Morning Musings

Monday was a good day. I turned in the final chapter of my DC Modernism study to my boss for review. It was a huge relief. While there's still a lot of work to finish (edits, bibliography, footnotes, formatting), I feel pretty good about putting it to rest by Friday and handing it over to someone else to tweak and submit. Then, this afternoon I obtained the permit we need to park our storage crate on the street for the weekend. I also tied up some loose ends for my job interview next week (yikes), confirmed hotel reservations, cooked an awesome dinner, and sold a couple more items on Craigslist. Jesse was incredibly productive and cleaned out the closet, as well as put away some winter clothes that we definitely won't need before September.

See the list? Lots of things accomplished! So, why the heck am I awake at 4:30am? I had no trouble going to sleep (except for the happy jig I did for Jesse before retiring to bed). When I rolled over at 2:45am, shaking my fists in the air out of sheer frustration, I realized this time my lack of sleep is not coming from dread. For the first time since we started this moving process, I am truly excited - to the point of not sleeping. After tossing and turning for another 20 minutes, I decided to just get up and keep myself busy.

So far, the things I've accomplished between 3am and 4:15am:

• Cleaned out items underneath bathroom sink, which included about a dozen bars of hotel soap. I don't like hotel soap.
• Added item to above list: stage intervention with my husband about his random hoarding habits (soap, mobiles, what's next?)
• Had a snack of leftover pasta salad from our going away party this weekend (more on that another time, writing about it still makes me cry).
• Updated Quicken and our moving budget spreadsheet.
• Began organizing closet, but caused an avalanche of posters and wrapping paper tubes to fall on my head. Decided to do something a little more quiet - like blogging and more snacking.

So, here I am, alternating between my new (temporary) miniature desk and our couch that now lives in the middle of the apartment. We moved it there for a Craigslister to inspect and she'll pick it up this evening. There's at least another hour to go before the alarm goes off and Jesse and I go out for our morning exercise. I think lots of coffee should be on our "meals" menu for tomorrow. I dread the sun coming up, because that means back to work for me.

Date Night = Exhaustion

Romance was not in the air this date night. We picked up our happy hour pizza at Duccinis on the way home from work, sat down for a few minutes to unwind, and then were all business (or at least I was all business). I do recall blurting out "Hey YOU! Stay focused! This is not the time to read beer blogs and download music!"

First we tackled the stash of clothes under the bed. There was a lot of head scratching and statements like, "hmm, haven't seen that in a while," and "oh god, did that really fit me once upon a time?" and "who knew we had skinny midgets inhabiting the dark corners of our apartment...I wonder if they'll mind if we give away their clothes?" Needless to say, there's quite a bit that will be going to Goodwill tomorrow. Books, an old space heater, and the extra small kitchen appliances that we never abandoned when Jesse moved to my end of Columbia Rd. We made a lot of progress, as you can see. Thankfully, I'm so tired that I won't be able to even think of all the things I have to do tomorrow and Sunday.

For a fresh perspective on life, I took a step back into our entryway and realized that it looks like our walls barfed boxes and pure chaos. I chuckled at the thought of the 5 different occasions when people visited our "large studio" and probably had heart palpitations at the prospect of paying nearly $1500/month. I bet the management company can't wait until August 5th. Well, neither can I.

More Packing

Last night Jesse was out of the apartment at a concert with his friend, Dan. On a normal night, his absence would mean lots of sewing and catching up on my favorite TV shows. However, since we are getting down to the wire with packing (only 10 more days until our stuff is shipped out), I decided to use my energy for a more useful cause. I caught up on the first two episodes of the new season of Project Runway while packing miscellaneous kitchen items. Then, I realized that after Saturday, we won't have a television anymore. Oh well, guess I'll have to catch up when it comes out on DVD.

