Hello! it's been a while. This is a very overdue blog post. For those of you who listen to the podcast, you pretty much know how the last 7 or 8 months have gone down.
For those who don't, here is the reader's digest version.
In September we just wrapped a huge project in Scottsdale. I needed to stay for a few extra days, Dave was finished so he returned home. When Dave got home, he told me that our Peanut wasn’t herself. Over that weekend our puggle Peanut declined so fast, I had to wonder if she was waiting for him. Within days we learned that she had only hours to live. I am grateful that I was coming home.
I had 4 hours with her before going to the vet to say goodbye to her. If you have a dog, or you are a dog person, you know how this guts you. It guts you in a way that sometimes, is harder than when it is a human.
4 days later, still grieving, we received a 60-day notice to move from the home we had lived in for 10 years. The owner was selling it.
60 days put us directly in the timeline of holiday setups. We would be packing up a house and doing overnights at the same time.
If you know me, you know I am a control freak, and while I preach "change is good", this kind of change was not easy. But, then again, any change is not easy. Like it or not, change was happening.
I immediately went into "control what you can control' mode. Packing up the house, organizing yard sales, and looking for a new home. Somewhere along the way, I said 'f*ck it". Forget trying to find a new home, move, unpack, etc. only to have to go to Vegas for 3 months for work. We will put our stuff in storage and go to Vegas and move when we wrap up those jobs.
This is the thing, when you put things out to the universe, it listens and responds.
I had been complaining about living in CA for years. Both Dave and I were born in CA, and raised in Manhattan Beach, and we continued to live in and around the South Bay for the last 50-plus years. Like many small towns, our little beach community has changed. It has become more of a “Beverly Hills”, than a beach town of Southern California. So much money has moved in. Tech companies have moved in giving some areas the title of "Silicon Beach", celebrities, sports stars, and the uber-wealthy have come in droves. It's been written up as one of the cleanest and best beaches in CA, bringing a ton of tourists. I can't say I blame them, if I didn't live here, I would 100% want to vacation here! It's beautiful, warm, clean wide beaches and so many incredible places to shop and eat that it's pretty much perfect. However, with all of that, a LOT changes. Small beach cottages from the 40's are bulldozed for massive mansions on the strand. The quaint little places that we grew up with like Joe's Candy Cottage, a tiny little chocolate shop, were all pushed out by higher rents, and more sleek restaurants and shops. Entitlement and impatience are now the standard, after time, it gets old. One thing I will tell you is that I have zero patience for entitlement. I don't care who you are or how much money you have when you park in a handicapped spot after tennis to "run" into Starbucks because you don't want to park 2 blocks away and walk. That’s where I lost it.
At the same time, I had been complaining about how small our house was, we had outgrown it years ago. Our kitchen was so small that I could wash a pot and turn around without taking a step and put it back on the stove. We had exactly 4 feet of counter space and 4 cabinets. I'm laughing now, thinking about how much crap we had accumulated over the 10 years of living there. How we managed to fit it all in this tiny house I will never know. But, it was home. Our backyard was our heaven on earth. When we got married, rather than taking a ton of money and putting it in a venue for 24 hours. We decided to put that money into the yard and get married there. We created a little heaven on earth. Veggie gardens, fruit trees, a fire pit with decomposed gravel, a hot tub made out of a horse trough, and a deck that we were married on.
If you follow me on IG, you know how much time we spend out there. But, the size of the house was starting to wear thin on us and I had become very vocal about it. I made a statement, "In 3-5 years we are moving out of CA". That became "In 2-3 years we are moving to OR.” And damn, the universe was listening.
It was almost 2 years to the date, from making that statement, that we received our 60-day notice.
My bestie Elisa, who a lot of you know from the podcast, had made the move to Jacksonville, OR about 2 years prior. I would watch her IG feed filled with open spaces, chickens, and a slower life and find myself envious. While I love what I do, the pace, the travel, and the constant change from one location to another each day was draining. I have craved a slower life for some time. I wanted off the 405 and the 101 and I wanted to slow TF down. Truth be told, we would still be there if we had not received the notice. It's amazing how complacent you get when you are comfortable and it's "easy".
We began putting our stuff in storage shortly after getting our notice, on 11/19 we closed it up one final time and drove to Vegas on the morning of 11/20.
While in Vegas, I learned my stepfather was diagnosed with Leukemia. He was given a year to live, he passed away 3 weeks later on Christmas Eve. One week later my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer.
It was all too much.
I am not going to bore you with the details of our fears of the unknown, or the tears, and the depression. I will just say that it was WAY more than either of us was prepared for.
We decided to make the jump to OR in January. We knew people there, the cost of living was a lot less, and it was the slower life I craved. Adding, that there was the possibility of a lot of work for Dave. I knew that I would be traveling to my clients and I would figure out the rest when I got there. So, on February 5th, we packed up from our temporary housing in Vegas and made the drive to the OR! We made that journey during the storm of the century, heavy rain nearly the entire way. But
We had a place to stay and would find a home to rent when we got there. A month and a half into our time in Jacksonville, we finally found a home that both of us are kinda shocked is where we are going to be living.
Life looks a lot different these days. I am doing a lot more Zoom consults, and I have had more time to focus on the podcast (so MANY good interviews coming up!). We take the girls hiking in the tall trees of the forest trails. And when I walk, I visit with cows and goats along the way. We have met and been welcomed with open arms into our friend's circle of friends. I feel safe and loved in just a month and a half. Matt from Fine Lines, who also lives in Jacksonville, said it was a “healing place” and he was not kidding. I feel like the clouds have started to lift and I am beyond grateful for this journey as F*CKED up as it has been.
I am writing this in our old neighbor's guest house in CA that hosted our wedding reception. It's bittersweet, parking in front of our old home, watching the trees I loved swaying in the wind. Everything feels the same, and completely different at the same time. I am here to work on all of my retailer's floors. I’m making the same drive that I'd made 10,000 times on the 405 and the 101. I’m watching the Manhattan Beach socialites park in handicapped spots. Listening to people honk at others in traffic, watching them flip them off as they drive by. I’m also reading my book outside with my face in the California sunshine, walking on the beach as I used to. And, I am grateful.
I am also very grateful that I am only visiting and will return HOME to OR in just a few weeks.
I love you California, and I probably always will, but I am so breaking up with you.
xo,
Michelle
