Winding Up

I am going to wind up this blog with an account of my last few days in the States.

The road trip was a great way to spend my last days with Mark. Along the way, I started to get to know this new camera I bought.

We started out in Palm Desert, drove to Santa Fe to visit my sister, then drove north to Minnesota, via Deadwood SD.



Mark and I made it to Deadwood just in time for a street show for tourists: A re-enactment of a gunfight, complete with real guns (loaded with blanks, of course).

Mark was not terribly impressed with Deadwood after all. The whole town has become a tourist trap of casinos lining both sides of the main drag, with a few moth-eaten museums and souvenir shops. Even the Gem Saloon has been converted to a full-out casino. About the only historic thing that hasn't been turned into either a museum or a casino was the Bullock Hotel. Gambling has ruined this town.

We did go up to the cemetery to see Wild Bill's grave. It was peaceful up there, with deer grazing on the graves and the wind blowing through the pines.

What Mark really did enjoy was Wall Drug. Maybe the fact that Deadwood should have been a historic place but instead was a tourist place, while Wall was quite obviously nothing if NOT a tourist place? Anyway, we ate breakfast at Wall Drug and toured the premises, enjoying the displays of dinosaurs and jackalopes, and bought a few postcards.

Then it was on to Minneapolis. We arrived just in time for a party at my sister's house. Just a small party on her patio, but she had invited my old best friend (my longest active friendship!) Hamsa and her sweetie, Cindy. Of course, my mom was there too.

Mark and I got a chance to tour around St. Paul a bit while we were in town. Then unfortunately he had to fly off back to Seattle, while I repacked everything for Morocco, trying to fit all my stuff into my three bags without overloading.

Then on Tuesday, it was off to Philly for Staging. One bag did come in overweight; I had to pull out my blank books, journal and sketchbook, and hand them to my Mom to take back to her place.

In Philly, I met my fellow trainees. There are 63 of us; 25 in the Small Business Development program. Staging was mostly about breaking the ice and getting to know each other. These other volunteers will be my support network here in Morocco, so it's a good start. Tuesday night a bunch of us went for dinner at an Italian, family-style restaurant. The proprietors treated us to free wine when they found out we were headed to Morocco for service. Last alcohol for a long time! The food was delicious.

This is my last entry in this blog. My next one will be in a new, Moroccan blog, and it will be published as soon as I can think of an appropriate title. It may be awhile, and when I do inaugurate it, there will be several posts at once, as it may be awhile between Internet access times.

I will miss my family and friends, but look forward to the adventure that lies ahead.

Somewhere in Eastern Wyoming

Mark and I are on our way to Deadwood, South Dakota. He has been jonesing for a visit to Deadwood since watching the HBO series about three years ago. We’ve traveled here from Palm Desert, California, where all of my worldly goods are presently stored.

Getting my apartment taken apart and all my things packed and transported to storage was a huge task, requiring a Herculean effort on both our parts. Terry helped too. Prior to the big move-out weekend, my sister came and helped me stage a moving sale, which was another huge effort, and had disappointing results, as I was unable to sell any of the larger items; furniture I did not want to store. Much of that stuff – sofa, armchair, 8-drawer dresser, TV stand, storage cabinet and shelf unit – ended up unsold, going instead to charity, along with an enormous pile of boxes filled with stuff I wanted to part with.

Even so, the sheer number of items to be packed and stored was overwhelming. At times, while Mark contemplated bolting for the airport and leaving me to my unwieldy task, and Terry complained and threatened to go home, I, like a robotic automaton, just kept stuffing things into boxes, one thing after another thing after another, thinking, I should just walk away from it all, forfeit my rental deposit and plan to live like a monk upon my return from the Corps. Such grief my materialism is causing me.

