First night in a new place

Over this past weekend Carol and I decided to get out of the house and spend the weekend camping out in our new house. So on Friday, before anyone else came home, Carol had the car packed up with the essentials: sleeping bags, pillows, bag-o-clothes, tv, vcr, dvd player, playstation 2, super nintendo, all the games to go with each, two cases of dvds, box of food we've had sitting around since the last apartment, and her guitar hero guitar.
We drove down to Staunton first and met up with a couple of Carol's friends for dinner and then went back to Michael's place (he was at new years). We played pool and then I went to bed. They stayed up until around 7:30a. I woke up at 4:30a because my dream was starting to play out their conversation......and it was a weird conversation. So I woke up and hung out with them for an hour and then went back to bed.

So Saturday...finally...after Carol woke up at 3, we decided to go to our storage unit, pull out some stuff, and unload it in the house. We, again, grabbed only the necessities: couch cushions, pillows, and two...yes TWO boxes of Magic the Gathering cards.

But we spent the night all cozy in our new house. We bought KFC and ate that for dinner while watching movies and periodically getting up to walk around the house and explore...in the dark. We have our electric hooked up (of course so we could watch movies), but there was something about standing in the doorway in the darkness, picturing what the room would look like...dancing together throughout the rooms. Sitting on the floor of our bedroom talking..."what is something you've never told me?" "I put your hand cuffs on the bookshelf at the last apartment. I didn't hide them, you just didn't look for them."

It was so much fun. It felt....like home. It felt like our old home. And somehow if we sat there long enough all of our stuff woudl just appear. We stayed there all day sunday until it was dark again...walking around and seeing how the light changed in every room. Trying to remember where the light switches are in every room....because they are dreadfully inconvenient. Figuring out where to put the litter boxes and the cat dish...where does the microwave go, which cabinet is for plates and which is for cups. And it seems like it almost didn't happen.

This post is for Kate

After Erika's post yesterday on the General (which just so happened to start playing while I am writing this), I decided I needed to listen to the first Kate mix I came across in my car this morning. What luck! I had Kate's Greatest Hits Mega Mix discs 1-3. And I am indeed playing them in order. I was only able to get through the first 4 songs in the car so I was obliged to bring the CDs in the office and listen to them while I work and resist the urge to rock out. It really is amazing that you can actually see Lawyers Rd when you listen to these songs...dark wet winding roads early in the morning speeding and smiling. Dur Dur Etre Bebe? Okay. I can go with it. While not part of the triad, I always enjoyed being included in the mass hand outs of mixes for Winter Break, Valentines Day, Prom, etc. This has upped my day to "super" status. Thank you Kate. You Rock.

It's time.

I can now share with the world our big, rash, scary, and financially unsound decision to move to Winchester. It was really a knee-jerk reaction to the intense dread and misery we felt the other week when my parents had gone to Florida for a week but we knew they were coming back. The last two days of our alone time were in fact ruined by the realization that very shortly they will be back and we will be stuck again.

Why Winchester, you ask? Well we really don't have any good reasons. My sister moved to Winchester in the fall and driving through the down town it reminded me of Staunton, which felt kind of cozy. My co-workers all live in West Virginia and drive through Winchester on the way to work and have been trying to get our office to move there. We will see how long that takes but they are still pursuing it, especially if all of us live out there and my other co-worker may have to leave or work from home due to her blood pressure (from the two hour drive).

Mostly it is just because it looks more like home, with the mountains and the architecture, and we can afford it. Your dollar goes a long way in Winchester which is greatly appreciated. However it also has the highest unemployment rate in the state and is filled with rednecks and mexi-thugs. We would only be three blocks from the downtown mall, in the historic section and best of all...we would be alone.

But this is alone to an extent neither of us have ever been before. Aside from my sister (who's husband wants them to move to Ohio) we have no family, no friends, and no realy interest/draw to that area. We would be situated at a near half way point between our families which makes Carol very excited.

My parents were not exactly excited. In fact the exact words were, "I don't think this is a good idea, I don't want you to go." Then I got yelled at by my sister for being in Winchester to look at houses and not coming to see her. But somehow after 5 minutes of concern and disapproval...they gave up. They simply stopped complaining, said their peace, smiled and went about their days. I told them we weren't moving until May and they said that was better and that was all.

We are still scared at the newness, change, and potential failure of this situation as well as the potential for complete misery in Winchester. But we have decided, with absolute certainty, we cannot continue to stay with my parents, and we won't be able to find a nicer place that we can afford anywhere closer. So here's hoping we don't fall flat on our faces, don't hate it, and my job actually does move to Winchester so I don't have to drive an hour every day to and from work for as long as I continue to work there.

It's a big brave world out there

I am beginning to like my job. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate my job. I wouldn't have taken it if I did. But after my training in Oregon, I am a busier girl. I spend my days talking to people all over the country. Some nice, some dull, some really friendly that I wish I could help out even if I can't, people that just like to talk and talk and tell me stories about their day. I like it. Which is odd. I am not really a people person. I am a bubbly chipper person most days but when it comes to work and talking to people on the phone I try to avoid it all costs. But now that people are calling me...well thats a different story. I have post it notes around my computer for people I have to call back: Bobby, Alvin, Timmy, and Phillis. Then I am working with Billy tomorrow. Is it just me or are these names enjoyable?

Vegetarian

So Carol and I have decided to become fish-e-chick-e-tarians. Basically just no red mean and a lot more healthy foods in general. I am fairly excited for this.

Carol and I were all alone over the weekend which was very exciting. She made dinner two nights in a row, basically the same meal because the sauce was messed up the first time so she re-did it. It was chicken with a grilling rub in a white wine sauce with garlic, onion and thyme, to which she added heavy whipping cream and sour cream. It was extremely delicious and I wanted to bring the sparce left overs to work today but I figured I should finish the chinese from Thursday instead.

FRIDAY:
Ani DiFranco concert at the 9:30 club with Melissa Ferrick opening. It rocked. Minus having to stand for four hours and being pushed by annoying people and standing behind tall people. But other than that...it rocked.

Today is our last alone day. I am mourning for our time.

Little Big Planet

So Carol finally bought herself a PS3. I am not into video games and never bothered learning the technology past N64. Carol keeps trying to get me into video games that we can play together and it hasn't worked too well. But I decided to give it another try with the new system and picked myself out a game called Little Big Planet. In this game you are a sack person. I make an adorable sack person. I love this game. Carol does not as much. It reminds me of the old Mario games. You have a level. You travel through the level, all on the single plane moving to the right, and you collect blue orbs and stickers instead of coins. There are no big bad scary things to fight, so far anyway. You just wander around and enjoy the world. I love it.

Carol, being less enthused about this game than I would have hoped, decided to show me her ability to download games onto the system. So I was sent to find a game I would like off of there. I found Flower. Flower is an amazing game where you are the wind in the dreams of a flower. You soar around blossoming other flowers and collecting a petal from each. As you blossom the flowers, the grass turns green and sky turns blue. It is a beautiful relaxing game....to watch. Carol has yet to let me play it. This game, she loves.