InnerTeub

There was a discussion on Twitter today regarding vacuum cleaners, specifically the total awesomeness of the Dyson.

Wait, come back: I promise this isn’t boring. Well, it’s only boring if you don’t own a Dyson; if you do, then you know and you will completely understand why a bunch of people getting together to justify the purchase of a $500 vacuum cleaner is of note at all. One twitterer commented that in her ex-husband’s divorce decree, he stipulated that he only wanted two things, the Dog and the Dyson, which: OF COURSE. Those would be the first two things I’d fight over, too. Not that we’re getting divorced but you know HYPOTHETICALLY we’d fight over the dog, the dyson, and the universal remote (although if we’re fighting about that it’s mostly because I’m just being difficult, because I don’t really know how to use it and don’t care, but I know he loves it. Anyway.)

So we’ve been in Colorado for about …two weeks, almost? It’s going well, or, as well as it can go when you’re somewhere completely new. I’m in this strange phase of settled, but not at all, in that I”m so happy to not be traveling and homeless, but I’m not yet sure if this is home. Things I am loving so far:

• The morning mountain air, which is really quite fantastic in this stereotypical clean way that I makes me look forward to walking the Moose every morning
• The 100 acres of open space dog park down the road from our house. Happy dog = happy life
• My new crossfit gym, which seems to have great coaches and peer group and is a nice social element in an otherwise work-from-home kind of day
• We’re 6 miles from the front range, and I get a breathtaking view of the mountains every time I step outside my house. I hope this never gets old
• Twice in the past week I have seen fleece vests over business clothes in a professional setting. Love it.

Things I am working on getting used to:

• I put 300 miles on my in three and half days. Y’all, the state is SPREAD OUT, especially considering DC is about 6 miles wide, and I never used to leave it
• It’s sunny. All. The. Time. Rain is my favorite type of weather, is what I am saying, and it is sunny here, All.The.Time.
• I live in the suburbs. Garage? Awesome. Wal-mart? Not. Granted, I knew this going in, I shouldn’t be shocked, but … it’s the burbs. It’s … different. I feel like I need to have kids like, immediately, if only to reinforce that the convenience factor of living here is worth it, which is slightly conflicting with my “I want to have kids, but not, you know RIGHT NOW” kind of mentality.
• The altitude. Holy gods, this is no joke. I tried to run a 5k time trial last weekend and almost died in the process. Crossfit high intensity workouts have been killing me. There is NO AIR HERE. I’ll adjust, but it’s humbling. And scary. I CANNOT BREATH!

I was home alone last weekend – Mike was off doing some USMC related something or other, and I found myself heading down the road to the state park just a few miles away. It seemed so easy and accessible to head over and do a short mountain hike with the dog before starting the rest of my day. An outing like that used to be a Weekend Plan, but now it’s just kind of a one-off. Later that Saturday, I found myself meeting up with a cousin and going for a short walk/hike outside with the dog, enjoying the unexpected 65 degree weather and a chance to be outside.

It’s been hard to explain to people why we wanted to move west, but if I had to try again, I guess I would use that story as a starting point. There’s not a lot of tangibles to it – “Woo, I went for two long walks!”, but how it felt to me gets to the heart of what we’re doing here. It used to be hard to find ways to get outside and fit in time to be active, and now it’s just…part of the day. It doesn’t tax me mentally and it doesn’t overbook me logistically. (Of course: moving away from all your friends will free up you schedule quite a bit, bu that’s Not My Point, jackhole 😛 )

Anyway, that’s what I’m thinking about these days … trying on this new home, seeing if it fits. So far, so good.