In the end, we did get everything stored, though my planned 10' x 7.5' space grew to 10' x 10' and then to an additional 5' x 5' space for a few remainders that just wouldn’t fit in the main space (though I’m quite proud of how little was actually left over once the larger space was filled). It will cost me about double what I’d planned to spend on the smaller space. There is no getting around the price I’ll be paying for my acquisitiveness. What is really shocking is, even though I got rid of so much, I still had so much left over! I admit this surprised me. I guess, when you live in a place for 12+ years, accumulation is the usual case. Acquisitiveness is an American disease; I think it would be safe to say that I have far less stuff than many in similar circumstances, especially in California.

In fact, it was partly my discomfort with living a life that is based on working to get money to acquire more and more consumer goods that predisposed me to look for radical change. I know my earlier cross-cultural experiences changed me; I can only hope that Morocco will effect a change in this aspect of my life.

So far the road trip has been pretty nice. The highlight was Prescott, AZ. We stayed at the Hassayampa Inn, a beautiful old historic hotel in the middle of downtown. Prescott is charming, with lots of nice restaurants and lovely old buildings. The Hassayampa was like a luxury hotel, but actually quite affordable. We visited my sister in Santa Fe and then made our way up through Colorado and Wyoming. Tomorrow we should be in South Dakota, then it's on to Minnesota to deliver the car to my mom. Hi, Mom!

Vain Hope

In my last post I wrote, "As my staging event approaches, I hope to be able to write blog posts more frequently..." Ha!

Life has been so hectic, and I've had so much to do, felt so much stress, that I cannot remember a more difficult time. I wish I could say I'm handling it with grace, but I am not. I'm peevish and snap at the people I love, and I know I'll regret this even more later, feeling their absence from my life. I already do feel bad, as soon as my temper calms. Then I shift to feeling sad, about the loss of my home and my routines, and at my own imperfections. My orderly, boring little life is disintegrating, and my unease is causing nightmares for the first time since I can remember.

I wonder if I've made a huge mistake. I wonder if I'm really as resilient as I thought. What was I thinking? I also know that I'm my own worst enemy when I cheat myself of the necessities of exercise, rest, meditation and good nutrition (I've been eating a lot of hurried, fast-food meals: NOT my usual fare!). Yet this is the time I'm least able to give myself permission to take these things. I'd better turn over a new leaf, and fast. Starting tomorrow, I am going to get at least a half-hour a day for the exercise, at least 15 for the meditation, and I will make a greater effort to get to bed early. As for the food, it will be a little easier now that the madness of the last sale is over.

Speaking of the sale, I have to say it was a mixed outcome. I did sell a lot of junk for nickles and dimes, and yes, I got rid of a lot of little things, which is nice, but I had hoped to sell the larger things too, which would have made the huge effort worth the outcome. As it is, I still have most of the furniture I'd hoped would go. A couple hundred dollars for three days work is hardly a good return, and I'm left thinking I would have been better off giving that junk to a charity shop and focusing on selling the larger items -- yet I have listed all those larger items on classified ad sites as well, so perhaps that isn't the right way to think about it.

Anyway, what's done is done. I have one more day to pack, four more days at work and perhaps a few hours of evening time on three of them, to finish getting everything ready to go into storage. God bless my wonderful family and friends, who are all so supportive! My sister is leaving tomorrow, having helped me with the sale, and my dearest good buddy Mark will be here on Thursday night, to help me get the remainder done, the van loaded and the apartment cleared. I'm treating myself to 90 minutes of professional cleaning service to finish up my obligations to my landlord, and once all my belongings are in the storage locker, Mark and I will leave for our road trip. That time will probably be the biggest blessing of all: One week with no obligations and plenty of time to catch all the little tasks I may have missed in my rushing around.

Tonight is also the last night I will spend with my little furry friend. My sister is taking my cat back to my mother's townhouse. She will live there while I'm in Morocco. I feel very sad about saying goodbye to her. I know she'll be well taken care of, but I know it will be hard on her, and she will wonder why her life has suddenly been so disrupted, with the loss of home and companion. I will feel very bad if her health suffers, as it well may. She is 13 years old, and although healthy, she's had a pretty stable life and has lived 11 of those years in one apartment, which she's now going to leave forever.

