It’s 12:21 AM. I’m tired. I got up at 5AM this morning, did a little design work, and planned to spend the better part of the day getting ready for Friday. As life would have it, somewhere around noon, I posed what I thought was an innocuous question to my friends on Facebook… hit post, and headed out the door to cut some firewood. About an hour later, I walked back through the door to warm my coffee, and heard the distinctive “bing” of a Facebook notification that someone had replied to my post. I’ll suffice to say, that 6 hours, and almost 300 lengthy replies later, after breaking the internet and causing a net GDP loss for all the work that my friends didn’t get done today, I shut Facebook off and had dinner with Katie.
Oh, Friday? yeah, Friday we close on our dream. Originally, we were scheduled to close around the first of the year, but we needed an easement across the neighbors land for our driveway. No problem. Just find a surveyor, have them strap on snow shoes, walk through thick woods, in 30″ of snow… then send the paperwork to the real estate lawyers… be done in a week right? So here we are. It’s really happening.
I can’t tell you the last time I felt this kind of nervous anticipation. In 2006, while deployed to Iraq, I rolled out on a mission outside the wire, to repair a rather large IED crater in the middle of a highway. To my best recollection, receiving the command to “lock and load” for the first time, on a real mission, didn’t generate butterflies of this magnitude. Maybe it’s the risk, maybe it’s the hope of things to come, maybe it’s the realization that I’m no longer waiting for my future to be handed to me. But, I feel like I’m ten years old, it’s Christmas morning, and I find myself on a bench outside the principals office with the secretary eyeing me like a death row inmate about to meet his maker…. who’s going to surprise him with cool gifts. Did I over do it on the visual? Did I get my point across?
I certainly don’t know what the future holds, I don’t know if I will fail, or become wildly successful. What I do know, is that I’m going to hold on to, and cherish, the knots in my stomach at this moment. I’m excited but weary, I’m exhausted but wide awake, I’m nervous as hell, but calm as I could be.
Hang on tight, it’s going to be one hell of a ride… or it will just be a peaceful easy stroll.
-j
Best of Luck to you and Katie! I really like that guys are able to do this and have each others back. Can’t wait to see it, and let me know if you need any cheap labor, I’m not going back to work until July!!
Thanks Doug! I’ll certainly include you in the working parties! It will be a slow start, but our plan is to have a plan for every weekend we go up. It may be a few years, but eventually, we hope to be able to have you bring Erica and the kids up for a weekend of relaxation!
That was a lovely conversation. I’m so excited for you both! Best wishes! I can’t wait to see the place. 🙂
That it was, for the most part anyway. I can’t wait for you and Tony to join us up there!