Out of Habit

My apologies for the long gaps of not posting, but as you all know, I'm one busy lady. I'm still in Washington and have now been here and living out of my suitcase for 2 weeks today. As much as I love to travel, that is one thing I hate the most. I didn't overpack for once in my life, but the things I did pack, I am now wishing I didn't. I packed nicer, wear to go out with friends type of clothes versus hoodies and sweat pants. With the drive cross country coming up in the next few days, I would like another hoodie or 2. I think I'm good on comfy pants though since I did bring a few pairs to lounge around in and to wear between the car and gym.

John made it back to the states on Sunday with no hiccups or delays. It was so nice to see him and we're back in routine already (not that anyone should be shocked by that). We'll be leaving on Monday to head back East for the final time. We'll be stopping in Ohio for probably only 2-3 days and will get to spend our anniversary driving to NY probably. Oh well, I just want to get home, stop dressing myself out of a suitcase, and sleep in my own comfy bed!

I had to laugh the other day because we were driving back from Wal-mart to the apartment we're staying in for the week and out of habit, John turned down the road that takes you to our old house. As soon as he put his turn signal on I smiled to myself, knowing that he wasn't thinking and it was just habit to go that way. When he turned I said, "We going to our old house?" He was like, "Oh, crap!" So we went and drove by it anyways and it made me a little sad. As much as I didn't like living up here, I did like my house a lot. It was cozy and it was home.

So, not much else really is going on. I woke up at 5:30 this morning because I could hear the windows creaking. I didn't think anything of it other than the fact that it was probably windy outside. So this morning John told me that there was an earthquake here overnight. When I asked what time, sure enough, he said around 5:30am, or that's what the new report he read said. So I am guessing that that is what woke me up this morning. I didn't feel anything, just heard the windows shake.

With all that being said, I hope everyone is well. Hopefully I'll be back on track once we are finally settled!

Back West

I successfully made it back to the west coast yesterday. I had no problems in Albany nor in Chicago except for the fact that it was -18 when I left my house. Yes, -18. It wasn't a problem though, just really, really cold!

I slept for nearly 12 hours last night which felt so good! I'm hanging out with my friend Sarah tonight and it's fun to just chill out and catch up.

Packing....again

Ugh...this seems to be a vicious cycle for me. The only good thing is that this should be the last time that I have to pack for a trip for a while. John should be back next weekend and once we get back here, I have every intention of being a hermit and not leaving for quite some time. But, we'll see how long that lasts.

I finally made it out last night for pint night. No snow to ruin our plans either! However, it was one of the coldest nights of the year, but we managed to find a parking space in the lot across from the bar and braved the frigid temperatures after having beers to walk up the street to grab a dough boy before heading home. Dough boys are a delicious breadstick type food, made of pizza dough and stuffed with cheeses, chicken and scallions. You dip them in hot sauce and it's the best 3.50 you can spend after having a few beers (you don't have to be drunk to enjoy them either).

Lake Fun

I spent the day hanging out with my friend Risa so I don't really have much to talk about except that she is going to be kind enough to take me to the airport on Friday morning which is fantastic. It also made me decide to just suck it up and fly out to WA. Flying to Vegas and then 2 days later flying to WA is just something I didn't really feel like doing. So my many thanks to Risa for doing this favor for me. I will be sure to return the service to her when needed!

On my way home, I noticed some people snowmobiling on the lake. It looks like SO much fun!!

From Someday We'll Put Down Roots

I also took a picture of a little hut on the lake that someone was ice fishing in. There are TONS of people who ice fish out here. They must be nuts because it's so cold, so I guess this guy was smart enough to build a little hut.

From Someday We'll Put Down Roots

Oh the Places I Might Go

It's Monday. My plan is/was to go to Washington on Friday so I have enough time to hang out with friends before John gets in the following weekend. The problem? My connection is in Chicago Midway. I got onto weather.com to see what their weekly forecast was and I'm sure you guessed it. Snow. Pretty much every day until Saturday....go figure. I hear you saying, "So just fly out Saturday." Well, I would do that, but then I'd be reduced to spending 10+ hours on a plane/traveling versus the 8 I'm scheduled for Friday. My connection in Chicago is only 40 minutes or so. The only problem with the snow forecast is that it doesn't say how much snow they're supposed to get. Could just be flurries, and it could happen at later in the day. But I don't know. So my whole want is to not get stuck on a delay or cancelled if by chance they get lots of snow.

So here is option #2. I fly from here to Las Vegas (I can fly non-stop) on Friday, stay until Sunday with friends, and then fly up to WA on Sunday with 1 stop somewhere in California (which means no threats of cancellations).

