changes and things

I'm getting to the point where this blog is about to come back to the traveling topic, where it all began....[cue flashback music and fade out]....

Not that I'll be discarding the knitting portion. I just haven't been making any marked progress on that end of things in my life....I must be the slowest knitter ever! And, also, I haven't been home too much, so that could be part of it. Or at least at home, at leisure.

But the blanket continues....I knit some in the car on our way to and from Saratoga Springs for a girls weekend with Mom and sister. I enjoyed some time in the steam room, a mineral bath, a massage and facial.....ahhh! It was all kinds of wonderful and relaxing. There have been renovations since we were there last and the new lounge is great!

Anyway, the knitting goes on. And meanwhile, I've been thinking about this whole moving and road trip thing. It's rather exciting getting to plan yet another road trip....though difficult to choose where we'll go! We will definitely go down the Pacific coast....but I also want to see: All the parks in Utah (and maybe Arizona) we missed....the Loneliest Road again....maybe back to Great Basin....Yosemite since DB hasn't been there.....the Bonneville Salt Flats....

So, everything, basically. Watching the PBS National Parks documentary isn't helping either. Also, I want to become a park ranger, again. I'm thinking, practice psychology for like 20, 25 years....then maybe join the service. Or go back to college for a degree in Fiber Arts. Either way....

With all this planning about moving and living and so forth I've been thinking a lot about where I'd like to live, ideally. This year in NJ has convinced me I am not cut out for the suburbs, at all. We have been talking a lot about moving back to San Francisco and I think I would be happier there. But, there's a part of me that still wants what would be basically be a homestead or self-sustenance farm somewhere peaceful and surrounded by relatively untouched nature. What I miss about the city is the community. You don't find that in the suburbs, at least in my experience. I've met some of my neighbors here and they are really nice, but there is an isolation here that you don't find in a lot of urban neighborhoods or in small country villages. Even with the isolation of the country, when there is a community, however rarely it convenes, there is support and warmth around the common experience of country life. And in the urban neighborhoods - like where we lived in San Francisco - you get to know the shopkeepers and business owners, your neighbors and even some of the homeless. So, the suburbs aren't for me. It looks like we will be city-dwellers, at least for the next 5 or so years. DB is not much of an outdoorsy person (though I will be working on that during the road trip). Funny, despite our mutual introversion, we both miss the community we had in the Inner Sunset, all the people we met over the years.

Anyway, just musing....off to watch more of the National Parks documentary! I live an exciting life here...nothing like knitting, wine and some educational programming!