Post Script

It turns out that "TTFN California" is a story with a beginning and an end. This story has reached its end, and it is time for a new story to be told. If you are visiting this website for the first time, I recommend that you start all the way back at the beginning in June 2007 with our reason-defying cross-country trip. If you want to hear more musings from Exploding Poptart, she'd love to have you visit Carrots and Ginger. Fans of Wuggie Norple can visit Wuggie Norple Stories.

What a long strange trip it's been.

Thanks for coming with us.

Complete

Remember the wall of boxes? They have finally become a playroom. When Papercup Mixmaster predicted, back in September, that we would never get everything unpacked before the New Year, Exploding Poptart thought he could not possible be right. But it was only through a huge post-holiday push that we got the boxes unpacked in time for our January visitors, and playroom was liberated. I suppose our move is complete now that we have no more boxes, save those tubs stacked on the mud-porch filled with Exploding Poptart's high school memorabilia, Papercup Mixmaster's band archives, Wuggy Norple's preschool art projects, off season clothes and things waiting for summer to be inflated. The only possible conclusion is that our move is complete. There is nothing left but to grow our roots through the slow daily living of our new lives here in this house, this new home.

Moods of the Snow

Sometimes the snow feels peaceful, but sometimes it creates a feeling of chaos. I (Exploding Poptart) mentioned this to my boss the other day, and wondered aloud about it. She postulated that the storm that we were watching out the window that made everything feel so chaotic had that quality because the snowflakes were so little. It's hard to see or focus your mind with all those little bits zipping around. It's the big snowflakes, the light fluffy ones that bring peace and a sense of wonder with them.

Hero's Journey

It starts before dawn. Waking up in the dark is the hardest part. We are loath to turn on the lights because they burn the sleepy eyes. Together we support each other as we stumble down the stairs. Then comes the time for provisioning (cheese and crackers, a yogurt, and fruit in the Eagles Kidsclub Lunch bag) and getting into our gear (boots and snow pants for Wugy Norple and double pants for Exploding Poptart, coats, hats and gloves all around). Now we are ready to open the door and face the cold. The clock is ticking. Will the bus be early today? We lumber in our bulky gear down the steps, sometimes still zipping a zipper or pulling on gloves. The most treacherous part of our journey is the "stink berry part." The ginkgo tree a block away drops berries all winter, and if you step on one it smells like puke. Wuggy Norple is beside himself when this happens. He groans holds his breath. (One day we walked out in the street to avoid the stinky part of our journey, but it turns out the berries are there too! And then we are scuffling slowly in snow boots down a busy street hopping on one foot so as not to explode any stink berries. We did not repeat that detour.) But now we are almost to the corner. And once we come to the corner we know we are safe. We rush to look- are there still children at the bus stop, or have we missed our bus? Because even if the bus is already there, we know our kindly driver will stop for us here at the corner. On good days our friends are also finishing their journeys, and we can walk together with enough time at our stop for Exploding Poptart to help Wugy Norple into his back pack, and share a giant hug. Exploding Poptart waits faithfully until the bus finally drives away, waving the whole time. The ending of our hero's journey.

We love snow

The flakes falling from the sky as Exploding Poptart and Wuggy Norple walked to the bus stop were like something off the set of a network Christmas Special. Giant fake-looking things that somehow make the world quiet. They were so big you could see the number of points against a dark coat.

Wildcard Weekend

Well, Wlidcard Weekend is now over. It was hard to watch 3 NFC East teams play, and know that the Eagles were not among them.

Papercup Mixmaster made our own magic-marker color-coded playoff chart, and we have recorded our picks for next week. We struggled when we got to match up between the Dallas Cowboys and the NY Giants. Wuggy Norple and Exploding Poptart decided to add a slot for "We would like for a Katamari to roll through the stadium and pick up both teams."

Box 22

We just unpacked a box labeled only "MB 22"
It contained 20 hangers and a mini photo album from Papercup Mixmaster's wedding to Exploding Poptart.
What were we thinking?