All systems go!

 I will soon bid adieu to this side of the Atlantic.

After ten years of saving, four years os developing a plan, and six months of paperwork, it looks like I am really going to Spain! I was notified by the Spanish consulate in Miami that I had been assigned an appointment time.* This entire process had been somewhat opaque, so I wasn´t quite sure it I had been approved, or if I´d need to provide extra documentation and have an interview. I arrived an hour early, walked around the block until the right time, and then presented myself, clutching my color-coded, labeled, translated (but never stapled) documents. After verifying that I did, in fact, have an appointment, my passport was taken and I was sent to the waiting room. Forty-five minutes later, they handed me a passport with the visa glued inside and wished me good luck. And that was it! I had braced myself for an ordeal, having heard stories of other consulates, but all for naught.

So, wheels are turning. I plan to leave for Spain in early July. In the meantime, I need to pack up everything in Gainesville, say goodbye to the friends I´ve made here, and do a few more trips to DC and Ohio. Oh, and research approximately a million things: how to open a bank account, how to register with the police, where to buy second hand furniture, how to ship my things to Madrid... Stay tuned for more adventures in bureaucracy!

*The exact phrasing was, ¨We are awaiting you on Tuesday, May 9." It just tickled me to picture them resting graciously until I was granted an audience with them.

If it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium

This title is an old joke from Americans who take those "See all of Europe in Ten Days," guided tours. I'm not quite at that level yet, but I did have to stop and think really hard yesterday about what day it was, and where I was supposed to be tomorrow.

Here's a quick review of my last two weeks.

Me, in a National wildlife preserve just outside of Denver. I am hiking and blissfully unaware that my flight is about to take off in 45 minutes. Somehow, with time zones and automatic Google calendars and user error, I misunderstood when my flight was leaving. But I eventually got home, and it was a very nice hike.

I visited family in Portland and the weather was spectacular. During the summer months, you can really see why people would want to live in the Pacific northwest.

Darwin weighs 85 lb /40 kg and thinks he is a lap dog. He is really relaxed, except when it comes to stuffed animals, as you can see. It was great to get some dog love.
 

While I was in Ohio, I started work on a mid-century sundress. My mother's not unreasonable refrain was, "Why do you always pick such difficult patterns?" It is not yet done, as it turns out I did pick a really complicated project.

Yesterday, on Daytona Beach. I have not lost my love of beaches, which Miami instilled in me.

Tuesday is the appointment at the consulate, and hopefully I have all my eyes dotted and t's crossed. Certainly I have color coded, cross-referenced copies of every document I can think I might need. Cross your fingers for me!

One step further

My perspective on US and Spanish bureaucracy so far

The Spanish consulate has contacted me to tell me they await my presence in Miami on May 9. I am encouraged by this news!  Additional paperwork may still be requested, but it seems unlikely that they'd summon me to flat out deny my visa application.

If this goes as I expect, I'll get my visa by the end of May and leave the States in early July. And I have a lot of fun things to do before then- researching the procedures I need to follow in Madrid to get a rental apartment and officially register myself with the authorities, doing any final work on the condo when I've been staying, selling my car and bicycle, plus I have about four more trips planned.  I do struggle a bit with what counts as a trip when I'm carrying almost all my belongings with me. Is home where my coffee pot is? Where I pay the internet bill? Or where I'll lay my head tonight? Those are all different right now, so it's a philosophical dilemma.

The beauty of stuff

I´ve been without a permanent home for roughly six months. I haven´t been couchsurfing* the whole time, of course, because I have been the guest at the condo of the generous and welcoming J and S (the parents of N) in Gainesville. But I have been alternating between a home with extraordinary little furnishing and other people´s homes, and I now better appreciate the having of stuff. I´ve always leaned toward the minimalist side of the spectrum. When I was younger, I dreamed of owning just a few hundred items. However, it turns out that not only is stuff useful, it is reassuring to have it. 

It is a challenge when cold weather hits and you discover that there are not enough blankets for you and your houseguest. (Sorry about that, S!) It is nice when you own more than one bowl, so you can invite someone to lunch. And it is nice to know where the stuff is, and what it looks like. For example, I have cooked my go-to meal, spaghetti, in many homes in the last six months. I always know there will be some way to remove the noodles from the boiling water, but I don´t know if it will be a slotted spoon, a strainer, or a pair of tongs, and where I will find the thing. You can use quite a bit of brainpower figuring out how to conduct regular routines in new places, and I will be happy it when I end up in a more permanent place with furnishings. 

It has been interesting to observe the limits of my minimalism, and to appreciate owning things. But do not mistake my complaints - I still like my current life a great deal more than when I was working!

*Plus, most of my friends have actual guest rooms, and that is a 1000% improvement over living room couches. College-age me could only dream of this luxury.

