Day 3

A relaxing day off in Palm Desert. Church was enjoyable. A very timely Sabbath School lesson discussion on patience. Hopefully I'll remember some of it during the two marathon drives left on this trip.

It's been great to just be out of the truck. To be able to walk around and enjoy some sun. I took a jaunt around the neighborhood and took a few pictures. I intentionally kept myself awake so I'd be able to sleep tonight and wake up early tomorrow.

It's crazy to realize that by tomorrow night we'll be in Texas. Tomorrow we'll pass through Arizona and New Mexico (hopefully). A lot of miles, a lot of America in rapid succession.

It's really pretty crazy how much of the country I've been to in the last couple years. Two years ago I hadn't even been to Idaho before. Now I've added Colorado, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Texas to my list. And Dallas in centrally located to a lot of other places. Oklahoma is right there, and it's a quick flight (or moderate drive) to much of America's heartland. But that's all discussion for the future. For now it's time for some sleep and more pounding the pavement.

Day 2

Pushing on late into the night yesterday made for a merciful second day on the road. The 400-odd miles to Palm Desert seemed like a walk in the park. Yet it still took fair amount of time to get here. Some parts, with high concentrations of dairy animals, seemed like pure torture and climbing over the grapevine was a bit sluggish. But we made it through the fringes of LA and into Palm Springs at about 3:30. This turned out to be just enough time to get in 12 holes of golf before dark. I'm now contemplating the feasibility of retiring right now.



It's gonna be good to take a day off and recover. The next two legs of the journey will probably be pretty brutal. We're just short of the halfway point.1,200 miles in two days and moving in on the next day. Like I said, its going to be great to have a day off.

Day 1

14 hours, 723 miles, three tanks of gas and two cups of coffee later we're bunking down in Santa Nella, CA for the night.

It's been a pretty smooth drive. The truck handles nicely for its size and traffic hasn't been too terrible. That will probably end tomorrow when we brush against LA on the way to Palm Springs.

It's comforting to know that today will probably be one of the longest days in terms of driving. If I put in two more days like today I would make it to Burleson. Instead we're talking a break in Palm Springs and adding a couple more manageable days.

Exhaustion time. The late night is worthwhile since I got to have ice cream with my best gf Lilli:



More later.

Getting Real

Ok, so this thing is really happening. The truck is here and loaded. My life, save for a few scattered keepsakes and a couple small suitcases, is in the driveway. Waiting to begin its 2,000 mile journey to my new life.

My bedroom has an echo. I didn't remember that. It's been packed too the gills since that first day I wandered in with my Legos and set to work making it my own.

I've burned endless bags of garbage. Old school papers, junk mail, magazines and a seemingly endless supply of golf scorecards, movie ticket stubs and receipts. I've sent mountains of clothing to Goodwill. I've made easy decisions with some junk and faced sentimental stalemates with other junk. Now what's done is done and it's time to depart.

For a while here I've been "moving to Texas" without a whole lot changing. That all ends tomorrow.

Time to rip off the band-aid.

Three days to departure

I'm picking up my Uhaul truck and car trailer today in anticipation of the Thursday-morning departure for the 2,000 mile trip to Texas. Hopefully I'll be arriving in Burleson next Monday night and moving in a week from today. That should allow me to start work the day after superbowl Sunday at the latest.

The piles of boxes and junk continue to grow in the living room and garage, and yet my room still seems very full. I can't believe I have all this crap. I'm half tempted to just throw out everything else that isn't packed and just replace it at the other end. Procrastination and packing... this is my life.

Waiting

I'm a procrastinator by nature. Accepting this job seemed to have this ominous sense of finality. Everyone acts like I'm going to vanish in the night or something. So far that hasn't been the case.

I'm (slowly) working on getting my stuff packed. The Texas Conference is supposed to be scheduling one of their truck drivers to move me in the next couple of weeks, but I don't know for sure yet. So I'm in this holding pattern of procrastination. I get a little bit done every now and then, but it doesn't really feel like it's happening yet. The latest word is that it might be most cost-effective for them to just reimburse me for renting a Uhaul for my stuff. Since I have minimal earthly possessions (in spite of what the mountains of boxes in our garage/living room suggests).

If that's what happens my departure might come sooner. If they send a truck for me the earliest we will load up is February 4, almost three months from the time I accepted the job. If we go the Uhaul route I might leave toward the end of next week instead. That would get me to Texas and unloading the truck the first week of February, which was my original target.

