well then... this is what happens.

It was after a recent conversation with a childhood friend that I began to wonder about a few people from childhood. You know in that "I wonder what ever happened to so and so" sort of way. Every so often I might run across someone from my childhood and they might be doing something interesting or satisfying with their life and genuinely I like hearing that. It doesn't have to be a major thing but if they are doing something that really makes them happy and life is treating them well, I am happy for that person. (especially if things were tough on them when growing up. It is awesome to escape the shackles of one's past.)

I so googled someone, expecting the usual Facebook blah blah stuff. Instead I was greeted with some links to a rather old news story involving what appeared to be this person's family. (they moved to my hometown about halfway through my childhood) I thought, "oh that couldn't be" and as I read it some things matched up and it related to a rather horrific situation I knew nothing about. This person did not have a terribly common name and I thought, "that's odd." Then I googled their sibling's name (which wasn't a common name either.) and it confirmed that yes indeed this was the same family.
It was incredibly illuminating for me. In a few minutes a number of little things that seemed slightly odd or unusual about that person began to make a great deal of sense.
I also realized that they moved just prior to the internet age exploding so you didn't really have people looking up all kinds of information about them and looking upon them as slightly different. (which given the situation was probably a relief in the grand scheme of things. They could take the time to sort their lives out in a safe place.) The really satisfying thing out of all of this is that both this person and their sibling turned out fairly happy healthy people doing interesting things with their lives.

So hey. Google. How about that.

this is what is up

Hey let's do a state of the life update. Mostly to keep people up to date on the broader picture of future plans and such. (that and everyone is on the same page.)

We have just filled out forms to see if some nice person on a fellowship or something at the University of Washington wants to rent our house with the ugly carpet. We made it pretty clear that this house is ideal for kids. "Hey we don't care if you get stains on the carpet. You wouldn't be the first." It is also in the right area for one of the best public schools in the city. (if you concerned about that kind of thing. COME all the way to Seattle so your children may attend school with affluent white children who are not allowed to cross the street to school on their own because the school is worried about getting sued. I am not making that up.) So that form will be sent off and we will cross our fingers. Unless one of you lovely local people want to rent it? Lots of room, bedrooms are not YOOGE but they do the job. No hookers and blow though. On that I am firm.

We finished doing an inventory of all of our stuff. The next task is printing up this spread sheet (because it is good to have a hardcopy) and maybe color-code everything in order of importance, what stays, what goes, where it goes, when it goes, does it go? Or? Or we may just burn all of our stuff in a giant fire and move to Mongolia and live in yurts and be nomads. Because I hear they have ponies. I could get behind that. How is wi-fi in Mongolia?

Which leads us to emailing the shipping company we have picked and booking a date for them to pick up our stuff. We are doing this a couple of weeks before we leave. It will give us time to put some things in storage, (if need be) have things hauled to the dump, hose down this joint. Mr. Jenner said something about hiring professionals to come in and clean. I like this idea. I told him it would be a way to take a piece of stress away. Because by mid-June I may be doing impressions of Judy Garland. And I don't mean singing, "Get Happy" while showing off how awesome my legs are after losing a bunch of weight. I mean going to people's homes and stealing their medication. Me and Oscar Levant. So yes. Professional cleaning people.

We don't have a house yet but like theater, all of this will come together. We don't know how. It's a mystery. But it will. Putting all my faith into the higher power of my choice and saying, "okay then."

And to remind folk, we leave July 3rd. We arrive in England on July 4th. As I told a friend, I will be arriving with a big stick and a taste for Tory blood. So David Cameron? I hope you like getting angry letters. That's right England. You are getting your own angry loud socialist. I also like cake, tea, and village gossip.