a lot has happened in one week.
i had a going away party last saturday.
i packed up my 3 heathens on sunday and drove 3 days across the country.
i arrived i california while it was pouring down rain.
i had an employee health physical and TB test down in Santa Maria. fave part of the morning was the quirky doctor whose favorite word was "bitchin". when the physical was complete, he extended his hand and said "welcome to calif0rnia". i almost squealed.
i was introduced to the joys of the californa dmv.
i went shopping and filled my cabinets with food and cleaning supplies and new clothes for work.
i spent thanksgiving drinking lots of wine and hanging out with good company.
i spent my birthday drinking a marg and eating pasta down at the beach. does life get any better than this?
my furniture arrives today.
wow. i still have to randomly pinch myself to make sure i am not dreaming. i am really living in california. i am not just visiting. my stuff is actually on its way here. my cats are here and settled and all have new snuggle spots. i have an actual assigned parking space (#51). i have car insurance and renter's insurance and earthquake insurance. i have a partially completed application for license plates in california. i have to take a driver's space. i have made my mark on california! as my sister-in-law said "i am kicking ass and taking names!"
it feels almost surreal but in a good way. it feels amazing to actually be settled somewhere. no more thinking and agonizing and planning about where i am going to go. i am here, and i am happy, and i just can't stop giving thanks. i think everybody comes to a point in their life when they know they have done a good thing. and i did a good thing for me.
i can't say i am really homesick. there was a brief second on tuesday night that i missed my house, and then it passed. i miss my friends, but not as much as i thought i would. thank god for the internet and webcams and cell phones and texting. i have been in touch with all the close people in my life this week so it is all good. i think i have the best of it all.
it's been a great week!
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
day 2 adventures: i made it in one piece to new mexico
and today's highlights:
~costello wailed for no less than 150 miles today. as soon as he would let up, madeline would chime in. i think i lost my mind somewhere back in tulsa.
~the traditional larry hagman homage through texas complete with the dallas theme, my i shot jr shirt, and lots of country music.
~sleepy time in texas with brandi to the rescue
~dropping madeline into her crate ass first
~snuggles with costello at the end of the day made me forget just how noisey he is
that's all. today was a long and boring drive. but tomorrow i arrive in california! hooray!
~costello wailed for no less than 150 miles today. as soon as he would let up, madeline would chime in. i think i lost my mind somewhere back in tulsa.
~the traditional larry hagman homage through texas complete with the dallas theme, my i shot jr shirt, and lots of country music.
~sleepy time in texas with brandi to the rescue
~dropping madeline into her crate ass first
~snuggles with costello at the end of the day made me forget just how noisey he is
that's all. today was a long and boring drive. but tomorrow i arrive in california! hooray!
Sunday, November 23, 2008
day 1 adventures when ky meets california
highlights of the california relocation extravaganza thus far:
~the tom fawbush kiss and the look of shock on his face after it was finished
~my half-brother: "is it at the firehouse? i'm at the firehouse. all i see is orange cones. what should i do? should i just drive thorugh them?"
~kayla's decision to keep the toys she got for the cats
~the kick ass GPS courtesy of RRR and the VIP
~tammi: you know, i just found this out a year ago. apparently there is this sect of christians who believes if they support israel, it will hasten the coming of christ. i just don't believe that.
barry: (after quoting the old testament bible verse to support tammi's statement): well, why don't we just ask her (pointing at angela). she's the preacher's wife.
angela (the preacher's wife) departed the scene quickly thereafter
~RRR's inadvertant almost insult of lori's car
~all 3 cats wailing simultaenously as they were loaded into their crates
~100 miles worth of wailing until they wore themselves out and fell asleep
~for brandi: "use your outdoor voice"
~mraz lane
~westfork
~jr's western store
~madeline's total "what the fuck kind of place have you brought us to?" look when the train came blasting by
~the 17 diet cokes i drank to get me throught the day
~only 4 meltdowns in a 24 hour span
that's all for now! tomorrow the gang and i head for new mexico!
~the tom fawbush kiss and the look of shock on his face after it was finished
~my half-brother: "is it at the firehouse? i'm at the firehouse. all i see is orange cones. what should i do? should i just drive thorugh them?"
~kayla's decision to keep the toys she got for the cats
~the kick ass GPS courtesy of RRR and the VIP
~tammi: you know, i just found this out a year ago. apparently there is this sect of christians who believes if they support israel, it will hasten the coming of christ. i just don't believe that.
barry: (after quoting the old testament bible verse to support tammi's statement): well, why don't we just ask her (pointing at angela). she's the preacher's wife.
angela (the preacher's wife) departed the scene quickly thereafter
~RRR's inadvertant almost insult of lori's car
~all 3 cats wailing simultaenously as they were loaded into their crates
~100 miles worth of wailing until they wore themselves out and fell asleep
~for brandi: "use your outdoor voice"
~mraz lane
~westfork
~jr's western store
~madeline's total "what the fuck kind of place have you brought us to?" look when the train came blasting by
~the 17 diet cokes i drank to get me throught the day
~only 4 meltdowns in a 24 hour span
that's all for now! tomorrow the gang and i head for new mexico!
