B&B and Amish Country

It is finally all settled. I have an assignment and a place to live! My sister, Laura is flying into Oh to make the drive with me and we will be spending a day in Chicago. I can't wait! The hard part will be packing up and loading the car, it is always quite the engineering feat. For those of you who are familiar with my visual spatial organization limitations, you can imagine the frustration...not to mention my pack rat tendencies. My company was unable to find me a furnished apartment...actually the apartment was not the problem, the furniture leasing companies were all sold out, something to do with Fort McCoy. This works in my favor as I will be staying in a studio at a charming B&B called Sunny Fields. I am trying to negotiate reimbursement for the extra commute but it will be worth the idyllic setting.
Yesterday I took a trip out to Amish Country about an hour east of Mansfield. It is a very charming area..but really tourist traps are alike everywhere...Pismo Beach to Sugar Creek Ohio. There is no doubt the Amish are capetalizing on their simplicity. You can't really blame them, religion doesn't inhibit the American enreprenual spirit. One of the funnier things I saw was an Amish boy riding a bike with an i-pod or some other headphone device on...no helmet (a rarity for most Ohioans, motorcycles and bicycles). I also explored the main drag in Berlin Ohio. I really didn't buy much, I decided a wheel of cheese or a handmade basket were not so practicle due to my impending relocaiton. I definetely don't need another mug even one with a buggy on it. I don't need a sign painted with witty quotes or a throw pillow. The drive was gourgeous! Rolling green hills, fields of wheat and corn not to mention the dark rain clouds that finally let loose around two o'clock, luckily I was home by then.
Last night I went to a birthday party for one of the nurses I work with at the civil war era home of another co-worker. It was really bitter sweet to share my plans with everyone as I have made some wonderful friends here and will be quite sad to move on from such a cohesive and welcoming team.

And the winner is....

Wisconsin!!! I will be making my home in the town of Tomah WI until mid November. The position is at the VA hospital which I am told will be a nice addition to my resume. It looks like an area full of outdoor fun and not too far from the big cities of Minneapolis and Madison. Laura is planing to fly out to make the drive with me and have some fun in Chicago. It looks to be about a nine hour drive from Mansfield...no sweat after last falls drive from CA to Knoxville. I really am going to miss Ohio, I have met some wonderful people and know I will miss the Buckeye state. Now that my destination is settled, its time for the bigger challenge: PACKING all of it into my Sentra.

The Waiting is the Hardest Part!

It is raining this afternoon, thunder, lightning, the works! Luckily I did my laundry this morning and had the clothes in the house before the sky exploded. I picked up boxes this weekend, three weeks from today I will be on the road. Even in the laundry mat a woman I had met over a month ago asked me...everyday at lunch they ask me ...my family asks every time they call...my friends keep asking... Where are you going next??? I don't know! We started looking at assignments almost a month ago, everything from Delaware to Oregon, Wisconsin to Texas has been on the table. I wish I had something definitive to say, if not for myself then to put everyone else at ease. I know I will be somewhere, I know that I have options. I can stay in Mansfield, work for another company, or take a school assignment with my current company. I don't mind the asking, I just wish I had a simple answer. "I don't know" seems to elicit looks of fear and questioning. I am convinced part of the adventure is watching all the pieces come together placing me exactly where I am most certainly intended to be. The most amazing thing about the past year are the number of moments when my choice to travel has been re-affirmed . Again and again I meet people in the community, patients at work, make friends and know I am a part of a plan much bigger than my individual experience. I should know by Friday...so stay tuned.

Goundhogs Day

There are many reasons I am enjoying my new found nomadic lifestyle, but the one that sums it up best seems rather cliche, on the surface that is. "I love meeting new people and experiencing new areas of the country, every place I've been has something unique and special to see". This is the standard third or fourth sentence in the conversation that starts with the question "so what do you do?" I rented a bike today, there is a wonderful bike trail running from Butler to Mansfield, 18 miles paved and flat...smooth sailing no sweat. Famous last words, just past the half way point a suicidal rodent ran in front of my bike. For the California readership, rodent does not denote small! Rodent in this case is at least raccoon size, round, fat and fast! Groundhogs as I have come to learn never have traversed the Rockies. I learned from a patient earlier this spring that although these vermin are generally a nuisance the young ones are good eating, great for target practice and the meat is greasy like duck. Sometimes it is hard to keep a straight face, sometimes I find myself wishing I had not asked, sometimes I revel in the useless information. I swerved and both the groundhog and I lived to tell the tale. Later on the last mile of the 13 I received a phone call, pushing the boundaries of my coordination I switched off my music to answer it. Mom and I were catching up when my path intersected that of a grey corn snake. Gotta love cell phones ...Mom couldn't figure out why I was screaming and why I was talking about cornflakes. Only maybe two feet long he was skinny and slithery, I may not be writing this if I had the encounter while on foot. The hibeejibees subsided and the communication break down was mended and I returned the bike. The owner of the shop asked me about the ride and I replied, "Well it was eventful I met a groundhog and a snake ...I don't know which was worse really". "The groundhog, I suppose" he said smiling. "I don't know I said they both surprised me, but while the groundhog only elicited a brief expletive, the snake resulted in shrieking" . His smile morphed into the condescending you silly girl look. I paid for the rental as I left the shop, I added another microadventure to the ever growing list of unique and special things to see.