My Surreal Life

I love real life enough to oppose living in an unrealistic dream world. Today I said surreal for the first time in memory, because for the first time ever that's how I felt. Surreal is a word I've never uttered out loud before because I personally don't like it. I've heard it so much it usually feels overused and abused. Come on, we don't all live in LaLa Land all the time! Anyway, after it escaped my tongue I took a minute to look it up just to be sure I wasn't misusing it. I pity people who use words incorrectly. The best example I can think of at the moment is notorious, as in this sentence: She is notorious for her incredible cupcakes. Everyone unfamiliar with the meaning of notorious starts drooling and wondering how they can wrap their lips around one of those cupcakes. Not me. I start wondering how many people she has deviously chocked to death or poisoned with them. (If you're wondering what I'm talking about, look up notorious.) 

Back to surreal. I peeked into my garage and watched box after box leave its comfy little nest high above my head and land in the 4-wheeler trailer. (With help--none actually flew or landed alone).

It was a beautiful day for packing our lives and start hauling everything to a storage unit. Actually, not everything went--just look at the poor 4-wheeler and you'll know what I'm talking about.

Yes, it's there. Drowning behind the gift wrap and buried beneath all that stuff that didn't make it onto the trailer. Overhead is what I've called the garage attic. Surreal is what I call moving after two previous failed attempts. Seven years ago we received an offer on our home, but the following day the bottom fell out of the world economy. The hopeful buyer couldn't follow through and no one else in the universe was able to borrow money for homes. We settled back in and enjoyed more time in out happy little village. Last year we again thought we'd change our address, but both my hubby and I took unexpected turns in the hospital. We pulled our home off the market to recover. This year we're actually moving the boxes I packed right after Christmas more than a year ago. Yep, that is very strange and surreal. Please don't wake me up.

Quick update: We're buying a tiny condo. It's so small that it wouldn't take much squeezing to fit 3 1/2 of them into our present home. That is a weird thought--having too much for way too long, although we've been very blessed to share our space with children and grands who needed landing pads for various reasons over the past few years. Anyway, now we're heading toward retirement and hoping to have less and easier space to fuss over. I will miss my little spinach patch, deer wandering by and chomping on my roses, kids laughing in the park behind our home, sitting around a firepit on the back patio and toasting marshmallows as the sun sets, and pool tournaments resounding in the basement. I won't miss sixty-acres of carpet to vacuum or ninety miles of driveway to de-ice during the winter. 

I'm already dreaming of sticking plastic flowers in a planter by my new front door just so I can watch them fade under natural UV lighting. Just kidding. I'm not that old yet. But I am considering wallpapering something. It's been ages since I've hung wallpaper, and since wallpaper is speeding back into style faster than a bullet train, I'm excited to decorate with it again.

I suppose my sparkling little dream bubble will burst and nightmares will push in around the edges as we settle into our new place--as all six of us occupy our cute little three bedroom, two bathroom condo. Scrunching together may tempt a couple of our nestlings to fly the coop. On the other hand, it might be us old birds who spread our wings.

Hmmm. I'm feeling a vacation coming on. Maybe two or three in quick succession to make up for last year's memorable "hospital stay-cations."

Final words before my hubby and son drove away with our first trailer piled with treasures: "If anything falls off, keep driving! Don't stop! Don't go back! Retrieve it only if a cop is nearby so you're not cited for littering!"

Hey, anyone want a box of something?

Catch! 

Who knows what you'll end up with.

Come to my garage sale when I clean out the storage unit.

Wait!

I've just changed my mind about that garage sale. I just remembered I've promised the kids I'll leave them something when I die...

Hee, hee, hee...!