Shake the dust off your paws

May 24, 2016

The Bachelorette is on tonight at 9pm.

Against my better judgment I am thinking about watching it.

Why, you ask?

Oh gee I don’t know. Maybe something about bringing the old (way old, before the strokes old) into the new or just stirring up the universe’s juju to finally get the DMV to send my registration renewal in the mail seeing as updating my address online 40x hasn’t seemed to work. Dear DMV I’ve moved, please don’t make me come down there. No really I don’t want to. Like, ever.

Yesterday I got up and had a rendezvous on the back fence with my squirrels. I use ‘my’ lightly. I think these squirrels might actually belong to one of the neighbors on the other side of the fence because they are fearless. The squirrels not the neighbors who I actually haven’t seen once in over three months. Anyway, back to the squirrels.

These squirrels run right up to my face. They stare me in the eye. They make clicking noises to say, “More peanuts please!” (at least I think that’s what they’re saying, can’t be sure since I only speak cat). At times I’ve actually feared for my life hair because they look like they are going to jump right in it. I should’ve saved the snapchat and shown it to you here, but I’m old so I forgot. Maybe next time.

These squirrels were my second indicator that things in this new place might just work out.

The first indicator was the cat who jumped over the fence the first time I visited.

I said to Chris, “If there aren’t any cats around I can’t move there.” I said this because I was leaving a gaggle of cat friends behind in the shore and it was really tearing me apart. Sorry if that sounds weird. Actually, no I’m not. Back to the cat.

So we pulled up and Chris hollered, “CAT!”

I mumbled weakly, “Maybe it’s a sign I dunno.”

The cat ran off.

After humming and hawing for a couple weeks and having to leave my old place during the worst storm in three years because the landlord wanted to show it HIMSELF while shingles blew off the roof and littered the street and the heat turned off, well then, of course, that person made an offer. With their parents. This is all making sense now, right?

We took the new place. Which is really nice and has a ton of character and a soaker tub and three bathrooms and a yard. It was a no-brainer even though my brain kind of stayed behind at the old place, but I’ve been dragging it over daily and it’s getting used to it.

The new place is a Pinterest board come to life.

It’s an answer to a lot of unspoken prayers, if you want the truth.

For instance, I would lay in the tub in my old pink tiled bathroom and say out loud, “God, I really love this bathroom and I’m so grateful for it. Just to let you know, it would be really nice to have a bath in a tub that had enamel. Like that one in Big Sur.” So technically I guess that prayer was out loud, but definitely from a place of gratitude and mostly hoping God would just plant a bug in the landlord’s ear to re-enamel the tub. I wasn’t thinking about moving or anything.

IMG_3610

So on my first night in the new place SEVEN cats showed up. SEVEN. How do I know this? Because SEVEN times Benjamin Franklin ran up to the glass door and yowled bloody murder yanking me out of an emotionally exhausted zombie sleep causing my adrenaline to jolt so hard I broke into a dripping sweat. At one point I started bawling.

The next morning I went upstairs and decided to go out on the deck (it has a deck, three actually, like who thought this place up?) for some air. The first breath in was so familiar. What was that smell? BIG SUR. BIG SUR, BABY!! The gigantic trees next door that line our deck smell exactly like Redwoods.

TreeSign

My biggest dream has been (and is) to move to Big Sur. You guys know that. There just hasn’t been an open door and at times it’s been really depressing for me.

I felt my entire body flood with relief when the smell from those trees wafted through my nostrils and into my veins. Maybe this decision wasn’t wrong. Maybe this was exactly where I was supposed to be. It was as if God was saying to me, “I know what you want but maybe not yet. How about a new kitchen and a long bath first?”

Okay God, you win.

—————————————

BigTreeKitchenBigTreeKitchen2BigTreesBathroom

You Might Also Like

6 Comments

  • Reply lena May 25, 2016 at 12:27 am

    Holy jeez, girl–what a gorgeous space to rest and recover and bring the old and new and dreams together! Seriously, I want to be in that kitchen all of the time.

    • Reply This Free Bird June 5, 2016 at 6:00 am

      It’s kind of insane, right? Like who thinks up a place like this?? Sometimes I think about sleeping in the kitchen. Once I get pillows for the bench, I probably will! You’re welcome to join anytime.

  • Reply Lindsay May 24, 2016 at 10:52 pm

    I want to see the whole fireplace!!! P L E A S E!

    • Reply This Free Bird June 5, 2016 at 5:59 am

      I will put one up in another post or better yet send you a pic of it!

  • Reply Carey May 24, 2016 at 9:19 pm

    It’s beautiful. It’s beautiful x1000. And you deserve every inch of it.

    • Reply This Free Bird May 24, 2016 at 10:02 pm

      It really is, isn’t it? There’s a whole story behind how I found this place and it is really crazy how I ended up in it. But thank you, really. I cried when I read your comment.

    Leave a Reply to Lindsay Cancel Reply