A Really Big Change

It’s the end of 2011, almost, and my life is about to change in a really big way. I have been a teacher in one way or another all of my adult life. I’m good at it, and I “get” kids. However, I’ve never really fit the mold of a typical school teacher.  I have always sought out “different” types of teaching gigs. The past few years of teaching in a public school have been a mixed bag of rewarding and disturbing. The state of education is a terrible mess. It’s not about kids anymore, only the bottom line $$$. So, when my position was cut to half time with no benefits, I could see the writing on the wall.

In the meantime, I was getting intensely interested in RVing. Lorene and I started to talk of the possibility of retiring early and hitting the road in an RV. I began to follow the blogs of full time RVers. We didn’t have our cabin anymore, so we had the itch to explore. It started with buying “Charlie Brown”, our big, beautiful one-ton, dually, 4-wheel drive Dodge pickup. Holy Cow, do I LOVE that truck! We bought it with the intention of getting a fifth wheel, but then we chickened out. They just seemed too big and scary. So, we got a pop-up trailer instead. I know, total overkill on the truck. But we had some really fun times. The dogs loved having their own bed.

Then, a few months later, we were realizing that the pop-up was kind of a hassle. Packing, unpacking, setting up, taking down. And the flapping of the canvas kept us awake all night. We began to think about a fifth wheel again. Turns out, the dealership where we got the pop-up would take it back if we upgraded to a bigger rig. Done. Now, we had a fabulous rig to match our beautiful truck. It was super scary towing it for the first time, but we quickly got used to it. We’ve already had some really fun times in it.

 

Our wonderful salesperson, Doug, heard about my salary cut and suggested that I think about joining the sales team at La Mesa RV. I doubted that I would have the qualifications for the position. Well, turns out, I have a perfect skill set. I’m good with people, I’ve had my Shaklee business for 12 years, I love RV’. I guess my whole life has prepared me for this opportunity. Hired!

So, next week, I start my new life in RV sales. I’m so excited. It was tough saying goodbye to all my friends, students, and colleagues, but now I’m not looking back. The biggest drawback is going to be working weekends. Lorene and I are going to have to get creative about how to carve out time together. It’s so weird not to be tied to the school calendar. She’s got 5 weeks vacation, so I’m sure we can work it out.

Now, I will have to revise my blog to reflect my new adventure. I’ll be posting about our travels and about our birding adventures next year. It’s our favorite thing to do, birding. We kept a year list this year of all the species of birds we saw. We will do that again next year, but I will be documenting it in my blog this time.

Lorene with the RV dogs, Zoe, Jake, and Izzie

A Day at the Spa

Lorene and I spent a fabulous day at Tamaya Resort on the day before Thanksgiving. She's been really stressed out lately, so for an early birthday present, I treated her (and myself!) to a massage and a day at the spa. Wow. What a treat that was!

I guess since it was the day before a holiday, we had the whole place to ourselves. So, while everyone else was out frantically getting ready for their turkey dinner, we were lounging and relaxing to our heart's content. The Tamaya Resort just oozes "southwest". With Native American flute music piped throughout, and statues, pottery, and chili ristras everywhere, this peaceful setting is luxurious down to the smallest detail. It even smells wonderful with the scent of sage and cedar wafting around every corner.

After our 60 minute massage, we spent some time in the wet sauna, then the dry sauna, then the whirlpool. After that, we couldn't move, so we lounged around in the private courtyard. The weather was spectacular. This is why we live in New Mexico - it was sunny, with bright blue skies and 60 degrees. Aaah.

There were pitchers of icewater everywhere with cucumbers and lemon, or strawberries and raspberries. Also, we could help ourselves to dried papaya, roasted walnuts, and thin wafers of chile chocolate. Heavenly.

Does she look relaxed?

After a long walk along the Bosque, we topped off the day with a decadent desert of a hot fudge sundae with pinon brittle and chocolate covered biscochitos.

What a memorable day we had. We both decided that this should be our new holiday tradition. We both feel strongly that the world has gone crazy with the consumerism of shopping. This was the perfect way to step away from the frenzy and spend some quality time together.