See how I did that? Told you I’d be blogging but really I was having a nutso day and then running off to the Ranch for the long weekend? I know. Sometimes, I can be such a flake.
On Sunday evening as we were packing up the behemoth SUV to head back to the city, I stopped to watch a pair of hawks riding the air currents over the main house in big, swooping, lazy loops. I wanted to stay. One more day. Maybe five. I’d spent the last three glorious days napping, reading, jogging, shifting between sunny spots and the shade of the back patio – making the same sorts of lazy circuits as the birds. And now that we were leaving, I found myself wishing that I’d done more. More napping? More lazy?
More time out to just be, I guess.
If you live in the city long enough, after a while, you start to think you belong there. That you’re meant to breathe car exhaust and to learn to walk just so as to not catch the heel of your shoe in a sidewalkgrate, and to call fastidiously planned parks “nature.” To drink four dollar coffee out of a bendy straw in a crowded subway car and pay too much for a haircut. But then it happens that you go for a morning run in the clean air, or fall asleep to the sound of crickets, or take a walk with a borrowed dog just as the sun is coming up over acres and acres of green and you think, “Scratch that!” (or more likely, something far less ladylike). And you start fixating on how great it would be to sleep to crickets every night and really need thatshower you take right before bed. You’d have to take up a new trade, obviously. Cattle ranching? Ooh, or horse training! You could really get behind that! So maybe you haven’t been on a horse since you were fifteen and they make you a little nervous. You’re nothing if not adaptable.
There I go again, saying you when I mean me. Le sigh.
An item of business: Some of you asked questions in comment sections of the previous two posts about The 30 Day Shred, I swear I will answer them. Just give a girl a few (um, like 12) hours to get her head together.
Actually, you wouldn’t have to become a cattle rancher.
These 2 blogs are by a British woman who (with her husband and toddler) put all their stuff in storage, started traveling around Europe and have decided to settle down in a country home in the south of France. Thanks to technology, she’s continued to do freelance writing and design the whole time.
http://familysmudgetravellingtails.blogspot.com/
http://www.livingtheruraldream.com/
Not that I’m packing up to follow them out of the big city, but they make me feel a bit more portable.
After just spending a weekend myself in the Alleghany Mountains, I truly wish I could have stayed there. If only for two or three more days.
And it had nothing to do with no hair/shower/makeup for two days.
Ok, maybe a little.
You have NO IDEA how often I wonder the same thing about rural living!!! And truly what stops me are the questions, “What the freak would I do for a living out there? (I am not a writer, so would not be able to do the freelance thing.) And would I eventually tire of such simple living and long for exciting urban living (having a plethora of restaurants to choose from, seeing a live production, live music show, etc.)… the lifestyle I’d love to (currently) abandon? There’s another element that plays a role… a man. I think if I had a great man to live out in the middle of nowhere with, I could do anything for a living and be fine visiting friends in the city every once in a while. Heck – they could come visit us! (Aren’t fantasies great?!?!)
I felt the same way about leaving Maui. I started justifying why I could or should stay…. the fantasy of just dropping all my responsibilities and learning a new trade… like scuba diving instructor… or tourguide… bartending….. housecleaning… valet… ???? And ya know, if it weren’t for some health issues, I just might have made the change.
Sigh.
I am taking three days off next week… just because. I just want to “be” too. (It’s one of my favorite things!)
So glad you enjoyed your weekend, Fish.
No wonder my “borrowed” dog is so tired this week… you woke him up too early taking him for all those walks! He rarely gets to see the light of day before 10am on any given Saturday at home.
HA! Not so, my friend. Your dog woke me up every morning at 7:30 because he had to pee! I’d roll over and there would be this big old nose right in my face.
Yes. Precisely. One of these times I’m just not going to come back.
Our bodies weren’t made for city living; why should our minds be?
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=137053243&blogID=439138967
Yup. I went so far as to look up prices of parcels of land in the North Cascades and the cost of building log A-frame cabins … can’t you just imagine waking up to piles of snow on acres and acres of hills and huge trees? Building big cozy fires in a stone fireplace? I figure I could make it work as a B&B, yes?
I’ve lived the rural life. And the reason for the past tense is that it ain’t happening anymore! You get the wildlife and sounds of life uninterupted by garbage trucks ans sirens and squealing brakes. But you also get a sense of isolation that sometimes borders on a braoder feeling of claustrophobia. Sometimes it’s nice to not have to make the almost-two-hour drive to town just to get laundry detergent and cereal. Living somewhere in the middle is good, like I do now. I can escape easily to see the stars without any light pollution, look at the heaves with a telescope. Or, I could go to dinner and a movie. I will say, getting away is nice, but not to stay.
i agree with melissa.
i am lucky to have a close friend from college who has a log cabin far, far away from civilization–watching deer outside the dining room window, relying on heating oil and well water, no t.v., etc.
i usually escape to her place once a year, and she usually ventures into the city once a year, as well. it’s great to have a change of environment and have a chance to unwind, but neither one of us could survive in the other’s place for long. i’m lucky i get that time away from the city (and with my friend) every year.
CaliGal,
I did the whole drop everything and move to Maui, and I loved it…for half a year. It was a little too far from my family, and it was super expensive to travel anywhere…plus, a lot of the people who have lived there for awhile talk about getting “island fever” – too small of an island, too many tourists, etc. But I do think fondly of the time I spent there
this reminds me so much of this.
I made the move from Stockton California (pop 500,000 more or less, I think) to Morton Minnesota (pop 450 + me) about 3 years ago… it is absolutely beautiful here… the 2 mile drive to work still makes me bliss out quite often.. the weather is pretty harsh.. but I’d never go back… I have to watch for deer and other creatures when I’m driving and drive 5 miles into the nearest larger city for groceries… but there’s a casino nearby for entertainment (concerts. live music every weekend… so although I miss having a large number of choices of places to go or to eat… I have about the closest to the best of all worlds for me.. but realise that any more isolated would be harder than I want to do…
How did you get a long weekend!?! Do you work for a bank?!
Um, I took a day off?
LOL I thought there was a long weekend (holiday) I didn’t know about
It has been awhile guys….Thought it was time I got my happy ass back on here…