7/28/09

Today was my second day of work.  I’m being kicked out of Panera, so I’ll write something soon.  I just some sort of documentation that I’m working!!!  Crazy!!!

7/11/09

I’m in Phoenix at the airport Marriott Courtyard.  I’m flying to New Orleans on Monday and I’m in Phoenix until then.  As it turns out, I’m still going to be moving to Denver.  I’m quite happy about this since I really like my condo.  I think I’ll be happiest in Denver.  It’s green, there are mountains, seasons…I like seasons.

Not much has happened since Thursday.  I had to return the rental car and change hotels from the Hilton to a Marriott (reward points and such).  Surprisingly, that took up much of my day on Friday.  I was able to pick up a delicious pesto pizza at Oregano’s in Tempe.  I also went out dancing on Friday.  I was going to take the bus, but the guy at the front counter said that he would take me in one of the vans!  It was so nice of him!  I was pretty excited to be able to go out dancing after not going out for a long time.  And it was so much fun!!  Of course, it’s a lot hotter here than in Indiana and there is no such thing as too many fans!!

Today I’m lounging around and getting prepped for all of the things I have coming up mainly, New Orleans and dealing with moving my things from Austin to Denver.

I feel much better, things seem very finalized!

7/1/09-7/5/09

Heads up, this post is a long story.  There is no way to shorten it, be forewarned.  Also, it would make a great coming-of-age movie or at least an episode of a situational comedy.

The past few days I’ve been attempting to move to Denver, CO, specifically Lakewood.  I packed all my stuff, well, mostly all of it.  I left on Saturday for Washington D.C. for the Global Education Competiveness Summit (GECS).  I left a list with my parents and Deb & Greg of the things that still had to packed and what was going on the truck and what was going in the car.  On Monday, while I was in DC, everything was loaded onto the truck.  And when I say everything, I mean all of my worldly possessions…which according to the movers, is a very small shipment.

GECS went really well.  I also got to go to a little bit of NECC and I got to run into Dave Berque, woo hoo!  After disembarking in Indianapolis on Wednesday afternoon, I had two voicemails.  They were both from Kenny, the truck driver who has all of my stuff on his truck.  He was calling to let me know that he would be delivering my household goods on Friday, July 3rd, in the morning.  Thankfully, I had made previous arrangements with the owners of the condo so I wouldn’t have to be there to let the movers in.  I would call the husband’s cell phone, and either he or his personal assistant, would answer.  I would let them know when my shipment was arriving and they would send someone to the condo to open the door for the movers.  Naturally the first thing I did after getting these messages was to call the landlord to let him know of the developments in moving plans.  He didn’t answer, so I left an informative voicemail.

After I picked up my luggage, Kendra picked me up from the airport and we went to grab lunch while we chatted and waited for my dad to arrive at 4 to take me back to West Lafayette.  Kendra gave me this adorable picture frame with the funniest pictures of us in it!!  Once my dad and I got back to West Lafayette, we quickly packed up the car and started out for Chicago.  Mom, Deb, and Greg had already left since they didn’t need to pack up a car.  When Dad and I stopped at a rest stop, my request, I receive a phone call from Arizona.  I actually missed the call, but was able to promptly call back.  As it turns out, the original opportunity for my job in Denver has disappeared, but there are immediate openings in Goodyear, AZ about 10 miles west of Phoenix.  Of course, this came as quite a shock to me!  I was quickly reassured that should I want to stay in Denver, there are most definitely projects that I could be a part of.  The manager in Goodyear came across my resume and wanted to chat with me to see if I would be open to opportunities in Arizona.  We set up a time on Thursday to chat during the afternoon.

My original plan for Wednesday was not this exciting.  I had planned to see Kendra, go to Chicago and get there early enough to meet up with Adrie and Danny for dinner, and then leave for St. Louis in the early afternoon on either Thursday or Friday.  After discussing the moving situation with the extended family (Mom, Dad, Deb, and Greg) we thought it would be best if I leave on Friday morning since someone would be at the condo to let in the movers and that way we could all go out to dinner with Adrie and Danny on Thursday night.  Good plan.

Thursday rolls around and I realized that all my Harry Potter books are packed on the truck and I finished the third one, again, on Wednesday night.  Boo.  In other Thursday news, I called my landlord again and left another voicemail.  I thought this was odd, but he probably just didn’t have time to call me back and since all the information was in the voicemail, there wasn’t a compelling reason to call me back (other than I asked him to).  Thursday turned out to be a beautiful day.  We went shopping at Lucky Jeans.  Deb and Greg are usually here for the 4th weekend and Lucky is always having a sale, the two go together quite well.  We had a nice lunch, did some shopping (and goofing around, MangoBunnies FTW!) at The North Face, and went out to dinner.  Deb and Greg also bought me a house-warming gift of a silicone hot mitt, which can double as a ferociously cute puppet (especially effective when you have more than one and they can “interact”!!)  Lucky for you, the reader, there are photos marking the previously mentioned significant events (minus the Lucky sale).  But don’t stop reading, there’s more after the photos!!

