Oh my God Becky! Look at her butt.

Except really I’d prefer you to look at my BRAND NEW SONY VIAO! (note: new to me, but really it is used. I don’t care, I love it with all my heart) As in, the one that I am typing on while sitting in Borders while using their WiFi! As in, I have joined the ranks of the cool people who have wireless internet. Okay, so maybe I’m like twenty years behind all the actual cool people, but I’m coming in on their coat tails surely. No? Well screw you then.

So I didn’t go to work today, or yesterday for that matter. I am sick. Waahhh. I will not even attempt to go into detail about the gut wrenching pain that I have been in since Saturday. I will not tell you about how I have been writhing around in my bed, wishing Colin would just put a bullet in my damn head already because the pain, it is unbearable. But then today! Today I had a doctors appointment so that I could get myself fixed. And what do you think happened today? I felt mostly better. Which quite frankly always happens to me. I think my body does it on purpose just so I have to pay my doctor for nothing. You know, help her to take that month long vacation in Aruba. It just seems like every time I feel sick, I make an appointment and then magically, on the drive to her office, all of my aches and pains go away. Does anyone else have this problem?

Well, lucky for me, I feel better and I am not at work, which means Borders! Borders may in fact be the perfect place on a rainy day. In fact I know that the entire population of Delaware feels the same way.

I worked at Borders for a short stint right after I left Tulane. I worked in the music department, which I thought meant that I was cool. Kinda like Empire Records, working in a record store automatically makes you cool. Even if you slit your wrist and then decide to shave your head. (I apologize if you’ve never seen the movie, but you need to. Put it on your Netflicks queue right now. I swear, it will make you cool just by watching it.) But lo and behold, I was no cooler the day I left Borders then I was the day I left Tulane. I think my “cool” kind of leveled out in high school. Really, all I really gained was an extensive knowledge of the country music, and comedy cd’s. Yes, that was the section I was responsible for. Why? I don’t know. I had absolutely no knowledge of either of the genres when I began working them. People would ask me questions about which artist I liked better and I would either stare at them blankly or choose the one that had a prettier album cover (If that’s even possible with country, as most of them just picture a portrait of the artist) By the way, I’m not slamming country. In fact I really enjoy the Dixie Chicks and Garth Brooks, and I have seen Toby Keith in concert. *cue the hate mail*

Anyway, that job didn’t last very long because they restructured the way it worked. Instead of everyone having register shifts, information shifts and shelving shifts, they wanted to make some people dedicated cashiers. And of course because my skills at the till are second to none, I was one of the lucky that were choosen to be at the register all the time. This? Not so cool. All of a sudden I went from working at a ‘record store’ to being a cashier. And that was that. My resume was up on Monster and I landed a kick ass job that was going to pay me triple (did I mention Borders is minimum wage?) what I was currently making. See ya!

Anyway, during the time that I did work at Borders, I hated rainy days with a passion. The store would get so crowded that it was impossible to get any work done. Most of the people that came in just wanted to browse. They would mess up my section and then leave without buying something. I felt like I was constantly having one night stands. They’d come over, we’d fool around and then they’d leave me with sheets to wash, not even pretending they’d call me tomorrow. I’ll tell you rainy days were the worst. Feeling all washed up and used is never fun.

So today, I am being the user. I came to Borders with absolutely no intention of buying anything besides a cup of coffee. I looked through their shelves, read through a magazine, borrowed their internet and their electricity, and then I will leave them high and dry. Just like the hundreds of other Delawareans that used to do the same thing to me. Call it payback if you will, I call it the perfect day off work.

Sometimes things just sort of fall into place. Sometimes, without intending to, you fall into new adventures.

We have dreamed of leaving Delaware ever since Colin and I moved in together. At first, our dream was New Mexico. We were going to buy lots of acres where we could set up a disc golf course and camp out on starry nights. Then we looked into the job opportunities and decided against it. Next we were going to move to Florida. We were going to be around Colin’s family. We would live in one of his Dad’s rental houses until we got oriented. Then hurricane season kept getting worse and worse. Considering I am terrified of thunderstorms, we thought full-blown hurricanes might be too much for me. Our next choice was Tennessee. My company has an office there, so it would be easy to transfer. But something about it just didn’t seem right.

All of the time we dreamed of moving, it was just that, a dream. It was never a real possibility. We had a mortgage. Sure we could just sell the condo, but we had only just bought it. It seemed stupid to pick up and leave so soon. Then our house burnt down. The other part of the equation was that we wanted to stay near Colin’s mom. She has since left and headed to Florida, she’s not worried about hurricanes the way I would be.

All of a sudden, moving became a real possibility. My oldest brother moved out to Colorado right after Colin and I got married. He has been trying to convince us to move there since the day he arrived. He says it’s the perfect spot for us. Friendly people, 300 days of sunshine, good job opportunities, disc golf courses everywhere. We always placated him with a noncommittal answer like, “We’ll think about it” or “When the house is rebuilt and we can sell it, we’ll come out”, not because we wouldn’t love to live in Colorado, just because he’s impossible to argue with and will not accept “We can’t” for an answer.

I spoke with him over the weekend and he told us, for the four-thousandth time, that we need to move out to Denver. I was prepared with all of my standard answers, “We’re still paying our mortgage, there is no way we can afford to pay rent too. We’ll wait until we sell the house.” But this time, I was unprepared for his response. In short he said that he will give Colin a job, and he will pay him $100 a week more then he makes now. We can live in his house for $350 a month, no other bills. In other words, he will pay Colin enough more, that we can afford to do it, that is as long as I find a job that will pay about the same as I make now. In other words,

WE’RE MOVING TO COLORADO!

Did you catch that? We are MOVING. The two people that always said they were going to move but never did, are actually going to take the plunge. In August. Two months from now. As in holyshitstartpackingandlookingforajobcausewearegoing!

I have spent all of my free time the past few days researching moving truck vs. u-haul vs. renting an SUV and pulling a trailer. I have looked into traveling long distances with two cats and found pet friendly hotels along the way. I have scoured the internet looking for engineering companies that need me as an employee (really they all do, they just don’t know it yet). I have even checked into public transportation, since we plan on only bringing one car.

Is it crazy that we are moving somewhere that we have never even seen? I had never been to Tulane when I stepped foot on campus for freshman orientation. I had never been to England when we packed it up and flew to the other side of the pond to live for three years. Those two adventures ended up being the best experiences of my life. But this time it involves someone else other than just me. This time I’m not concerned for my happiness and mine alone. There is a whole other person in the mix.

It is very strange to hear myself say out loud, “We are moving to Colorado”, and actually mean it this time. It’s like the shock of everything hasn’t worn off yet. We did only decide to do this three days ago, maybe it needs to sink in a little further before it feels real. I am so excited and nervous and scared shitless all at once. This is going to be the start of a new chapter in our lives, kind of a re-beginning. Everything has been so turned upside down since the fire and this will be our way of getting on track again. Besides, I think the universe, or God or whatever you believe in, has been trying to tell us to get out of here all along. How else to you explain eight car accidents and a house fire?