Time Stamp and a Tag Sale

Home from work, I collapse onto my bed, let my head hit the pillow and stare, like a dead fish at the map of California on my wall. Unmoving, I think not of how excited I am to soon be free of nearly all of my possessions, riding along the beach with a tent and a sleeping bag, an ipod and Lyon. No, I'm thinking about how comfortable my face feels as it sinks into my familiar pillow, and how heavy my body feels atop our queen-sized mattress, the smell of summer air coming in through the window mixing with the scent of fresh sheets. I'm wondering who will buy this mattress from me and who will buy the incredibly heavy couch in our living room. I'm thinking about the dreaded tag sale we're having on Sunday.

This trip isn't just about going on an extremely long bike ride, it's also a time stamp that we'll use to remember our transition from Lyon's home to mine. We are leaving Massachusetts and moving to Texas, which most of you know, but its something I haven't written here yet. But I've been in this valley for 7 years and last night when Rabiha left, we acknowledged that it would be the last time she'd come over and make tea at my house and cook dinner and sit on the porch to chat, watching Northampton go by, catching each other up.

Today on my way home from work I dropped Vanessa off and, as she got out of the car, balancing in her arms a vase of flowers I'd gotten her because it was her final week with CC-CS, we voiced that it was our last carpool trip together. We decreed, that it had been a "great" carpool, each laughing to ourselves about the many complications and frustrations that only a carpool of 5 friends and co-workers can create. In the end, though, we'll remember Morning Edition on NPR, making on-the-fly grocery runs on the way home, gossiping about work before getting there, taking a picture of the same field that the carpool goes by each day for 8 months to see how it changes from ice and snow to dirt to sprouts to beans and back to dirt...

And when Kelly came over on Tuesday to watch the Celtics Vs. Lakers game (we'll just pretend that game didn't happen) she covered her eyes at the sight of boxes and piles of books that we'd been sorting through. "Noooo! You're not moving! What are these boxes doing here! Get them out of here!" I wish that I could wish that I would find a Kelly in Austin...but I know its not worth it since there isn't one. She's only here.

I haven't ridden my bike further than a few blocks in the past two weeks. We don't have any new bike gear, and Lyon's weekends are filling up so quickly with gigs that I wonder how we will squeeze in a practice overnight trip before it's time to go. But we will make it happen. Whether we are a little more or a little less prepared isn't the point. Right now I'm saying goodbye, not to people yet, just to my bed and my chair, our kitchen table, that blue hutch, the oriental rug...

We'll be out of our house by July 15th. Then I move in with Kelly while Lyon goes on tour for 3 weeks with JP Harris and the Tough Choices. When he's back, we'll have a few more weeks to get our bikes and our butts in shape, then August 31st we drive to Texas.

September 9th is Lyon's birthday. September 10th we fly from Austin to Seattle. The tickets are purchased, just need to figure out how to dismantle our bikes enough that the airline will accept them as checked baggage...simple, really.