Leaves

Welcome to Richmond. I mean, we're not there yet, but for lack of better photos to post for the moment (we bought that new camera for a reason, didn't we??) I thought I'd showcase the Shockoe Slip (or a side street thereof). These passers-by are residue of a 26 mile marathon that just so happened to take place during our weekend in Richmond, somewhat hampering our apartment hunt. Nonetheless, we walked through the Slip eyeing various places we might like to eat or just sit. I am becoming increasingly excited about completing the remaining weeks we have left in Atlanta. Fall has full on arrived, including the glowing colors on the trees (my drive home winds along Mt. Paran Road which, aside from the way the sun glitters through the leaves and partially blinds me, is sweet and pretty), the crisp frost of morning, even in Georgia, and layered clothing. Tonight the B's are coming over and we're going to Buckhead to see G. Love and the Special Sauce at the Roxy. The remainder of the weekend Craig and I will pack and throw out unnecessary items we've been hauling to new home after new home (we've already begun the process and Craig has been on the fast track, delivering his ancient computer to an electronics recycling center and yesterday, bestowing a local Salvation Army trash bags of our old clothes). The moving company representative came to our apartment yesterday to survey our belongings. It's happening quickly! I only have 6 days left (excluding today) at my Atlanta job. Next week is Thanksgiving. I asked AB if I could borrow some material she wrote to me and publish her here, but I've since misplaced that content and my head is in seven hundred different places, therefore (sorry, AB!) I will just have to paraphrase her: Thanksgiving Day will consist of Turkey, the B's, the R's, the girls in the kitchen with drinks, fixing food, laughing at smart things, poking our heads around to see the boys tucked into couches watching sports and drinking, tickling little Sal (the R's new baby boy) in the belly to see if he is animated yet or just lays there because he's too new (that was my own, AB did not suggest that!), drinking good things, eating good things, shooting plenty a picture of our good friends before we leave Atlanta!! (also my idea, sorry AB to mix your Thanksgiving predictions with mine!) and then at some point AB pitched a proposal involving ornamenting her Christmas tree, which has since been left unresolved as to whether we will? AB also purchased a board game called "Dirty Minds" which sounds delightful for adults (hopefully Sal will be asleep by this time). It doesn't end there, because we also have tickets to see the Thrashers (NHL is no longer "no hockey league"!) because MB is a raging hock-a-holic, he even plays! And that is B-tradition, to eat all day, drink in between and head off to see professional hockey to wrap up the night (although, last year that would have been hard to do, while No Hockey League was in effect!) It's just all the B's headed to hockey, though (me, CB, AB and MB...oddly our last names are all different but all end in B's. Well, MB was kind to share his last name with his wife when they married! pulling her into B territory). The R's need to keep little Sal protected from late night professional sporting events on the town just yet. I look forward to a more unconventional holiday with my boy and some friends. It is indeed sad to miss our families' gatherings this year, but we will be heading home for Christmas from Richmond, so we will make up then for lost time.*In other news, as Busch Stadium is demolished column by column in St. Louis, and the new stadium construction continues, as I prepare to leave my seventh state of living to move to my eighth, as Craig shifts from one airport construction project (Atlanta) to another smaller one (Richmond), my personal endeavor here (the National Novel Writing Month project) lies dormant in Craig's computer. I had such an accomplished and rushing head first start to it, but, as I told Craig, it's not common that such a distraction as leaving the state in which you currently reside happens during National Novel Writing Month. He agreed and declared that we will host KB-National Novel Writing Month in the month of December. He's so supportive and sweet. The other issue at hand with that is that as I turn pages in James Frey's book, I decide with increasingly dragging feet that I am not cut of novel-writing cloth. His book is so quick, delivers these swift kicks and swings punches right in the gut, why can't I do that? Nevertheless the little I Think I Can locomotive engine comes to mind and I have located an adult center for writing classes in Richmond. The only trouble is that I cannot really afford to register until we get situated there, hopefully the classes won't fill up. Taking classes (as I took the one here in Atlanta) provides the unmotivated, unscheduled, procrastinate-ready individual like myself with ample amounts of deadlines to meet, people to encourage and be encouraged by, and outside sourcing. I need all that.*I am anxious and nervous about our new town. This move with Craig is pivotal for us. We need to concentrate hard on a lot of things, saving money topping the charts. But we also need to see and do as we've always seen and done in the past, to continue the Craig-KB experience with a forward motion. Without Craig and the things he's given to me and continues to give, I'd have only half the whole world but with him, I have it all. I am lucky, I am blessed. I can't wait to do this with him. The other day I shrieked, bouncing on the bed while he changed out of his work clothes, I love this, I love this! And he said, What, this life? Yes, this life.