Keep in mind I have a free round trip or 2 one ways on Southwest since I've traveled 8 round trips with them in a 2 year time period. If I take the flight to WA on Friday with the connection in Chicago, if I can't find someone who can take me to the airport, I will have to stay in a hotel near the airport which will cost me at minimum $80 for a non-shady place that has a free shuttle to the airport. So if I decided to take the flight to Vegas, I would use my free one way to get there and then pay for a ticket (which is around $100) to get to WA from there. I could use my other one way to get to WA, but I figure if I'd have to pay to stay in a hotel, I might as well pay for the one ticket to WA and save the other one way for another time.

I can't believe that I'm even going to say this, especially since I love Vegas so much, but I kinda just want to get to WA, not because I love it, but because I really don't want to have to fly two different days instead of just the one. I am overly exhausted with traveling..but hey, that's my life for now. Oh the places I might go!

Busted Night, Productive Day

Upon dawns early light this morning, I awoke to a good 5-6 inches of snow on my car. It looks so pretty, however, it blew my night. Marisa attempted to come to my house last night and could not make it up the lane to my house. We entertained the idea of just leaving her car down on the side of the street until the snow plow came by with his blade down. We figured if she'd have parked down there her car would either get hit by the plow or she'd get buried in. So, she put it in reverse and went home.

Today was a very productive day for me though. I cleaned up a lot of the clutter that I had lying around, played with the layout of my furniture, finished up the office for the most part and cleaned up some things in our bedroom. I'd have to say I got a lot accomplished and I'm feeling pretty good about it. I know I said I didn't want to put up pictures until things were 100%, but I decided that I'll put up pictures of what I've accomplished so far.

Here's the office before shot:

From Someday We'll Put Down Roots

And here is the after shot:

From Someday We'll Put Down Roots

From Someday We'll Put Down Roots

I also played around with the layout of my family room furniture. Here's how I originally had it.

From Someday We'll Put Down Roots

Then I changed it to this.

From Someday We'll Put Down Roots

I discovered that I didn't really like it this way, so I moved it back. The big white squares you see underneath the chair and couch are cleaning cloths that I put under the legs so I could drag it around the room since I am the only one here to move furniture. That and I don't want to scratch the floors.

I still feel like I've got a lot to get done, but it's one thing at time. My biggest want was to get things looking nice for when John comes home. It's not perfect (which is making me crazy) but I think it looks alright ;)

Snow Woes

If you haven't guessed it, another fun night planned has gone down the tubes thanks to the falling snow. At 7pm, I looked out the window and still no snow. Marisa sent me a text that said, "No snow yet!" I text back that we should take advantage of that fact while we could and that I would text her back after I dried my hair. In that 10 minute time span, I looked out the window again to find my car covered in snow. UGH!

We planned on still going out to the bar down the street from me, but I cleared off my car in anticipation of driving there, and 5 minutes later when I looked out, my car was again, covered. So.....Marisa is going to come here and we'll just hang out here. It's no bar scene, but we'll manage.

Huck Finn's Warehouse

Today, Melissa (my neighbor...and from here on out I will just call her Melissa instead of Melissa my neighbor) and I ventured down to Albany to go to Huck Finn's Warehouse and Furniture store. It's a HUGE warehouse that sells just about everything. Our original intent to go there was to look at area rugs and I'm super excited to say that they have carpet remnants in the size that I need for the price I'd like to pay. I still need to ask around at some carpet stores to see what their prices are, but I'm starting to think that Huck Finn's will be our best bet. Other than checking prices at carpet stores, the only other thing I need to do is find out how much carpet padding will be, but I don't think it will cost that much.

One of the funny things we saw at Huck Finn's is a giant cow with sunglasses on in the baby furniture department (no, that is not a hint). Melissa thought it would funny to be as cool as the cow and I just happened to have my camera in my pocket.

From Someday We'll Put Down Roots

We also went to the Christmas Tree Shop which is kinda like a big TJ Maxx in the sense that they sell just about everything and most of it is at a pretty good price. I bought 2 pairs of fake fuzzy crocs for 6.99 a piece. One pair to wear around the house and the other to just wear out. I was in desperate need of some slippers so these are the next best thing...maybe even better!

The only other thing I will leave you with is a picture of tonight's sunset.

From Someday We'll Put Down Roots

I do have to say that THIS never gets old!! I can't wait until the summer :)

Finally......

I have televison!!!

From Someday We'll Put Down Roots

The cable guy came to my neighbor's house today and was kind enough to rig my cable line up for the night until he could come back tomorrow to offically hook up my cable. I can't tell you how nice it is to be able to watch tv before bed and to just have it on for the background noise. He couldn't offically hook my cable up because he didn't a work order or my DVR box, but hey, I was thankful to just have it hooked up!

