The Two Faces of Jess

My existence as a singular person has long been dueled over by two different personalities. 

That's me on the right... spent four years in... sword school... True story.

The first- the quieter, more demur version of myself- longs to spend my afternoons reading in a comfortable chair with good natural lighting, listening to soft classical music, while my homemade apple pie, I thoughtfully planned and prepped for, days in advance, is browning in the oven.

I am rocking that hat.

In my youth, my room would have held a spartan decor akin to the bare dormitories of Dead Poets Society; with only a desk, a bed, a lamp, a picture of my family, and a contraband radio as my possessions. (What kid doesn't dream of this? I ask you.)

Now, as a mature adult and wife, my days would be filled with taking time to grow my own veg, sewing and knitting clothes and hand-making gifts, baking my own bread, and shopping for the rest of dinner in a small corner store where I know the clerk and ask about his day. His name is Mr. Hooper and the wife and kids are doing just fine.

I do this all with an adorable head scarf and capris, channeling Ashley Judd in Ya-Ya, of course.

Here I am corresponding with the troops, you know, just doing my part.

I would write thank you letters as soon as a kindness was performed for me, and I would call instead of text, and visit instead of call.

Electronics, of a visual nature would appear sparingly in my life.

All of this, of course, increasing my ability to realize and be present in the act of breathing, smiling, laughing, chewing, hugging, kissing, relaxing, sleeping and always being.

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Then there is the Jessica who has won the day. 

The Victor!

You are always aware of her presence because she is fond of being present... She laughs loud and talks fast.

She's watched so many movies and so much television in her lifetime that she wrote her college thesis on it (hand-to-God). She has only ever successfully grown kale (which is the Bruce Willis of plants and will never die, so please don't be overly whelmed).

And despite having served years at adolescent part-time-jobs, in two separate card stores, this Jessica still never sends salutations (of any sentiment) with any proper regularity. And one day (shakes fist ruefully) she's going to clean out all of the trinkets and clothes and books and paper and movies that she's collected over the years. Because she is a collector... and she has stuff.

God, she has so much stuff.

And she is, by all accounts, me.

And now after battling this ongoing dichotomy for the past 15 years - I must marry my two souls together. My husband, my two cats, me and all of my (our) stuff are moving from a 1400 sq.ft. 2 bedroom 2 floor, 3 bath apartment in the spacious burbs to a 680 sq.ft. 1 bed and den in the city. In less than a month.

I share all of this with you because the more I own what's about to happen (insanity) the more I become prepared for it and the more the first Jessica kicks in and kicks the current Jessica off the couch and into gear.

And one day when I'm on Oprah's couch (that's still a thing right?) and talking about how fabulous my tiny life is- you will know from whence I came.

From a busy, and most days, ADD addled, creatively-charged, magical-thinking but well-meaning brain. And you will be all "I can do that! That woman is crazy and she could do it. Huh, I got this."

So anyway.  Now you know, that's me, in a nutshell.

How did I get into this nutshell? What sort of nut has shell like this?

Salutations and Felicitations (just not in a store-bought card, that shit takes planning),
Jessica

One woman's quest to live with less in a world that thinks that more is best.

Ok, so it's been a while. 

So I'm not perfect... so I didn't letter in high school (Drunk Uncle from SNL? Anyone?).

But I'm back, and itching to tell you what's been going on.  And it all starts with some very silly people doing a very silly thing:

Joe and I moved to the country* last October (out of DC... pretty, pretty, wonderful DC), in an effort to save money and be smart as we head toward starting a family. 

*Read country as 30 minutes outside of DC in the burbs, but Joe feels country has more cred.

And it's a beautiful home... huge, 1400 sq.ft. with 2 master bedrooms, each with their own bath, washer/dryer IN unit (drool) and a 20 foot patio (currently the habitat for a 17 ft. colorful hammock from Mexico-double drool).

Cut to 6 mo. later and we can't take it anymore! I mean what were we thinking!? Moving OUT of the city? There are no words. Sure we were doing this for our future family... but there's no sense in sacrifice if it means you're going to resent your kids as soon as you create them.

I mean there's sacrifice and then there's just dumb.

Our commutes alone are enough to send us both into bad moods at the thought, and then there's the fact that the "30 minutes outside of DC" translates to "Eastern Zimbabwe" for our friends and family... seriously, not even central Zimbabwe... Eastern.

So, in February I started putting the thought in Joe's ear that we should not stay in the burbs any longer than was necessary, that we were both now in our 30's and that we should buy something... anything - as long as it was in the city. He was equally as keen to return to being city-mice as he'd grown up in Brooklyn and moved straight to DC and then this evil woman came into his life, made him love her and moved him to where there are parking lots and chain restaurants...everywhere.

So I hunted (read that literally) for our new home. I surfed every new home app as well as our realtor's site (Lindsay and the gang are amaze-balls) and did drive-by's (the good kind) in all my coveted neighborhoods - for months.  Then when we finally found the perfect home - it was gone from the market before we could blink (twice!) Average time on the market in DC is currently 3-5 daysssssss.  But I digress... and I kept hunting, I ate, drank and breathed realty (ask Joe) and FINALLY...

Joe and I bought a house* in the city!

*Read house as 680sq.ft. 1 bed and den, 1 bath, pre-war (fancy way of saying 3rd-floor walk-up) w/d in the basement, 2 closets in the entire place and neither in the bedrooms, condo.

I'm so excited I could do something extremely un-lady-like.
Talk about personal Victory.

It's in the most perfect part of the city (to us) on the most perfect street (to us) and it is in an adorable building (to us). It's like we just bought Park Place or Boardwalk, and it rocks.

So, we settle on the home August 15th. And our tentative move date is two Thursdays after that (we will be painting and prepping the first weekend). So that gives us a month from YESTERDAY to pack up and ship out. *picks self-up off of floor after black-out and continues to write* 

One small side note- as I said, we currently live in 1400 sq.ft, of two floors, two full bedrooms and three bathrooms with a well gardened 20 foot patio. So moving to less than half of our current floorplan with 2 cats and planning on a baby entering that picture at some point in the near future- this is no problem right?

As this man would say... Piece of cake!
Quick, name the movie!

So now. All of my time is spent thinking about this move and really with one word emblazoned in my mind... downsizing.

With this move, my entire world is shifting, it's not just a move, I'm beginning an entire philosophy around this. And the more I mulled and cut magazine articles and DIY's and Pinned like the dickens on how to make my life so much smaller (yet more valuable) than it has been ever before I thought - I should really write about this.

So there it is.  Sorry I was gone - but now I'm back, with a quest. 

One woman's quest to live with less in a world that thinks that more is best.

 

And away we go!

Sincerely,
Jessica

p.s. I'm bringing back the sign-off, that's right, I said it.