SFMOMA

That is, San Fransisco Musuem of Modern Art. On our way back to Fresno from Minneapolis we flew into San Fransisco, took the BART back into the Union Square area where we stayed a couple nights. While wandering we decided to take in the SFMOMA. In a word: fabulous! And I say that cautiously because 'modern art' can mean all sorts of weirdness, things I will never understand. There was some of that there but with several very different exhibits the majority was interesting. We wandered in there for hours. Entering an area of paintings I walked around a corner and my heart almost stopped. What I beheld was two Georgia O'Keefe landscapes. Ever since high school I've been a fan of her art, especially her flowers. Larger than life, extending beyond the page or canvas, and often in brilliant or intense color combinations. I've looked at her work in books and online but had never seen anything up close and personal. I stood, mesmerized, not believing that I was actually looking at artwork from one of my favorite artists. Standing so close to something that she had touched, that she had created was simply amazing. I had always desired to see her work in a museum but figured it would never happen. All of that to say that I was speechless, almost in tears as I studied both paintings.

After tearing myself away from Georgia, we worked our way through several floors of exhibits, some amazing, some disturbing, some bizarre and then we found ourselves at the rooftop garden and cafe. We sat down to fun treats: cappuciano, coffee ice cream and cake reminscient of De Stijl complete with panes of red, blue and yellow (see below).

On our way back downstairs we spent some time in the museum store. We could've spent the whole day looking at their books, jewelry, prints, toys and kitchen stuff. It made me wish we had the room to bring more items along with us but, alas, with this move we are going minimalist. :)

New Year's

The dust settled after a Christmas whirlwind with Tim's family in Fresno. We had time to take a quick breath and then we were driving to San Fransisco. Tim's dad, Tim, and his wife, Wendy, drove us to a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station outside the city and we took the BART into town for the night. We stayed in the Union Square area and had a blast walking around looking at everything: shops, restaurants, hotels, clubs. Remember we just moved from Bozeman, what we considered a small town, so all the city life was very interesting and entertaining. :) We ate at a great indian restaurant. I feel like I've just started to explore this type of cuisine and it is soooo good. A few minutes into the meal I was stuffed but happy. :)

BART took us to the airport in the morning and we flew to Minneapolis without incident. After being in Fresno for a couple weeks where you don't need even a light jacket I was bracing for cold and snow in MN. Alas, when we arrived it was colder than Fresno temps but not incredibly cold or snowy. Hmm. Wasn't expecting that.

Cue rounds two and three of Christmas chaos. We stayed with my brothers, Jess, and Landis, and Landis' daughter, Josephine! She's just about 2 and a half now. Stretching out and talking up a storm. :) Round two was with dad and Marie, round three with mom and Paul and mom's side of the family. Really fun times all around....it was so fun to see everyone and have a chance to talk and hang out. In the past we've only had small pockets of time to see family and, understandably, things were always rushed. This time I felt that we could relax a bit more and let our hair down with the families. :)

We took in a Wild game while in Minneapolis. Incredible. I've seen them play at home and Tim and I have seen them on the road but this was his first time to see them play at home. We had great seats and relished every moment of game time. :) In the end we lost but it was awesome to be part of the excitement with such an amazing fan base. A first for Tim and I, we got to see a penalty shot (successful in the end) by one of our players!! It was insane, the place went crazy!! :)

The game was on New Year's Eve and afterwards we went bowling. Walking out of the door we were greeted by big, heavy snowflakes that we then blanketing everything in sight. This was what I waiting for....although a little late for a white Christmas. :) Our next stop was a bar close to Jess' place where we played skiball and rang in the new year with leis, tiaras for the girls and champagne. :) I couldn't have been happier than to be with family and friends and most importantly with the love of my life, Timmy. Love that guy!

It's Christmas?

After arriving in Fresno Tim and I started to relax. Well, as much as you can relax with the holidays just days away. With the move and all the craziness preceding our departure from Bozeman we hadn't done any Christmas shopping. This is highly uncharacteristic for me. I like to have it done early, if possible. But hey, considering everything that was happening for us, even compulsive little me could not coordinate gifts, early, this year. :( So that meant, the day before Christmas, we were doing ALL of our Christmas shopping. A feat I've never attempted before and may try to avoid in the future. I expected crowds and lines and chaos and there was plenty of all of the above everywhere we went. But for some reason I didn't feel annoyed, perturbed or impatient. Any guesses as to why I was feeling so blissful amongst the chaos? One incredibly simple fact: I did not have to work in any of these retail establishments. I did work at Macy's until early December so I had to distinct joy of Black Friday on two hours of sleep. But beyond our time in Bozeman I was free of retail. No crabby customers. No whiners who want to be accomodated when they ruin towels and demand free replacements. So I didn't mind waiting in lines because I wasn't the one at the beginning of the line with a seemingly endless shift in front of me. Ah yes, in a word, bliss.

After several hours of trying to track down gifts we had treats for everyone. We returned to Sarah and Brad's house where we used our old research posters as wrapping paper (a genius idea from Timmy) and they looked pretty awesome complete with bows. I couldn't resist posting a picture to Facebook and admitting that I had gotten a bit carried away. It. Was. True.

Despite the fact that I knew it was Christmas I was having trouble remembering that fact. With all the upheavel leaving Bozeman we did not harvest a Christmas tree for our house or put up any other decorations. And with being so busy I felt I hardly noticed all the Christmassy stuff everywhere. This is something I HATE because I LOVE the holidays. Call me silly but I hum Christmas carols, watch Christmas movies, do Christmas baking, love looking at Christmas lights on houses, love wrapping presents, the list goes on.