I've never really made a move of this magnitude before. Everything seems so uncertain and haphazard. I guess once I find out for sure how I'm moving the other pieces will fall together pretty quickly. In the meantime I'm enjoying the waiting game.

Furniture Boxes

The great apartment furnishing adventure is underway. Step one was may bedroom:







Stay tuned...

Blank Canvass

It's starting to sink in that this is really happening. Within the next 15-20 days I will be here, as in living and working full-time here.

When I initially came down and interviewed for this job I was cautiously optimistic about the prospect of moving to Texas. Ok, maybe marginally optimistic is a better term. And then when I set foot on the ground, coming face to face with just how completely flat,brown and vast Texas is, it was a serious gut check.

Then, when an official job offer was extended I was totally reeling for about 48 hours. I had pretty much told God that if this was the job H wanted me to have He would have to take away all other options. Ever faithful to hold up His end of the deal that's just what happened. I was left to weigh a career-advancing job opportunity that would require an immense longitudinal relocation against staying close to home and having no job. In the end I had to hold up my end of the bargain with God.

Now I'm looking around, considering all the vast differences between here and what I'm used to. I'm sitting in the only Starbucks within about a 15-20 mile radius of somewhat urban development. You may be asking “what's on every corner then CJ?” From my unofficial research the answer seems to be Waffle House (you can figure out what that might be) and Dollar General (a catch-all type of store). There are mercifully familiar faces, Wal Mart, Target, Albertons, this region's Safeway equivalent (Tom Thumb), but I find myself faced with a blank canvass. Time to develop new patterns and routines. Time to re-invent myself.

This is the part that intimidates me. I'm very much a creature of habit struggle to cope with changes in my world. Now I'm looking around this place and I have no idea what or where my world is. But at the same time I am comforted. Because I've been through this before. I've thrown myself headlong into the unknown and survived, no thrived, amid uncertainty and unfamiliarity. I've reinvented myself in new and better forms.

I still desperately want the boring and monotonous routine that's totally predictable. But God knows me better than I know myself. He understands that sometimes He's got to pick me up out of everything that's safe, comfortable and familiar to me and toss me into the chaos. His perspective is so much greater than mine, or than I let mine be. I think He wants me to learn that I don't have to define my entire world by what I see and understand. Casting a wider braver vision is possible, and together our potential is limitless.

In all honesty, I truly do not expect Texas to be a destination for my life. And that's probably what makes all this seem less terrifying and more exciting. I'm looking forward to embracing what's here and eagerly looking forward to what might be next.

Home-ish

Still failing at taking pictures, but I found a place to live. Actually I re-found the first place I looked at. After the context of seeing other options I decided a little more money was worth it for sanitation and safety.

I didn't take any pictures yet. If/when my application is accepted I'll see if I can take some pictures. But you can scope things out at http://fountainsofburleson.com Keep in mind I'm not paying anywhere near the advertised prices.

Now I've got a couple days to relax and explore the Dallas area. Monday I'll let my boss know when I'm planning to be on site and make sure they verify all my employment information before I fly out. The weekend is putting the brakes on productive activities, but it's also an excuse to just relax. That's something I can definitely get on board with right now.

On the ground, looking around.

Amid house-hunting today I ran up the road to check out Jerry's new house.


It would be crazy to get tickets for saturday night. Probably too late now. The Cowboys are kind of a big deal down here.Maybe sometime in the future.

I also checked out some golf courses. This was hard to do since it was like 29 degrees today with like 15-20 mph winds chilling things beyond that. Really glad I broke down and bought a jacket.


Shame on me for shooting straight into the sun, but it was so cold I didn't want to be out of the car for more than about 90 seconds. The golf courses look pretty nice, other than the brown-ness that I'm not used to, especially this time of year.

So far I've only actually looked at the one apartment place. But I have several on tap for tomorrow. I'm fairly confident that I'll come up with at least one good option tomorrow and hopefully I can get any necessary application stuff taken care of before I leave on Monday. I really don't want to stay longer. Not that I'm not enjoying it here,but I want to take advantage of the time I still have at home, plus it's not as much fun here without all my stuff, lol.

To Begin With...

My adventure begins in earnest tomorrow. I fly to Dallas for a week to attend some meetings and to find a place to live. I guess technically I'll be starting my job, even though I won't really be down there and settled until the end of January. My room looks like a disaster, but this time the mess is from packing. It will be very interesting to see how the next week, month and year pan out. So many things are completely unknown. Maybe the picture will start coming into focus soon.