Anyway, Jesse came home around 11pm and noticed that the blue taped box looked drastically different. I rearranged a bunch of the boxes, moved the chest of drawers (myself), and packed up a lot of stuff. All of our books are now packed, as well as about half of our kitchen. I left out four plates, spoons, forks, and knives, as well as some basic cooking utensils for the next week or so. Everything else is stored away until September. Jesse thought opening all of the cabinets and drawers was a fun game - like Where's Waldo - pointing out all of the empty space. So, as of today, these are the things that were sold (or will be sold by Saturday):

In addition to the above items that will not make the trip, yesterday morning, a bowl fell from our dish rack bounced on the counter top and smashed apart on the floor. I looked at it, felt bad for about 3 seconds, and said "oh well, one less thing to pack." I think Jesse was slightly disturbed as I nonchalantly went about pouring my iced coffee, leaving the bowl on the floor to think about what it had just done. Seriously, I'm so ready to go.

To prep for the weekend, I ordered another round of boxes that should arrive by tomorrow afternoon. Friday night has been officially declared Date Night/Packing Fest. We have a rental car reserved on Saturday to deposit a giant pile of stuff to Goodwill, so there's very little time to finish sorting and organizing. I'll gladly sacrifice my date night, though, for a good cause. I DO love organizing.

Weekend Retreat

This weekend my dearest friend, Lauren, and her (now) husband, Ken, were married at her aunt's house in Olean, NY. Jesse and I were obviously thrilled for the wedding, but were also looking forward to four days without work, or packing, or "to do" lists. We booked a room at the Old Library Inn, which is a charming 1895 house converted into a bed and breakfast. It's next door to the Old Library Restaurant that served as Olean's public library until 1976. The Inn was charming, with gorgeous woodwork and inlaid floors, and they prepared an awesome hot breakfast every morning.

Jesse and I were lucky enough to be welcomed as part of the family for the weekend and got to spend lots of time with Lauren's relatives as well as Ken's mom, dad, and sister. Laurel Lodge (her aunt's house) was built as a hunting retreat and has had quite a history of famous people who stayed there (I believe Joan Crawford's name was mentioned in conversation). The house is tucked away on a wonderful wooded lot with paths leading to a variety of quiet, shady spots that would be great for reading and napping. We had such a great time hanging out on the giant porch, playing hide and seek with the kiddos, and getting to know her cousins after hearing such great stories about them for the past six years. I didn't once think about work. It was amazing!

Despite the torrential rain that plagued Sunday morning, the bride and groom were stunning. After delaying the outdoor ceremony for about 45 minutes, Lauren took a deep breath, kicked off her shoes, and charged forth as planned. She found an umbrella big enough for two and carried on without a care about her dress getting wet or her hair falling limp. Her composure was impressive. Amazingly, just as she appeared at the top of the stairs, the sun came out and the rain slowly halted. I'm convinced that her determination this past Sunday actually stopped the monsoon. Lauren looked absolutely beautiful (bare feet and all) and I was so happy to be there to witness the day.

Apparently, wedding tradition at Laurel Lodge mandates the bride and groom to leave in a vehicle that signifies the immense joy and excitement felt by all at the party. While the happy couple was dancing and chatting with their guests, Lauren's family embarked on a mission to make their first drive as husband and wife one to remember. The result was the finest looking Subaru Forrester/disco ball on wheels that I have ever seen. It is amazing what mischief one can do with four pounds of Crisco, a bucket of glitter, and some blinking LEDs. The photo, however, doesn't really do justice to the pure glamor and sparkle. Yesterday, on our walk home from work, Jesse had a piece of glitter on his neck - we didn't even touch the car. I have a feeling that Lauren and Ken will glow with happiness (and glitter) for many many years.

Congratulations!

Portland Love Quilt - An Update

There's not much to update in this department. Work and packing has sucked out all of my creativity and left me with little time to even think about doing projects ever again. This past weekend I started packing away some of my supplies, so at this point, there's no thread around for me to sew anyway. I was surprised to look back and see that I actually did make some progress on the Portland Love quilt since I posted last. I don't remember exactly when I added those extra blocks, but the Portland Love Quilt is definitely taking shape. However, I still have a long way to go before it's anywhere near a usable size.