Well, I do need to get some sleep now so I will write more later.

As my Staging event approaches, I hope to be able to write blog entries more frequently. These last few weeks have been more hectic than I would have believed, but I think I'm "over the hump" now. So I'll first update readers of this blog on my last three weeks, and then hopefully add new entries as things proceed.

I am now only 4 weeks from departure. So much still to do! It has been a busy few weeks. I can't tell you about it all, too much has happened. So here are some of the highlights:

First of all, I think there is an angel looking out for me. In mid-July, I went to see the dentist because I felt a small, slightly painful lump on just below my lower molar on the right side. I had had a root canal there a few years ago. Anyway, the dentist wanted me to go on penicillin and "wait and see" if it would go away. When I pointed out I didn't have the time to wait and see, he referred me to a specialist. Well. It is a darn good thing that that little bubble appeared when it did. It turned out I had a "failed root canal," with lots of infection, leading to oral surgery. It wasn't pleasant, but it wasn't exactly painful, either, what with Novocaine and all. The infection has been cleaned out, the cause of the problem removed, and healing is now proceeding. The endodontist tells me that all that's left to do is heal up. No problems on the horizon. What a blessing that this happened BEFORE I left for Morocco! Anyway, the surgery and the post-op healing have been just one more thing in my life, so I guess that's at least some excuse for why I'm behind in my blogging, no?

Then the week following the surgery, my mom arrived for a good long weekend of packing. We got my entire library packed (which was a VERY big job)! In addition, we packed up some of the kitchen stuff, and she spent at least an afternoon wrapping sweaters for storage in a cedar-enhanced storage bag. Thanks, Mom! We also got to spend some great time together just enjoying each other. Goes without saying that was the best part of the visit.

While she was here, I mentioned that I was going to sell my car, and named the price I was planning to ask. Mom has an elderly Toyota that is suffering from "salt cancer," that bane of Minnesota vehicles. A California car with less than 50K miles, no rust, with a price of only $2K, sounded too good to pass up. So she is buying my car! I'm happy to have one less thing to sell, but how to get it to Minnesota? After some consultation with my best friend Mark, who knows about cars, and who would be my number one choice in the world to Road Trip with, the decision was made. Mark and I will DRIVE THAT CAR TO MINNESOTA! Woo-hoo! Road Trip! I'm so thrilled! Mark and I had talked about "some day" doing a road trip through the midwest. Mark's especially interested in visiting Deadwood. I haven't seen Deadwood myself, since the '70s (hopefully it hasn't changed much since then), but I LOVE traveling the highways of South Dakota, and I'm so psyched I'll be able to show Mark some of my favorite roadside attractions. It's another world up there. Most importantly, I'll get some quality time with my sweetie and best friend in the world, and Mom will get her car.

Meanwhile, I finally found a storage space I can afford. After much research, I found a small business with owners who wrote me that, "We can certainly help with your storage needs... We usually only guarantee rates for one year but we would definitely extend that for someone volunteering for such a worthwhile cause!" The space is out in the desert town of Palm Desert. It turns out the desert cities are the best storage bargain in Southern California, but more to the point, the climate there is much better for storage than out here on the Coast, where mildew is always a problem. So, that deal is sealed. Things are coming together! I feel so blessed!

So now I just have the grind of packing ahead of me. Also I have to purchase insurance, for stuff left behind and the equipment such as my laptop that I'll be taking with me, and making my travel arrangements. While there's still a lot to be done, I do feel on track. I've even started packing the stuff I've been setting aside for the journey.

Stay tuned; it only gets more interesting from here on.

