Destiny.

In honor of my family being on the road this week, traveling back to Colorado, I wanted to post a really good poem that my Mom discovered and emailed to me yesterday, in her last email from Florida. Also included is a great photo from Breckenridge, CO, to inspire them on their journey. You're almost home guys!

DESTINY ......

there comes a time in your life
when you realize that if you stand still,
you will remain at this point forever.

you realize that if you fall and stay down,
life will pass you by.

life's circumstances are not always what you wish them to be
the pattern of life does not necessarily go as you plan.

beyond any understanding, you may at times
be led in different directions that you never imagined, dreamed, or designed.

yet if you had never put any effort into choosing a path,
or tried to carry out your dream,
then perhaps you would have no direction at all.

rather than wondering about or questioning the direction your life has taken,
accept the fact that there is a path before you now.

shake off the "why's" and "what if's", and rid yourself of confusion.
whatever was is in the past. whatever is, is what's important.

the past is a brief reflection. the future is yet to be realized.

today is here. walk your path one step at a time with courage, faith, and determination. keep your head up, and cast your dreams to the stars.

soon your steps will become firm and your footing will be solid again.
a path that you never imagined will become the most comfortable direction you could have ever hoped to follow.

keep your belief in yourself and walk your new journey.

you will find it magnificent, spectacular, and beyond your wildest imaginings!

(I'm not sure who wrote this poem, but if anyone knows, leave a comment and I'll add the reference.)

Getting LOST in New Hampshire.

No, I'm not talking about the critically acclaimed TV show on ABC.

We actually got lost for real today. Trying to get to a bank to make a deposit before they closed (which we didn't), the GPS decided to send us on a wild goose chase coming back home. It literally drove us right into a chain link fence on a dead end street in an industrial warehouse area. It felt like a set-up, and get this -- the name of the road we were on? Dick Tracy Road. How weird is that?

It was so foggy, we almost didn't even see the fence as we approached it, save the reflection of our headlights on the metal. We recalibrated the GPS and it got us turned around, and we made it home safely, after traveling through three different counties.

It's been raining all day, but the temp. is great -- 50 degrees! It's like summer out there ;)

We just ordered a pizza and are getting ready to continue our James Bond marathon week as soon as it gets here. Plus, we saw a skunk when we pulled up to the house. It was mostly all white but with a black belly. It was quite beautiful, actually. And earlier today we saw a salamander that was only the size of a small worm!

Quite different than the giant iguanas, alligators, great white herons and manatees of Florida that we were used to...

We want to also wish everyone who reads this a happy and safe Thanksgiving. I know we all have a lot to be grateful for, and this is a great time of year to remember all the positive things we have in our lives. The more we focus on the positive, the more it tends to show up in our lives.

Have a great holiday everyone! We'll post some pix of our turkey-day this weekend.

J+T

Kitty explores New England.

Today Kitty had her first chance to go outside, since it's been raining. Anyone who knows her will understand that this is a big deal for her, since she used to be outside almost all day in CO and FL. Here are a few shots of her trying to remember what leaves are:

Apartment shopping.

So last weekend we went into Lowell to look for a place to call home for the next year or so. After looking at some creepy old apartments that were way overpriced, we finally found our perfect place. It feels like home already, and it looks like we designed it ourselves. Take a look at some early pics and see for yourself:


The loft is inside an old mill that was converted to a textile museum, and along with the museum is hom to the Lowell Sun newspaper offices. Out the window, you see actual working trolley tracks, the Hamilton Canal and some more old mills that are going to be renovated soon.
We'll post some more pictures after our furniture arrives!

With that out of the way, I was free to resume my design work. Right now I've set up a temp. office in Jen's Yaya's living room on a folding table. It works great for the time being! Jen has been helping out around the house while I work, doing odd jobs like raking leaves, taking out the trash, cleaning, cooking, dishes, etc. to give her Yaya a nice break from housework. We're glad to be here and grateful to be able to stay here.

It's 37 degrees out right now though... didn't bring enough warm clothes. Our moving truck won't be here for a few weeks, so we'll have to bear with it for now!

