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.