I'm so curious to see what next Christmas will be like. Of course, it will be our first in New Zealand but it will also be our first Christmas smack dab in the middle of summer. Summer. Summer! I wonder if I'm going to love that or hate it?? I really don't know. What I do know if that this year I felt thrown off by being in sunny California with incredibly beautiful weather on Christmas Day. Next Christmas shall be interesting!

Arrive and Unpack...

The night of December 20th we stopped for the night in Cedar City, Utah. Just a few miles from the Arizona border. There I was dismayed to see snow on the ground. For months I'd been worrying about running into bad weather on this trip and still in extreme southern Utah there was snow. I didn't remember it being that way on other trips but chalked it up to the fact that we were at elevation. All the stress was for nothing as there was no snow on the road.

Glorious December 21st, after another long day driving just 55mph, we arrived in Fresno. After everything that had happened over the past few days I was still reeling. I couldn't believe that we had done it. Driven 1200 miles with all of our stuff and our car...all without incident! It was a 'hooray' moment for sure. I had fantasized about it for quite awhile. Pulling up in front of Tim's sister, Sarah, and her husband, Brad's house. A-mazing! Only then did I let out a big sigh of relief. :)

The following day we set about the task of unloading the car from the car carrier, unloading the stuff packed in the car and of course unpacking the Budget truck. By this time we were total pros at unloading the truck. Remember that we had loaded and unloaded our stuff no fewer than eight times. :) The work went quickly and like I've been doing so much these days I marveled at the incredibly warm weather. Sixties at least! With the garage full to the brim we reattached the car carrier and then delivered a few things to Tim's mom, Barb, and his other sister, Vicki.

For the last time we searched out a gas station that would accomodate our rig as we had to return the beast full of fuel. I followed Tim as we drove to the Budget place to drop off the truck and trailer. Upon arrival we realized that they had no parking lot. Um...what? A place that rents trucks and trailers and has no parking lot. Tim parked it half of the street, half of the sidewalk. :) After completing the paperwork we climbed into our little Honda and sped away. It was then that Tim told me he was breathing a sigh of relief at having turned in the truck and trailer safely.

Trucker Momma...

Waking up December 20th I looked out the hotel room window at our Budget truck and car carrier. Were we really driving that thing 1200 miles? Sigh. Ever since we'd decided to rethink our plans, rent a Budget truck and tow the Honda on a car carrier I had dreaded this moment.  Tim had reassured me that I would be fine...it's not tough driving a truck that's towing a car carrier. I wasn't so sure because I've  never driven somthing like that. I'm used to zipping around in my little Honda Civic coupe. She's such a cutie and quite tiny. Yeah. We got back on the road for a bit and then it was my turn to drive. I climbed up behind the wheel, moved the seat way forward and pulled out of the gas station. I was terrified. I was strangling the steering wheel. I was checking my mirrors compulsively because you can't look behind you in a truck like that. After awhile I started to relax. Just kidding. That never happened but I did take a smidgen of solace in the fact that I could only go 55mph with the car carrier. The other cars and trucks could whip by us as we chugged along. Tim looked over, surveyed my white knuckle driving and then dubbed me Trucker Momma. :)

Where to begin?

Since my last post a few things have happened. I'm not exactly sure where to start. Sigh. Here goes...December 18...the day before we  left Bozeman. Looking back on this day, like to so many in the last few weeks, I see a blur of activity. We were running errands, tying up all the loose ends, packing the Budget truck and cleaning. Cleaning. Cleaning. Cleaning. Still cleaning at 1am. By that time we were close to being finished, cleaning the kitchen, punchy and silly as we scrubbed every surface. I have to say that the  place sparkled and it should have...we spent hours and hours to be sure that the place would be spotless and that would net us our whole security deposit in return.

The next morning was the big day. We were cutting ties and leaving Bozeman for the last time (even now...several weeks later that doesn't seem real). We woke up at 6am to rearrange the items in the Budget truck, connect with the carpet cleaning guys and do the walk through with our property management company. Bleary eyed we woke to two  inches of snow on the ground. Not enough to derail our plans to leave that day but enough to make the last few hours in Bozeman just a little more annoying. I ran a carload of stuff to the thrift store while Tim started to rearrange the stuff in the truck...we still had quite a few bankers boxes to fit in there. After I returned home we finished loading the truck and loaded up the Honda. That is, loaded it with additional stuff then we drove it onto the car carrier that we  towed behind the Budget truck.

We  didn't quite have everything out of the house when our property management company arrived to look at the place. She was all smiles as she walked through to inspect each room. I'd say inspect is too strong a word - she barely looked around but was happy enough at  what she saw. We did get  our security deposit back so we  were happy too. :)

Next we ran around to  finish errands and it was then that I took stock of my shoes. Yes, you read that right: shoes. With the few inches of snow on the ground and all the running around my shoes were COMPLETELY soaked.  I remember walking out of Northwestern Energy (we were closing our account) and fearing that if I looked down I would see puddles oozing out from my shoes with each step.

Finally the moment had arrived. After all the packing, running around through the snow, loading and reorganzing the truck....we climbed  into the Budget truck and drove out of Bozeman. For. The. Last. Time.  A strange feeling all around. I didn't start to  feel relieved right then and there because I was still worried about potentially icy roads  along the way. But to  my great  delight we drove to Idaho Falls without incident...not a flake  of snow to  be seen. A couple hundred miles down and we were totally exhausted. We checked into a Holiday Inn Express and collapsed, happy but spent.