness, a health club back in Virginia Beach, about 10 years ago and we picked up right where we left off ~ and wow how life has changed for us all. I’m blessed to have these two women and their true, lasting friendships.

Tomorrow we’re off to Grand Junction to bring in the New Year with Lee Lee and Debra and their kids. I don’t know what we’ve got planned, but it doesn’t really even matter. We have fun no matter what we do. And what a great way to say goodbye to 2009 and helloooooo to 2010. There’s a little snow predicted for the drive through the Rockies, but everyone says that if the roads are bad, pull over for a cup of coffee, give the snow plow about an hour to go through, and you’ll be fine. Now that, I can do. And I promise, no pictures while driving!

Jen, Alexa and Karal at The Melting Pot, Littleton, Colorado

©2010 the orange chair. All Rights Reserved.

I watch for good signs from the universe, and I’m always listening to what songs are playing at critical moments of my life. Wednesday I drove a cargo van up to my sister’s house to drop off a load of furniture, and as I pulled off from the U-Haul lot, it was Life is a Highway. When I left my first load of belongings at the thrift store Friday, Darius Rucker was practically smiling through the speakers singing Alright:

“I’ve got a roof over my head . . . shoes under my feet.”

And moments after I started writing this post, it was Kenny Loggins’ Celebrate Me Home.

It’s early but the donation truck has come and gone and I’m still in my blue flannel jammies. Daisy and Lolli have known something is changing for days but really started to get the big picture when the two big men came in and carted their furniture out. But they’re ok, I think. Daisy was her usual happy bouncy “hi, how-you-are-you-play-with-me!” tail wagging self so I held her while they worked, and Lolli was a little shy but couldn’t help peeking out from under Daisy’s legs to see what was happening to her stuff. I think she’s known something all along whereas Daisy “got it” when I tossed her one of her toys and she ran her usual play route  into the bedroom to jump on the bed and back to the living room to jump on the sofa . . . .  I hope both of them know as long as they are with me,  all is gonna be ok.

I know that too, but I still have some things to load into the car and I don’t think its all going to fit. I’m a little like Lolli because I found it a bit harder to let go of some things than I counted on it to be. If I give it much more thought though, I’m going to sit here in my jammies all day and have a meltdown, and I really I want to be at my mom’s way before dinner. Its stuff, after all. Stuff! And unlike LA 2008, I’m not freaking or panicking. I have no plans to back out, call it off or duck and run for cover at the last minute. It all just sorta feels right, an even-keel with maybe just a tinge of something slightly anxious sitting underneath, but I can live with and use that energy to propel onward.

Be talking to you guys from the road.

©2010 the orange chair. All Rights Reserved.