Opportunities and pastimes...

Sometimes something comes up that you just have to try. We are on this journey - this adventure - and once-in-awhile, you just have to say... "why not?" (yes, that was a veiled 'Risky Business' reference...)

In the last several weeks I've gotten a couple of opportunities that I wanted to record in the blog. Just a short post about these three, but a record of them nonetheless.

First - about a month ago... I'm a "friend" (and fan) on Facebook of one of my favorite comedians, Eddie Izzard. I found out that he had wrangled a couple of special dates at a small club in LA to try out some new material, maybe work through some old jokes, so I bought a ticket on a whim. I would have brought Jill -- I wanted to bring Jill, but two things - 1. The show started at 11PM - she's not quite a night owl, and 2. Kids - we're not inclined to leave them alone. So I'm off to enjoy the show solo.

The best thing about the venue (Largo at the Coronet) was that it is quaint, very LA, and amazing all around. The picture shows the ENTIRE theater from the back row (I think there were 12 rows total). I had 4th row center, and couldn't have asked for better seats.

Before the show I spent a little time in the Bar at the theater (tiny, like 45 seats), and it took me three or four glances, but it turns out that the talent often visits the Bar before/after the show. There was Eddie, standing at the bar just 2 feet away, having a regular conversation with attendees - that's how tight this theater was. Anyhow - I'll just say that it was one of my better experiences of the trip, just for the sheer intimacy of the venue and how cool the opportunity was. The jokes were good, and an experience I'll never forget. (For what it's worth - I'd have provided better pictures, but the venue has a very stringent policy about technology - It seems to read... "During the show, if we hear, see, or even sense that you have a cellphone that's on, we will ::: humiliate you in the theater, kick you out of the theater, take your phone, make you break it, throw you out onto the sidewalk, and call the cops on you for trespassing..." ::: I've turned my phones all-the-way-off three times this entire trip - this was one--the other two were in National Parks with no reception. I had the sense that these people were not kidding. :) )

Second - just the other day... Most everyone knows that I like to play poker. Just as Jill likes to visit racetracks, I like to visit poker rooms. I haven't had as much opportunity to visit as many as I'd like, but I try to visit the big ones. The other night I decided that a visit to one of the premier venues in poker was too close not to experience. Anyone into poker knows that "The Bike" is probably the most famous cardroom on the West coast. I had to go, and while it was much more for the experience of the venue than the play, I had a great time. I played for a few hours in this room (they have like 12 other gaming rooms, all this big, many this full). It was a great experience, and one I hope to repeat...

Third - yesterday... OK, poker again... I've missed home games on the road. I used to play a home game just about every week before we went on this adventure. I expected to find a regular game at the RV parks we stayed at. That opportunity has not come up. So, when I found a Hold 'em game, scheduled, with a following, I had to check it out. Granted, it was a lot of "catch" (playing without much real strategy hoping that their hand is good, and then at the end 'catching' their Ace to make best pair), and the play and rules were a little different than what I was used to, but 65 people in a room playing poker reminded me about why I love the game. Yes, I was by far the youngest in the room, and I look forward to going back next week.

First Garage Sale!

Jill's Journal: Last week we had our first official garage sale. Naturally, it was the coldest day of the season…we went from a delightfully sunny autumn to arctic conditions overnight, but it was a resounding success nonetheless. We bundled up against the cold and, with the wonderful help of Kristi and Adam, parted with hundreds of small items and a few bigger ones. It took hours to put everything out – I had been cleaning out closets and drawers and old boxes for a few weeks and the pile in the garage was daunting. And absolutely nothing was valuable! But we had great fun, made $487 from a bunch of junk we hadn’t used in ages anyway (and won’t miss), and it felt FANTASTIC to get some things out of the house.

One might think our house might be feeling a bit sparse, but that’s not the case at all. The drawers and cupboards and closets are all a bit lighter, but nothing big is gone yet. We're still planning to live here for approximately six more months, so I can’t do anything too drastic yet!

