Category Archives: Planning

A Most Ungraceful Departure (July 27, 2013)

Our wonderful neighbors, J&W, offered to host us at their house for our last night. We had a fun dinner with some other friends who stopped by and then Matt and I went back to the house to sort out the sailing stuff and get it packed up. We worked until 12:30 am and then went to J&W’s house to crash (it made me wonder why adults don’t have sleepovers more often. They’re a lot of fun!). We got up in the morning and still had a lot of trips to make to empty things into a dumpster, take out recycling, make a trip to the storage unit to drop off everything that ended up not going into the sailing pile, etc. so as not to leave anything for the new owners. Until all of this was done, we really couldn’t pack everything into the two mini-vans. I don’t know how Matt did it but he configured them like a puzzle and got everything to fit. We literally left the house 58 minutes before the new owners were due to arrive. Not exactly the relaxed exit I had envisioned.

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We then had to drive to my pottery co-op, pack up all my stuff there into boxes, unpack part of one of the vans, and load all of the pottery boxes. The boys and I sat on all the stuff (watching a Dr. Seuss video) while Matt took everything to the storage unit. About three hours later, we then re-loaded the van and were on our way out (after making stops on our way out of Cleveland to say goodbye to two significant others in our life). We were all so exhausted that Joshua fell asleep about 8 minutes into the trip. I called Matt and said I could only make it about 1.5 hours and that we’d need to stay in a hotel. I was literally being fueled by caffeine and chocolate for the previous two weeks and was about to crash. We are hoping this is the storm before the calm.

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Packing and Chaos (July 26, 2013)

I am in my element in chaos. I can clearly see what supplies are needed, what has to get done, who should do what, and in what order. Matt, most decidedly, is not. Chaos can be paralyzing for him – even lengthy restaurant menus are overwhelming. He will sometimes ask the dismayed server to ‘just bring me something good.’ We have been married long enough to know each other’s strengths so I take the lead here – sacrificing sleep and a bit of sanity to get everything done.

The cleaning service was coming the next day but there was still a lot left to be done (e.g., organizing the mountain of ‘bring with us’ stuff in the garage, etc). Matt had scheduled an 8 pm massage because “I need to say goodbye to people.”(Had I thought of this nifty rationale, I would have scheduled one myself!). He also said he was going to go straight to the hotel afterward to ‘get a good night’s sleep because I have a 7 am appointment to get a hitch and bike rack mounted on the van.” This was in contrast to my mom and I working until 1:30 am to finish packing things in the house and arriving at the hotel around 2 am. I then got up at 5 am to take her to the airport and was back working in the house by 7 am. Matt had the boys and called me around noon. Our conversation went something like this:

Me:     Where are you and why aren’t you here yet?!

Matt:  Um, I slept through the 7 am appointment so they couldn’t do the bike rack until after 9 am. Do  you want to meet for lunch?

Me:     No! There’s no time for food! The cleaning people are here. There is stuff all over the place – I’m barely staying one step ahead of them and getting things out of the house!

Matt:  Yeah, it’s a lot … (in a commiserating tone)

Me:     Mmm-hmm. I know – getting a massage, sleeping in late, having breakfast, going out for lunch … It IS a lot! There’s just not time for it all! (in a decidedly non-commiserating tone)

Matt: (laughing sheepishly). Um. Ok. I’m going to hang up now …

Neighborhood Farewell Party (July 22, 2013)

My mom flew out to Cleveland and whisked the boys off to a hotel with a pool near the beach in Mentor so that I could focus on packing. I scheduled two consecutive weekly donation pick-ups and sent off at least 50 boxes of ‘stuff’ while averaging about 4 hours of sleep per night. It seemed that there was no end to the packing and sorting. On the night before the last pick-up, we had a neighborhood farewell party to say goodbye to everyone (and to hope they would take some of our ‘stuff’). This was the bookend to the original ‘meet the neighbors’ party we hosted when we moved onto the street in 2006. It was great to see everyone and be able to show them photos of the boat. LL brought a ‘bon voyage’ cake and JB and TT were a great help with the website. Everyone was so excited and encouraging of the trip. Later Matt and I looked at each other and said – Well, I guess it’s too late to back out now!

Packing up Life in Cleveland … and Re-Considering (July 15, 2013)

Matt spent five days in the sweltering Annapolis heat trying to fix the toilet. In the meantime, I was trying to pack up the house while simultaneously taking care of two energetic boys with short attention spans. We had a moving company come out to estimate moving costs and assess how much space all of our ‘stuff’ would take up in a storage unit. They said we were actually on the lighter end of the stuff scale. Really?!

Matt arrived home from Maryland demotivated and exhausted. He hadn’t slept well the previous two nights because of heat and anxiety. After recounting all of this, he looked at me and plaintively asked, “What are we doing and why are we doing this?!” Being overwhelmed by all that had to get done in order to pack up the house, I think I mumbled something comforting like “Umm… I’m not sure.”

