I need a nap now

The move was a success. Despite the absolutely torrential downpour and the vicious wind - my household has been transported to Parkview. I'm quite excited.

The whole experience was full of adventures, let me tell ya. Azi and I spent all of Friday night, and the whole day Saturday packing and bringing copious amounts of laundry over to the new apartment. Faith was scheduled to fly into Bangor around 9:15 on Saturday night - what excitement - she hasn't been home since last Thanksgiving, and we've been on the phone every day talking about her visit. Well, at about 6:00 on Saturday night, I get a call from Faith - she just arrived in NYC (the JFK airport) after the most horrible flight from Seattle (she ended up with some stranger's crying baby in her arms for half an hour during awful turbulence), and had discovered that Delta had canceled the flight to Bangor. After about 2 hours she finally got to the counter to speak to someone who told her the next flight she could get to Bangor would be on Monday, or she could fly to Portland the next afternoon. Either way, she would not be comped a room or any perks, as it was weather related and not their responsibility. She signed up for the flight to Portland, and prepared to hunker down in the airport for the night.

A little while later, she called me and said she was at the JetBlue counter, and they could fly her into Portland that night, getting in around 11:45 - I checked to see if Dad could go pick her up (my car was doing some wonky overheating stuff earlier in the day, so was not up for a quick jaunt to Portland - I'd been concerned about making it to the Bangor airport) - I called him, he could - I called her back to let her know, she said she had to check and see if she could get her luggage switched over to them. Delta said no, they couldn't do that, it was already being routed to Portland.

Let's move to Sunday afternoon, when Conni gets down to Portland to pick her up. Everything is fine, other than Faith being (understandably) over Delta. After a considerable amount of time waiting for her luggage to show up, they went and asked why it hadn't. According to the counter agents, her luggage should be in Bangor. It turns out there actually was a flight available all the way to Bangor on Sunday, they had just neglected to let her know when she was in NYC. A little more pissed off at this point - thinking about all her clothes and stuff for two weeks as well as the frozen Halibut and Reindeer Sausage that were probably no longer frozen or delicious in her luggage, she and Conni headed up north to Bangor.

Fastforward to about three hours later, when they get to the Bangor airport. The Delta agents there thing it's crazy that the people in Portland would have said her luggage would be in Bangor - it obviously would be in Portland. Except, wait a minute, no, it's not showing up in their system at all. Of course, none of this is their fault, as it's weather related. Finally, they showed up at the house. Faith was a little wiped out after all the stress of the cockups at the airports and the sleeping on a concrete floor and the not having any of her clothes or shoes or fish. After dinner, we went to walmart so she could buy underwear and she just wore some of my pajamas to bed. Ha ha anyone who says that having three dressers and a closet full of clothes is overkill - it's just being prepared!!

We stayed up late and talked. Even though the journey was hellacious - I'm just so glad she's here!! The unpleasantness of the move, and only sleeping about three hours, and the rain and wind and sore muscles all really pale in comparison to what she went through!!!

I'm hoping that this week I'll be able to seriously rock through cleaning the old place as well as getting my new house set up. It's wonderful!!!

That's enough for now, I've got a meeting that started nine minutes ago. Even my fingers are long winded.

Mid-Week Doldrums

I can't say I'm a big fan of Wednesday. Maybe I would be if we could reorganize when the weekend falls - but until that happens, I fear I'll be on the anti-mid-week bandwagon. I just don't feel like doing ANYTHING.

I actually got motivated last night - my scary black hole of a bedroom is actually starting to look emptied out. Okay - well, emptied out in comparison. I wish I knew where my camera battery charger was. I'd have taken some before pictures. There's a distinct possibility I wouldn't be comfortable posting photos of exactly how celestial-black-hole-y my bedroom is online, but I'm not a very shy girl.

Tomorrow I've got to borrow the Extension digital camera. Azi will get her BIG birthday present tomorrow. The new bedroom set from Mom and Jeanne - it's the reason I'm signing my lease a little early - so they could go set it up before we move in. I've GOT to get a picture of her face when she sees it for the first time. That will be AWESOME.

I am so happy I'm moving. My current landlords keep becoming more, and more, and more moronic. Yesterday, I caught the husband going into Sarah and Rob's place next door. When I asked him if he'd arranged it with them, he said no, I said well, did you at least call and let her know, you're supposed to do that. Of course, that was another no - and he went in anyway. I emailed Sarah about it. Then this morning we both received an email from Greg that says he doesn't want to be contacted via email anymore. Methinks she might have said something to him. Well - good for her - they've paid through the end of the month - it's like these people don't understand that while a tenant pays rent - regardless of whether they're in the midst of moving out - you still can't just go into their house. Yuck. I'm looking forward to the new landlords. They seem really great.

In completely non-me related news - I was looking around online and found out that Alyson Hannigan is pregnant! As a lover of all things Buffy, this is interesting to me - I can't wait to tell Azi about it. She'll be psyched.

In more real-life stuff - I made the most awesome mashed potatoes in the world last night - I used almost a whole carton of sour cream in them, because I hardly had any butter. I don't think I'll ever go back!

