Moving Done!

In Washington, sunny days are rare. I appreciate them more.

It’s been awhile since I’ve had a chance to write anything. April 2nd was my last day working in Victorville, and on April 3rd the movers showed up to load up my house and get the Penske ready to drive up to the Northwest. I admit, the last couple of days were really hard for me. I second-guessed my decision to leave my beautiful house, my family, and my friends. I felt that there was a possibility that I was completely crazy.

Easter Sunday, we woke up incredibly early to get on the road. We drove for hours, finally stopping in Redding CA because I5 North was closed due to snow and accidents. This happened only AFTER we had heard a weather advisory that we could only go through the Siskyou mountain range if we had chains and purchased such chains for both the Penske and the Focus. As I walked out of Kragen with the chains in hand, the weather report was updated to advise that the freeway was closed and there would be no getting through.
Damn non refundable chains.

We made it to Marysville the following night. Paul and his dad were miserably sore from sitting in the Penske all that time. I was tired after not getting much sleep the past week. We dropped the kitties off at the new townhome and got rooms at the Medallion Hotel across the freeway for the night.

My first impression of the townhome was that it was cute, for an apartment, and a hell of a lot smaller than the space Paul and I are used to. I instantly missed my house and even now get a little misty eyed when I think of how pretty it was. I wish we could’ve sold our house. I wish we could buy a house up here. But I really don’t think about that much. There are good things about the new place. It’s bright and has a lot of big windows. The bathtubs are not that deep, but they are long and I can stretch out and get nice and warm in bubble baths.
Once we got the furniture into the new townhome the following day, it began feeling more like home. Our couch, love seat, and reclining chair all fit in the living room, which we hadn’t expected. The place doesn’t feel nearly as cramped as I had worried.

The first night in the new house, I woke up feeling extremely sick and had to crawl to the bathroom to throw up. I spent some time on the bathroom floor, then finally felt I was done being sick and crept back to bed. I shook Paul awake so he could bring me some water.
I spent the next day in bed, too achy to move around much. My stomach didn’t feel all that queasy, but I was in terrible pain and couldn’t relieve it. I ran myself a hot bath and sat in the tub, head resting on the wall of the shower, silently willing the ache away.

It took a few days for me to truly feel better. I was beginning to get cranky, having been cooped up in the house, mostly by myself. On Saturday morning I dragged myself to the DOL (Department of Licensing) to get my driver’s license switched over to Washington state. Not only would they not accept my lease as proof of Washington residency (which I find to be ridiculous, by the way). I have to go back to DOL once I have a phone bill to prove I live in Washington (apparently, phone bills mean you live somewhere, leases do not).

Monday I started work in the Everett CSSC. I was nervous about going. What if I didn’t fit in? What if they didn’t really have my transfer information after all, and there was a mistake and I have to go back to California (yes, this one is extreme)? But none of that happened. My new coworkers turned out to be nice and welcoming. None of my login id’s worked, so I was offline doing odd jobs.

Today, I was actually online taking calls. The whole day was just great. The sun was shining, which I love in Washington because it doesn’t happen very often and feels special. The weather was warm, a new friend introduced me to a great teriyaki place for lunch, and I did not have a single call that made me feel anxious or stressed. When I got home, Paul and I decided to grab dinner at Wendy’s and explore.

We ended up at Kayak Point, a beach access area near our house that sits on Puget Sound. It was incredibly beautiful and I loved it. I love this beautiful place I’m living in. I am glad we came here, I am glad that we took this risk even though for a little while there I was scared and didn’t know if this would be the best thing to do.

I am happy here.

Countdown: Two Days Before Movers

Yesterday, I unhooked the tv.

Well, let me back up there. I didn’t simply unhook the tv. See, my television is a massive flat-screen Sony that Paul had mounted above the fireplace. He had drilled holes in the wall, running cables through into our bedroom closet on the other side of said wall so that viewers in the living room would not be distracted by wires. Next to the fireplace is a skinny alcove, which Paul had custom-built shelves for. On these shelves (until recently) our dvd player, satellite receiver, Apple tv, and audio receiver sat quite comfortably. He’d drilled holes in the wall behind them too, connecting everything in our closet. Then he’d built a large panel for the closet to hide everything and voila! we had a beautiful living room settup.

When it came time to undo all this, it was necessary to have people on either side of the wall, one in the living room and one in the closet, to pull out all the wiring and disconnect everything. Then it took my mom, brother, sister, and I to get the tv down off the wall mount. That thing is very, very heavy.

All this work is the reason that I am now tv deprived. My bed is also dismantled, leaving me to sleep on a mattress and box spring resting on the floor in my guest room. It wasn’t actually so bad, it was just odd sleeping that low to the ground in a room I’m not familiar with sleeping in. My once super-comfy house is now a maze of boxes and random pieces that used to be furniture.

I wake up this morning with a stuffy nose and achy body. Perhaps this is a combination of reactions to the hard work I did yesterday (thank goodness for family and friends that come over to help!) and the suddenly-freezing weather we’re having. Over the last two weeks I’ve joked that So Cal is trying to convince me to stay by being absolutely gorgeous, sunny, and warm. The flowers are in bloom and everything looks all pretty and spring like. But yesterday, a cold front was blown in by an icy wind. Certain areas of the High Desert got snow and it was altogether NOT WARM. I had slept under three layers of blankies, in my green flannel froggie jammies (sexy, no?).

I’m tired and blah and I don’t wanna go to work. Work bad. Work make me do stuff. Don’t like work. Want to sleep.

In my room, the mattress is leaned up against the wall and the various pieces of the bedframe are stacked. The cats take great pleasure in climbing up the mattress and perching at the top. I try to catch them at it so I can take a video of them doing it, but they are apparently camera shy. If further attempts prove more successful, I’ll upload the video.

Sighing, I get up and drag myself to the bathroom to get ready for work. Yaaay, work!

I just need to survive the day.