Tears running down my face

My coworker and I were talking about Girl Scout camp the other day. She, like me, was a camp counselor. She sang a song that I had never heard that was the most hysterical Girl Scout Song I'd ever heard. It was about the Titanic. The chorus goes like this:

Oh it was sad, so sad
It was sad, too bad.
It was sad when the great ship went down.
To the bottom of the husbands and wives, little children lost their lives.
It was sad when the great ship went down.
Down to the bottom of the sea
blub blub blub

I could not stop laughing. What kind of psycho thought this was a song appropriate for girls to sing? What kind of freak wrote the song to begin with? Clearly the song has fallen out of fashion.

I joined a committee at work. Officially it is called the activties committee, but secretly I call it the party planning committee. I'm on it with a woman who honestly looks like Angela from The Office... down to the old fashioned shirts. We're doing free nachos next week for cinco de mayo. We also do the Christms party and a birthday thing once a month.

I'm almost moved in. (and by almost I mean probably not as moved in as I think I am). I have to finish by this weekend though because I have a housekeeper coming in on Wednesday before I drive to Arizona.

Settling in

So all my stuff arrived on Monday. I've been slowly unpacking, but I do hope to be done over the weekend. I want my table set up. I want to find the rest of my pots. :) I was thrilled Thursday when I found my capri pants. It's already pretty warm here. I'm doing pretty well though. I've got a lot to get rid of again. I really need to go through the boxes from the storage unit.

I decided to paint my ancient Ikea bed white to match my dresser. I started that today. I think once the 2nd coat gets on there it'll look awesome. Unfortunately I'm not sure where the parts to put my bed back together ended up when I moved. I took my bed apart instead of letting the movers do it and now I don't know where that ziploc baggie went. I gave it to them. That's all I know. Worse comes to worse I can go to the hardware store with one of the bolts from the headboard and ask them to match the size. Although since it is Ikea, it is probably some random weird size.

My new job is going really well. It is quite the challenge. It feels really good to have a boss who believes I know what I'm talking about. Although there's a teeny tiny part of me that worries that the brokers don't think I know what I'm doing. Sometimes I feel like I'm asking questions I should know. But they're scared of me so I'm not too worried. :) (Brokers are always worried when a new person starts... they may want to change brokers)

Good day!

I bought a car today. I've enver purchased my own car all by myself before. With Ben, the bronco, my parents went with me and actually paid for it. This time I found it (heh, Lyday actually found it online), test drove it and did all the paperwork for the loan. It's a little intimidating if I consider just how much money I've spent in the past 2 weeks so far. I haven't spent this much money in a LONG time. So the new car is a silver Scion xB. I've been considering one for awhile and I wanted an automatic that was NOT black. (There seem to be a lot of black ones for sale around here but I grew up in AZ, the thought of owning a black car in a place this hot makes me nauseus.) She doesn't have a name yet but hopefully soon something will come to me. :)

My sofa also arrived today so my living room almost looks like a normal person's living room. Theoretically my boxes arrive next week by Thursday. I'm not sure where they're going to put them all. But I can't wait. I want other clothes than what I have with me. And I want to boil potatoes so I can make mashed potatoes. And and and... :)

Good, Better, Best

The Good: My sofa is getting delivered tomorrow. It was supposed to take 3 weeks to come. They're delivering it between 1 & 3. I will no longer have to sit on the camping chair I bought at Big Lots last week. So exciting.

Better: I think I'm buying a car tomorrow. I've never bought a car on my own before. My mother has suggested I bargain. I don't do that. It just seems like a pain in the ass. It is a silver scion. I think I shall name her... Hmm I don't know what to name her.

The Best: Michelle and K is coming to visit! I'm so excited about that. They're coming the weekend before memorial day. We will swim and go downtown to Fort Worth to watch a cattle drive. While we're down there I may see if Michelle wants to ride a train. I know K likes them and there's some festival that weekend downtown that has a train ride available.

More shopping

I went to Wal Mart today to return some things. I ended up spending a lot more. :)

I bought a new lamp. I'm tired of sitting in the dark. It is a simple black floor lamp and it was $12.00 I'm not breaking the bank with it. I also gave up and bought 2 plates, 2 forks and 2 bowls. I'm tired of using paper and plastic all the time. (And worse, washing the damn plastic forks). I have no idea where my stuff is at this point, but I've probably guarnateed it will arrive on Tuesday. (It won't actually. On Thursday it hadn't even left WA yet I don't think... or maybe CA.)

