Less than a week...

In less than a week, we'll be opening a new chapter of our lives. People keep asking me if I'm anxious, nervous, or scared...and I'm not at all. If anything, I'm excited and ready to go. Now that our house sale is on track and we're bracing for the whirlwind remainder of our week: we close on our house Friday, have our Farewell Fiesta on Saturday, recover on Sunday, leave on Monday. Our house is currently a disaster area, since we've moved out most of our stuff...including our dressers. Thus, we have piles of clothes on our bedroom floor. In fact, that's about the only thing that is in our bedroom right now. We're staying in the guest bedroom (I forgot how much warmer it is than our master bedroom). I say staying, because we haven't been getting much sleep. Too much on our minds... Jeremy is returning from the cabin as we speak, bringing our rubber boots and dropping off some other items to store there. I'm sad I didn't get a chance to go there this month. I'm really going to miss that place...but I'm sure we'll be exploring an equally amazing place in Ecuador...

We had the opportunity to meet with a guy who served in Ecuador and ask him for candid advice, packing tips and other words of wisdom before we depart. It was so reassuring to hear his stories and his excitement for us. He is confident we'll have a great experience. I am, too. Now, I think I'm going to try to organize our piles of clothes into some sort of semblance of order...maybe do a "practice pack" to see how much room I have left--or more likely--how much stuff I need to cull in order to fit in the bags and not go over our weight limit. ciao.

My reading wish list UPDATED!!!

I've created a reading list of books I'd like to read while I'm in Ecuador. I understand that we'll have a fair amount of time to read, so I've created a list of books I'd like to read while I am here. Some of them have been suggested to me from people at the bar, or in passing conversation. Some are ones I've wanted to read for a while now. Others are titles that sounded interesting when I perused the shelves at Barnes & Noble. I have noted which ones I already have. Since several friends and family members are planning to send some care packs with some of these books, please just add a comment of which ones you{re sending to avoid duplication and cost of postage! AND, If anyone has any good suggestions, please add them. (There is a section of my blog to leave comments!!!) And yes (Autumn!) I want to read non-nature-y books!!! If you read a good book recently that you think I --or Jeremy---would like, please consider sending it! We also want news from the states! Besides the fact that there was a huge snowstorm and Anna Nicole Smith died, we don{t know what is going on back home. (So how did Anna Nicole die, anyway???)

• Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan;
• The Creation: Appeal to Save Life on Earth by E.O.Wilson
• Tropical Nature, by Adrian Forsyth and Kenneth Miyata
• Defending Our Rainforest: A Guide to Community Based Ecotourism in the Ecuadorian Amazon, by Rolf Wesche
• Amazon Crude, by Judith Kimmerling
• Ines of my soul by Isabel Allende (got it for Christmas, thanks Dad!)
• Birds of Ecuador Field Guide (2006) (got it! Many thanks to Mike & Margaret Sherwood!)
• Neotropical Companion by John Kricher OR A Field Guide to the Families and Genera of Woody Plants of North west South America : (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru) by Alwyn Gentry (OR other similar plant ID book for Ecuador area)
• Other America by Barbara Kingsolver
• True Evil by Greg Iles (got it for Christmas, thanks Dad!)
• South America on a Shoestring by Lonely Planet
• End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs
• The Queen of the South (Perez-Reverte?)
• Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo
• The Risk Pool by Richard Russo
• Mohawk by Richard Russo
• This is Cuba by Ben Corbett
• The Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe
• The Four Agreements
• The Education of Little Tree

Happy New Year

A new year and soon the start of a new life in Ecuador. We just had a whirlwind tour of family Xmas festivities, GRUVER shows and New Year's bashes. We just returned from the cabin, where we had an fun mixing of Gruver friends and Denison pals for a weekend of drinking and hiking in Western Maryland and Southwest PA. On our way to the show last night, someone in the van asked what our resolutions were... mine was --as it is almost every year--to write in my journal regularly. Maybe this blog will help me fulfill that pledge...

I just read "Away from Home: Letters to my Family" by Lillian Carter. The book consists of letters from 'Mizz Lillian" to her family while she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in India in 1966-68. On her 70th birthday, she penned a rather poignant letter to her family reflecting on her experience and perspective on life that I found intriguing. It reads:

August 15, 1968
"I am seventy years old today, and I think of where I am, and what I'm doing and why. When Earl died, my life lost its meaning and direction. For the first time, I lost my will to live. Since that time, I've tried to make my life have some significance. I felt useful when I was at Auburn, serving as a housemother for my bad, sweet K.A.'s. And I'm glad I worked at a Nursting Home, but God forbid that I ever have to live in one!

"I didn't dream that in this remote corner of the world, so far away from the people and material things that I had always considered so necessary, I would discover what Life is really all about. Sharing yourself with others, and accepting their love for you, is the most precious gift of all.

"If I had one wish for my children, it would be that each of you would dare to do the things and reach for goals in your own lives that have meaning for you as individuals, doing as much as you can for everybody, but not worrying if you don't please everyone."

Sounds like good advice to me. May that be a resolution for many.