My Santa Monica Life

I can't believe I am only 7 weeks away from my departure. How quickly the time has flown! I have been very busy, as you might expect, but it is no excuse for not keeping up with the Blog. I had hoped to do better, keeping a record of all that I had to do to transition myself to this new life, but the only thing to do is to renew my efforts to do more. In the past weeks, I have cleaned out more cupboards and sold more of my things. Some problems cropped up with my dental work and I have had to schedule some oral surgery for this week — best to get it done BEFORE I am in Morocco. I've gone through my wardrobe and found every single item that requires dry-cleaning and taken the lot to the cleaners (I won't tell you what the bill will be — I have to think of it as just another cost of storage). I've also had some blessed time to be with family and friends. I passed a milestone on Sunday: 58 years old now. Still more to do: research into storage options, scheduling of pet care and travel and notifications to just about everybody of my upcoming address changes.

I've been wanting to write a bit about what my life is like now, so that I can look back on this time when everything has changed. So I will do that now.

I live in Santa Monica, California. It's a nice little community in a big urban area. Mostly, Santa Monica is a very well-to-do place, so I'm something of an anomaly, in my little rent-controlled one-bedroom apartment. When I leave here, I will have to give up this apartment, because my landlady refuses to allow me to sublet. She wants to get more rent for it, I imagine. She has many properties and is very rich, and old, and I had hoped she wouldn't mind letting me keep my home while I'm serving my country for two years, but it didn't work out that way. So I must leave this apartment, and this community, most likely forever.

I work in Santa Monica, too, for a company that makes a great product. The company is Dakim, Inc. (www.dakim.com) The product is a Brain Fitness System. It's designed to help older people stave off dementia, while having fun playing games and puzzles, on a computer system that requires no keyboard or mouse, and is super-easy to use. The people who work at Dakim are some of the best people I've ever worked for (though I have been very lucky in my work-life, and have mostly worked with wonderful people). With my extensive background in computer games and multimedia, the work is very easy for me, and I'm delighted to be able to contribute to such a terrific enterprise.

Because I live and work in the same small community, I am able to ride my bike to work. Every workday, I get up, shower and dress and ride to work. In the afternoon, I often spend my lunch hour walking around the neighborhood. I ride how at night and spend the evening doing chores, watching the news, fixing dinner, and often spend time visiting with a good friend. On Saturdays I go to the Farmers' Market, where I buy fresh produce and other tasty treats. Every service and need is nearby, and I hardly need to drive my car anymore Since the economic downturn, my income has fallen quite a bit from where it was with my last job, but the income I make is quite sufficient to meet my needs and still put a little away for retirement. I have access to books and cable television and many other entertainments and distractions.

So my life is very easy and comfortable. I sometimes wonder why I'm so willing to give it all up for the unknown adventures of Moroccan Peace Corps service. It seems I have adventure in my soul, and whenever things are getting too comfortable and routine, I get restless and want to shake things up. The restlessness seems to come from some inner need to contribute something, to add my efforts to get this mixed-up world to spin in the right direction. I'll just end this post by saying that I feel strongly that I am making the right decision, even if I am somehow sad to say goodbye to my sweet little apartment, my wonderful co-workers, and my peaceful, prosperous little community.

My Favorite Michael Jackson Tribute

When the Media tells you there were tributes around the world, they really MEAN around the world:

The Family Reunion

This past weekend I went back to Minnesota for a visit. My Dad's side of the family held a reunion, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to let everyone know what I was up to. The reunion was held at my Dad's cousin's house near Ham Lake. It was a lot of fun, even though rain came in and chased everyone under the deck for awhile.

My grandfather's generation is represented by only two remaining family members: My grandfather's brother, Henry (Hank), and another brother's wife, Dolores. So they are the elders now.

But there are lots of aunts and uncles and cousins, and it was a big group.

A few pictures were taken:

Uncle Hank and me

Uncle Hank and with my sisters and me

Uncle Hank, Aunt Dolores (front) and my Dad's generation

Uncle Hank, Aunt Dolores with my generation (and the youngsters)