Venturing out....

Sharon texted me Friday.. a property she's been lusting after in Petaluma was having an open house on Saturday.. I should come up and have lunch and we could go look at it. Of course my first reaction was um.. er.. while my brain tried desperately to find a legitimate sounding reason why I had to stay in my cave. And I found myself texting back "that could be fun! Let me check with Kev...." She texts back "you don't need to check with Kev any more." Oh.. yeah. [deep breath] "OK, let's do it."
Got up before anyone else, hit the drive through Starbucks and off I went! Opened the sunroof, opened the windows, cranked up the radio (Classic Vinyl on Sirius). For the first time in a very long time I felt.. unencumbered! I think they call it.. fun? Met Sharon and Jeni for lunch.. Yummy chicken sandwich. Went and looked at the property. Cute little house on a couple of acres. I didn't wander the property much.. uneven ground, bad hips and visible yellow jackets kept Katie on the porch.
Then we drove more towards the downtown area... there was a house we wanted to drive by that I'd seen online (more about that in a bit). It was really lovely, but no open house and big sign "do not disturb occupants" so we didn't see the inside, but the outside was amazing. It's also about 4 blocks from dear old friend Tom. In fact.. we drove down Liberty to see if we could remember the house. We were pretty sure we had the right one but not sure enough to go knock on the door.. checked this morning and we were right.
So what did I learn from the day? Getting out is good for me. check. The "one year rule" is a smart one.. this rule says don't make any huge life changes for at least a year.. check. Looking at houses in the north bay, where I would be closer to Sharon, cousins, etc is interesting, and an option.. but not now. It is nice to know there are some cool places, single level, pool... the one I mentioned before is a single story, 3,ooo square foot Victorian, fully restored, with pool. About equal cost to what I could get for this place. So I have options.. good to know.
Driving home was also interesting.. as I got closer to home, I started noticing the anxiety coming back. Need to pay some attention to actual causes.. just messiness? Need for repairs? Uncomfortable memories? Food for thought.
All in all a good day, and I'm going to try to do things like that a little more.