Northeast Misery

That is the title that comes up when you go to www.weather.com right now. Click on the weather map, and it seems as though my entire area is covered by a blue blob which indicates snow. Then, around the radar map it says there is a winter storm warning for the area until 7am....THURSDAY. Yikes! Apparently we're supposed to get a possible 4-7 inches of snow, then 1/4-1/2 inch of ice, and then some more snow. Sounds like a lot of fun!! Can you sense my sarcasm? Although, as big of a pain in the ass this weather is, I really don't mind it all that much for a few reasons. The first one being that I don't work right now, so I don't have to worry about how in the hell I'm going to make it down the driveway without plunging into the lake or being struck by an oncoming car in the event that the driveway is a giant sheet of ice. The second reason I don't mind it is because in a day or two, the sun will come out. It might still be nuts'o cold, but the sun is out!! That is all it takes for me to be happy. We didn't see the sun for weeks/months at a time in Washington, so I'll take this winter weather for a day or two and then Mr. Sun will come out and make life better :)

So, that's all I have to say for now. Since I'm anticipating being stuck inside tomorrow I plan on hopefully finishing up the office and hanging some pictures around the house. I promise to post some pictures of tomorrow's "misery."

New Neighbors

Looks like I spoke too soon in my last post about wanting to sleep through the night with no interruptions. I did not turn off my phone and John did indeed call me at 4am and proceeded to talk to me more than, "Oh, you're sleeping. I'll call you tomorrow." Instead, he told me that they were leaving the next day and that he would be back on the 24th or 25th....of THIS month!! That's a month earlier than they were supposed to let him go, but probably when he should have been let go anyways because his "sea time" is up this month. So that forced me to wake up and ask a few questions and what not. After we talked for about 5 minutes, I hung up and proceeded to lay there for 2 hours, unable to fall back to sleep. I was so mad! I called John's cell phone because I knew it was 9pm for him in Guam so I told him he had to talk to me since he woke me up and I couldn't fall back to sleep. He thought it was funny, me, not so much.

Once I finally fell back to sleep I didn't wake up again around noon. By the time I took a shower, blew my hair dry, and came downstairs, it was already 1pm. I knew my day was shot at that point so I decided that I would just veg all day despite the million thoughts I had about what I could've been doing. Around 4pm there was a knock on my door. I saw there was a woman standing outside with mail in her hand and upon opening the door and saying hello, I found out she was my new neighbor moving into the other unit and some of our mail had been put into their mailbox. She came in and we introduced ourselves and got talking about our houses and where we came from and all that. Well, it turns our that she too is a teacher! I am so excited that someone else is as lost as I am when it comes to what in the world the state of New York wants you to do in order to grant you a teaching license. We also decided that we were long lost best friends who've never met based on all the things we have in common.

I'm really excited that she and her husband are around our age or maybe a little bit older, are nice, and that we have things in common. It will make things easier (not like it's not easy already) as far as having someone to run next door to if I need anything and also, until either of us get a job, someone to run errands and go shopping with while everyone else I know works during the day.

I'm not quite sure what I've got planned for today. I need to run out and either buy things for the house or get John's Christmas presents since he'll be home soon. I'll post again tonight since I failed to type this yesterday!

Making progress

I finally made it out of the house last night. Sad that I haven't been out since Tuesday, but between the cold temperatures, snow on my car, and just not wanting to make stupid trips out for a few items a day, I just didn't really see the need to go anywhere. So I was happy when Marisa text me in the early afternoon asking if I wanted to come over for some beers later that night. It wasn't a crazy night or anything, just had a few beers, hung out, and I was home by about 12:15.

Today my landlord came to install the rest of the blinds and the towel bars and toilet paper holders. Yes, I'm aware that these things should have already been done, but he also has a business in Vermont and I think he just had too much on his plate. So, he finished up those things today and it makes a world of difference! I've been waking up at first light in the morning since there has not been anything to keep the light out. Needless to say, I'm looking very forward to sleeping as long as possible tomorrow!! I'm tempted to turn my phone off tonight even though John will be calling at God only knows what hour of the night/morning. I've not had one night of uninterrupted sleep since I got here!

I hung some pictures downstairs in my dining room and living room. I also made many attempts to place my hurricanes, plates, and pictures on top of my kitchen cabinets, but the set up is much different than in my old house so it's not working out quite the way I want it to. I seriously think I spent 2-3 hours rearranging things in every possible pattern/variety and I wasn't sold on any of it. So, I'll reevaluate in anothter day or two when I feel like I can give it a fresh perspective (that and I'll just end up buying everything that I think I need to complete it and return what is not needed). After spending the whole day downstairs, I feel like I did make some progress and it actually feels semi-lived in down there. Granted, I still need an area rug for the living room, some pictures for the half bath, and a rug for the entry door but I think it's looking pretty good. Although, it's not good enough to put up a picture of it yet. Sorry! I know the suspense is just killing you all!! Ha ha :)

What once was lost

...has now been found! The night that I had the movers unpack me, when I went to make my bed I was missing a blanket and flat sheet. I was confused because everything else that I had slept on the night before was there, minus those 2 pieces. Today my task was to tackle the den (I did not win that battle by the way) and upon opening a box that said "office and keepsakes" I found my sheet and blanket. I am happy to find these things, not so happy to remake my bed. So instead they will sit on the couch in the office and wait until I feel like remaking the bed.