Vagabond

Gainesville is a lovely place and I´ve met terrific people there, but why stay in one place when you have nothing tying you down? The visa application continues to be marked "En tramitactión" which I´m pretty sure is Spanish for, "Hold your horses, missy, and we´ll get around to reviewing this in our own sweet time." So I packed the car and headed on a month-long tour of the East Coast. 

Returning to DC reminds me of all the delightful friends I have here. There are always people around willing to do a bike ride or have lunch. Last week I organized a bike ride with nine people, three cars, and two bike racks that included stops for cake and French fries. We wanted the kids to only ride downhill (ie the fun part), and that required some complicated project management. Here my old biking group, G, N, and R, relax with beers in the freezing cold afterwards.

I spend a long weekend in New York City with my best friend M. We dressed up to go see the Macy´s department store spring flower show. I also made a delicious corn and tomato panzanella salad with her daughter J, who is a avid cooking apprentice. 

I focused on some of the smaller sightseeing attractions in NYC this time. The flagship public library is a beautiful turn-of-the-century architectural masterpiece. A free tour lets you see areas that aren´t easily accessible to the public. These carved wooden ceilings are actually painted plaster. 

In the fine tradition of roadside attractions, I found this noteworthy statue in front of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (sometimes known as St. John the Unfinished, since the cathedral is decades in the building and not done yet). The Archangel Michael casts out Satan while standing on a double helix and a crab, surrounded by peaceful giraffes. I don´t think I´ve ever seen so much symbolism crammed in so densely into one piece of art. 

Adventures with friends and family

My younger brother S came, all the way from Washington (the state)! We get along really well but don´t see each other too often, what with living on opposite sides of the country. And since that distance is about to get further, I guess he decided it was a good time to visit.

We did fun things that do not photograph well. Cape Canaveral is three hours away, so we took a day trip and watched a SpaceX rocket launch. This was extra cool because S is a huge rocket nerd and regaled me with rocket knowledge so I could really understand what I was seeing. There were two communication satellites on board, but no people. We were able to get within seven miles, close enough to see the huge trail of glowing gases and then the exhaust as various stages fell off. I felt awed that we as humans are able to do things like this. I really want to go back if I can while I am in Florida, especially since S told me that Europe launches very few rockets.

We also visited the giant bat houses I´ve mentioned before. On warm nights, thousands of bats stream out at sunset to catch their dinners. The most impressive part was at the start, when a bird of prey caught an unwary bat in midair and carried it away for a meal. Sometimes you are the predator, and sometimes the prey.

Photo by Larry Hyler

I also recently visited the botanical gardens with my friends L and L. He is the avid photographer who took those great portraits a few months ago, and she is full of intesting stories. We posed for lots of shots among the greenery.

Photo by Rosa Colon

My friend R hosts occasional work weekends to help spruce up her large country property. I volunteered to use the electric pole saw to cut down unwanted vegetation. Picture three-foot-tall aloe vera plants with thorns - I´m not sure what they actually were but we decided to name them the Devil´s Arugula. They were massive and unpleasant to touch, and I got such a thrill chopping them up. It was a delightful afternoon, meeting new people and helping. My friend R has tons of friends and loves connecting them, and I am truly enjoying getting to know her.

Photo by Rosa Colon

A rest after the plant massacre.

I feel so happy that I have put down roots here and made friends like R and the L´s so quickly. Having time to devote to social events combined with interesting and receptive people in Gainesville has made such a difference. I hope I will be as equally successful in Madrid when I get there.

Retirement: One year in

The application is submitted, and now there´s nothing to do but wait two or three months for a response. In the meantime, I have lots of fun stuff to keep me busy in retirement, which I have been officially enjoying for one year this past February.

When I moved to Gainesville, I started volunteering for Habitat for Humanity. It´s a Women Build project, which means all the volunteers and construction personnel we work with are women. I love it. I am learning a ton of new skills and everyone is super supportive even when they are correcting your mistakes. The very first day I  showed up I learned how to use a nail gun and I was hooked, returning every Saturday that I am in town. The group completes one house per year, and so far I have learned door, soffit, and siding installation. I am sorry that I live in a place where not everyone has a home, so that this group is needed, but it is now one of the most enjoyable experiences of my week.

It has been a real surprise to me how social I can (and want) to be since I have retired. I have long known that I´m pretty introverted, and when I was working I was careful to have lots of down time to recover from all the personal interactions my job required. That meant that most evenings and weekends I´d be alone. Now that I don´t have to spend my social energy on work, I can socialize multiple times per week (and sometimes multiple times per day!) and still have time to recharge on my own. Friends drop into town or have a spare ticket for something, and I jump at the opportunity. It is truly delightful, and I am amazed that I have friends in Gainesville and friends in DC. Sometimes I feel like my friendship cup is overflowing, in the best possible way.

And just because, I got to attend a Holi celebration recently. It was as delightful as I expected. Maybe someday I can even experience this in India, although that´ll have to wait at least five years, when my visa no longer has such tight travel restrictions.