Memory Lane

In case anyone has missed various postings and/or real conversations on the phone or in person, I’m writing an update… In typical fashion, I delayed dealing with Christmas cards, only mailed out about 50, and then things got a little crazy – and I felt I couldn’t mail the card out with out a newsletter, so they are sitting in a guilt inducing pile in my desk. I have no idea when I’ll find the time to write a real newsletter, but someday an old card will arrive in your box postmarked from Asheville, NC!

In January, Trip was laid off from his job at SmartMoney magazine, where he worked in NYC for the last 10 years. The magazine industry is suffering, and jobs will be difficult if not impossible to find in his field, never mind the realities of this economy. For the first 7 years, Trip’s job used to offer a particular perk that made commuting 5 hours a day nearly bearable – 4 days off at the end of each month to relax and enjoy family time, besides weekends and vacation. Then the job changed, and although he received a good pay increase, we lost that extra time off. I think that was when the commute and the job in general started to wear on Trip, but there were just no decent paying alternatives so there he stayed. The layoff came with a decent severance, which is a great blessing to us now, as it will enable us to make big changes in our lives.

I had read about Asheville, and thought it sounded like my kind of place: green and lush, progressive, diverse, warmer, with a lot of organic farms and large community of people who support them. We visited 3 years ago, and I fell in love! I didn’t even take a lot of pictures, because I was so sure we would be back soon. The cost of living is lower than NJ, housing is affordable, and while their job market is tough, it is a good place for entrepreneurs, with several networks of people working to promote businesses who work in digital media – which is a big part of what Trip and I do.

We plan to make a living at our own business, Memory Cottage, doing professional organizing, and photo archiving, and family history research. (We are doing what we love so the money will follow – and I think we are off to a decent start.) I go to clients’ homes, or they send their photos to me, and the work is always different. Sometimes I clean out an office, a garage, a room. Some of the work involves researching at the archives and online. Trip handles photo scanning and retouching, and eventually we hope to do movie making.

What was a far-off dream for me is now in the process of becoming reality, but we have to sell our house first. We are very fortunate that this is an time ideal for marketing a home 3 blocks from the beach. I always have several lists going but I took another hard look at everything around the house and noted every little thing that needed doing. Then I went through the house again and looked at each thing with a critical eye – purging mercilessly. (Thanks to Flylady, I have been de-cluttering for years, so this was not quite as scary as it might have been.) The boys’ school is holding a Rummage Sale next Saturday, coincidentally the day before we have scheduled our open house, so they got a nice load of stuff from us. Trip and I have been working at a mad pace to get the house done, cleaning, repairing, painting, etc. This last load of snow was a surprise, but this weekend’s warmth gave me the chance I was hoping for to some of the outside work. Just this morning we got our first call from a realtor, and although I had no intention of showing someone this house till next weekend, I’ll be running around again this morning trying to get it in as good a shape as I can manage.

That’s what’s going on over here. It is scary to go through so many changes at once, but thrilling to be propelled towards a new life. After so many years when Trip came home at 7:30, 8 or 9pm, having him home is WONDERFUL. He has time to work out (lost 15 pounds and counting!), he’s been making dinner, we eat earlier, we have so much more time together as a family. And work has been coming in steadily and slowly increasing. Of course, leaving our home for the last 10 years is sad, because we will be moving away from our dear family and many close friends. That’s one of the hardest things to contemplate, but we really feel that this move will be the best thing for our family. We are excited and hopeful, and looking forward to the future.