Greetings from Maine!

The road trip across the country went well. I had these ambitions of doing an Instagram reel summarizing each day, but by the time we got to the hotel, I didn’t want to do anything besides maybe eat, zone out for a bit to some sitcom on TV, and go to sleep. The dogs seemed to feel the same, even though they slept most of the time in the car.

On Day 3, I had planned for us to stop at Badlands National Park for a halfway-ish break from driving. I’ve never been there before and WOW! The rock formations and patterns are beautiful. It’d make anyone geek out on the geology at least a bit.

After Badlands, it was just a whole lot of highway stretched out before us. Driving through Utah and Wyoming was at least interesting with the mountains and canyons we got to drive through, plus some pretty impressive summer thunderstorms complete with lightning strikes (luckily none too close to us). The middle of the country, whether you take the southern, middle or northern route, is just a whole lot of freeway and fields. Those amber waves of grain are pretty at first but get seriously boring after the first hundred or so miles.

We officially arrived in Maine on Sunday. Monday was the final walkthrough of the house. Tuesday was the official closing. Wednesday, movers delivered all of my belongings, aside from what I shoved into my car. It all went more or less smoothly. The key to the house doesn’t work, but the keypads do! Locksmith is already booked. Plumber, electrician, roofer, HVAC contractor…we’ll be calling in all of the tradesmen sooner or later!

Since officially getting the keys (that didn’t work but at least the key pad did!), it’s been all cleaning, unpacking, and trying to figure out where things go. I kept losing my phone because I’d set it down somewhere and then forget it when I’d leave the room. This house has a lot more rooms than my old 1-bedroom apartment!

Being 120 years old, the house is wonderfully creaky. It also has plenty of projects (hence the tradesmen), but I’ve learned to take things one box step at a time to avoid feeling overwhelmed.

The best part? Every morning, I have woken up to birds chirping. And that’s it. No traffic, no loud neighbors, no sirens. Just birds singing in the trees. I take my boys out for a walk while the sun is rising over the forest behind our house, inhale the morning air, and exhale peace.

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An earlier version of myself, if she had actually gone through with such a big bold move, would have been fighting feelings of buyer’s remorse as she came across item after item to add to the project list. But the current version of me knows there are solutions and support to address each item, everything will be taken care of, and in the meantime, I get to wake up to birds chirping every morning. Life is good!

I’ll admit that my heart ached when I saw video clips of practice rounds happening this past week at my old studio. Everyone is preparing for the Fred Astaire World Championships. When I thought I would be moving into the house at the beginning of July, I toyed with the idea of flying back West to compete after I had moved. It wouldn’t have worked out, but I didn’t want to deny even a fantasy-level possibility. This old house has plenty to keep me occupied, so I don’t think I’ll have to worry about falling into a pit of FOMO. I know dance is waiting for me when I’m ready. The sun room that runs the length of the house in the front will be my temporary dance space until we reach the point when we’re ready to convert the stables into a dance studio (building under the trees at the end of the video above). Yes, I’m getting my own private dance studio. 😀

In conclusion, it’s been a crazy couple of weeks but in a good way. The adventure continues!