Packing, Purging and Procrastinating

One of the things I'm least proud of about myself is my penchant for procrastination. I have a knack for finding projects that allow me to feel productive even when what I'm really doing is putting off less appealing drudgery. I return phone calls. I clean out my closets. Alphabetize books on shelves. Groom the dog. I like being productive, and loathe being lazy, so each of these diversions do serve some legitimate purpose, but they're also a means to happy avoiding-the-real-work ends. 

This first post then, is a fitting introduction. Movers will arrive at my home in less than two and a half days to pick up all of its contents, a very small portion of which are actually prepared and boxed appropriately, yet here I am, making good on a long-standing promise to myself to start writing daily. I should be packing - there's no question that that would be a better use of my time - but as has happened frequently the last couple weeks, I am distracted by an overwhelming reverie, a vivid immersion in all that my new life in a new place might be.

I love moving. I've done it a fair amount in my life. I grew up and went to college on the East Coast, then lived in Arizona, then Michigan, and now, soon (less than a week - gasp!) in Colorado. In most of those locales, I had a number of different homes. What I love is the promise and potential and opportunity each new place holds. A new address provides all the reason one needs to rethink priorities and routines; an empty house is a blank slate, and the people who move into it get to be unwritten and rewritten too. They get to leave behind what doesn't really work for them anymore, whether they're tangible objects (like the clothes, tchotchkes and CDs I've been eagerly divesting) or old but familiar habits. While I resent feeling compelled to make New Year's resolutions, I enthusiastically embrace the opportunities that moving gives me to redefine who I am and what I do.

So I've spent a lot time lately considering who my new Colorado self will be. Here's what I know:

1. She will write more than comments on students' papers.

2. She will play more.

3. She will spend more time outside. (This is probably pretty connected to number 2.)

4. She will make things - not just food, but things. I want to be crafty, not Beastie Boys crafty, but DIY, Etsy crafty. Realistically, my initial goal is just one something a month. We'll see how that goes.

5. She will listen to more music, read more books and watch less TV. It used to be that my favorite bands and albums were always on, sometimes even when I wasn't home. When did that change? Why? Boo to that.

There are lots of other things in the mix here, but those are the five I'm ready to claim out loud tonight. More on the rationales here later. Now, more packing...