The next that follows: writings on one year with Carleen Healy and Nick Grutz: Getting some words on a page; background information that may be pertinent

I started this documentation with a bang, my attention was on getting started, getting words on a page. I realize that readers might appreciate some explanation of the process, a mention of our history, and our real lives. In the next few days, I'm going to explain the events that brought about our departure from Chicago, how it is we came to Dubuque, IA for an extended stopover, and what the future may hold. It's going to take me a bit to practice writing coherently and regularly, but we'll get there.

It all started with our summer of major life events; we had a death, a graduation, a wedding, a lay off, and a major move across state lines. All we need is a birth and a divorce and we can cross all the big life changes off of the list. What follows is a little description. In May, right before I finished my Masters in Elementary Education, my grandmother passed away in a mix of expected and unexpected timing. Instead of graduating, we spent a week in DC soaking up Healy family loving from all over the country. It was a celebration and a preview to the amazing event that would be our wedding in the next few months. After Grammy's life celebration, we returned home to Chicago; Nick back to his soul draining CPS job, me to begin job searching with enthusiasm, feeling like a scavenger and a schmoozer at the same time. I started applying to every open elementary position in Chicago. While we lived in Chicago, we made the conscious choice to be without a car, our bikes were/are our form of daily transportation. I diligently rode my bike to most of the schools in my zip code (and surrounding zips) and dropped off resumes and cover letters, spoke with principals and administrators, who largely told me that they were operating on an impossible budget that forced them to lay off many of their teachers already.

Meanwhile, we were planning our wedding, living up the Chicago summer, trying to take advantage of dance and music offerings, and spending time with friends. Our wedding was July 3, 2010, it was truly a special day. I will recap the whole day sometime in the future, and I promise pictures. While we were on part 2 of our honeymoon, at perfect Sunset Beach NC with my family, Nick was laid off from his kindergarten teaching position, throwing a wrench in the plans to stay in Chicago for at least another year, teaching, dancing, loving the city. All of a sudden, we were without jobs, our lease was up September 1, and neither of us were in middle of projects or promises to the city. It had always been our plan and dream to leave Chicago at some point, we'd talk about having a little farm, growing our vegetables, having goats and bees. Nicks researched seriously a lot of rural lands for sale, how to build me a dance room, and all about chicken coops. But it was mostly a dream, and still is a dream.

Because we are heading out to discuss our future (achh) and Nick's giving me the hurry it up eyes.... I have to end now, but will pick up again later.

Cont'd.

12 miles of hills later, home and exhausted, today we took Dubuque by storm on our bikes and rode TO THE MALL. We made stops at Best Buy to look at slim cameras, Borders to buy a US map for push pinning our destinations, and the informative and delightful Paul Kern Insurance man to explain the narrows of individual married plan health insurance, life insurance, Iowa car insurance, and residency requirements for all sorts of insurance. If you need insurance explanations of any sort, he is your guy. http://kern.iiagent.com/

To finish the thought about rural dreams that I abruptly left all alone earlier, we are in Iowa now because we decided to begin the next phase of our lives. This terrifying leap includes being diligent about where we want to end up geographically. There are so many elements to this research: our immediate families in differing states (Iowa and Ohio), strong desire to be a part of a progressive, green, sustainable, and supportive school system (as teachers, we have big dreams), deep need for "the country" to be a part of our daily lives-- living closer to the land, and my connection to dance, the body, and embodied moving that feeds my soul in ways that words can't justify. These are the big things that we are looking for (looking might involve creating), and because we have the freedom and time, we are choosing to explore the world in search of these things right now. Leaving Chicago and spending time in Iowa as a transition, is the beginning. Nick's awesome Mom, Theresa, is letting us use her basement as storage, and her house as home base. We couldn't figure out a way to avoid having an address, so we are using beautiful DBQ as our home address for now. Nick has a great old truck from 1985 that we were hoping to use as our classic and romantic ride into the sunset, but it's looking like the busted leaf spring and gas line might deter us. Despite our desire to keep our carbon footprint small and bike around the country on our escapade of discovery, it's not really time, geography, or topography efficient. Hence, tomorrow we are looking for cars that we can use for the next year at least as we journey forward. Subarus are on the short list, along with civics and corollas.

For your viewing pleasure, here is a quick montage of our move.