We Are Arrived!

Well, BB and I have arrived in Seattle and we are settling in to our new home. We do not yet have any stuff. It turns out that the amount of stuff that fills a Subaru Crosstrek to the gills makes very little in the way of a dent on furnishing a two-bedroom house. But we had the sense to pack an air mattress, and so we have a place to sleep. And we packed a pot and some dishes so we have been cooking. And we started a seven-day free trial at a local gym and got a workout in.

The truck with our stuff ought to arrive sometime this coming week. Then will begin a three month process of unpacking. Kidding, of course, but it always takes longer than you want it to. The drive out was amazingly smooth for crossing the country in February. We took five days, starting Sunday night and finishing Monday morning, after leaving BB’s family in Virginia. Including the drive from Philadelphia to Virginia, it was a solid six days.

We had fog in West Virginia, and we had wind in Wyoming, and we had rain in Oregon. But never any ice or snow. The car made good time and decent mileage. And we had a couple of really fun things. We met my St. Louis sponsor for burgers on our stop there. And I finally got to meet MC!! It was wonderful to meet her after more than nine years knowing each other as sober bloggers.

We found our little house and signed our lease. I found a Saturday morning AA meeting that seems like a real winner for me, in a little boat club on the north side of the lake. It’s a mixed meeting, which will be new-again for me. I have been going to men’s-only meetings pretty much exclusively for five years. But I’m looking forward to having the early-morning meeting on a weekend.

In general, I’m looking forward to doing two meetings a week again. When my weekends were the only time to be with BB, I generally sacrificed my meetings for my relationship time. It’s not something I’d recommend for someone in early sobriety, but it worked for me considering it started when I was in my 6th year. Time is not a guarantee of stability or sobriety, but I felt comfortable with my once-a-week schedule.

But now that I’m in a new place and BB and I live together, I’m looking for a weekend meeting and a weekday meeting. It’ll be good to get my schedule established and meet the community and such. I’m really eager to get into a groove that’s comfortable and meaningful for my sobriety, and hopefully be helpful to others.

Now I just have to get back into shape. We started a free trial at a gym, and I’m going later this morning to buy a pair of running shorts because I managed not to pack any. Then we’re going to do a little run on the Burke-Gilman trail and so how our sea-legs are in Seattle.