whew!

I have officially survived what has been the most trying 6 weeks of my life thus far. (Perhaps I shouldn't admit that, since I can think of at least two dozen other scenarios that would be harder than what I went through, but ... there it is.)

At the end of November, Abe flew out to California to start his new job in San Francisco. I stayed in Michigan with the kids and spent the next 4 weeks packing our house, arranging the moving logistics, and preparing our condo for our departure. Not to mention finishing a major work project and taking care of the kids. Aside from that and sleeping each night, I did nothing else. My to-do list felt never-ending and my energy level was at an all-time low. Also, the day before we were scheduling to leave (and coincidentally the day I had a culminating meeting and presentation for work), we all came down with the flu.

Somehow, I made it through my meeting and we all made it onto the plane the next day. Seven hours of plane travel with the kids seemed pretty easy compared to what I'd been doing. But I must have looked pretty spent. When the plane landed on the first leg of the journey, I was leaning against Genghis's car seat and didn't move while everyone else deplaned. I heard the person behind me say, "I think she's dead".

Reuniting with Abe was a great relief. Eating off of the floor for two days with two children under 3 while waiting for our belongings was not.

The ray of hope in all of this was a glorious 5 days off that Abe would have over Christmas, just after we arrived. Unfortunately, his first day off he was down and out with the flu we were all just starting to get over.

But I think we've made it through. We have mostly unpacked and settled into a spacious and comfortable penthouse apartment in the San Francisco Bay area (about an hour out of the city). More on the apartment later. We celebrated Christmas and New Year's and have been enjoying family time. More pictures of that later. Abe is better and I've had two wonderful days in a row of sleeping in while he's had the kids. Tomorrow I might actually make a fresh "to-do" list to start off our new life here, which would mean I'm feeling back to my old self again.

So Happy New Year! I couldn't have asked for a better one.

the best thing about california

Is all of the songs about California. Stats from wikipedia:

• There are 395 songs about California (including covers by different artists).
• Of those, 80 are titled simply "California".
• There are 213 songs about San Francisco, in addition to the 395 California songs.
• Wikipedia did not have a page for songs about Michigan (Elizabeth Downie, I formally challenge you to write this page)

Based on this musical enamoration, we have decided to move to California at the end of the year. Also, Abe got a job in San Francisco.

We're pretty excited about this next phase of life, when we're not feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of the cross-country journey. I just have two questions.

1. Does anyone know of a modest home in a good neighborhood somewhere in the Bay Area that costs less than approximately a gazillion dollars?
2. Does anyone have a recommendation for a company to move our car across the country?

I really do need help on Question #2. We'll need the car to live out of (see Question #1).