An Interesting Start …

The marina where the boat had been stored by the previous owner said we needed to get the boat out of the marina early. We left my sister-in-law’s house in Baltimore in the morning and headed down to Annapolis (about a 45 minute drive). It was raining pretty hard but we were in good spirits. The boys were excited that we would be leaving the dock and Matt seemed pretty confident about sailing out. We got on the boat and had the boys put on their life jackets. They were already scampering around it like sea monkeys. We had called another marina right next door to see if they had space for us to dock there. We wanted to be in a marina while we loaded all of our stuff on the boat and figured out the basics. All we had to do was motor over. ‘Motor’ being the critical word. Matt put the key in the engine and pressed the starter button. Nothing happened. He did it again. Still nothing. He did it about 8 more times. We glanced at each other. He commented that it had started when they put it in the water the afternoon before. There we are – sitting in the water trying to start the engine of our new boat. Matt called the previous owner – she didn’t pick up. He called the boat broker who had negotiated the deal. No answer. Now we exchanged concerned glances. Matt finally walked around the marina until he found someone who worked there. Apparently there was an extra button that needed to get pushed to start the motor. Our first step on a steep learning curve…

The motor finally started and we were on our way. The boys loved it – and we weren’t even sailing. Malachi ran all the way to the end of the bowsprit and perched up there as if he had been around boats all of his short life. As we pulled out, the rain stopped and the sun came out. Not such a bad start after all.

First Views

We drove two cars down from Cleveland, OH to Annapolis, MD. Matt had all of the sailing gear in his (life jackets, etc.) and I had the boys, a week’s worth of food, sleeping gear and some ‘stuff’ in the other one. The boys and I made a number of stops so Matt got down there ahead of us – just in time to see them use the huge lift to put the boat in the water (we will post a video of this). On the way down, I asked Malachi how he felt about going on the boat (neither of the boys had yet seen it in person). He said, “I’m kind of freaked out. I’m really freaked out.” Joshua’s concern, expressed occasionally over the preceding weeks, was about falling off the boat. The two nights prior to leaving Joshua said he was scared of falling off the boat and that he didn’t know if he’d be able to sleep. I don’t know what he was expecting (a wood plank in the water?) but it was hysterical to see his face and Malachi’s when they saw the boat for the first time. They immediately ran all over it and said it was awesome. Joshua went down below and said, “It’s like a whole other world down here.” They are fascinated by their berths, the storage places, etc. When I asked Joshua if he was still worried, he looked at me as if I had said something ridiculous.

The Trial Run

Matt had decided we should have a ‘trial run’ on the boat before the house was packed up – so we would get a sense of the space and what was needed. I think he also wanted to do it to set my expectations. He knows that my idea of camping is staying at a Holiday Inn. He had warned me that the boat was not completely ready and that not everything would be functional.

Packing up Life in Cleveland … and Re-Considering (07.15.2013)

Matt spent five days in the sweltering Annapolis heat trying to fix the toilet. In the meantime, I was trying to pack up the house while simultaneously taking care of two energetic boys with short attention spans. We had a moving company come out to estimate moving costs and assess how much space all of our ‘stuff’ would take up in a storage unit. They said we were actually on the lighter end of the stuff scale. Really?!

Matt arrived home from Maryland demotivated and exhausted. He hadn’t slept well the previous two nights because of heat and anxiety. After recounting all of this, he looked at me and plaintively asked, “What are we doing and why are we doing this?!” Being overwhelmed by all that had to get done in order to pack up the house, I think I mumbled something comforting like “Umm… I’m not sure.”

Full Disclosure

I had wanted to tell most of my doctoral students at the same time and had invited them to lunch. They knew something was up. I shared what happened with the executive education training and how everything unfolded. They were all incredibly supportive – despite the various ways my short-term departure would affect each of them – with one of them saying “You’re going to write a book about this! It will be like ‘Eat, Pray, Love – but with kids!”

There are more service people coming in and out of the house to do repairs and improvements before the final house inspection. Matt, being the more gregarious of the two of us, is always friendly and engages them in conversation. Invariably, due to the ‘for sale’ sign in front of the house, they will ask where we are moving. For some reason, Matt then answers in a loud booming voice, “We’re moving to a mobile home.” An awkward silence ensues as I’m sure the service person envisions a trailer and the sorry set of circumstances that must have led to our family having to sell our house. Finally Matt breaks the silence by announcing “We’re moving onto a sailboat!” I can almost hear the person audibly breathe a sigh of relief. I still can’t figure out if he does this intentionally or not – but it is always amusing to overhear.

My Yearly Ceramics Retreat

Before all of this craziness started, I had scheduled a week of ceramics at Miami University in Oxford, OH. They have an arts program called CraftSummer in which they offer various types of weekend or week-long classes. I had gone the previous few years and always had a great experience. In the midst of all that had to be done, I told Matt I didn’t see how I could possibly go and that I should cancel it. He convinced me to go (he is much better at prioritizing fun than I am) and it ended up being a fantastic and much-needed respite. While I was there, I spoke to a senior person in the university administration and he was wonderfully supportive of the whole idea. At one point, he said, “When you take a break like this, you invite life to drive you in all kinds of different directions. I just have to say this to caution you.” I assured him that we were simply hitting the pause button and that I was not reconsidering being a faculty member or being at the university. I love my job and my school and have no plans but to come back after a year. Subsequent positive conversations with other influential others simply confirmed this.

Below, me showing that how tall my piece is – the tallest one I had thrown to date!

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