psst...

over here! want to know a secret? last week i took a second vicoden too soon after the first, and ended up needing a ride home from work and then i barfed.  since then i've been afraid to take them, and have only taken half of one at a time.  that wasn't working, so i bit the bullet and took a whole one tonight.  guess what? i feel awesome and wish i'd done this earlier today so i could have gotten more done.  dammit. 

i will never go back to the other house again

neither will LuLu.  man, this cat loves the new carpet at this place.  it's soft, it's thick, it's cozy, and she has taken to flopping everywhere.  she especially loves to plop down in places where you might trip over her (like doorways!), and she's also discovered that darting between your feet while you're walking up or down stairs is seriously fun.  the cat might be the death of us.
 
it took what felt like forever, but we are finally, once and for all, done with the old house.  we still have a lot of unpacking and organizing to do at this house, but at least we can focus all our energy to here and not there.  i admit i've been feeling kind of tense, which makes me suzy sunshine, but i can't help it!  i just feel like there is so much to do and i want it all done yesterday.  my back is still royally fucked up, my sinuses have decided to jump in on the pain wagon, i'm sick to death of taking any kind of pain medication.  i'm set up to start some physical therapy soon for my back, which i think will help.  i might also see a chiropractor.  i also need to maybe take a deep breath and realize that stuff will get unpacked when it does, and as long as i can find towels for taking showers and my scrubs, we're doing okay.  the rest can wait. 

i've been going through fabrics too, getting rid of ones i've held on to for far to long.  anyone doing any serious quilting or sewing and want some fabric? drop me a line and i'll let you know what i have.

i also put some new plants out front, and bought some catnip for guess who.  she took a bite of the fresh stuff today and i think it blew her kitten mind.  i have to say, watching her acclimate to the house and neighborhood has been the one bright spot in all the moving shenanigans.  i'm endlessly amused at how amazing she finds it all, and watching her discover new nooks to hide, and new spots to perch, and seeing her happy tail and fluffy tummy all the time is pretty rad.  the kids are also beyond cheerful; the girlchild made friends already with the little girls across the street and the boychik loves his new room.  he's made it a cozy little man nest already.  we're all settling in, and that feels pretty good.  i love planning what i'm going to paint the walls and where i want to move things.  i just wish i felt better and could get more done!

FLOP

i just spent three of the longest days of my life trying to move out of one house and into another.  OMG i hate moving so much.  i hate that we have a million books, and that a quarter of them are insanely huge and heavy cook books. i have a love/hate relationship to the weather; one day it rained and i hated it, and the next two it was hot and muggy and i hated that too.  oh wait, i guess that makes it a hate/hate relationship.  i hate that we busted ass for three days, but glad that we did because we got more done than i thought we could.  i hate that the kids keep asking me where things are.  um, your guess is as good as mine.  i especially hate being asked if i've seen this or that book.  DUDES, really?  do you see it in the piles?

i do love the icy cold beer i have in my hands right now, knowing i get to take a shower in my rocking new bathroom tomorrow morning,  folding clean clothes, and the feeling of washing your face after a long, dusty, sweaty day.  i'm kind of sad we couldn't convince LuLu to come over with us, but i bet a night alone will change her mind. 

my body and brain are jello.  i do believe i will finish my beer, watch an old movie, and put more books away. 

up too late

pretty much every night this week.  then i'm late to work the next morning, confused when my alarm goes off, and generally useless that first hour.  fun times for my co-worker.  if he weren't such a laid back dude, i would be able to raise his blood pressure with my consistent disregard for clocks. 

since getting married, i've seen my husband about three times, and he's taken to sleeping in the living room.  that sounds shitty when i write it down, but it's the truth.  our schedules are complete and total opposites right now, even with all my staying up late.  he works until at least 1 or 2 in the morning, and i get up at 6.  on a good night he comes home as i'm heading to bed and i get a quick kiss before lying down.  this is new for both of us; things at the restaurant he works at have changed (the place itself got a make-over, people are going on and off vacations, and D made himself imminently available, which they've taken full advantage of), we need the money for the move and stuff, and while the wedding was awesome and i'm still glad we're married, this past month has kind of sucked.  in as much as i married a man i don't get to see a lot of, and you know, i kind of like him so that bums me out.  we spend most of our time talking about the move, what's going on with the kids and school (guess what! both decided to have shitty last quarters!), and things we'd do to each other if we had either the time or energy.