Sunday, November 16, 2008
growing up
i got a tattoo today.
i am still a little shocked i actually went through with it. my friend was shocked i actually went through with it. the man who etched it on my skin was shocked i actually went through with it. i'm shocked but not sorry. ordinarily, i am not a tattoo girl at all. but i liked the symbolism of this one and it was small and tastefully done so all is well. it didn't hurt (well, not too much). it was funny. i could not look at the needle. i am a registered nurse and used to stick needles in people all day but cannpt stand to look at one going into my own skin. i had to grit my teeth a few times but overall took it like a woman. the girl next to me was getting one on her back. she had gotten a previous tattoo. she sat over there and whined and cried as if it were the worst pain she had ever been in. when she finally settled down, she just looked as if her world was ending. compared to that, i think i did astoundingly well. i'm excited to take the bandage off in the morning and look at it again. this one can go down in the books as the most random experience my friend and i ever shared together.
it was a day of reflection. my oldest friend and i went to re-pack some of my things in storage. i swear to bob, there is just a lot of shit in there. i had garbage bags filled with clothes, and all of that stuff had to go in boxes. i decided if the clothes had been in there this long (two years), i really did not need them anyway. i sorted through clothes and only kept the things i just could not bear to part with like my mother's red coat or the blue lace dress with the back cut out that i wore for easter when i was about 50 pounds lighter. it was funny, because i could remember every piece of clothing i pulled out of those boxes and the different events in my life where i wore them. as i was pulling them out, i would ask my friend "do you remember this one?" and each time, she always did. you just can't have riendships like that over night. they have to develop over time. i think bonds like we have develop when somebody has been with you your whole life and has been there through it all: Marriage, birth death, divorce, braces, bad hair moments, ex-boyfriend drama, family insanity and on and on. i don't think there will ever be anyone in this world who knows me like this woman does and vice versa just because of the years we have spent since we were teenegaers in each other's lives. no matter the distance or the other friends we have had or even the times we have grown apart, there will always be a bond that keeps us together. it's a nice feeling to have somebody in this world who knows you that well.
grubbs dropped by today. it's kind of odd how it all came about. she has been in possession of what she thought was a christmas wreath my mother had given me. i was feeling mighty pissy on friday and decided i wanted that wreath back so i called and left her a message. i didn't hear anything back from her all weekend and just as my friend and i were pulling up from our day at the storage unit, she was pulling out of the driveway from leaving the wreath. after all that, it turned out not even to be the wreath i was thinking it was. i just had this moment where i was not pleased with myself on how i ended this relationship. i mean, i don't for one moment regret that it is over. i feel it is the very best thing in the world that could have ever happened to me at that time. i just think i could have handled it better. i should have dealt with it in the very beginning and just told her how i was feeling instead of going months without returning phone calls. even though in my my mind she deserved it, it was not the right thing to do. i learned a valuable lesson from all of this. if i ever have to end a relationship again, i hope i have the class to handle it in a better way. i want to be an adult and not handle things the way i did when i was a child.
i put new collars on the cats today. needless to say, madeline did not handle it well. she has been so firecely resentful of that collar all day and has been pissy to anybody who tries to come near her. the boys have finally gotten used to theirs, and madeline is at least quiet for the time being, so all is well with the world.
i'm feeling a little shifty. i think i'm going to snuggle with some cats and watch some er. this time nex sunday, day 1 of my california road adventure will be just about behind me. squeal!
i am still a little shocked i actually went through with it. my friend was shocked i actually went through with it. the man who etched it on my skin was shocked i actually went through with it. i'm shocked but not sorry. ordinarily, i am not a tattoo girl at all. but i liked the symbolism of this one and it was small and tastefully done so all is well. it didn't hurt (well, not too much). it was funny. i could not look at the needle. i am a registered nurse and used to stick needles in people all day but cannpt stand to look at one going into my own skin. i had to grit my teeth a few times but overall took it like a woman. the girl next to me was getting one on her back. she had gotten a previous tattoo. she sat over there and whined and cried as if it were the worst pain she had ever been in. when she finally settled down, she just looked as if her world was ending. compared to that, i think i did astoundingly well. i'm excited to take the bandage off in the morning and look at it again. this one can go down in the books as the most random experience my friend and i ever shared together.