Not to worry though, I have other projects to keep my hands busy throughout August while my sewing machine is in storage. A year or two ago, I embarked on a joint project with my Mom to create a Cathedral Windows quilt. While visiting my parents one weekend, we went out and got all of the fabric, cut it into little squares, and had a planning session on how to make the 280 (or so) squares necessary for a Queen-sized cover. We both agreed to make a "sample" square that weekend to see if our individual hand sewing skills would be "compatible." And by "compatible" we meant "good enough" for our own individual high standards (I'm definitely my mother's daughter). Luckily we each passed and I went home excited to pump out squares in my spare time. Ha.

Anyway, this is my one and only square completed to date. My mom has totally blown me out of the water and has completed nearly has enough blocks for an entire quilt. I am looking forward to that August furlough, when I will have hours at a time to complete at least 3-8 more. It's going to be gorgeous when it's all finished. And I certainly can't demand joint-custody of the quilt if I don't put in a little more effort!

August Furlough

As we're soldiering on with moving plans, my thoughts often wander to our month-long vacation in August. The official Portland departure date is Tuesday, August 5th. It feels pretty cool to say that we have a one-way ticket to the west coast. The first week in Portland will actually be quite hectic because we haven't even started thinking about finding an apartment. That will be a top priority on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Also, I have a job interview on August 7th, so will be a giant ball of nerves for most of the week. No rest for the weary! Not even when we arrive. I'm already exhausted and we still have 15 days left in July.

On Tuesday, August 12th we will board Amtrak's Starlight Coast train and travel down to Sacramento. Given that the trip will take approximately 16 hours (overnight) I decided to book a sleeper car. I am so excited about our "roomette." We'll definitely have to make a martini and pretend we're Myrna Loy and William Powell taking their three-day train ride from New York to San Francisco. I'm sure it will be just as much fun as is portrayed in the movies (because being cooped up in a 4'x6' room with another person is always a barrel of laughs). I can imagine the charming conversations we will have like, "god, Jesse your feet stink, eew did you fart?" and "lord, Erin you are such a nag!" Note to self, pack snacks, lots of snacks, and a cute little traveling outfit like Nora Charles (replete with a jaunty fur collar and driving gloves).

Once in Sacramento, we will board the California Zephyr line to Truckee, CA. As plans currently stand, once in Truckee, we will meet up with Jesse's parents and head over to his aunt's house for BBQ and extreme croquet. Luckily, I practiced this weekend at a going away party and have learned to negotiate tree stumps and yard divots. After our afternoon of food and lawn games, we'll pile in the minivan and head to the cabin at Salmon Lake and relax for 4 whole days! I can't wait. Jesse and I have a load of books we want to read and the thought of not having to think about anything other than what pair of shorts I will wear for the day sounds divine.

The rest of August is a bit up in the air. We will likely use Santa Cruz as our home base and take small trips here and there to visit friends. As part of our moving plans, we will inherit Nightrain's car, but before we leave California I have to learn how to drive the thing. I've never attempted to operate a manual transmission car. Bob, my father-in-law, is taking one for the team and has offered to teach me. I have recurring nightmares of bucking through some anonymous parking lot in Santa Cruz, and him needing an extended meditation retreat after the whole ordeal. Jesse and I discussed whether there was any altruistic value in his offer, or if the darker forces are at work (I imagine the lesson will provide him with plenty of fuel for making fun of me for the rest of my life).

Either way, he's signed on and there's no turning back! In order to ensure that I'm on my best behavior, Jesse has instated a policy that I have to give up $5 of my discretionary budget toward the "replace our clutch fund" every time I blurt out an expletive while driving. I'll be hard, but I'm hoping my frugality will triumph!

For now though, I ease my jitters through constant reminders that his parents, thankfully, don't have a gated driveway.

Goodbye Self Doubt, We'll Take One Crate

We found out last week from our building manager that our apartment will rent for nearly $1500 a month. Our little studio! I nearly passed out. Apparently people have been clamoring to live in our building for weeks and at least 6 different people have seen the apartment since we gave notice exactly one week ago. I think it's time to get the heck out of here.