while this makes my life sound both boring and shitty, it really isn't.  it's just having a boring, shitty spell right now.  once we are moved, get settled, and start having barbeques in the backyard, i think everything will be a-okay. 

ack

i did not get as much done today as i wanted to, but we do have gas and internet/phone over at the new house.  i spent some time there today washing dishes (in the dishwasher!) and putting them away, unpacking boxes, doing laundry (we got a lot of new towels for the wedding, which is awesome) and waiting.  my mother-in-law came over and helped me line shelves, which was super nice because a) i'm not really very detail oriented sometimes and so b) they looked a lot neater and nicer because she was in charge. 

the difference between the two houses is amazing.  coming back to the rental is a downer; not just because there's still so much left to pack (and there is!), but because it's darker and not as spacious.  i wish my back would also get better.  since messing it up before the wedding, it is not the same, and i've had continuous pain for a little over two weeks now.  my lower back hurts pretty much all the time, and lifting anything that weighs more than five pounds is no fun. my left shoulder and elbow are also kind of wonky and achey right now too.  i feel like i have crabby old lady joints!  i think i might have done too much knitting and strained that left side.  i can't tell if that makes me a bad-ass crafter or a retard.  ugh.  in any case, my body is not cooperating with my mind, and the menthol back patches aren't really working.  i might need to go ahead and get the heated ones, take a ton of ibuprofen, and just power through. 

i did warn both kids that this weekend i'm getting them hopped on caffeine and exploiting their labor.  they can have ice cream when we're done.  i also really really really want to buy paint for our bedroom and get started on that.  i think in my nook i'll use this color (or something similar), but i want a warm-ish grey for the bedroom.  initially i wanted a creamy yellow, but the paint already in there is kind of dark, and the more i see grey tones, the more i love them. it's neutral without being tan, and will dress up or down nicely.  have any of you painted inside recently?  would you recommend a brand?  the glidden was easy to pick up samples for, but i hear behr covers nicer and wears well.    

some pictures for you

 the new family room!  while the living room upstairs is lovely, and i'm sure we'll use it often, this is the room we're planning on putting the tv and stuff.  it's got a supremely mellow vibe, and in the summer it's nice and cool since it's sort of underground, and in the winter, it's cozy because it's got a fireplace.

 yesterday while waiting for the new washer and drier to be installed, i made the first cup of coffee in our fancy new coffee maker!  needless to say, it was delicious. 

look at our cute new washer and drier!  i'm excited about breaking them in.  i can't tell if that is pathetic or awesome.  in any case, they are quiet and eco-friendly and blue, and i'm a happy girl.

after doing some house things yesterday, D and i took a long drive to nowhere.  i had a great time. i think D had fun too, but was also busy thinking about all the stuff we still need to do at the new and old houses, and so he might not have had as much fun as i did.  we stopped for a beer at the north fork brewery, drove up a curvy, scary logging road to watch paragliders, and we saw all three forks of the nooksack river.  it was nice to just be out in the sun, people and scenery watching.

today we get to wait around for various people to come set things up at the new house, which is kind of lame.  i hate the whole, "we'll be there between 8 and 5."  really?  you can't narrow it down to a morning or afternoon time?  i guess i should take a shower and pack up the car with another load and go relieve D.

dear anne,

today i promise to move some boxes into the new house.  my plan is to move all my big knitting boxes (yarn aweigh!), all my sewing and fabric boxes, and whatever else i have that is conveniently in storage boxes.  honest. 

xoxo amanda

one week!