I called today to have cable, internet, and home phone service hooked up and sadly will not be getting service until next Thursday the 8th. I can't tell you how much I miss just hearing the TV. I don't like to think that I am a TV junkie, but I'm just used to it being on and hearing it as background noise. I've listened to my Ipod more times than I can count and I'd do anything to watch the news at 6 just to see what's going on around here. However, I remembered that you can watch shows online and thank goodness I'm able to steal internet from someone around here (my wireless card on my laptop picks up the signal) so I plan on catching up on some shows that I missed while being home for the holidays.

I haven't been out of the house since the day before New Year's Eve and I'm feeling a little bit like a hermit. I haven't really needed anything from out, nothing important really, and I'm afraid that if I do go out, I'll just end up going to Walmart or Bed, Bath, and Beyond and spening a ridiculous amount of money on things for the house. I need lots of things still, but I guess it's more wants than needs, so I'm restraining myself from buying those things until later. I am in VERY much need of area rugs though, and I need to get out to some stores down in Albany to see where I can get the biggest rugs for the best price. I'm not about to spend a thousand dollars on some rugs. It's looking like the most I'll have to spend is $600 to put a rug in every room, but I am convinced with enough bargain shopping that I can hopefully find something cheaper. I'm not looking for anything top of the line, just something that looks good enough and isn't going to break our bank!

That's about all I know for today really. I will be working yet again in the office tomorrow, although, I will probably wait until my landlord is done installing blinds. Finally!! I went over to the other unit today and looked at them. They look really nice, although, I'm wishing I could put curtains over them too...and I just might. We'll see. One thing at a time.

Slowly, but surely

Last night proved to be an uninteresting and disappointing night. My friend Aaron whose flight was cancelled, took a flight back to Virgina (where he came from) rather than waiting it out and requesting to be put on a later flight. My friend Marisa who lives here, didn't feel well, and didn't feel like going out, so I spent the night at my house alone. I made a pitcher of margaritas, some dinner, and had some wine too, and watched a movie. I went up to bed a little after midnight and could see the fireworks in town from the bedroom window. To bad I only saw the last minute of the 10 minute show. Oh well.

Despite the uneventful new year, today was a very productive day for me. I got up between 9:30 and 10, hung around for a while and decided that I would do some serious work on putting things away today. I am pleased to say that I got my closet cleaned out and organized. I also got my bathroom put together (minus new rugs) and my guest bedroom (for the most part) in order too. There is still much more to be done as far as accessorizing goes, but putting the clutter away was a big step for me. I feel like I should have taken some 'before' pictures, but I didn't. So here are some 'after' pictures. I know it doesn't look like much, but trust me, it's a big step!

Here's the 'after' guest bedroom. Ready for someone to come and stay!

From Someday We'll Put Down Roots

And the 'after' bathroom'

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And the 'after' closet

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Now remember, this is all just what I did today (and a little bit yesterday). The curtains in the guest bedroom are only temporary and we'll be getting either blinds or some curtain rods here soon. I don't want to put up pictures of the kitchen, family room or dining room yet because they need pictures and what not, so it looks pretty bare. There so much that needs to be done and I feel like I'm getting nowhere! Slowly but surely, it's looking a little bit better. As long as everything gets put away, pictures and all that will come later.

The heating guy is supposed to come tomorrow to check out what is going on with the duct work. My landlord came by today to put a little thermometer in my bedroom and bathroom to show the guy that there is a HUGE different in the temperature between those 2 room and the rest of the house. I looked at it a bit ago....yeah, our bedroom is anywhere between 58-56 degrees and the thermostat is set at 65-68. Good thing I have a lot of blankets!!

Tomorrow's task is getting my cable, Internet, and home phone hooked up (or get an appointment for sometime soon) and to start on the den. Oh, and I need to have the landlord hook up my washer and dryer for me. I don't want to screw it up! Speaking of the washer, I opened the doors to the closet where they are upstairs and it smells like DEATH in there!!! I'm thinking that there is some water in the washer somewhere and it's moldy. It makes me want to barf!! Once he hooks it up for me, I need to run some empty cycles with bleach water and see if that works. If not, I read some things online that tell you how to remedy it. I hope the bleach water does the trick, but I'm thinking I might have to buy some of the product that people recommended. It's a brand new washer that's only been used for 6 months, but has been sitting in storage for 3-4 years. Let's hope I can remedy the situation!!