No more boxes - please!!

I'm sick and tired of packing. The fact that I need to be finished in a few days has not escaped me. What it means is that I don't get to stop packing regardless of how sick and tired of it I am.

Last night I was sick and tired, but for a different reason - I think it was related to my tetanus shot - did you know that throughout your life, every time you get a tetanus shot, more and more of the stuff builds up in your system? I imagine that if I get one when I'm in my seventies, I'll just fall asleep right there in the doctor's office. As I'm still only in my twenties (for a short bit more time, but that's a topic for another day's posting) I felt like I'd been awake for days and days. As you may have guessed - I did not get any packing done last night. I did wash the dishes and sweep the kitchen, but that's it!

I have tons more to do, and I think at this point I'd rather have a mild case of the bubonic plague than do anymore packing.

I did discover an incredible website today. Let's say you feel some itches in your britches... Oh snap - you've got crabs - how embarrassing!! Now you've got to tell all of your sexual partners - do you really want to have to call them all up? No!! Now with an easy click of a mouse, you can send an anonymous ecard to all of your potentially-crabby sex partners!! Just go to: http://www.inspot.org/tell-them/tell-them.aspx?sitelvl=1&regionID=25
Ah, look where technology has taken us!!!

Ow!!!

I might be accident prone. That is to say, you might consider me to be accident prone. I'm not quite to the stage of walking-down-the-street-and-a-grand-piano-falls-on-my-head, but I am in the, get-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-to-use-the-bathroom-and-proceed-to-fall-down-the-stairs stage.

This weekend I packed my little heart out. I sat in the doorway to my bedroom, and slowly worked my way into the dreaded corner (where there were boxes still taped up from when we moved into this apartment just over three years ago). After many, many hours, I made it into the corner - yay me!! However, once there, I was surrounded by a wall of possessions. I had been tossing trash/broken stuff into a box, and one thing I tossed was a small wooden box I bought in Costa Rica. The top had come off, and the back piece of wood was loose. Apparently, when I tossed it into that box, it bounced out. When I climbed over the mountain of clothes and things, my heel came right down on the back of it, which had loosened enough that the nail was completely exposed.

That is how I got a 3/4 inch nail in my heel, with a wooden box dangling off of it.

On Sunday, Sarah and Rob were over moving more stuff out of next door. I talked to Sarah, as she's my closest health professional, and when I thought about it, my last tetanus shot was when I started college, about 9 years ago, she said I'd best get another one, lest I get lock jaw.

Do you know how badly tetanus shots hurt? I know it's quite bad, I'll know better in about fifty minutes. Then I'll be whiny and unpleasant for the rest of the day/week. I do not like pain. I do not like shots. But, I do not like lockjaw either - and since I love to talk so very much, I think I'll deal with the shot. Hopefully my whining won't get in the way of my ability to pack boxes tonight. Still sooooooo much work to do!!

I will be movitated.

Last night I took on the cabinets under the sink. And I won! Roarrrrr!!! For a while there, I really did consider leaving the heaps of sauce pans and jello molds, and scratchy-bottomed-non-stick-pans sitting on the kitchen floor. But I persisted, and came out with one box of things to keep - and two boxes of things to get rid of. I can totally hear the applause.

I had a strong woman experience last night (beyond parting with three identical glass mixing bowls that I don't need). We had to head to Petco to pick up some Iams for Acie and Gracie - it's worth the high price - I don't know the monetary value of not having to clean up vomit - but whatever it is - it makes up for the higher pricetag of the Iams. I was checking out and I overheard one employee say to another "Find a big, strong looking guy - he'll definitely have them." and the other say something about jumper cables.

I am not a big strong guy. I've actually never seen myself in that way. I do, however, have jumper cables. So - I jumped right in and offered my service. I probably would have offered them even if the girl hadn't made the big strong looking guy comment - but that totally sealed the deal. All people should keep jumper cables in their car. It's just the smart thing to do. Also - we should all keep a spare thing of deodorant, and a clean pair of socks. You just never know when you'll need them.

I have so much more packing to do. The problem is that I work best under pressure, and despite the fact that I only have nine days left until the moving party - I'm just not feeling the pressure. This makes me feel absolutely comfortable sitting at my desk and watching episodes of Project Runway instead of packing.

No more Project Runway! Yes more packing!!!

I love lists

I will always be thankful for short weeks due to long weekends (specifically the kind that have a paid holiday involved). I am so glad that the weekend is coming up so fast. This month is flying by, and I have so much to do in the way of packing and sorting and cleaning and EVERYTHING.

Here is my to do list for the rest of the month:

Sort through everything I own
Pack up everything I want to keep in a nice, organized fashion
Pick Faith up from the airport
Get Azi and my halloween costumes straightened out
Work two jobs
Plan Azi's birthday party (this includes invitations, making cake, wrapping gifts, etc.)
Move into the fabulous new apartment
Do loads of laundry

I know there's more - but that's all I've got for the moment!!