i've been married now for seven whole days.  i got asked a lot this week, "so do you feel different?"  the answer is, "yes."  it's hard to explain, but i don't feel like everything is just the same old, same old.  part of it is afterglow from all the lovey-dovey days leading up to and including the wedding, part of it is a generalized feeling of "wow."  i keep thinking to myself, "i got married!"  in getting married, that means everyone knows how much i love him, how much he loves me, and our intentions to be together for a long ass time. so it's not like i love him more, but more a sense that our families and friends are on board.  in a very general, overwhelming way, it feels really good to be married.  it's a subtle difference, but different anyway.  it's awesome.  i always felt like we were a good team before, but now i'm ready to buy us uniforms with our names embroidered on them.    

people were surprised to see me back at work this week, everyone thought i'd take some time off for moving but guess what?  i'm retarded and want to save that vacation time for the summer.  i have three day weekends and strong kids, so no taking time off for moving!  plus, i think next week i'll just rent a truck for a day and we can do it all at once.  whatever it costs will be worth it to not have to make a million trips.

i also cut off all my hair this week, downloaded and printed the million and two forms it takes to change your name, and sent out a billion thank you cards (i still have some left to do, of course).  overall, i think my first week of wedded bliss went well.  it's too early to tell, but i think i might be a kick-ass wife.  

also, here is the song we picked for our first dance. okay, our only dance. it's hard to dance when everyone wants to talk to you!

whew

all this unpacking and moving stuff around is quite exhausting. i'm not even remotely done, either. in fact, i'm sucking at staying focused. hence the blogging. i did get my old dresser into my room, and clear out the dresser i acquired from a co-worker for the girlchild. now we all have dressers! except the boychik, who prefers his clothes in random piles.

had a follow-up eye exam, and discovered that the contacts, not my eyes, were to blame for the weird dryness. the ones i have in now are so much more comfortable it's not even funny. i just thought my eyes were weird, because you know, i'm a little bit of a hypochondriac. it couldn't possibly be the contacts, it has to be some eye disease that's gone undiagnosed!

while it feels really good to have my stuff, i do wish a had a lot less of it. back to the unpacking for me!

ding dong

the witch is dead! i got my last batch of belongings out of my bitch-ass roommate's house and i feel fan-fucking-tastic. i did not want to do it today, no--i lay in bed all morning telling D i was tired and didn't want to go, but once i put my bike on the back of my car, left my key, and drove on out of there i felt like a brand-new woman. a relieved one! if i never talk to her again, it might be too soon. my roommate's house was a good fit for me at first, but once i moved out of the bad place i was (mopey and freaked out by the end of my relationship with the fisherman) it was like a too-tight pair of pants. serviceable, but not comfortable.

we've been working on integrating my stuff into the family's, and so far it's going well. D has been seriously conscious of giving me enough space and making sure i feel welcome. it's true we've been de-facto shacking up for a while now, but moving in for real feels different. i'm looking forward to getting the rest of my stuff out of storage and finishing my nomad days once and for all.

this weekend the kids and i went to the drive-in again. we saw land of the lost and the newest terminator movie. land of the lost was absurdly retarded; kind of like watching a surrealist painting with sex jokes, but don't let that make you think we didn't enjoy it. we did. i will say this, however, not a kid's movie. i fell asleep and missed the beginning of the terminator movie, but what i saw was totally enjoyable. the boychik loved it, so i have a feeling we'll be renting it so he can watch it with his pop too. on the way into town we stopped at Saars Marketplace in Oak Harbor to pick up groceries. specifically: ramen. we love the spicy ramen, as well as the other awesome asian flavors, and there really isn't anyplace in the skagit valley that has a good selection.* we loaded up on noodles, kimchi, mochi, hello pandas and ramune sodas (the kid's first). speaking of kimchi; D has been convinced he doesn't like it for a long time now. whenever i mention a craving for it, he balks. this morning we got up late and had ramen for brunch and i opened up the kimchi to add a little to mine. he tried a bite, and that's all it took. we spent all morning looking up kimchi recipes, eating it, and making plans to make our own batch this weekend. the little jar i bought is over 3/4 of the way gone, and we've spent most of this afternoon trying to convince the kids that it's amazing and they need to try it. dear kimchi, i love you. thanks for being so crunchy and spicy and awesome!

