Ol Chief Sez Turn Back Now

What a week it’s been.

Last Monday, we all piled in the trusty mini-van for our trek up to Utah. We somehow made it in a day. The next few days were spent looking at homes,  being discouraged, getting more encouraged, and then back again. It’s an interesting market up here — surprisingly few homes for sale. I guess that’s the cycle of things in Utah. In the wintertime, people just take their homes off the market. We’re still weighing the buy vs. rent thing. We’ll see what wins out.

Thanksgiving was spent in Lehi at Jim Jenkins’ home. It was fun.

We left Utah on Saturday, arriving in Surprise around 9pm. Gwen wasn’t too thrilled with all of the travelling, but she survived. She didn’t spend the entire time in her carseat, as listening to her scream for hours on end got a little bit tiring. We tried to clean a few things up and get a few more things together. Then Sunday morning around 10:30 I left again to come back up to Utah.

The title of this post is in reference to the Chief Yellowhorse shops on the side of the road. These are the ones that are maybe 30 miles north of Flagstaff. He’s got all of these signs before and after his table stands telling you that his stuff is coming up and then more afterward telling you to go back. The last few say “Ol Chief Sez Turn Back Now” and “Hurry, It’s Not Too Late.” I tell you what, it was all I could do to keep myself from turning back and going all the way home to Surprise. I left home thinking that I didn’t really want to do this, so why was I? I can be such the drama queen.

Today I started my new job. After assurring both security and the head of HR that I was, indeed, supposed to report for work today, I settled in and met some people. It seems like a good bunch. My computer was hurting (kind of like those south of Rittenhouse, mid), so it took quite a while to do even the most menial of tasks. Supposedly I’ll have a new machine in short order, though not short enough. Snow and traffic jams greeted me at the end of the day. All of the traffic seemed to be going North, so maybe that was a sign that I don’t want to live up north. We’ll see. More later.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

If I go there will be trouble
But if I stay it will be double . . .
This indecision’s buggin’ me . . .
So come on and let me know
Should I stay or should I go?

Deep thoughts from that incredibly sophisticated band, The Clash. They seem to pretty much sum up the last month or so of our lives. It’s been more intense than any of you probably know. An agonizing thing to consider, really; something not taken lightly. One of these days I’ll chronicle the whole thing out for this vast audience, which I’m sure waits with baited breath on each word.

Either way, I knew it was time for a change in my life, both professionally and personally. Mercer has been a wonderful experience for me, mostly due to the great people I’ve been able to associate with there. That will certainly be the thing I’ll miss most about Mercer. Through all of the nonsense that goes on in a highly political corporate environment, the people I’ve been able to work with have really risen above it all and created quality work. And, more importantly, have remained quality people. So kudos to you.

The personal aspect of it has been the most agonizing. That’s surprising, I’m sure, to many of you who know much about me. I’m not one to wear emotions on my sleeve. Julie always tells me I have my crusty shell and use my sarcasm to ward off people getting close to me. That’s certainly partly true, or maybe fully true, who knows. What I do know is that I won’t argue with her (I know better by now). What I also know is that there have been some wonderful people we’ve been able to meet here in Surprise and elsewhere. It’s comforting to know that there are people so devoted to their families, friends, faith, and communities, and the people here have epitomized that devotion in many ways. If it were the same in just a small fraction of households, I think this cruel world of ours would be a much more inviting, forgiving place.

My family has attempted to disown me. And they probably would have gone ahead and done so if it weren’t for my lovely daughters. It will be a struggle and a huge adjustment. They’ve all been very supportive over the time we’ve been here.

We’ll be heading up to Utah on Monday for the week of Thanksgiving. It should be fun to look around and see what the market has to say. I have communicated with some property owners up there who think that they’re still in a pricing run-up. It’s been interesting to watch them pull back over the last few months. Of course I’ll also experience the other side of that down here. Our home is, of course, wonderful, but no one will ever think it’s as wonderful as we do, which inevitably causes some sort of emotional disconnect, which makes it hard to sell a “home.” We’ll see what happens.

That’s enough sappiness for now. I’ll come through with more details soon.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone. It was a cool balmy 70-ish degrees outside tonight when the fesitivities started. Julie made some great clam chowder, salad, dip, and all kinds of fun stuff. The dessert was some sort of free-for-all in the neighborhood. But I guess we made out OK.

Abigail was a cat, Grace was Dorothy, Lucy was TinkerBell, and Gwen was the old standby, the duck. Catherine, Mike and Annie, my parents, and Grandma Eslin came over to join the fun. My mother has always loved Halloween, so seeing our house decked out as it is did her heart good, I’m sure. We went Trick-or-Treating up and down the street. Lucy had some “slippers” (shoes) that were 3 sizes too big and kept falling off, so she was a little slow. I don’t think she minded much, as it just gave her yet another chance to eat a sucker. It was 9 at last count. I had to pry the bag out of her hand.

New pictures are up at Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/midder/ and to the right. Enjoy.

Fall Festival at Marley Park

Tonight was the Fall Festival at the girls’ school, Marley Park. Abigail was a cat, Grace was Dorothy (from the Wizard of Oz), Lucy was a different cat, and Gwenyth was the requisite duck. The PTA did all kinds of stuff for the carnival and the girls had a great time. Lucy literally ate about 8 suckers, 4 bags of M&M’s, etc. And that’s just the stuff I saw her eat. Every time I looked up, she was off begging the next person for some candy. We were kind of a side show there.

Grace won a prize for her costume. It was really cute. I’ll have some pictures up sometime after Halloween. We didn’t get any tonight. Abigail and Grace loved the cotton candy (as did Julie) and snow cones.

That’s all for now. I’m tired.