And Away We Go....

I wanted to post this on my Facebook status, but you only get so many characters. And then it hit me -- I could post to my blog and it would link to my Facebook, and I can talk as long as I want. Why I haven’t thought of that before when I had a lot to say, I don’t know. I’m a dim bulb sometimes. But, I digress.

If you’ve been reading my posts, you know I’ve had a long-term dream of moving to Florida. When I say “long-term,” I really mean long-term. It’s been in my plan for years now. I spent just shy of 30 years working for the Ohio Education Association. I had a great job, but the last 10 years were pretty stressful for me. It was like being in a rat race. Long hours, long weeks, sometimes only having one weekend off in a month. I’ve spent the last five years at the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System. Not nearly the rat race of my prior job, but sometimes still stressful. I’m not opposed, nor am I unable to handle stress, but I’m pretty much over spending my days sitting in a cubicle. I am also extremely tired of winter weather. I love sunshine and I’ll take hot weather over bitter cold any day. And, as anyone who knows me knows, I’ve talked a lot about getting a job “selling balloons on Main Street” at Walt Disney World. Selling balloons on Main Street may or may not actually be in my future -- it’s more or less my way of saying I need to do something different, something fun, something less stressful.

Part one of my plan is about to come to fruition. I am moving to Florida on June 5. It’s a long story, but Jamie and I own a small house in the panhandle and that’s where we’re going until we can sell that house. Good luck…right? If anybody knows anybody who wants a house that sits in a quiet, remote area about 30 or so miles inland from Destin beach, send them my way. Once we sell that house, I will be on my way to “Main Street.”

If you’ve been reading my Facebook posts, you may have noticed that every time I say something about moving, there’s this “Beth” person who almost always replies with a “yea,” or a “me too,” or a “can’t wait” type of comment. Beth is my sister in-law, and the reason Beth is so excited about me selling my house is because Beth is buying my house. We have been seat partners on a non-stop roller coaster for weeks (months) now, trying to nail down details, secure financing, and talking about how crazy this is going to be – trying to coordinate me moving long distance to Florida, and she moving long distance from Arizona to Columbus. Selling and buying a house is not so easy these days! But, it’s done. We haven’t closed yet, so I suppose anything could still happen, but at this point I’m pretty confident we’ve crossed all the hurdles of the selling and buying part of the plan.

I just want to close by saying to my neighbors on Facebook – Lynne and Jay, Tony, Karen – please welcome Beth to the neighborhood. You’re getting a really nice neighbor. You will love Beth. She is a dear person and she has a sense of humor like no other. She’s originally from Columbus, but she’s been gone for so many years that it will take her a little while to get her bearings. She has lots of friends in Columbus, but that won’t help her in a pinch if she needs directions to Kroger. Ha!