Staycation

I've been hearing that the "staycation" is the new hip way to take a vacation, but have discounted the idea of staying at home on vacation as bogus. However, if you have just moved across the country, are in a new house, have only yourself, a cat & a loving spouse to deal with, and hours of sleep to catch up on, staycations rock.

The last two weeks in our new home has been one of the most relaxing vacations ever. I have slept more hours, watched more movies, taken more long walks, shared more bottles of wine (and bars of dark chocolate), drank more leisurely cups of coffee, and generally felt less stressed out over the last 10 days than during any other 10 day period in recent memory. This staycation has been relaxing to the point that I've hardly noticed my apprehension about money, starting school, and making a life here-not to mention the annoyance of hours spent on the phone with Verizon (tech support, billing, etc), organizing, cleaning, and driving/walking around new areas and/or stores feeling slightly lost(eg: I thought all Walmarts were organized the same. Not true! The Walmarts here match one another, but are totally different than any I've seen out West...). All in all, my first staycation has made settling in really quite enjoyable.

Despite the wonders of relaxing and starting to feel like this new house is home, I'm getting ready to move on. Last Saturday Noah and I both attended a six hour intro to massage workshop at the Center for Massage and Natural Health (my new school). It was a wonderfully reaffirming experience for me; the day went quickly, I enjoyed myself, absorbed the information and-according to Noah-gave a natural and yummy massage.Whew!

After the course, we drove up to historic Jonesborough TN to visit our friend Darlene who was my roommate at Yogaville (small world!). It was wonderful to see her again and fun to "get out" at least once during our staycation. We had dinner at this lovely little Cuban restaurant and walked around the quaint downtown area of Jonesborough, making a mental note to experience the annual storytelling festival next fall. Despite the trip being short and nearby, we were happy to return to our little house in Mars Hill Sunday afternoon and take a nap.

Thanksgiving felt just like the day before did for us, except the rest of the working world seemed to be relaxing with us. We had Minestrone soup, bread and pumpkin pie-about the best Thanksgiving meal I've ever had. Plus, we still managed to eat T-day leftovers for the next two days (the pot of soup was huge).

I continue to be thrilled with the weather, patterns here and, when we were supposed to get an inch of snow on Friday, I was almost excited for it. (It didn't snow though). I was a little unprepared for the barrage of Christmas music, lights and trees for sell that hit the day after Thanksgiving, but really shouldn't have been surprised.

Alas, as all good things come to an end at sometime, our staycation will be ending tomorrow morning as I head off to my first full day of classes. The studio Noah is teaching yoga at is kicking of classes tomorrow, with his first class starting Tuesday. We are both excited, nervous, happy, and ready to get moving on with life here in North Carolina.

It is crazy for me to think that only one year ago I was in New Zealand, heading to meet Kristin and her wonderful family in Australia. What a year! It is impossible to know where life is going to take us sometimes. I hope can manage to keep enjoying the ride!