   Thursday came to an end, as days are known to do, and suddenly it was Friday.  I had planned on perhaps seeing Adrie in the morning and then leaving for Denver, although I was at the time unsure if that would be my final location.  Friday morning, I receive a call from Kenny.  There is no one at the condo and there is no answer to the cell phone I’ve been told to call.  This is bad.  I’m in Chicago.  My worldly possessions are in Lakewood, CO.  No one is going to open the condo.  We start this disaster with a multitude of options.

1.  Find storage in Denver.  Put my stuff in the newly found storage and I’ll get it when I get to Denver.

2.  Have Kenny stay in Denver until I can arrive the next afternoon.

OK, there are only two options, but at least it’s more than one.  We start researching the first option.  Since it’s Friday, July 3rd, which is a holiday, no storage facilities are open in Denver.  That was fun.  We move onto option 2.  I prepare to leave when I find out that Kenny has to be in Austin on Monday to load a truck.  Oh wait, just kidding, make that Sunday so he can pack the house.  New option comes into play:

3.  Have my stuff stay on the truck as is goes to Austin where Kenny will drop it off at a storage facility, to be found on Monday when things are open.

During this time, I’ve been on the phone with the owner of the moving company I hired in West Lafayette.  When I asked him, after making him aware of the entire situation, whether he recommended option 2 or 3, he responded by telling me that the best option would be to have someone open the condo in Lakewood.  After spending several minutes attempting to explain to him that having someone open the condo wasn’t an option, I decided that perhaps “or” questions were too difficult for him.  I decided to change the question to a “yes or no” question so as not to inflict any(more) cranial damage.

Q: Can Kenny stay in Denver until tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon when I can be there to unlock the condo?
A: Uh…well…he’s supposed to be in Austin on Sunday to start packing up a house.  If he doesn’t leave until Saturday evening, he won’t get there in time.
Q: Should I have my things continue onto to Austin and have Kenny drop them off at a storage facility?
A: Uh…well…you’ll have to pay more to change the destination of your shipment.
In my head: Really?  You think so?  No way!
Q: So…you would recommend that I leave my stuff on the truck and store it in Austin.
A: Uh…well…you could do that, but it would cost you extra to change the destination.  You should really have someone come open the condo.
*wishing that banging phone against table would cause physical pain to party on the other end*

The decision is made that my shipment will travel to Austin.  This means I need to find a storage facility for my stuff!  Kenny was able to give us two numbers of United Moving places in Austin.  Surprisingly, one was open!  This was a great break!  Except that storing something there for a month would cost $1500!!!  Apparently this place was set up for long-term storage.  But, the man I spoke with gave me a recommendation for Bulldog Storage, who, again surprisingly, was open!  I could rent a storage container for $99 and pay month-to-month.  This was great!  I have a place to put my stuff!  Wait, I need to sign something?  In person?  I can’t fax or email you the paperwork?  You have to have someone in person sign the contract?

Bulldog: So when are you planning to be in Austin?
Me: I’m not.
Bulldog: Do you know anyone in Austin that can sign for you?
Me: I don’t know anyone in Austin.
Bulldog: Well…
Me: I’ll talk to you later. (Hang up)

Good feeling gone.  I need storage again.  At this point, I’m getting a little stressed.  I may even have had a small breakdown.  Thankfully the extended family was there to help!  Greg has a cousin in Baltimore.  Greg’s cousin’s wife has family in Austin.  Bruce, some of the Austin family, specialized in fixing up foreclosed homes and selling them.  Greg starts a phone tree and pretty soon we’re hearing from Bruce, who is in Chicago boarding a plane for Philadelphia.  Bruce currently has 12 places that could serve as storage areas!  This is finally good news!  Bruce calls back with an address, which I forward on to the important people and everything seems to be going catastrophically well.

Friday continued with a visit to REI and dropping Deb and Greg off at the airport.  We drove home, watched some Psych and Monk and went to bed.  The rest of the weekend has been uneventful.  Here’s a recap of the current standings

• My stuff is on a truck in Austin
• It’s going to be stored in one of Bruce’s (aka Hero of the Month) garages
• My moving bill will be very expensive
• Although originally moving to Denver, I might be moving to Goodyear, AZ
• Right now, I’m in West Lafayette

This has been a very stressful past few days and I sure would love it if things could calm down!!!

