June 12, 2024
Written May 11 - June 12, 2024, from an airplane en route to Reykjavik (!) for CamundaCon Berlin 2024 (!), and also in Seattle, WA.
SO MUCH has changed since the last time I updated this page! Buckle in and let’s talk about moving cross-country, settling in a new home, and gardening.
Help, I’m surrounded by moving boxes.
Moving to Seattle
I now live in the Seattle area! This has been in the making for a long time now, since the summer of 2021. Neither myself nor my partner have ever lived anywhere other than Texas, so moving across the country was a massive undertaking.
We moved here in October 2023, hauling a pod of stuff, a toddler, a dog, 3 cats, and a shocking number of plants. It was a lot to coordinate -- buying a house while only seeing it via Zoom (!!!), coordinating the logistics of moving all the living beings we're responsible for, learning way too much about cross-country moving companies... but we made it!
In all honesty, it was really nerve wracking making this change. I never saw myself leaving Texas, despite its flaws. Neither of us had ever made a move so large. We were hoping it would be the best fit for us and our family, but it still felt like a leap of faith. What if we miss our Texas family and friends too much? What if the dark and rain and cold is too much for us? What if we spend a ton of money moving, only to want to move back immediately? What if something was wrong with our house, our neighborhood, that we'd never visited in person?
The nature here is so unreal to me.
Luckily, we've had no regrets! We really love the area we ended up in, our house is great, the neighborhood is awesome. We experienced our first Seattle winter, and while it was a milder one, we made it through unscathed.
The woods, the mountains, the rivers and lakes -- the nature here is unreal! Coming from Texas, especially a dry city like Austin, the pacific northwest feels so lush and alive. The rain is honestly not bad at all -- it's just misty all the time, nothing like the dramatic Texas thunderstorms (which I do miss). And as we get into summer, it’s sunnier and dryer every day. It's been so lovely not sweating constantly, and being able to spend so much more time outside because it's not boiling hot all the time.
Driving around and exploring the parks near us feels so surreal. I hope seeing these massive trees and mountains and lakes never get old. I swear, even the air is even better here. We even saw the aurora borealis from our back yard. I had no idea we were north enough to see it, just wild and incredible. I feel so blessed.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that I dragged Liz and their family to Seattle with me — we planned the entire thing together from start to finish, and now we’re neighbors! We haven’t lived in the same city since 2012, and we’ve never actually been neighbors. Along with our pal Hadeel and her fam (who already lived here), we’re spending holidays together, doing activities with the kiddos, and just generally having a great time. It’s honestly been a dream come true.
A few things I was delightfully surprised by in Washington:
Mail-in voting (It's so easy?! They send you a voter’s guide?!)
Seagulls
The amount of visibly queer folks
Not experiencing the “Seattle freeze”
A few things I miss from Texas:
Breakfast tacos
Dramatic Texas thunderstorms
Family and friends
Coffee roasters (surprisingly few in our area)
Still-in-progress view of my office. This gallery wall is one of my favorite parts of the house right now.
Homecraft
Moving and settling into a new house has taken a lot more energy than I expected, so most of my creative energy (or… any energy I have left at all) has been put into unpacking, finding furniture and decor, and other improvements to the house. We sold a lot of our larger furniture to move, and even the things we kept sometimes need a different use in a new space.
It’s been so long since we moved that I completely forgot I stained this IKEA dresser. It took SO MUCH LONGER than I expected.
I feel like there’s this cultural expectation to not make any dramatic, personalized changes to your home — because, of course, you need to keep in mind a potential buyer in the future. Maybe it’s generational — most fellow Millennials I know don’t plan to ever own a house, or aren’t so certain they’ll be able to stay in one place for all that long, so it doesn’t feel like it’s truly “ours”. Either way, every place I’ve lived in has felt temporary, and I’m tired of it. We’re finally starting to see some pushback in the form of trends like “dopamine decor” and maximalism vs. the white subway tile minimalism that has been popular for so long, and I’m thrilled!
I’m determined to treat this home like it’s permanent and like we live here. After designing the nursery for our kiddo at our last place, I realized that was my favorite room in the house. It felt like “us,” and more importantly, it felt complete. It had a vision and a theme and color, and didn’t have a bunch of half-finished projects that needed to be done. Meanwhile, I never got around to painting my office or hanging some art I wanted to hang. I want to lean into design and intention here, and not be afraid to make some bolder choices.
Gardening
I set up a raised bed at our new place! I forgot how physically challenging it is to build a bed, haul dirt, plant plants. It took longer than expected but I now have some veggies, herbs, and fruits growing!
Compared to Texas, the climate is completely opposite, so I'm excited to learn what grows well here (seemingly everything?!). Compared to gardening in 100 degree heat, I’m having a delightful time tending to my garden here.
I have a few future projects in mind (set up the rain barrel; remove all the gravel, which I now have a deep hatred for; plant more natives around the whole yard…) but I’m really happy I was able to set this up in time for spring.
Currently growing: Butter lettuce, spinach, sugar snap peas, strawberries, shallots, blueberries
I also innoculated the garden bed and a few mulched areas around our yard with mushroom spawn (oyster and winecap), and the very first mushrooms have started popping up!
