Daily 5 - Day 198

Today's Daily 5:

1. This is probably going to sound strange to some of you, but the absolute highlight of my day was getting behind the wheel of my grandma's truck a little while ago, and driving it from her house to my apartment.  But not because I was driving her truck.  It's because I drove, at night, for the first time since my accident.  And I was alone while doing it.  And it was pretty much as panickyn as I'd been thinking it might be.  And I drove all the side streets to make it home.  But I'm really proud of myself for managing to do that tonight.
2. Feeling actually really good about how this move is coming together.
3. So grateful for being allowed to take the afternoon off and the time it allowed me tonight to just rest.
4. Thankful for the family members who have been so helpful in making this move smooth.
5. Thinking about the fact that this is the last night in this apartment, and grateful for the seven months we lived here.  After two really brutal years, the last seven months in this place have been a time where I've finally seen healing begin to happen, and for that time I'm so incredibly grateful.

(Daily 5 will hopefully be back tomorrow night if all goes smoothly with the phone company moving the internet.  If not, well, it'll be back once I get the internet stuff sorted out.)

At Rest

At some point in the coming days, I want to write a bit about the process of this move, how it was that I've decided to live in my Grandma's basement at nearly 27 years of age.  I want to talk about the very unique challenges that this move is creating in me.

But for tonight, I'm trying to rest.  I have to go out one more time, a bit later, to pick up my grandma's truck so that it's at my house and ready to be loaded when the people who are helping me move arrive in the morning.

About half way through the morning today I realize that I was pretty much useless at the office thanks to my distraction and fairly high stress level.  After a quick chat with my boss I'd gained permission to take a half a personal day on incredibly short notice.  That meant that the load of stuff I was supposed to move tonight was moved this afternoon, and then I was able to come home, move quickly through the vast majority of what remained for packing tasks, do a few little cleaning things, and now I can rest.

I don't think I can quite express how grateful I am right now for my boss' flexibility this morning.  It's an invaluable thing to me to be able to rest and sit quietly for a bit tonight, reflecting a little, praying a little, and just breathing. 

If you've been around this blog through the last three moves, you know that my struggle with panic tends to greatly intensify in times of massive change - and particular when I'm moving.  I've been so grateful to see a degree of healing in that this time.  Yes, the panic is still lurking close by, but thanks to the help fo friends and family, I think tomorrow will actually be a fairly quick, one, maybe two load process, followed by some cleaning.  My thoughts aren't in overdrive right now (though I am conciously stopping myself from moving, and forcing myself to take advantage of the opportunity to rest.).  The very lack of thought overdrive is a total blessing, and an answer to prayer.

So, for the moment I'm resting, and thankful.

Spinning

Are you sick of hearing about the process of this move yet?  In case you can't tell, it's sort of consuming my life at the moment.

My thoughts are running and spinning a thousand miles a minute.  Keeping me awake at night, not letting me focus.

Constant mental lists.

The "Oh!  I've got to do that too!" moments.

Somehow, it'll all get done.

In the meantime, once I leave work today, I think blogging will be pretty scarce for the next few days.  I've got a few posts scheduled to go live (at least one a day).  I'm hoping the internet connection move goes smoothly this time, and that I'll be back to blogging my regular daily 5 list tomorrow night, only from Grandma's this time.  But I'm not all that confident it'll be as smooth as all that.  So.  I'll see you when I see you!

Daily 5 - Day 197

Today's Daily 5:

1. With help from my roommate, the majority of our kitchen is now packed.  Just a few cupboards and a shelf with foodstuffs left to go.
2. My bedroom is also now 95% packed.
3. Reworked my budget (slight change in paycheque, plus changes in rent amounts) and am very happy with the numbers
4. Managed to pull off about an hour of quieter time tonight too.
5. Loved watching Joannie Rochette skate for a bronze medal tonight, especially knowing that her mom passed away very suddenly early this week.

Award - How fun!

Tea at Homemaker's Heart gave me an award last week, and I'm just now getting around to doing something about it.  Thanks Tea!

Here are the rules:

 

•Be polite, say thank you to the blogger that gave this to you & give 'em a linkback.

 

•Pass it on to about fifteen other beautiful bloggers that you've recently discovered.

 

•Link 'em.

 

•Notify 'em.

 

•Say seven things about yourself

Okay, here's the deal.  There are way more than 15 of you out there that I'd love to link to, but I'm short on time all around, so I'm just going to list a few absolute favorites, and if you want to jump in and play along, even if your name isn't listed, go for it!  If you're interested in having an award, take it and share it - just leave me a comment saying that you jumped on this one.

My favorites right now include:

• Tea (I know, you gave it to me, but I've been loving reading your thoughts.)
• Allie Dearest
• Susan at A Rewoven Life
• Renee
• Faye
• Hope
• Dana
• And so many more!
   

And... 7 Things About Me:

1. I'm allergic to oranges, but occasionally eat them anyway.  Mostly at Christmas.  Because what's Christmas without mandarin oranges.
2. My all-time best and worst trips are actually the same trip.  There are things about that particular trip that made it one of the best and also one of the worst times of my life.
3. The move this weekend will be the fourth one for me in 3.5 years.  This from someone who hates change, and had never moved at all for the first 23 years of my life.
4. One of the bloggers I listed above is a long time "in real life" friend.  And one is someone who I've now had the privilege of meeting "in real life."  It was crazy how quickly that second conversation went to the deeper more personal stuff, just because we sort of felt like we knew each other and had been reading each other's blogs for years.
5. I think the most perfect job in the world would be something that involved travel, writing, long, deep conversations over tea, and praying for people.  If you figure out what that job is before I do, let me know.
6. Though it doesn't seem like I would, I actually use my history degree every day in my current job.  I specifically studied groups like the Mennonites, and now, working for a Mennonite company, that knowledge has been invaluable in understanding the clients and some of the other staff that I interact with daily, in terms of understanding the five hundred years of history that have shaped their particular cultural traits.  Plus, really, not that much has changed in 500 years for some of them.
7. On a related note, my proudest accomplishment yesterday was managing to bit my tongue on a sarcastic retort when a particular Mennonite man whom I interact with regularly as part of my job informed me that he "didn't know what it was, but he just doesn't really like change."  I managed to stop myself from bursting out laughing and telling him that I knew what it was - it was that he was a Mennonite!