simple pleasures, continuing my journey along Route 70

You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something -- your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

- Steve Jobs

Today was great.  Couldn't have planned it.  Wouldn't have known just a few years back that I'd think it so good.  But it was.  From start to finish.  Really great.

Woke up feeling rested.   A big, huge, important component to any good day of mine.  Yes, almost 40 me knew better than to push myself to go to a friend's pre-Thanksgiving party last night when I was feeling so tired from the week, PMS, life, etc.  Larry and Caleb went to join the fun, and I got Adina and her cold to sleep by seven, watched "Water for Elephants" on demand (book obviously way better), drank 2 glasses of cabernet, ate a bag of Stacy's pita chips and a pint of Jeni's passion fruit frozen yogurt, and was sleeping by 10:00.  Necessary and delightful solo evening.

So, 8 hours sleep + two cups of Dunkin Donuts coffee + a bowl of banana slices, greek yogurt, honey and almonds = Evelyn raring to go this morning.   Made Caleb and Adina some challah french toast.  Loaded up the car with some sheets and towels and a bag full of homemade "happy birthday" signs for Larry.  His birthday is Thursday, and we'll be spending it - and Thanksgiving - in Keystone.  Since Larry was on call and couldn't go up this weekend,  the kids and I decided to go up and "prep" the condo for a celebratory birthday arrival.

It was the first time I did the driving "up to the mountains."  WOW!  I'm not sure why, but the views were even more magnificent from the driver's seat.  Did driving make me feel more in control of my destiny?  Maybe.  Because you know that calmness you feel when you realize that a choice or choices you've made were good and right - even when you weren't 100% sure of where they would lead when you made them.

Peace of mind.  Yeah.  I had it.

Denver and the Rocky Mountains =  a very, very good call.

It was so hard for me to leave Columbus, Ohio.  You see, for the first time since I was thirteen years old and left Newport News, Virginia for Silver Spring, Maryland, living in Columbus, Bexley rather, made me feel like I was "from somewhere."

Throughout the first 13 years of my life, I moved a fair amount within Tidewater, Virginia.  An apartment, a townhouse, and a house in Newport News, a house in Virginia Beach, back to a different house in Newport News.  But I had a big, loving extended family in the area, so even without four specific walls that stayed mine for much longer than a couple of years or so, I was always home.  My two grandfathers and maternal grandmother had lived their entire lives there; my mom grew up there; my dad grew up there; there were dozens of aunts, uncles, cousins, all within a half hour drive.  We even had a play house at Buckroe beach that my paternal grandfather had built.  

Even a six-month stint in Ranana, Israel when I was in the fifth grade, that my parents at first called aliyah, and then, "an adventurous vacation," didn't shake the feeling that I was from Newport News, Virginia.

I will bore you with the details of where life took me from the eighth grade until I moved to Columbus, Ohio in March, 2006 in many blog posts to come.  Promise.  Suffice it to say for now, however, that while those years were rich with opportunities to learn, explore and grow, (and I wouldn't change one minute of them, even if I could, no way, no how) they lacked a certain sense of security that this one-time, small town in Virginia girl missed.

I got that sense back in Ohio.  Maybe it was because most everyone I got close to in the 5 1/2 years I lived in Bexley was actually "from there," or married to someone who was.  Maybe its just like that everywhere in the midwest.  Or maybe it was the simple fact that 5 1/2 years was the longest I'd lived anywhere in a very long time.

Doesn't matter.  Leaving was terrible.

But, I couldn't stay and go where I wanted to go.  I didn't want to leave Bexley.  But I did, very much, want to live and raise my family in Colorado.

So, the rest of today - - The kids and I made a pit stop at Starbucks.  We got to Keystone around 10.  We unpacked the car.  We changed into our bathing suits.  Ahhh, heated pool + hot tub conveniently located in the complex in the building directly across from ours, 3 feet away.  Back inside to change.  Quick drive to the mini market three minutes up the street for some lunch and snacking basics.  Adina coloring happily; Caleb making signs to label all "his" shelves, drawers, etc in the room he and Adina share, oy, happily; and me, cozied up in my bed staring out the window, happily.

Got back to Englewood just in time to grab some sushi for dinner, now the kids are sleeping, and I'm truly inspired to write for the first time in a couple of weeks.

Great day.  Got enough sleep.  Ate well.  Enjoyed my children.  Felt grateful for my husband; my choices; my life.

If I don't talk to you before ...

-E