A dear friend of mine sent me to California with a bundle of letters to open on certain occasions (like “something that makes you hum,” and “when you just don’t want to get out of bed”). It was such a sweet gift, and her letters never fail to make me smile when I open them. There’s one I haven’t yet opened.

An envelope still waiting

I’m not sure when I’ll feel settled. Maybe it’ll be the morning I don’t lose 45 minutes searching for things that I knew exactly where to find in my old house but am struggling to find now (that was me this morning—first, looking for my pup’s vet records so I can keep her all legal here, and second, looking for the little state flags I bought to share with you on this blog).

Maybe it’ll be the evening I don’t have to try every single light switch to get the one I want, though I’ve almost given up on that, convinced that the electrician who wired this house was drunk or otherwise in an altered state of mind, and therefore, I will never make sense of what switches activate which lights. Never.

Maybe it’ll be the afternoon I don’t have to pull up Google maps to find my way to Target. I’ll be doing that later today, and I’d love simply to drive away from my house without a second thought about how I’m going to get to the store.

So I won’t open the letter today. But someday soon, I’ll stop waiting and declare myself settled, at least enough to open the envelope my sweet friend prepared for me.

I did find the flags, though, and here they are:

From time to time here, you’ll see NC2NC in the headline. That’s my move: North Carolina to Northern California. In each NC2NC post, you’ll see a flag for the state that wins on a certain point, like, say winter weather.

This morning, in my hometown of Raleigh, NC, an ice storm delayed schools. Now, I love a good snow day, but this was no good snow day. Ice is just a frustration and a danger, and I’ve grown to loathe ice storms more than any other winter weather. I heard through Facebook friends that it cleared up quickly, the kids off to school.

However, I didn’t have to experience it myself. Or last week’s chilly morning when my mom called to tell me it had been 14º when she and my dad left for their walk.

So today, I’m ready to declare a winner on the winter weather front: Northern California. Now, I know Tahoe isn’t far away, and I could get more than my share of snow and chains for my tires, but I admit: I’ve enjoyed being able to run in weather that’s warm enough to leave gloves at home and even occasionally take off my jacket and run in short sleeves. In January.

The other three seasons may have me singing a different tune and waving a different flag, but for today, it’s California. And that makes me feel one step closer to settled.

My question for you this week:

For those of you who have made major moves, what was the moment you realized you felt settled?

And now, a drumroll, please …
In last week’s post, I announced that I’d be giving away three copies of my book. Congratulations to John D., Chris B. and Vicky M.! I’ll be sending you each a Facebook message later today to arrange shipment.

For those of you who didn’t win, I hope you’ll consider getting a copy the old-fashioned way.

Asking for a favor
I need a little help. For all of you who have read the book or are reading the book, you would gain my undying gratitude if you would rate and/or review the book on Lulu.com, goodreads,  amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com or wherever else you like to talk about books. Books live and die by reviews, and right now, well … mine could use some TLC. Many thanks in advance.

Have questions about the book? Hop over to goodreads where I’m answering questions about the book and writing in general.