6/27/09

I’m Washington DC, staying at a Marriott, yay!  I have speech notes and as a representative of Team MangoBunnies, I’ll want to confer with Ashley and Malisa before giving my speech to make sure that I’m not saying any untruths.

I had a nightmare morning, but everything seemed to pan out near the end of the day, which was really great.  I don’t know if all of my things are packed.  I left a list at home of everything that needs to go, so I’m hoping everything gets packed!  The movers are coming on Monday at 8:30 and I’m not going to be there.  They say my things will arrive between July 2nd and July 12th.  Kind of a big range.  I may not be leaving until 2nd or 3rd, it all depends on my Chicago plans.  Thankfully my landfamily is really understanding!  They rock!

Worked a lot on the speech tonight and I think it went really well.  Tomorrow is going to be a big day of practicing and perfecting and reciting the speech over the phone for several people.  If only I had a decent web cam (nudge, nudge hehe)!!

6/26/09

Apparently I’m really stressed about moving.  This is understandable since packing is pretty stressful and I have to have everything packed by tomorrow even though the movers are coming on Monday.  I know I’m stressed because I had a really weird dream last night!  And I’m much more likely to have weird dreams when I’m stressed.

It started with me packing (I don’t really like when dreams mimic life, I’m already living packing, I don’t want to dream about it!) and then suddenly I was on a boat!  I was telling someone about what I had been doing, packing, when they told me that I had also spent a week as a camp counselor at a camp for grade school kids.  I had no recollection of this.  This person continued to tell me that for the entire I was supposed to push a wheelbarrow around, which I did.  Then I was suddenly at this camp, which turned out to be on the street, more of in the middle of the street, that my high school is on.  There’s a big hill and all these kids were on their bikes going down the hill and they insisted that I keep up…while pushing my wheelbarrow.  At the bottom of the hill, which is in front of the football practice field, my wheelbarrow and I were suddenly a part of my old marching band.  I was evidently with the pit section, somewhere in the middle.  I remember passing the color guard, coming to a stop, and realizing our line was awful!  Of course, I was marching with a wheelbarrow.  At that point I think I woke up because Ashley and Scott were having a conversation on Twitter about eggs, so my phone was going off quite a bit.  It’s really good that I woke up, since returning to high school is not on my To Do List.

On a different note, I could also be stressed because I need to write a 15 minute speech about my informal education.  I’m going to Washington DC on Saturday night for the Global Education Competitiveness Summit.  Here’s an article about it.  I’ll be there until the first of July.  On the 1st, I plan on heading to Chicago with the family and leaving for Denver on Thursday.  Of course this could go extremely badly since my stuff is set to arrive sometime between July 2nd and July 12th.  Knowing my luck, it will arrive while I’m in the middle of driving with no chance to get to Denver in the next 12 hours.  Oh well, it’ll be an adventure!

6/19/09

WOOT!  I have a condo and it’s beautiful!  I signed the lease on Wednesday night.  My landlord, well more of “landfamily,” is great!  The husband is a part-time CFO of a software company that does some work with Lockheed, so he knows a lot of people that work there.  He said he would do some introductions.  The wife is absolutely adorable, she loves to dance and I’m quite sure she makes her husband do yoga with her!

I’m so happy that so far everything has worked out.  When I was coming out to Denver, I had chosen two apartment complexes to visit, but I really wanted to rent a condo.  There would be a mix of owners and renters and the neighborhood would probably be kept in better shape and it would probably be quieter!  Plus, the general idea would be that a leasing office for a condo would be nicer to deal with than one at a large apartment complex.  In a beautiful twist, I’m renting from a private owner, which is possibly the best case!

I can’t wait to move out here, buy furniture, kitchen stuff, a huge TV, other stuff I want to own!  Anyway, here are loads of pictures of my condo, I though a virtual tour was in order!

6/16/09

This morning was Mary Frances’ funeral.  It was in the same church as her mother’s funeral in 2002.  This is truly just so painful for me and the rest of the family.

I’ve decided I’d like my funeral to have lots and lots of flowers and I’d like it to be outside or in a home.  Churches aren’t my thing, nor is a service.

I really just can’t believe this.  It’s still such a shock.

On a less depressing note, I’m currently in Denver.  We left St. Paul this afternoon.  Last night I got to hang out with Loopster (Elissa)!  It was so much fun and I’m so happy I was able to do that.  We stayed at a Marriott Residence Inn and it was amazing!  It was like we rented a Town House for the night!  I had the upstairs which had a bedroom, desk, and bathroom and my parents had the downstairs with had their room, plus the living room and kitchen.  Thank goodness Mom travels a lot and always stays at Marriott.

Today I looked at one apartment complex, Westlake Greens Apartments.  I really like the larger 1 bed 1 bath apartment.  Tomorrow morning I’m going to Cottonwood Creek Apartments to look there as well.