Final Days

6 days and counting- that is 6 days before Leigh and I are scheduled to drive away from Seattle toward Alaska. Our plans have changed a bit providing greater flexibility, but also a bit of heartache.

Leigh and I wound up quitting our summer jobs about a week early. It was a series of events, mostly us being pushed to our limit and our boss/family ignoring our pleas for time off to prepare for our trip to Anchorage. Basically, as of Monday this week, we hadn't packed a single thing to leave and were scheduled to leave Seattle 7 days later while working 40-50 hours during those remaining days. Of course, when working with family these "changes in plans" never go over smoothly and one cannot walk away from a toxic situation as easily, but in the end a person has to look out for their most important interests. In this case in particular those interests include my first ever real job (that I studied 7 years to be qualified for), a very important move to a new city and the strength and health of my marriage and our physical well-being.

In the end this situation is far from simple: we've both been really concerned about how it will affect our long-term relationships with certain family members and we've been really hoping to reestablish some communication to put the issue to bed before we leave town. I'm not counting on that happening, but it would certainly reduce my worries. However, this also allows us more time to get things done and possibly even leave a day or two earlier than planned so we can actually make a holiday out of this very, very long drive. We'll just have to see how we're feeling at the end of the week and how ready we are to leave.

In the meantime, I had a tattoo date with my favorite uncle on Monday evening and wound up with a tattoo of a Taize bell on the front of my right shoulder. The artist did an amazing job. This is the second time I've gotten a tattoo by this guy and I'm again very pleased. Though I don't live in Seattle I can see myself making appointments with him when I'm passing through for many years to come. Photos to come very soon.