"Big News" (or What Comes is Better than What Came Before...)*

So two posts back I said I had news. Big News. And then I got emails asking if I was engaged. Yep, even after writing a whole post about weddings, I forgot what "big news" means (!) Well, of course it can mean many things, but "big news," right or wrong, has often come to mean two big things. So if I'm not engaged, what else is BIG?

Well, a few months ago there was this one week that began with me thinking about babies non stop, and I had a very very very strong desire to knit a baby sweater. What was this about? Why such strong baby thoughts?

That Friday, I got a call from my sister. She's the one who's pregnant!

So that's some big news that I've been sitting on for awhile and wondering when the right time to share it was. She's three months pregnant now, so it's ok to share! I'm gonna be an aunt. Aunt Michelle, people!

I've already made her an umbilical cord hat in white blue sky organic cotton and the baby yoda sweater in green mission falls cotton (though I haven't seamed it up).

But I have more big news of my own . . . we're moving to PORTLAND!

(view from the Japanese Garden, July 2005)

Yep, moving out of the big city is big news around here. We've been talking about this back and forth for awhile (and there had become this joke among my friends: "It's either Brooklyn or Portland!"), but in very Michelle and Aaron fashion, we took a long time to make a decision, and when we did, the results were quick.

Our lease here is ending soon, and we signed a lease a week ago for a new place, and we're heading out there at the end of the month! I've had it in my noggin that I wanted to move out there for-ev-er, before I had even seen the place! And last year, exactly a year ago (well a year ago yesterday), we flew out there for a three week vacation in the Pacific Northwest, staying in Portland and Seattle and camping along the Oregon Coast, the Dunes, Crater Lake, Newbury Volcanic Monument, Mt. Hood, and Mt. Rainier. It was wonderful.

And it took a while, but Aaron came around to the idea of moving there, too, so much so that he's really enthusiastic and ready to leave right away.

So we're leaving. And I'm of course so excited but I'm sad, too. Sad to leave all the things I like. Sad to leave my friends, old and new. And how bummed was I, my first friday as an honest to goodness spider (I had been "spiderly" for a month or two and then away for a few weeks after), to have to announce that I was leaving! Aw!

And I'll miss so many others. Friends who don't read this, local Tuesday snb knitters and Sit 'n Knitters, and friends who read this and don't comment! I know you're out there!

But I've got about two weeks and there's lots of things I want to do and lots of fun to be had. And yeah, this sorting through my old college and teaching papers is not the kind of fun I had in mind! I've got plans with Sandra for dinner and a movie tonight, and I'm holding onto that like a life raft as I tread through these papers!

*"I've had the song "I Found A Reason" (a Velvet Underground cover) in my head since the wedding. The song I played over and over during the rehearsal. It's the song that squeezed a few notes out. You can listen to it here. That line "what comes is better than what came before" really touched me. We're very hopeful that we'll find what we're looking for there. Aaron has taken to say that we're going back to "In Utero." He came up with this after having several drinks, but I still think it's smart. I knew what he meant then without asking, but to put it into words, I guess it would mean: back to the beginning (or before we became burnt out nyc teachers), back to our beginning (Nirvana!), and back to where "In Utero" was made -- the Pacific Northwest! I already feel all fresh and new.