*unless there is and i don't know about it! if you know something i don't, please feel free to let me know.

this is post 1,100! crazy.

(i am composing this post while half-heartedly listening to a work conference call. just so you know.)

you've known me long enough to know that i hate moving. moving makes me depressed in a strange way, even when i'm moving out of one awful place into an awesome one. this time, i'm leaving behind a drunken drama queen who's morbidly obese daughter steals my shit to move in with my handsome husband-to-be and his rad kids. yet i still find myself kind of melancholy. i haven't actually lived there in over two months, but for some reason packing my shit up and getting it out makes me sad and pokey. i was trying to explain that to D and i ended up just saying, "it's just one of my little nuerosis." because really, that's it. there's no good reason to feel sad about leaving a house i didn't enjoy to move in with people i love, but it's there anyhow. i haven't been over there in over a week, even, to get the last of my things because the thought of that house makes my tummy hurt. god, i am such a baby. i just need to get some big plastic garbage bag together, grab my boxes and get over there and get my shit. i'll take the boychik over later this week; having him there is a nice buffer. no one messes with me when the kids are around because they know that's something i absolutely will not tolerate. my roommate can be a bitch to me, but if she starts with my boy, she's likely to get a moutful of my fist. wow. that last sentence made me sound like a badass!

we barbequed giant, ridiculously massive turkey legs last night for dinner. (see above!) i highly recommend doing this if you run into them at the store. it takes some time to cook them, but it is totally worth it. we rubbed them down with a blend of smoked salt, garlic, olive oil and smoked paprika. we made three of them to feed the four of us, and had enough left over to make turkey burritos with the leftovers today. they were also cheap, which is nice in these tough economic times (cue sad NPR music here). in short, if i were to suggest an unusual cut of meat for cookig on fire, i'd like to nominate turkey legs. i'd also like to encourage everyone to bbq more, out back, with your friends and family, drinking beer and playing frisbee while meat and veggies cook. it's just a nice way to end your day.

how is it saturday already?

i swear the week just started! i actually did some moving/unpacking stuff today. if i have to move out of this place any time soon i am going to be seriously pissed. and i'm going to ask for help, so beware.

a friend at work hooked me up with a dresser she was getting rid of. it's retarded looking (someone painted it hot pink and black, and they did so poorly), but it's big and fits in the closet so you can't see it. i also bought some curtains and a rod today, and a computer desk and chair. i spent a LOT of money, but it was well worth it. i think. i need to balance my checkbook and make sure i can actually keep it all, i might need to take some of the extraneous stuff back. like the candles i bought, and the votive holders. there's $10 right there!

work is both strange and good right now. i got a raise! finally. i'm serious, i've been promised this raise for months and months now, and was getting ready to quit. i was actually going to wait until i went on vacation, then do it when i got back. so that's the good news. the strange is the wine guy, of course. the rumors about us are running rampant and virulent, and i can't do much but laugh them off, really. to protest too much just makes me look guilty, and no matter what i say people are going to believe what they want. plus, he's taken to not wearing his wedding ring. what the fuck? i recall him distinctly wearing it when we met, that's how i knew he was married, but because he doesn't wear it no one else knows it. i have to tell on average three people a day that he's married and i'm not a whore, and yes we have lunch together sometimes. jeez. i think that's allowable, and to be honest, i don't want to give that up. selfish, yes, but i don't know a lot of people who share the same interests as me, and i think as long as i never make-out with him, i should be able to have lunch with him. for all i know, all those things he said could just be perfectly innocent. he hasn't made an actual move toward my boobs, so i think i'm safe.

