Breaking Free

So I'm finally busting out of this podunk town. I'm taking a new job with an environmental consulting company in Fairfax VA, which is a suburb outside of Washington D.C. While not my first choice for relocation, DC is a great town. I don't really want to live in the suburban hell that Fairfax is, yet I don't want to spend the skyrocketing rental rates of DC. Hopefully I can find something good.

The interview process started way back in October and finally was completed mid-January. Don't you love how companies handle the hiring process? It has been a long, long road accompanied by healthy (?) doses of stress, doubt, and confusion. It was a relief when the deal was finalized and things could finally begin moving forward.

The last three weeks have been uber stressful. I have long lists of things to finish or document at work (the joy of wearing 98 hats). There's still a 6 month stint in Sacramento CA on the horizon, likely for March, but with no set dates. That means moving is not a simple affair. What do I need to pack? Will I need this for Sacramento? Do I have proper work dress? Will I miss this if I toss (recycle) it?

Any change is hard, and I'm the type of person who often second-guesss (if not seventh-guesses) what's happening. This is the right decision, and it's exciting, but podunk here is comfortable and convenient. I live 3 minutes from work and will miss walking to the library, coffee shop, restaurants, the lunch time naps. My job is creative, varied, and I have a lot of control over it. It's hard to leave good things.

But a bigger and more exciting life lies ahead (let's hope). Change is hard, but more importantly it is good and a necessary component for a fulfilling life.

 

My favorite lane to drive down. 

These guys weren't too thrilled with me. Though I'm not into it, I like the fact that there are many ways around here for people to purchase meats from local farms. It's best when we know where our products are coming from! 

A clear mountain stream. Unfortunately, many in this area are polluted by agricultural runoff, livestock crossing through the water, or failed septic systems. 

Virginia's roadways are lined with books-on-a-stick, most related to Civil War ephemera. (And I should probably mention that opposite our Monday holiday observing Martin Luther King Jr. we had a Friday holiday celebrating Lee-Jackson Day, two Confederate Civil War generals. Um, yeah.)

Movie season is here.

As if to make up for the schlock floating around the previous 11 months of the year, December has been packed with smart and delicious movies. Several, which I heartily recommend, are based on books or stories (namely, Pride & Prejudice, Memoirs of a Geisha, and Brokeback Mountain.)

What can I say about Brokeback Mountain that hasn't been said? Yes, it is worth all the buzz it is receiving. The movie has had one of the highest ticket-sales-to-seats ratios ever encountered, and it's finally making its way into more theaters across the country. In week two of its release it was shown on only 69 screens nationwide but was the 8th top grosser at the boxoffice. This past weekend was its fifth week, shown on 483 screens, and was able to again break the top 10 at number 8. Compare this to Chronicles of Narnia, which is being shown on 3500+ screens!

When I saw it in DC on weekend #2 we had to buy tickets for the next day (which also sold out). Okay, so we saw it in Dupont Circle, the fruit loop of DC. It was fun to see it in a packed theater, and the audience was 90% male. But I'm tired of hearing it labeled as a 'gay cowboy' movie (which is how i referred to it in the beginning.) Sure it features the supposedly-shocking details of a (hot, cowboy) man-on-man love story. But hopefully people can recognize the characters' universal life struggles: love, following your dreams, the brevity of life, and the oh-so-common-though-we-don't-talk-about-it resignation to less-than-ideal marriages. Besides the two hot cowboys, the actresses play stellar, heartfelt roles.

So go see it! There are so many things to appreciate: the masterful directing, the acting, the scenery. I'm looking forward to watching it again (soon) now that I used up my buzz-induced critic's eye on the first viewing. Since it is opening outside of the largest metropolitan areas (finally), the movie's real test with the American public will begin.

The picture above is from the story collection in which Brokeback Mountain appeared (after it was published in The New Yorker, if you can imagine that. Cowboys on the sidewalks of Manhattan? And not the one wearing tighty-whities?). Her writing is amazingly visual and engrossing. I can see and smell the roughnecked Wyomans she follows. And I feel the abandonment she describes on those dark, desolate, and impossibly long Wyoming plains. "Nothing but blackness and your headlights cutting a little wedge into it, could be the middle of the ocean for all you can see." Or, "Nothing much but weather and distance, the distance punctuated once in a while by ranch gates, and to the north the endless murmur and sun-flash of semis rolling along the interstate." A must-read, I think, for anyone with a connection to that hardened country. 

Xmas Eve. 

Only in Buffalo do you have to walk through snow and slush to get to the terminal!