"what are you going to do in Nashville?"

It has been my experience that the first question out of anyone's mouth upon learning that I am moving to Nashville is, "What are you going to do there?" or "Do you already have a job lined up?" or something else along that vein.

I fully understand that a job is an important factor in maintaining a life anywhere, but I dont think that a job should define who I am or what I am doing. I am not moving because of a job. I am moving because I love it there and I have friends there that want me to be there. Being happy is far more important to me than a 9-5. I spent 8 years of my life or so married to my job and I hated it every day, to the point that it made me miserable to wake up every day. That is no life for anyone, and I wouldnt wish that on anyone.

I am very fortunate now to have two jobs that I dont think of as work, and would ideally like to find something like that when I get down south. I have been applying to the area school districts, but I am not going to let my job define who I am or my move.

It just screams a lot about our society that a job is on the forefront of everyone's minds. And I am not writing this to knock anyone for asking, because it is what society dictates, I suppose. But that doesn't mean that my job needs to be my life.

i have a feeling i am going to post here a lot.

I need to keep a running list of the questions I have so that I can figure out how to answer them. I know that I said that my only major concern is my bed, and while that is true, there are so many little things that pop up and sometimes i just dont know what to do about any of it.

Moving is stressful. I am still three months out and am absolutely gung-ho about the whole thing, but that doesn't mean that I don't have a million small concerns.

My stereo, for instance. Do I lug this whole system with me, taking up precious room in my car, or do i just pick up one of those all-in-one systems from Target?

I am a ridiculously sentimental person, and to that end I cannot bring myself to throw away ANYTHING. It is awful, and for the select few of you that have seen my bedroom, you can attest to that. But i don't need to drag a bunch of useless crap with me just because it has a memory attached to it. So then the question becomes, "what do I do with it?" If I am going to leave it here in a box in my mom's attic, to be forgotten about eventually anyway, then do I really need to keep it at all? Probably not. No. Definitely not.

I don't want to send it to a landfill, though. Ideally, I can sell/give away all of my junk in a yard sale in a few weeks, but I am realistic enough to know that that is not true.

HOW DOES ONE PERSON ACCUMULATE SO MUCH NONSENSE?

concerning sleeping...

While I find myself concerned with a lot of different things in regards to this move, the concern that is at the forefront of my mind is simply this-what am I going to do about a bed?

As I see it, I have two options here. The first is to rent a van or something and transport my current bed (and hand-me-down full sized bed) down along with everything else that I will be taking. The second is to buy a new bed when I get down there and leave my current one here for when i come home to visit.

Obviously both have pros and cons, otherwise there wouldn't even need to be a debate. I thought my mind was made up yesterday, but then I thought of something else that swayed me back the other way.

Either option involves a transportation issue. The only way around that, really, is to buy a very expensive mattress from a place that delivers. I have found so far that even the cheap mattresses at those places are still fairly expensive.

I also need to worry about alternate sleeping arrangements either before I actually get my bed into my new place should I buy, or what I would do when I came home to visit should I take my bed.

If you were in my situation, what would you do?

captain's log: star-date: May 22, 2013

It is two am and i cant sleep so I am googling moving box prices. That is par for the course, though, because when i am not thinking about anything else, I am thinking about the impending move.

About two months ago, I was driving to one of my 3 jobs and just thinking about how frustrated and stuck I had become. I had no forward movement in two of my jobs, and didn't desire it in the third. I am a 33 year old college graduate who has to work three part time jobs, barely makes enough money to scrape by, and who is still living with my parents, which, of course, makes me the butt of most jokes between my siblings.

I had to get out, but I was not sure how to begin making that happen. I have tried a few times before and fallen flat on my face, so the idea of trying again is scary, but so is working my life away for 8.37 an hour.

But on that fateful car ride to work that afternoon, it hit me. For those that believe, it was basically the feeling of having Him in the passenger's seat and saying, "do this and take that money and move to Nashville." It was such a simple solution that I had overlooked for so long, but the SECOND it crossed my mind it just seemed too perfect not to try.

I came home and talked to my mom about it that night. I had a definite plan in mind, and I laid out what I was thinking and feeling, and her words were, "you are 33. you need to start living your life." So, that was that. I sent a message to my friend who lives down there and was looking for a roommate, and things started falling into place.

I decided to write a blog about this move because I am running the gamut of emotions already and I know there is more to come. I have a lot of questions that I am not sure of the answer, and a lot of doubts and such that I would like to tackle head on. The hope is that not only will I find answers and peace through writing this but that someone else can find the same through reading my adventures.

Here goes everything.