Florida Photo Retrospective: August 2007 to November 2008.

Here are some highlights from our year in Florida:

Getting Settled in New Hampshire, and thanks to our friends and family in Florida!

Howdy folks -- well, we've had a chance to unpack & unwind -- a necessity after such a long trip. We ended up driving exactly 1,700 miles from door-to-door, trading the Sunshine State for the Granite State (at least temporarily).

While I'm getting back in the work groove, Jen is lining up appointments to look at homes for us in Mass. We'll be down there all weekend scouting the area.

In the meantime, we're enjoying Jen's Yaya's hospitality and reconnecting with the family up here. We had a fantastic time in Florida over the past year and a half -- extra special thanks to Uncle Bob and Aunt Sandy, the patriarch and matriarch of the Florida clan; Sharon and Bob for all their party hosting and football festivities; Cindy & Jim for thier great dips and witty conversations. Also, to all the "kids", it was great getting to know you all now that you've grown into your personalities. Most of you were under 10 years the last time I saw you!

While in Florida, we snorkeled ALOT, got a tan, walked a mile on the beach every day, visited the Edison/Ford estates, saw a Picasso exhibit, partied in Ft. Lauderdale, toured the Miami museum circuit, checked out the art scene in Miami Beach, swam with endangered manatees, explored Delray Beach, found a TON of sea glass, went canoeing in Jupiter, went deep-sea fishing and caught sharks, snappers and bonitas, became members of Morikami museum, ate a lot of fish, sweated a lot, got to know my family better, visited the Keys, and navigated through the Everglades. I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of right now...

It's amazing we even had time to do any work this past year! But somehow, in Florida Jen found time to start her online business (nspire.etsy.com) and I expanded my role and purpose with SPARK Creative in order to still work with them from this far away, and maybe even set up a branch here in New England.

All in all, we had a really great time, and look forward to visiting again soon. We created so many great memories there, and it was necessary for us to be there when we were, for a wide variety of reasons.

Now, Tommy's family is headed back to Colorado, so it appears our time together in FL was already planned out to be about the same. We all arrived there and departed within 30 days of each other -- weird huh?

And now, back to work!

Again

New York City and our arrival in New Hampshire

Considering how everything is called "New" around here, it all looks pretty old.


We pulled out of Jersey today well-rested and ready to finish off the trip. Made it to New York in about an hour.

The first thing we saw was the City as we turned onto a bridge off the highway. It is HUGE! The buildings go on forever, and unless you see it in person, (like Lincoln), it's hard to understand how overwhelming it is. After seeing the Statue of Liberty off to our left, we dove into the Holand Tunnel, which goes under the Hudson River, straight into the heart of Manhattan.

On the other side, we got on Canal street and toured through Tribeca, Chinatown and Little Italy. Jen LOVED driving through Manhattan! She can't wait to go back and do it some more -- she was like a NY cabbie whipping through the streets -- kitty was howling and we were all flying around in the car, me trying to navigate. I ended up putting us in a traffic jam in Brooklyn, which took about a half hour, but then we were back in the city and getting on the FDR going north.

We witnessed some history in NY on this Veteran's Day, as well. The old Yankee Stadium is slated for demo this year, and the new stadium is already built and lives right next to the old one, for now. We got to see both the old and new stadiums right next to each other.

We got a little lost in Washington Heights, but were shortly back on track heading north towards Connecticut. The drive from NYC to Connecticut is gorgeous, especially this time of year. The colors, the cliffs, the river, I recommend everyone visit it at least once. The city is so big, it's mindblowing. And we only saw a teeny-tiny part of it! Jen already can't wait to go back ASAP for a long weekend.

Truthfully, NYC does have a very inviting, cozy feeling to it. Not scary, not too overwhelming or intimidating. It looks like a lot of fun. We'll be back!

And now, on through Conn., RI, Mass (our future home) and into NH for the home stretch....

