The day
Vanessa packed she found that she had reduced her life down to 4 pairs of Old
Navy Jeans, a blue jean skirt and dress
that appealed to her by Levi Straus, 4 pairs of LL Bean canvas cargo pants, 6 tee shirts, 5 light
weight blouses from Kohl’s in pastel colors, 4 plaid over shirts, a pair of
Hiking boots from Newman Marcus, a pair of Sketchers cross trainers and 1 set
of Christian Dior Heels she could not bear to part with, A tidy pile of Hanes
comfort wear, a couple of no-nonsense stockings, 4 pairs of sports socks and 1
pair of black tights with a blue leopard print leotard. Several sports bras and
one silky Victoria’s secret wonder bra, a couple of baseball caps chosen at
random- one an LA Ink and the other a Seattle Seahawks plus 2 pairs of Ray bans
and they bags were full. There was a
small bag of toiletries along with minimal makeup and a couple of Burt’s Bees
Lip gloss. Surprising it all fit into a pretty compact suitcase and backpack
assortment.
She
looked down at this accomplishment not without a sense of wonder at being
methodical enough to reduce her wardrobe down so effectively and efficiently to
fit it all into the two pieces of luggage so quickly. She was also thoroughly
efficient in her other choices. She purchased an ereader and connected it to
her laptop and downloaded every book she had ever owned, then selected several
camping guides and a selection of travel/survival books and a complete set of
fantasy books including the Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, The Wheel of Time,
Memory sorrow and thorn, A song of Ice and Fire as well as Earthsea and
Chronicles of Narnia. She included several other books that looked interesting
before going over all the music she had ripped from her CD collection before
remembering to go back and get some books on homeopathic medicine and remedies
as well as a book on herbalism and plant gathering.
The next
day she realized that a power source for recharging would be unlikely so she
went to Radio Shack and Best buy and bought extra batteries for her laptop and
some battery boosters and whatever else the all too happy clerk recommended.
She had money to burn from the sale of her car and the advance on her condo so
she didn’t haggle much over it. The clerk at Radio shack armed her with 2 smart
phones, a thing he called a “burner phone” which looked like a prepaid cell
phone to her. She turned down the GPS since the Smart phones had something
almost as effective, she almost bought one anyway but got an emergency beacon
instead and hand-powered flashlight/radio.
On her
way home she picked up a small stack of notebooks, pencils and pens and a
compact photo album which she selected her favorite photos and printed them and
placed into it over the following week. She bought a small backpack that could
double as a purse and sorted out everything she thought she would need to carry
in it. At some point she wondered if there was any point to credit cards and
pitched all but one American Express, she kept the cash and wondered if there
would be some way to exchange currency at the border. She sat there in the
center of her living room surrounded by all this stuff laughing at herself
since she wasn’t sure if there would be a border much less currency.
She
packed and repacked it all several times wondering what the hell did she think
she was doing. Then she repacked making sure to leave out an outfit for
traveling. Then it was time to go to bed and go back to work. Work was
meaningless. And yet the less interested she became with her job the better
that Frank seemed to think she was doing with it. Each night following work she would pack and
repack all the gear testing it to see if she could carry it around the condo
easily without killing her back.
She had
decided the day following the visit to her parents house, pretty much on the
point of the decision that she would go wherever Quest would take her that she
had to not only get equipped but also get some training or as much training as
the window of time would allow. The next day following work she went out to a
local Dojo/school that a girl at her gym recommended and talked the owner one
Mr. Steven Wong to take her into the beginner class in Jujitsu and Kung fu.
Turned out the reason he was reluctant was that she was not only the only woman
in the class but she was also the oldest participant by 20 years!
There
she stood amongst 7-12 year old kids learning the basics. She had to spar with
the instructor who could stop grinning. Van just shook her head and
concentrated on the task at hand. Eventually after 3 classes the instructor
relented and told her he had an adult class she could join. Despite the
obviousness of the ruse to see if she was really dedicated to learning, Van
actually missed the kids more than she let on. Kids are after all mostly
guileless and honest. The adult’s participant wanted to be kind or date her or
both so they lied about how well she did or didn’t do and she never really felt
she got a measure of if she was getting progress in her fighting skills.
While
she was selling off her worldly goods, packing up the remainder and learning
Kung Fu, she enrolled in the Police sponsored self defense class and joined the
Tae Bo class at the gym. Some days she went non-stop, up at dawn down to the
gym for a spinning class then hit the showers and off to work until lunch when
she would run – yes almost sprint the five blocks for a 30 minute session at
the Wong’s dojo and then back to work then catch a light supper and then go
either to Tae Bo or the evening class of Jujitsu meets Kung Fu for 2 hours and
then home to pack and repack her goods. Bed came late and she rose early to begin
again. Oddly her performance at work improved with the new routine rather than worsen and Frank left meetings
with a big mysterious smile on his face. She hardly noticed the months slip by
and before she realized it two had passed before she remembered that the time
must be coming soon.
After
the self defense class came to an end she enrolled in the Firefighter’s CPR
training class. She received a very warm welcome from the 14th and
many volunteer victims to resuscitate. After several come-ons she found that
they were all very willing to teach her quite a bit of first responder aid and
dole out advice on what to do in emergencies. Most were disappointed to learn
that Van had little to no time for dinner or dates as she had enrolled herself
out of anytime to date. Always having a class to go to or something work
related when not. She never had to lie about not being able to even after some
pretty tempting offers came her way. She would close her eyes as a new offer
was made and envision a battlefield and not being able to patch up a comrade or
protect him or her from an unseen enemy and the no came out quite naturally and
pleasantly.
Van
even talked a very surprised Wong into giving her some weapons training towards
the end. She was a very determined student albeit a very inexperienced one and
while she could hold her own sparring most of it was very robotic as most
beginners are. Wong reluctantly agreed to let her attend his weapons classes on
the weekends but not participate in the sparring since he could not see her
being able to go toe to toe with the men in the class. After the first class
Van could see why. The men were mostly amused, annoyed and irritated that she
was there at all and did everything they could to show off or show her up when
they thought they could get away with it.
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