I’m here. I’m settling. I’m still collecting my thoughts on California, but in the meantime I wanted to tell you about the other time I moved across the country from Massachusetts to Austin. Otherwise known as the time Tim and I set my car on fire. Every time Tim and I made a significant move, we rented a big U-Haul truck. We’d tetris all of our wordly belongings into the back in some precarious kind of way, and Tim would drive…
The two questions I heard the most after Tim died were “How are you doing?” and “Are you moving back to North Carolina?” I guess I shouldn’t have gotten annoyed at that second question, but it always rubbed me the wrong way slightly. “They” say not to make any big decisions in the first year (spoiler alert – I have already blown this rule in multiple ways) and the question always inferred to me that I would need to go…
The Mohawk is a local music institution in Austin. It has a main stage outside with multiple levels of porches and areas to listen to the music. There are also some big old trees that hang over the benches, and the sound circles around everything. Four years ago, Tim and I went to see Yann Tiersen play there with some friends. Yann is a French musician and composer. He did the soundtrack for Amélie, which was one of Tim’s favorite movies….
When Tim first died, it felt like all the joy in the world had been sucked out of the world in an instant. I soon learned that I could still feel happiness during this grieving period, but I had to look for it really hard. One outing we did to bring some smiles was take Pascale to a local Austin spot, “Barking Springs.” It’s something Tim and I had talked about doing for years, but BT isn’t good off leash and…
With all the rain we’ve been getting lately, I planned a decidedly un-horsey Saturday while my barn dried out from the monsoon. Most of the day was spent with me cleaning my house like a crazy person. If you’re a South Park fan, do you remember that episode where Butters’ mom finds out his dad is gay, and goes on a psychotic cleaning spree around the house? “Cleeeeean! Clean. Everything must be cleeeeeeeeean.” That was pretty much me, only less…