At the end of the garage sale, I threw most of the smaller stuff still left into big garbage bags and both Kristi and I made a trip to Goodwill. And some of the big stuff that really wasn't sellable afterward -- like old lights, an old dining room table that Rob used for poker at the office, a beat-up Christmas tree stand, etc. -- we put at the end of our driveway with a "Free" sign on it. It was all gone in no time! It amazes me what people are willing to take.

I also found a home this week for more than 1,000 issues of The Blood-Horse magazine that I had been saving for a future home library. That was hard for me to do -- I'd written in a few hundred of them, but I couldn't keep them. They took up 17 big, heavy boxes and had to go. That was bittersweet.

I still have a lot of work to do. This was just a dent, but a good dent. :-) We’re definitely moving in the right direction.

Epiphany City…or Maybe Just a Bitch Fest

Jill's Journal: We’re going on day #11 now since Rob left to pick up the fifth wheel. Even though I’m not the one on the road with the hours of silence and nothing to do but think, I’ve still had a few minor epiphanies (or maybe complaints?!) here.

*I love being a parent, but doing it all alone day in and day out is not the easiest thing in the world. Worse still is that Rob was gone in Vegas for a week of poker in July and will leave again in early September for another eight or nine consecutive days. That makes more than a month of “gone time” in a span of 2 1/2 months. It’s going to wear on me at some point. The very fact that I’m writing this down may prove it already is! I’m so looking forward to our family being on the road together.

*Here’s a very personal one: A year ago, I was at a wonderful weight. Thin and feeling fabulous about my body. But I’ve gained close to 20 pounds since then and no matter how hard I’ve tried, it doesn’t want to come off. Some major things have happened during that time – I stopped breastfeeding, I went on birth control for the first time in several years, and yes, I’m getting older. All that combined means inevitable weight gain. I’ve clearly known this for a while, but this week brought a realization as I’ve felt some serious sadness about an old family friend who had part of a lung removed in a second fight with cancer. I realized after she is gone, no one is going to remember that she was always a little plump. People will remember her warm, welcoming spirit instead. So here’s my epiphany: I can continue to fight my weight and be miserable or I can embrace myself the way I am and be happy. I choose happiness. I don’t have the time right now to battle weight. And, I want to be the kind of Mom who bakes cookies with her kids and enjoys the moment; not the kind who eats like a bird and makes her children weight-conscious at way too young of an age. We eat healthy and should enjoy some of the good stuff too. So, a couple of days ago, I finally bit the bullet and purchased some new clothes that actually fit. Yes, they’re two sizes bigger than my fabulous post-baby body. But this body of mine has given birth to three amazing children and I’m grateful for it. This is me. Today I will be purging my skinny clothes. Seeing them in my closet just makes me sad, so there’s no point in keeping them. I’m closer in size to where I was before children and that’s okay. I embrace me! This positive attitude is right in line with what we hope to teach our girls through the grand RV adventure.

*And the final epiphany of the week: I cannot wait to homeschool. Driving 4 1/2 miles one way through heavy traffic twice a day (and past nine other schools until we get to the one we were assigned) is killing me! I know people do it every day and I used to too; in fact, I used to commute 90 minutes each way in the brutal Southern California traffic daily. However, I long for the simple things these days. Having to get three kids out the door at the crack of daylight and fight traffic under a time clock (since three tardies in a school year is considered truancy) in order to get one child to kindergarten causes me great stress! We’re only two weeks in and I’m miserable. I thrive on routine and schedule, but this is not the good kind! Thank heaven Erika is loving kindergarten. That makes it all worth it, but I still cannot wait to homeschool!

We Have a Dream…

Jill's Journal: We share the same dream. We have lots of dreams together, but some – like Rob earning a berth at the final table in the World Series of Poker or us breeding a starter in the Kentucky Derby – are more clearly defined as his dream or my dream that the other is happy to support and embrace.

But this dream is something different. This is something we’re both equally passionate about. This is something that we’ve been talking about and fantasizing about for a few years. And suddenly, a few weeks ago, we arrived at the same spot simultaneously and separately and we knew: it was time.

And so, it is official. Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, in the summer of 2010, we’ll sell our modest home in Lexington, Ky., and move our three little girls, currently ages 4 1/2, 2 1/2, and 14 months, into an RV to embark on a year-long adventure.