it was a day of reflection. my oldest friend and i went to re-pack some of my things in storage. i swear to bob, there is just a lot of shit in there. i had garbage bags filled with clothes, and all of that stuff had to go in boxes. i decided if the clothes had been in there this long (two years), i really did not need them anyway. i sorted through clothes and only kept the things i just could not bear to part with like my mother's red coat or the blue lace dress with the back cut out that i wore for easter when i was about 50 pounds lighter. it was funny, because i could remember every piece of clothing i pulled out of those boxes and the different events in my life where i wore them. as i was pulling them out, i would ask my friend "do you remember this one?" and each time, she always did. you just can't have riendships like that over night. they have to develop over time. i think bonds like we have develop when somebody has been with you your whole life and has been there through it all: Marriage, birth death, divorce, braces, bad hair moments, ex-boyfriend drama, family insanity and on and on. i don't think there will ever be anyone in this world who knows me like this woman does and vice versa just because of the years we have spent since we were teenegaers in each other's lives. no matter the distance or the other friends we have had or even the times we have grown apart, there will always be a bond that keeps us together. it's a nice feeling to have somebody in this world who knows you that well.
grubbs dropped by today. it's kind of odd how it all came about. she has been in possession of what she thought was a christmas wreath my mother had given me. i was feeling mighty pissy on friday and decided i wanted that wreath back so i called and left her a message. i didn't hear anything back from her all weekend and just as my friend and i were pulling up from our day at the storage unit, she was pulling out of the driveway from leaving the wreath. after all that, it turned out not even to be the wreath i was thinking it was. i just had this moment where i was not pleased with myself on how i ended this relationship. i mean, i don't for one moment regret that it is over. i feel it is the very best thing in the world that could have ever happened to me at that time. i just think i could have handled it better. i should have dealt with it in the very beginning and just told her how i was feeling instead of going months without returning phone calls. even though in my my mind she deserved it, it was not the right thing to do. i learned a valuable lesson from all of this. if i ever have to end a relationship again, i hope i have the class to handle it in a better way. i want to be an adult and not handle things the way i did when i was a child.
i put new collars on the cats today. needless to say, madeline did not handle it well. she has been so firecely resentful of that collar all day and has been pissy to anybody who tries to come near her. the boys have finally gotten used to theirs, and madeline is at least quiet for the time being, so all is well with the world.
i'm feeling a little shifty. i think i'm going to snuggle with some cats and watch some er. this time nex sunday, day 1 of my california road adventure will be just about behind me. squeal!
Saturday, November 15, 2008
a new kind of advenuture
they should just crown me suckiest blogger in the world and just get it over with.
since the time i last blogged, i met the cast of dallas, started hanging out with a new group of people from work, told off another person at work, went to southfork ranch, bought a shitload of dallas shirts, decided i still adore my 80's lover bobby ewing but not so much the actor who plays him, made a new friend in california and roomed with her when i went to dallas, reaffirmed my belief that texas is not the state for me, discovered my hair looks kick-ass-awesome when i curl it, took a job in california, packed up most of my house, met with movers, and will be pulling out of kentucky forever next sunday with my heathen cats.
wow.
i still almost can't believe i'm really moving to california. it was one of those things that i had toyed with for so long, and then when the perfect opportunity presented itself, i knew it was the right thing to do. i'm like that. i like to have things wrapped up in a neat little package with a sign dropping from the sky and hitting me in the head letting me know i am making the right decision. unfortunately, life doesn't usually work like that, but this time it did. seriously, things could not have worked out any more perfect. the job offer was the right job in the right place making the right amount of money. they are paying every dime of my relocation (i won't even tell you how much it costs to shovel everything out of storage). cube hell has been pleasant enough about it (although the director STILL has not acknowledged my notice even though i gave it over two weeks ago). the new boss didn't give me any hassle over leaving early monday to have my drug screen performed. i found new crates for the kitties. i found the perfect apartment at the right place (and one that will take the kitties with a minimal deposit) and with a short lease term. the movers are going to make sure my furniture arrives before i start work (even if it has to arrive on Thanksgiving). i even have a place to eat turkey on Thanksgiving. i am still pinching myself to make sure it is real.
it's so much different for me leaving this time than when i took the travel asssignment in california two years ago. most importantly, i am really leaving and not coming back. i'll be home for christmas and back and forth to see my brother, but for the first time ever, this will not be home. i'm not running from anybody. my dad is gone and grubbs is doing whatever the hell it is grubbs does. i have friends and family i enjoy being with. i feel good about things for the first time in a really long time. i guess that is how i know california is the right move for me now and why it wasn't a year ago. i don't have anything to prove or anything toget away from. this is just an awesome opportunity and opens the door for a whole new adventure in my life. it's exciting even if it is a little bittersweet.
