More Strawberry Than Red: June 2010

Partly cloudy with a glimpse of sun (and warmth).

Today was the day 33% of our things arrived on a moving truck and I got to climb over a pile of furniture to dig out some cold weather clothes. Y'all, it's chilly here. I'm talking below 60 degrees until lunchtime and with a breeze. When I found the box that my old blue sweatshirt (pity) was in, the moving guys overheard me say with more than a little excitement, "YESSSSSS!" Sexy, no?

We've hit some pretty predictable roadblocks today. One of those was the air conditioner guy telling us we need an entirely new system. In his words,

Your unit is a Westinghouse, Ashley. Now, I use to be a dealer for Westinghouse and they stopped selling A/C back in 1980.

I did NOT tell him that was the year I was born.

Note: Lots of people here in the NE don't even use their air conditioners. We were faced with do we do it or not? We're doing it. To the tune of one meelion dollerz. And what's more? Our air conditioning guy does plumbing and let us know that the guys who've refinished the bathrooms need to install some sort of up-to-code venting system behind the sink and toilet so that we don't smell sewer through the drain. DO-OVER. Who doesn't already do that? For three seconds, I wanted to call my contractor and say, "No worries, I'll take it from here."

Back to the 33% of our things arrived thing. I haven't been blogging much lately because we've been so busy and because the whole idea of where do I even start is daunting, but on the day of our move (after a guy from the moving company had come out to estimate weight, etc., it's important to add) a truck showed up with a teeny tiny space in the back for all of our things. They had to call for another truck, which didn't arrive until very late in the afternoon. That load, the other 66%? Isn't being loaded on another truck until next Tuesday and we may not see it for a week after that.

The words that I used on the phone with the moron who "coordinated" this move were: unacceptable, ridiculous, disorganized, long, expensive, and unfortunate.

The words that ran through my mind were: fuck, fucker, suck, asshole, moron.

That is my truth.

Anyway, other things are moving along swimmingly, even though my body feels like a jellyfish. I've been meaning to get down to our new athletic center---AMAZING!---but haven't yet carved out my centered space in our new place. That will probably come sometime in September. Today we headed over to a lunch spot on a nearby lake and let me tell you that it was so enjoyable. Beautiful even.

Home is where there's a working fridge and more than one bed.

No sheets required.

We're here, folks. In our new home.

We've spent the last 5 days at the B & B because our house is a demolition zone (because of updates we've decided to do, yes, and other things, like an air conditioner from July 14, 1970). I saw an old man in his underwear this week and there were three days of hot yard work when I didn't shower. I've slept on the floor of a house where a mouse was found earlier just so that my dog wasn't too anxious. I've eaten out every meal and had wine almost every night.

The College (praise them!) has given us a student apartment in which we will live for the next 8 days. It's bare bones, folks, but it has a KITCHEN! And a shower with a TUB! And more than one bed. They've even let Mister come along. It is better than paradise.

One sleeping beauty is quite pleased because she got her own library card today. Requirement was she had to be able to write her first name, which she did. Backwards.