I bought 3 new plants today. Two look like they're on the brink of death. We'll see if I can rescue them. The other is a Christmas Cactus and just needs some water to perk up. (hmm... a Christmas cactus is not a true cactus. I never knew that)

I'm starting to settle in, well as much as I can. I baked cornbread this morning which I put in a bunch of pepper jack cheese. It tasted awesome. :) \

I'm surrounded by "super" stores. I have decided I don't like them. I was telling Lyday yesterday that I feel like they don't give you enough variety. It's like they mash up 2 stores into one space that is not the equivalent of 2 stores but MAYBE 1.5 stores tops. I think that means they don't have enough variety. Although I've never thought that about the Fred Meyer in Fairbanks.

One thing I'm working on is finding new GF stores and suppliers. I've found a few things at Wal Mart and at one of the two different grocery stores nearby, but nothing as much as I used to be able to find in Seattle. Of course, I haven't looked for a Whole Foods or a health food store. I was actually fairly shocked I found what I found at Wal Mart. I found pasta and mixes and a few other things. No bagels though. :(

Some things

There's a part of me that kind of loves my apartment right now. There's almost nothing in it. I have a coffee table, and washer and dryer and a dresser brought by my dad and nephew last week. They also brought me a kitchen aid mixer that I originally told my mom I didn't want, but for a change I'm glad she ignored me. She also sent a little pan so I have that to cook on. I bought myself a new TV when I realized it might actually be 2 weeks before my stuff gets here and I have a new bed. I got rid of my mattress in Seattle because it was over 12 years old, from Ikea and $200 when I got it and had a big sag in the middle. Obviously not quality. So although in a weird way I kind of like this minimalist life, I dislike that I'm sitting/laying whatever on the floor all the time. The living room does not have any light so I leave the kitchen/dining space light on all the time. Sometimes, though, (like when I'm poking around behind the TV) I have to use a flashlight. I think it is also helping to keep me from feeling truly settled.

I keep buying little things. Today I bought a baking pan so I could bake a cake. Two days ago I bought some spoons. I've been using paper plates and plasticware. Since this was a "celebration" model apartment, they left me 4 cups in the fridge. Oh and I bought a new rice cooker.

I AM about to run out of money, though, so no more shopping until payday. Sadly, for me payday isn't until the 23rd. Sigh. (hee, when I set up my labels, I set my home one to be "home home on the range"... that's kind of funny given my new home)

1 Week almost down, who knows how many to go...

So I've survived most of the week. My first thoughts are:

1 - In the future I will not live to the west of my job, I'm always driving into the sun and it is blinding.

2 - I'm shopping like a fiend. I think I might be sublimating my loneliness with my master card. (And by master card I mean debit card)

3 - I can't decide how I feel about living here. I think I'm still not 100% convinced I live here. Even though I drive to and from work each day it is still kind of surreal. Probably once my stuff shows up I'll feel more settled. Now it is just more like I'm staying in a hotel.

4 - I think I like my job. I didn't realize that I am basically #2 in the office. And they have some weird rules. I learned tonight that my coworkers have to leave when the managers leave. I packed up my crap and was about to leave when one of them said something about just finishing one more thing and the other said that they had to leave if I left. It was fine. I dawdled (is that how you spell that?) so that they weren't rushed.

5 - I need to buy a sofa. I'm sick of sitting on the floor. (Also, my hips are sick of me sitting on the floor).

That's all for now.

A Hippie Chick arrives in Dallas

I made it to Dallas in one piece and relatively unscathed. Spent most of yesterday afternoon settling into the apartment and helping the nephew and my dad bring in some things for me. I now have a washer and a dryer of my own. Whee. (And in the great tradition of doing laundry on Sunday mornings, there is a load in both the washer and the dryer right now. :) )

My apartment is GLORIOUS. I'm really excited to be here. The bedroom is HUGE. My tiny air mattress and the small dresser I asked for from my folks look like children's furniture. I have a nice little balcony. I'm going to get a chair at some point and put it out there so I can sit on the balcony and read. I think I'm going to try my hand at container gardening again. I liked doing that in CA.

I slept terribly last night though. The air mattress is NOT comfortable and it needed more air sometime in the night. BUT when I get a real bed it will be much better. I also got surprisingly cold last night. I think partially it is due to the air mattress so if the Super Walmart is open today I'm going to head there and get an extra blanket. :)

I haven't quite figured out how I feel about all this. It is still kind of surreal. People are freakishly friendly here, though. Like beyond anything I'm used to. My leasing person hugged me for goodness sake. I don't hug people. I also met my downstairs neighbor and a woman who lives in a nearby building. My sister ordered me flowers (isn't that awesome!) and the across the building neighbor received them for me.

There are definitely aspects of TX that remind me of Arizona. There are doves cooing (is that what doves do?) outside and I remember them from growing up in AZ. We'll see. With any luck I've got a long time to figure it out. :) One thing I did see that made me think that I wasn't in Kansas anymore... a bumper sticker on a truck "Visualize no Liberals" I'm sure that will go nicely with my equal rights bumper sticker and whatever else I put on my hatchback.