The long, long goodbye

We are down to less than two weeks before our departure to Santa Fe.

This has been a long goodbye here. There is family here (my son and daughter in law) and many many friends. And the goodbyes are tough. Tougher than I was expecting. Every now and then a troubling thought enters my mind: "Are we doing the right thing?" But it is too late now to change anything even if we wanted to ... and we shall find out.

We know we will be coming back here at least every year to visit family, but I also know when we do there will not be time to see everyone we would like to keep in touch with.

On May 5, I will have my final weekly Monday night Whine & Dine dinner with my friends from Heart Bandits American Eskimo Dog Rescue. We are going to the Cheesecake Factory, and I know it will be a sad time and I am not sure I am ready.

This coming week will be my last visit to Curves and to my water aerobics class at the pool. On Weds. my pool friends are taking me out to lunch before class.

I am seeing doctors for the last time, and taking my dogs to the vet for the last time for their annual immunizations.

Tonight we go to my son's house for a last dinner with him, my daughter in law and her parents. I know it will be fun but the underlying sadness will be there.

And meanwhile, the endless work of getting this house ready to sell goes on and on and on. John's cousin was here from New York to help out a week ago for five days, and he is coming back this coming week for 5 more days. There is packing to do, getting old furniture picked up by the Catholic Charities folks, and getting the trash company to come for an old recliner and our old refrigerator. And packing packing packing cleaning cleaning cleaning.

Then, on top of all the working on the house, saying goodbye to our family and friends, and squeezing in appointments...my computer crashed and burned the other night, and I was not able to save it. So I have had to say goodbye to it, too, and start all over with a new computer. I am gradually getting back my favorites to bookmark, my email program, etc. The new computer has Vista ... so far no problems ... seems user friendly enough... neat graphics! All of my pictures and my emails/email addresses are on the hard drive of the old computer. IF there is a way to save them all, I haven't had time to figure it out.

BUT! With all of the hard work and mixed feelings, I KNOW THAT New Mexico is waiting up ahead, just down the road....and that makes all this stress and distress okay to go through. I am SO READY for the laid back, quiet, renewing life in the Land of Enchantment. I think I am going to become one of those New Mexico "mañana" people!