L to R (clockwise): Our living room at the mill; NH farmstand dinner; today’s delivery=tonight’s homework; and our first apartment rainbow (as seen from the bedroom window)!

So we’ve been in our new apartment for exactly two weeks, and we’ve been going a bit nuts.  In fact, we may have each lost our minds completely at one point or another.  But we’re slowly reclaiming them, and along the way, claiming this space—and this life—as our own.  We’ve unpacked, organized, purchased, assembled, recycled, and figured out exactly where everything will live here.  Our new apartment is less than half of the size of the house we sold in May, and it’s the perfect size…perhaps even a little too big, if I dare say that.  But it’s home.  It’s also a bit loud (an adjustment to communal living in an old building) and quite scenic (the river and myriad sea birds are right outside our windows).  We walk out our front door and cross the street to our favorite coffee shop and breakfast café.  We’ve returned to our favorite New Hampshire farmstands at peak season for zucchini and cabbage and peppers.  And although we last lived in this town just a few months ago (and for years before that), our time on the road has given us new perspective on things.  Our standard running routes, which we tirelessly and willingly logged hundreds of miles on from the old house, now seem like new roads we’ve never run before since we’re approaching them from a different direction.  We are having trouble finding a groove.  Last weekend, we ran in a 5K race here in town and both posted PR times (personal records, or the best time we’ve each run in a race of that distance).  And then today, I went out for a routine 4-miler, while M set out on his longest run to date, a (crazy hilly lousy) 17-miler.  But there were no PR’s today; we both came up a bit short on both speed and distance.  I think part of it was the weather—hot and humid and stormy–but part of it was also our mental state.  Neither of us is centered.  We’re off.  We are unpacked, but we are not settled.  We’re antsy.  We miss the road.  We’re not cut out for settling down.  Or so I think. And then things happen to make me wonder if I should take a deep breath and (ugh!) settle down for a while.  After we returned home from our runs and rehydrated and showered, it started to downpour, and my first mill rainbow appeared across the river.  And then we walked upstairs and across the bridge to a fantastic new restaurant in our complex where we ate local brie cheese and beet salad and a smoked cheddar and butternut squash panini that were perfectly paired with a few local beers on tap.  When we arrived back at our apartment, there was a package waiting by the front door: a new reflective running vest (so we each have one for the Reach The Beach NH relay event we just signed up for…) and a textbook we ordered online yesterday: Essentials of Personal Training, 2^nd Edition.  We both recently started studying to become personal trainers, part of a career switch and grander plan still in the early stages of formation.  But even with that direction, we’re not settled.  We leave next week for another stint on the road, two weeks across Michigan and the Midwest, visiting friends and checking out graduate schools.  At this point, we are exploring our options.  We have no idea what we’ll be doing in a year, and we’re not in a rush to figure it out.  But we are on a mission, because if we don’t keep moving, we just might go insane.  –J