this s going to be a busy week. monday night is girl's night with angela. in the whole time we have been friends, we have never gone out alone. we have always had the kids. we will have a time. tuesday is dinner with two of my old teachers. wednesday night is dinner with linz. thursday isloading day for my furniture (thinking of my mother's china traveling through the desert is already giving me hive). friday and saturday, my oldest and one of my dearest friends is staying with me. we are discussing the possibility of getting matching tattoos on friday. i know it sounds a little chessy, but when i saw the picture and thought of its significance, i thought it sounded beautiful. we have been friends since we were kids. i was in 7th grade, and she was in 8th. the first time i saw her, she had on this red plaid dress, this bow bigger than her head placed squarely on top of her head, and a flute case. we spent the first part of our friendship singing in george's youth choir. we still laugh about george yelling at her for holding hands with a boy and her calling jeremy "fire hydrant". we went on vacation together and would spend hours on the swings singing "undivided". as we got older (and 3 kids ago), we would set out for the evening and cruise with the radio turned as high as it would go. i couldn't wait to go pick her up anytime i got a new CD. her suggestion was we get little matching black music notes on our ankles. i have never been a tattoo person (at least not on me), but i really like what it symbolizes. it's a reminder of good times and good times that are still ahead. we'll see when friday arrives if i actually have the nerve to do it. saturday is my kick ass party where i think half the city might be coming. sunday, the heathens and i pull out.
today is packing and hanging out with angela and the girls and enjoying this rainy day (it doesn't rain too much where i am going). i need to find some water bowls for the heathen's crates, buy a blue tooth since it is illegal to talk on my cell in cali without a hands free set, go to target for some litter, and maybe do some loading of the car. i feel like i'm in the home stretch now , and i know this week is gonna fly by. i just want to enjoy every minute of it.
since the time i last blogged, i met the cast of dallas, started hanging out with a new group of people from work, told off another person at work, went to southfork ranch, bought a shitload of dallas shirts, decided i still adore my 80's lover bobby ewing but not so much the actor who plays him, made a new friend in california and roomed with her when i went to dallas, reaffirmed my belief that texas is not the state for me, discovered my hair looks kick-ass-awesome when i curl it, took a job in california, packed up most of my house, met with movers, and will be pulling out of kentucky forever next sunday with my heathen cats.
wow.
i still almost can't believe i'm really moving to california. it was one of those things that i had toyed with for so long, and then when the perfect opportunity presented itself, i knew it was the right thing to do. i'm like that. i like to have things wrapped up in a neat little package with a sign dropping from the sky and hitting me in the head letting me know i am making the right decision. unfortunately, life doesn't usually work like that, but this time it did. seriously, things could not have worked out any more perfect. the job offer was the right job in the right place making the right amount of money. they are paying every dime of my relocation (i won't even tell you how much it costs to shovel everything out of storage). cube hell has been pleasant enough about it (although the director STILL has not acknowledged my notice even though i gave it over two weeks ago). the new boss didn't give me any hassle over leaving early monday to have my drug screen performed. i found new crates for the kitties. i found the perfect apartment at the right place (and one that will take the kitties with a minimal deposit) and with a short lease term. the movers are going to make sure my furniture arrives before i start work (even if it has to arrive on Thanksgiving). i even have a place to eat turkey on Thanksgiving. i am still pinching myself to make sure it is real.
it's so much different for me leaving this time than when i took the travel asssignment in california two years ago. most importantly, i am really leaving and not coming back. i'll be home for christmas and back and forth to see my brother, but for the first time ever, this will not be home. i'm not running from anybody. my dad is gone and grubbs is doing whatever the hell it is grubbs does. i have friends and family i enjoy being with. i feel good about things for the first time in a really long time. i guess that is how i know california is the right move for me now and why it wasn't a year ago. i don't have anything to prove or anything toget away from. this is just an awesome opportunity and opens the door for a whole new adventure in my life. it's exciting even if it is a little bittersweet.
this s going to be a busy week. monday night is girl's night with angela. in the whole time we have been friends, we have never gone out alone. we have always had the kids. we will have a time. tuesday is dinner with two of my old teachers. wednesday night is dinner with linz. thursday is
today is packing and hanging out with angela and the girls and enjoying this rainy day (it doesn't rain too much where i am going). i need to find some water bowls for the heathen's crates, buy a blue tooth since it is illegal to talk on my cell in cali without a hands free set, go to target for some litter, and maybe do some loading of the car. i feel like i'm in the home stretch now , and i know this week is gonna fly by. i just want to enjoy every minute of it.
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