No, this isn’t me.
When we moved into our present home, I was eight months pregnant with Molly. It had been a challenging pregnancy. I had threatened premature labor and spent at least three months in and out of bed, praying for the contractions to stop.
As you might imagine, my patients and staff were tired of the chaos. They never knew if I’d be there for an appointment or if I’d leave partway through. That meant I bumped up against cranky people all day and worried about finances at night.
Then there was the six weeks we spent in a hotel apartment waiting for this place to open up. The neighborhood was scary and we were a half-block from traffic, so we couldn’t open the windows at night. Imagine, July and no AC…
Moving can be hard.
To counter the pangs of the unfamiliar, new-home traditions can be found in most world cultures. Here’s a quote that appealed:
In China people believe that it good luck to bring an orange or tangerine tree in the home. The reason for it is the fact that Chinese words for orange and luck sound very similar.
We have the oranges already, Zesties, but it feels like we need more. What does one do to open a blogging home? What would be typical of me?
I could think of only one solution:
A Double-O-Welcome.
I’m certain you wouldn’t recognize the place without a little DC, so I appreciate that he’d take the time to appear, and to so thoughtfully drop trou beforehand.
Does your family have a welcoming tradition around a new home? Do you have a way of warding off evil spirits?
Speaking of which, please do let me know what you think of the design, particularly if you’re encountering glitches or having trouble navigating!
Love the new site! It’s clean, fresh, and zesty. Easy to navigate and clear. I switched my subscription over here on Google Reader easily. No problem. Congrats on your new home!!
Woot! Glad to hear it, Lisa. Thanks so much for coming.
Jan,
Congrats on the move. I love the new place!
Thanks, Christi. I was thinking of you as I pulled the trigger. “If Christi can do this, so can I…” 😉
Love the new home, Jan. You’ve done an elegant job with the decorating – spare design complemented with splashes of colour!
I was trying to think of what I do in a new place, because I’ve moved so many times in my life, but we’ve been in this one for 12 years (impossible to believe!) and it all fades. I do subscribe to a modified feng shui with furniture placement and sage smudge occasionally. Does that count?
I’ve traveled, but I haven’t moved my home often, Deborah. Perhaps that accounts for my feet-dragging.
As for your sage-smudging, I don’t know that I’d call it a tradition, per se, but it sounds quite lovely.
Pets sometimes need extra patience in feeling at home in a new dwelling. Familiar objects may help with a dog. But an acquaintance mentioned that you could put some butter on the bottom of your cat’s paws. It makes them lick their paws, something they tend to do when they feel at home. I wouldn’t recommend it for your new site, though. 😉
Haha. Yes, I think I’ll pass. Don’t need any grease stains on this place just yet. 😉
Thanks for visiting, Phyllis. Want to hear something bizarre? When I imported my content, you somehow ended up as a contributing author.
Wow. And we’d just quit believing in ghosts in the machine… I’m at a loss to explain how that happened. The only thing I can think of is that I have my own blog on WP. Maybe it created a link spontaneously? I don’t mind–just got a rather embarrassingly small check from my publisher, so no such thing as bad publicity. But then they’re still doing the e-book changeover for my novels.
Hi Jan,
Congrats on the new blog!
When we moved into our house four years ago, my aunt asked why we bought an old house. (Our house was built in 1934.) She told me she’d never spend the night here because it was inhabited by ghosts and suggested that we have the house “exorcised” for bad spirits.
So I suppose you could have an exorcism. 🙂 I can hook you up with an exorcist who travels extensively performing exorcisms. She’s my sister-in-law’s former nanny, whom we refer to as the exorcist nanny.
Now there’s a high-concept story, Jennifer! An exorcist nanny.
Thank you for the kind offer, but even I have trouble imagining a haunted IP address. (Maybe I shouldn’t say that aloud!)
And a belated congrats to you and Becke. I read about your “promotion” on Romance University. Exciting!
Aren’t we supposed to bring a gift to the warming of your new digs? A bottle of e-booze? Here you go:
http://bookhaven.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/veuve_clicquot.jpg
Only the best for you!
Too kind, Oly. Next time bring the real stuff and we’ll talk. 😉
Good to see you here. You’ll notice the TartAlarm travels well.