New Jersey's north shore, Philly Cheesesteaks and Pork Rolls

After our revved-up day in DC, we looked forward to a short ride into Jersey and a chilled-out night with Mitch and Rebecca, his girlfriend.

First though, we had to stop in Philadelphia to find an authentic Steak Joint, so we could have a "real" Philly Cheese steak. There is no comparison! Delicious, but I have to tell you: I've never seen so many broken windows as there are in Philadelphia.

Drove through Baltimore too, on the way north, and it looks like a cute town to visit sometime (only the parts around the football and baseball stadiums).

We ended up taking a bit of a scenic route through Colt's Neck, and discovered that really most of New Jersey is farmland! I always thought it was really industrial and city-ish, but only up in Newark is it the sterotypical "Joisy" that you think of from TV and movies. It's a very pretty state to drive around. (no pictures from Jersey, unfortunately. the 2 here are from Philly.)

Once we found our hotel (props to the Red Roof Inn -- one of the only chain motels to accept pets at almost all their locations, newly rennovated, free WiFi, and great prices) we headed south from Tinton Falls to Lake Como to meet Mitch and his fave Irish pub: McCann's (not to be confused with McCain, who ironically was the more popular candidate in this area, although NJ was a blue state this year).

We got to experience "Pork Roll", which is apparently a well-known New Jersey favorite sandwich. It's like a cross between the very best Virginia ham and high-quality Canadian bacon. Really delicious and tender and flavorful. It's always fun to sample local foods when travelling, rather than relying on your old "fall-backs"...

We also went to the beach for a minute, since Mitch only lives about 3 blocks from it. Man, was it COLD! Definitely NOT like a Florida beach this time of year... :)

After the beach, we went back to Mitch's for some more catching up, then we were pooped out and headed back to the hotel. Kitty did great again, after holding her own for the second time in a hotel room. We tried to update the blog that night (Monday), but were too tired...

We would need all our energy and alertness the next day (Tuesday, 11/11, veteran's day) since we were going to tackle.... New York City!

On to the next post!

Washington, DC: Election weekend 2008, the Obama congrats card, and our whirlwind tour of the city.

All I can say is, what a historic time to be visiting DC. The excitement was palpable. Everyone we encountered was smiling, optimistic and happy. It was almost as if the whole city was on drugs or something... but really, it was amazing. We had the opportunity to sign a HUGE 10' x 30' Congratulations card dedicated to Barack. There were notes written on it in at least 100 different languages, and crowds of people speaking them all around. We had to wait in line to use a ladder so we could sign it near the top. This all went down right in front of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Lincoln is WAY bigger than you'd expect -- unless you've been there, it's hard to imagine how big it is! Same thing for the Iwo Jima statue (which is the one where the marines are holding up the American flag). It's enormously huge. We also went by the Wash. Memorial, Arlington cemetary and the Capitol. The White House is too far off the road to really see it.

We had brunch Sunday morning at a place called Busboys & Poets, named in honor of the great A/A poet Langston Hughes. Jonathan told us this is where the election party was that he went to last Tuesday. He also told us how the streets in downtown DC were literally flooded with celebrating people -- laughing, crying, cheering -- the emotions were still hanging around like the smell of a freshly baked pie sitting in the windowsill. It was truly an incredible time to be there, and we're grateful to have been a teeny tiny part of history. (Jen bought an Obama T-shirt outside the restaurant while we were waiting for our table.) Only time will tell if all the premature adulation and celebration is justified, but even if he doesn't accomplish everything he wants to, it's still a great accomplishment for everyone who's ever felt like the cards were stacked against them. Undeniably, Obama proves that anyone can do anything they put their mind to.

After our whirlwind tour, and some drinks at J's place, we went out again to view all the monuments at night and walk around The Mall. The reflecting pool in front of Lincoln is a great place to think, even though it was cold, and we had a chance to "reflect" (sounds corny, I know) on everything we're grateful for that led to where we are now. From the Revolutionary War, which gave us the freedom to do what we want to do, when we want to do it, all the way up to today. It's been a wild last couple of years!

And now, on to New Jersey to see Mitch! (Another old friend...)