I'm Going on an Adventure!

One of my favorite things to do on Thanksgiving is to go to a movie with the girls in my family. For the last 2 Thanksgiving, that means we have been at the first showing Thanksgiving morning for the last 2 movies in the Breaking Dawn series. I won't lie, I find them utterly entertaining. They are good enough to keep my attention, and bad enough to keep me laughing. I think it's a great time.  But that isn't really what I want to talk about.

Before the movie there was a preview for The Hobbit. At one point in the preview Bilbo Baggins is running away from his home, apparently trying to catch up with the rest of his traveling group. Some little hobbit neighbors ask where he is off to and he just yells over his shoulder, "I'm going on an adventure!"

That is exactly how I feel. The last couple of weeks have flown by so quickly and I feel like I just ran away from home, shouting back to all who would listen that I am going on an adventure!

Tuesday morning I finished cramming everything I own into my Mazda 3 and headed west.

Thanks Mazda for making a tiny car that can fit so much stuff! And thanks Milla for reminding me that "I've got this.

"

 Highlight of the trip. Restroom's what? Thanks Elko! 

Sunset leaving Nevada

The last few days have been a blur. They have included a LOT of driving and a LOT of cleaning.

I am just finally starting to feel like things are coming together and that all of this might just work out after all. When I first arrived, the house that I am staying in was entirely empty. There was supposed to be a bed, but there wasn't. There wasn't much of anything. I don't know how long it has been since the house was lived in, but I can tell you that things hadn't been cleaned in a LONG time. I thanked heaven that I had tossed my sleeping bag in the car at the last minute before I left, I laid the sleeping bag out on the ground in an empty bedroom and tried not to wonder what I had gotten myself into.

I totally experienced that moment of panic where I started asking, "What on EARTH was I thinking packing up my life and moving 600 miles away from home, friends, and family?!" I thought about the fact that it would be totally possible for me to just put everything back in the car and sleep in my own bed again before the week was out.

The next day I cleaned, cleaned some more, went to Costco for food, and went to Target for an air mattress.

Thanks Mom!

Thanks Target!

Now that things are a little cleaner, my stuff is all starting to find a place in the house, and after getting a good night's sleep...and maybe not getting up until 10:30 this morning, I am feeling much better about the world and the adventure that is before me. Even when I thought about the possibility of going back home, I knew that I wouldn't do it. I am going on a adventure. No one said that all of the adventure would be wildly exciting adventure, adventure is a package deal, and it comes with a fair amount of crazy. So, it all started out a little more adventurously than I had planned, but this is what I signed up for and I know that it will get better and continue to keep getting better.

To leave you with the hope that I am not entirely tragic right now, I will say that I have already connected with some friends of friends in the area and I am going to a Sound of Music Sing-a-long in San Francisco tomorrow! Boosh! Let the fun adventure begin!

For now I am safe, and still happy thinking of all of the people who love me back at home and who were so kind and instrumental in supporting me in this grand new adventure. I left with some handmade Christmas decorations, a box of life (and sanity) saving supplies, money for my first Costco visit, and with the memories of lots of good pizza with wonderful friends, more parties, trips for ice cream, zombie killing video games, an awesome new journal, good talks, and lots of hugs. I love all of you, and you had all better get out here to visit me soon!