speaking of boobs! i saw a co-worker today and she was in her regular clothes, and looking super foxy. i said, "hey M! you look super cute! man, you have great boobs." i mean, she does. (insert sexual harassment suit here!) she said "thanks, i should, i paid a lot for them." d'oh! i didn't believe her, not because i think buying boobs is inherently awful or shallow or anything, but just because i've known her for a long time now and had no idea. plus, they look amazing. really. i would have never in a million years thought they were anything but perfectly natural. she's got a great doctor. it had to be the funniest conversation i've ever had with her, though, and while i was surprised to hear her news, i was kind of stoked she likes me enough to tell me. (and you know what, if you are wearing a cute shirt and your girls look good, i will tell you too. i can't help it. some shirts just make them look awesome and i'm all about giving a girl props for it!)

did you miss me?

it's been a crazy week in my life. true story. i moved, one more time (hopefully the last time for a while), had to deal with the fourth of july holiday at work (who knew grocery stores got so crazy?), and have been busy unpacking and settling in.

got the internet set up today. it was less than smooth sailing; my computer's ethernet connection is fritzed, for some unknown reason. i've spent most of this morning futzing with it, but to no avail. broke down and bought a wireless usb network adapter, which is working like a dream. the other computer will need one as well, but we can probably share one for a while.

my roommate is pretty awesome; she is actually one of my bosses at work. what should be weird oddly isn't, but i admit i do try harder to treat her like my boss at work. i don't want her thinking i'm going to take advantage of the fact that i know where she lives, you know? the only downside to living here is that my room is *little* and i am a woman of lots of stuff. the other thing that puts a crimp in my style are her kids. she has two, an 8 and 12 year old. the little boy and i get along famously, he is super sweet and fun to hang out with, but the teen girl is just that--a teenager. a very talkative, know-it-all, never-quite-for-a-fucking-second teenager. she's very sweet, don't get me wrong, and i genuinely like her, but i wish she would shut her piehole on occasion. they don't live here all the time, though, and to be honest i think once they get used to me they'll settle down a bit. i might not get all of my weekends alone, but i'll get at least two a month and that's reasonable. it's more than i got when i was living with ed, so that's something to be thankful for.

okay, off to unpack more and drink more coffee. i'm so glad we got to talk, i'm sure we have lots to catch up on.

aaargh!!!!

they were supposed to shut my internet off today, but luckily i got a few more hours so i can vent about all the annoying things that happened to me today.

1. last night it took over two hours to take apart the cheap-ass futon that's been tormenting my back for months. i needed to break it back down so i could haul it out and drop it in the dumpster, but it was such a ridiculously hard and protracted experience. it involved an allen wrench, a crescent wrench, a rag and a whole lot of swearing. gah!
2. therefore, only one full carload of stuff made it from my apartment to the new house. the disassembly also cut into my night of packing.
3. i called the apartment manager this morning to ask if it would be okay if i finished moving out tomorrow morning; because i needed help getting my bed downstairs and had to work all day today. they agreed, then asked when the carpet cleaners were scheduled to come on by. um, what?
4. i guess i agreed to get the carpets cleaned before i moved. also, the blinds. that part cracks me up because i've been here for 6 months and how dirty can they be? the carpet, sure, but the blinds? i don't see it.
   
5. the good news about this is that they'll take the payment right out of my deposit, so at least it won't be money out of pocket.
   
6. at work, someone called in sick and we had a new girl. this led to another 12 hour shift at work, which is always awesome for the paycheck, but not such a fun thing to do. plus, i think i did sort of a shitty job closing because i felt all antsy about going home.
   
7. the new girl was totally rad, but informed us before she left that her first day was going to be her last. what the hell. i'm glad she at least told us, but what the fuck?! so as nice as she was (is) i'm feeling kind of bitter about her.
   

now i am totally exhausted and want nothing more than to crawl into bed, but i'm sure there's too much to do to just relax.

tomorrow should be better. cross your fingers!

the boxes are going to kill me

i feel bad for anyone who knows me in real life because lately you have been hearing one of two things, over and over again, on repeat. 1) it's hot!!! and 2) i fucking hate packing. both are true, but there's nothing i can do about either. dammit!

my internet is likely to be spotty the next few days, since i have to shut it off and one place and turn it on elsewhere, but i will be back as soon as i can. the thought of no youtube or flickr or adultswim makes me nervous, but i'll soldier through it.

