I’ve started and re-started this post about a thousand times and have zero idea what I’m actually going to say about something that has taken up so much of my internal life for so long, and something that I’ve done pretty much nothing but pour all of my energy into for for months and months and months. Now that the move itself is over, and life has returned to (a new) normal, 1000% surprising for me (as a freaking writer who can be waaaaaaaay too in their own head and self-reflective), I find myself grasping for the words to describe this move in any sort of meaningful way.

Hmmmmmm ….

If you’ve been here awhile, you may remember that I recently started a YouTube channel with the express intent of keeping friends and family (you all included) updated on the move, the process of picking up and moving ones life across the globe, and the adventures I find when I get where I’m going.

Well, I’m where I’m going (for now). To keep up with more daily/weekly life kind of content, visit my channel here: Gastography on YouTube  I post 2 videos a week – Tuesdays, I aim for some sort of tour or showing you all something neat (this week was a tour of the new place); Fridays, I post a weekly wrapup of things I’ve accomplished or what has happened. This Friday will be a Doha Week 1 post. I’ll 100% ramble. As I do.

This space I intend to keep relatively the same. My POD (Picture Of the Day) posts keep me grounded, and sharing recipes with you all is something I love doing and hope to get back into the swing of creating and sharing. It also helps that when I’m posting recipes regularly, I’m also eating healthy. Need to do that. I also look forward to sharing mini pictorials with you all from around town as well. I’ve not been inspired to create those in awhile and really hope that this change of location will spark that fire again because I miss it.

As for the move ….

A lot of changes have happened in my life in the last two months. Changes that have been percolating for a few years, simmering since last year, and really getting going full-force since mid-summer. Since the beginning of the year, DH (for those of you that are new, DH is my Darling or Dearest Husband) and I:

• In February, moved boroughs from our beloved Brooklyn out to the wilds of Staten Island
• Dealt with that move and all the drama it created in our lives. This “new normal” adjustment period was rough – the logistics were a whole other level of difficult (for those of you that don’t know, Staten Island is a borough of New York City – that’s only accessible by Ferry or by bus/car. It has internal and limited train service, and to get anywhere I wanted to go in Manhattan or Brooklyn took at least an hour there and an hour back). The culture clash between our beloved neighborhood and new neighborhood was challenging to navigate, as was the emotional turmoil brought on by no longer living in an area of town we’d built a comfortable and easy life in
• Made some awesome new friends and built a nice little social life in our new home
• Went through a crazy rollercoaster of will we/won’t we get the job opportunity that will move us across the planet
• Dealt with aaaaaaaaalll that. This was also rough and fraught with drama
• Got the final final final go-ahead that this move was happening
• Threw ourselves into the huge amount of planning an international move requires (me mostly and at super helpful times like 3am when I should be sleeping)
• Dealt with a sick dog and the worry that caused
• Went through a whole yo-yo process with his health – he seemed sick, then fine, then sick, and we ultimately lost him to a fast-acting cancer
• Had zero time to deal with that – and had to go through that process separately, since DH had already made the jump
• Traveled to visit family and friends, renewing relationships and taking time to bask in the familiar
• I at least completely jacked my sleep schedule up in this process. Turns out that I don’t sleep so well without a DH and pupper to share the bed with – I also had a lot of different beds and locations to try and fall asleep in (plus a lot on my mind), so that didn’t help
• We both also quit even attempting to eat healthy. I crawled into a carb and have yet to crawl completely back out – my body misses green vegetables and my pants size is screaming for a cease-fire from fries and sweets
• In the process of this past 10 months of constant change, I’ve also quit working out. This is no bueno, and something I need to return to post-haste. I’m starting to get winded from climbing stairs or mall walking
• DH and I spent about 6 weeks apart – he setting things up here and getting used to a new job + new country + new schedule; me wrapping our life up in the US, shipping things over to him, and jettisoning 98% of our possessions — if you are interested in what we brought or how to possibly start getting rid of your own pile of “stuff”, check out the YouTube channel. I detailed what we packed and what we got rid of there.

And those are the major highlights. The only constant this past year (and really, the year before it) has been change and I’ve really felt myself growing into someone who doesn’t immediately panic in the face of it anymore – which is totally good for me, but a different state of being. I suppose that’s part of why I don’t have a deep well of allthefeelings to pour onto the page about this big move — it’s just one more bump I’ve driven over this year. Maybe with age, I’m becoming more relaxed? More go-with-the-flow? I’d say more nihilistic, but that’s hard to imagine. I suppose moreso with the small things in life that really used to get under my skin.

It’s not that I didn’t spend a whole wellspring of energy freaking the F out about logistics involved in moving, just that I consciously chose to focus that anxious energy on tiny nitpicky things (like the availability of toilet paper in a bidet-using country and making sure my DH was stocked with creature comforts like familiar condiments) instead of the larger identity-related issues like the nature of home and country and nationality and dwelling on the loss of my fur baby love.

I suppose in time I’ll finish unpacking all that internal sturm and drang and I’ll have some lengthy exposition posts on it all.

As always, thanks for listening. I feel like I’ve done a crap job at explaining this whole move, and have talked about it so many times with so many people individually that I have a 0% chance of remember who all I’ve spoken to while in what process of this whole thing + the content of what we spoke about. Including you guys. Questions? Leave a comment below.

Now back to our regularly-scheduled food-related content.