Ready to Move Out!

I'm reminded, for some odd reason, of the checklist that Robin would go through as Batman powered up the Batmobile on the old TV show of my youth:

Robin: "Atomic batteries to power. Turbines to speed."
Batman: "Roger, ready to move out."

Likewise, I am ready to move out. For weeks now I have made a mental checklist of all the things I needed to do/pack/buy. The realtor/handyman/painter team is signed. The Pod is filled and stored while the new iPod and clothes will soon board the Sportage. I've bought enough caffeine for an around-the-world trip.

Two days. One man. 400-plus tunes. Plus, turbines to speed, if, indeed, that actually is anything on an actual car...

For the third time in my life, I'm leaving Illinois. I left after college graduation and headed to Dallas, Texas in 1982. I returned with a drawl. I left in 1988 for upstate New York and returned four years later after meeting wonderful people including my future wife. Who knows what I'll encounter this time? But it is bound to be an adventure.

But I have nearly everything I need: A wonderful wife, two cats, an iPod. Well everything but a job. That's waiting for me in Florida and I cannot wait to get there!

Don't get me wrong: If anyone ever offers you an extended period of mid-career sloth, take them up on it. It's a good way to find your old happy self, reset your bearings and recharge your batteries. But that life lacks the geometry of the daily work routine with its early rises and deli lunches and crises de jours. There is a selfish joy of accomplishing something with others that is hard to replace with book writing and occasional consulting gigs. Everyone wants to feel like they belong somewhere.

We feel like we belong in Florida.

On one hand, It's tough to leave so many friends and family behind. My brother and sister and I will have to work a little harder to stay close. But we will spend hours on the phone and now have this new fangled Internet thing to help out. As for other folks, well, when you live about an hour from Walt Disney World, you know you are going to have visitors. Plus, we have parents, aunts, cousins and a grandma all in Florida. Something tells me we won't get too lonely...

I just realized something the other day: This 14-year stint in Crystal Lake was the longest I ever lived in one place in my 46 years! Wow! Well, it must be time to move on, then...

Here's another life lesson: There are always new adventures ahead. It's natural to fear moving on or ahead or into another direction. It's often easy to just go with the flow especially if what's most important to you is the mortgage payment, the company car and some odd sense of prestige. But in the cool, dark, calm of the night, when the only voice you can really hear - the only voice that truly matters - is your own, it is then you realize that you are nothing if you are not true to yourself.

Folks who have known me for a while will pardon one more telling of this old confession: I look goofy in a beard. So, I have to shave routinely. To shave, I need a mirror. To use a mirror, I cannot be ashamed of the view. There are a lot of guys with beards - figurative and otherwise - who I often wonder about. But I am at peace with myself and my decisions and that's all that matters in the final analysis.

Likewise, your inner-voice is all that should matter to you. Onward and upward, as they say.

I'm leaving Wednesday morning for a two-or-three-day tour to Florida. Check in to chart my progress! The map goes up Wednesday morning!

More later,


Mark