also, thanks for all the nice emails and calls i got the past few days. for the record, i do feel much better. and re-reading that last post got me nervous that i sounded like the meds make it hard for me to happy, but that's not the case. i think because i get the downs, my ups are sometimes higher than normal. on the medication, i'm still happy and sad and all that shit, but sometimes my reactions are delayed or not quite as sharply focused. of course, this is mainly true about small thing. the point is, when i'm all keyed up and freaked out i rarely have the time or energy to feel anything but DOOM and GLOOM and MUST DRINK COCKTAIL. i need to be relaxed to feel much else, duh. anxiety is like a boyfriend who is sometimes nice to you, sometimes helps you clean the house until it sparkles and makes you feel pretty and smart, and then pisses all over the bathroom and tells you what a slob you are. you don't think about the bad shit when you feel good, and then when it's bad you just worry it's never going to get better. the thing is, you just need to dump the jerk and take your pills. or get a good shrink, or whatever works for you. that was a metaphor that totally got weak at the end. the point is, the meds work for me. i don't want to have to take them forever, but i might not have a choice. for now, they work and maybe later, when i have a lot of free time and money i can invest in some talk therapy and go off them. i suspect i won't ever be able to do that, i might just be neurotic the way some people are blonde or have green eyes. i can think of worse things.

new love

i always sort of thought i loved oingo boingo, but after watching forbidden zone this weekend and youtube-ing a whole slew of oingo videos, i now know i do indeed LOVE oingo boingo. specifically, i love the hot nerdiness of early danny elfman. my goodness, that man rocks the red hair and suspenders so brilliantly. if i had known elfman back in the day, i would have thrown myself at him. repeatedly. tiernan and i watched the satan part of forbidden zone a few times today, singing along and watching danny dance. he loved it as much as i do, although i was worried about letting a three year old watch boobies. (he seemed not to notice, though.) it's one of the tamer parts of the film as well, so we could watch it together.

forbidden zone was another movie i heard about through the mystery grapevine, and it was delightful. i made the fisherman watch it with me, expecting him to hate it, but he had as much fun watching it as i did. true, he thought it was bizarro, but he was totally game. this is what i like in a man: being up for anything. want to see a weird movie? sure. want to go some bar we've never been to? okay. want to eat this food you've never had before? why not. want to hang out with people you've never met and might hate? love to. i am not always so open, no matter how hard i try to be. the mood isn't always right, i sometimes want the familiar and cozy as much as the next kid, but for the most part i'd say i'm okay with relinquishing some control and trying something totally new. anyone who says more often than not, "no, i don't want to do your weird thing" isn't a boy who hangs around for very long. amanda, she has some standards.

i like the fisherman. i have this sneaky suspicion i will miss him when he leaves. don't tell anyone, because we all know i'm a bad-ass broad and all that shit.

i am fucking tired

like with a capital F. i still have a massive amount of stuff to do, because selling the rocket turned out to be a much bigger clusterfuck than i could have imagined. however, it was a pleasant clusterfuck, so whatever. if i had actually been packing and moving the four hours it took to deal with that, i'd have a lot less to do now. the long and short of it is that in order to have the rocket sold and belonging to corey, the nice young man who bought my car, we had to register it in our names, then get a notarized power of attorney so he could then re-register it in his own name. it got me out of the house, which was good because i am totally stir-crazy, but it took a lot longer than i had planned. if corey hadn't been so nice and fun to hang out with, my head would have exploded.

i promise this is my last post for a good long while about moving. i am tired of it in just about every way possible; physically, emotionally, mentally and mathematically. figuring out how to fit everything in my box is breaking my brain. i could not for the life of me figure out how i had so much more stuff, especially considering i am leaving behind two major pieces of furniture (the futon and the green table), but then i remembered i shipped all my books here last time. maybe i should have done that this time. that would have made this a lot easier. also, i keep running out of boxes.

it's going to suck to be aaron in about a month, when he has to help me unpack the box. i'm through soldiering on like a dumbass, next time i'm getting help, even if i have to twist arms to get it.

less than 24 hours! going home! first, going to bed.

!! rock star !!

i bought a four pack of the diet rockstar, which is called "sugar free" because men don't do "diet," in an effort to actually get a lot of shit done today. i'm already feeling good about it.

i would be working on packing right now, but i'm waiting for someone to come by and buy the rocket, and i don't feel like being all sweaty and messy while i try to coax him into buying my busted vehicle. earlier this week (monday) i put an ad up on craigslist detailing exactly what's wrong with the car. i mean it. every little thing that is wrong is on there, as well all the good things about the rocket. i pointed out that it is not running right now, but that it should only take a few hundred dollars to get it up and going, and then it will go forever, as civics do. i placed the price at $300, and told them if they wanted it, they had to move it. so far i've received 32 emails about it. i thought this was going to be a lot harder to unload, and while it's been touch and go (people call and then don't come by, or tell me they'll be here at a certain time and then call an hour later saying this time they're really on their way!), i'm certain i can get rid of the rocket and make a little cash. hopefully in a few hours the rocket will be gone and i can go back to focusing on how much i hate packing.

one of my roommate's is taking me to the airport tomorrow, albeit crazy early. my flight leaves at 6:30 (p.m.) and she's dropping me off at 1:30 (p.m.). this is not a complaint; i'm glad to have a real ride and to not have to pay for a shuttle. i just wonder what i'm going to do for hours. have beers in an airport bar, i suppose. look for a book to read. it's a wonder barnes and noble hasn't moved into airports, they could make a killing. people buying books, magazines, music and coffee. all the things you need on a flight! has anyone spent a long time in DIA? do you have any suggestions?

***edit***the rocket has been sold! of course, he started like a champ this morning after i hooked up the battery. had i known this before the buyer showed up, i probably could have squeezed more money out of him, but that would have seriously affected my car karma. after all, the rocket likes to run, just not all the time. the buyer is going to have to fix it, and probably sooner rather than later. plus, it's out of my garage and my last physical tie to colorado has now been severed. cash money! in my pocket! all is good.

i think i pissed the cat off

she's been meowing non-stop since i woke up this morning to pee, she's been biting my heels and meowing some more, she dug a huge hole in the dirt in my jasmine plant, and did i mention the meowing? because it's not so much a "meow" as an "ungodly loud cat-like noise, repeated often and endlessly." i know part of it is that she doesn't feel good (we are pretty sure she has worms. rock!), and part of it is the line of boxes stretching from my room to all over the damn house. she knows something is up, and she does not like it.

i'm annoyed with her today, but i admit i'm going to miss the hell out of this cat. she's a sweetie pie most of the time, and how many cats do you know that like to sleep under the covers, spooned up against you? not many. i wonder if she'll remember me when i come back to visit?

dodged a bullet

my door-to-door box showed up yesterday, and i filled it with all the stuff i had in the basement. i had only scheduled to have the box for one day, because i was under the impression that i had to be here when it was picked up. after getting up this morning and assessing what still had to be done, i had a tiny nervous breakdown. i don't have a lot of stuff left to put in there, but i still have to get it into boxes first, and i don't think i have enough of those! dammit. so i called over there to try to wiggle my way into an additional day and found out that i don't have to be here for pickup, just for delivery! the point of this story is that they're picking up my box friday, and i have two more days to get shit done. whoo! two days is a lot.

it was hot yesterday, like it's going to be today, and i think i drank my body weight in water. moving is hard work. if i never move again it will be too soon. let's hope i find a place in portland that i love love love and never want to leave. all this moving around once a year was fine in college; i was younger then and my pop helped me. pop lives far away now, and i am entirely too stubborn to ask for any kind of help from anyone else. i hate helping people move, so i never ask anyone to help me. although i'm thinking i need to re-evaluate that stance. i mean, helping kids move really isn't that bad, and if it means someday they'll chip in too...man, i've been going about this all wrong.

okay, off to drink even more water, pack even more boxes, and move out of another state. if you want to come over and help, then okay. i will not stop you.