This weekend was epic. Lots of sorting, dusting, and making of piles. We accomplished an impressive amount of packing and most importantly reaffirmed that we will, in fact, will be taking one crate to Portland. Thank goodness. I really was worried about having to get an additional street permit for that second storage vault.

As you can see, the progress so far is promising. I readjusted the blue tape to fit the exact dimensions of our reserved crate and we moved around quite a bit of furniture to get the chest of drawers in the imaginary box. The cardboard boxes contain 95% of our books and all of our CD's (except for the few that Jesse may acquire in the next couple of weeks). I decided this evening at dinner that the chest of drawers needed to move to a different position within the blue box, but decided that Jesse needed one more bourbon and soda before I broached the subject. Tomorrow, the box will have a slightly different appearance. Over time, I hope our apartment will start to look empty, rather than like it barfed our posessions all over every horizontal surface.

As of this weekend, these are the things we no longer own:

What Was I Thinking?

Yesterday, our first dozen boxes arrived. Since Jesse was stuck in the airport for most of the evening, I decided to start packing up books. After boxing up an entire bookshelf, I stared at the empty space and felt good. What an accomplishment! Then I looked over at the 4 book boxes on the floor and did a quick calculation in my head. Oh God! We have at least 7 more boxes of books that need to fit in that tiny blue box in the corner. Ahh. I remember two months ago when I was all doe-eyed and optimistic (and totally deluded) about cramming all of our stuff into a crate and shipping it across the country. Reality is such an ugly beast.

Jesse didn't get in until 2:30am and was shocked to find me up and totally wired. Leaving me unattended in the apartment with empty boxes is such a bad idea. I relayed my fears to him that we weren't going to make it all fit. He said, "well, we'll just get two crates." Stunned, I thought "why would he say such a thing when he KNOWS I am determined to only have one crate." Shaking my fists, I climbed into bed (and I'm sure he breathed a sigh of relief because I had finally stopped talking).

If my calculations are correct (and I'm pretty sure they're not that far off), our moving crate inventory will look something like this:

• One Queen mattress, no box spring or bed frame.
• One mahogany chest of drawers that could hold approximately 2% of our clothes.
• One Ikea kitchen table, disassembled, no chairs.
• More Fiestaware than a household of two should own.
• A Kitchen Aid mixer and some fancy-pants pots and pans that we were lucky enough to receive as a wedding gift.
• 3,000 pounds of books.
• 1,500 pounds of CDs.
• One sewing machine, a bit of fabric, and some thread.
• A blanket - no room for pillows or sheets.
• One ginormous clothes drying rack courtesy of my Mom from Amish country.

If you come to visit us in Portland, you may be forced to sleep on a bare, twin-sized aero bed and sit on the "Music A through Eels" box at dinner - chairs are highly overrated and really won't fit in with our "hobo chic" decor. In exchange for the sparse accommodations, we'd be more than happy to air-dry your entire wardrobe in our living room.

Things I Will (and Will Not) Miss in D.C. #9: The Microwave that Hates My Guts

Monday morning I posted our microwave and television on Craigslist in an effort to begin the purging process. I thought for sure it would be a slow sell. Within 45 minutes, I had 3 inquiries and even one person willing to bump up the selling price by $10. Bidding wars. On a microwave?

Maybe it's Samsung's sleek stainless steel look, or it's 1100 watt power cooking capacity, or its 10 power settings. The motivations behind the desire for my microwave may never be disclosed. I am still in awe.

Not unlike my miserable stove, this appliance plots to kill me nearly every week. But rather than torch my poor cakes to a crisp, it chips away slowly at my soul with its incessant beeping once cooking has finished. Every 30-45 seconds that you leave your plate in the blasted thing, "BEEP BEEP." It serves no purpose, this "BEEP BEEP." It's not like an oven timer that necessitates chirping or your dinner might catch fire. I have gotten to the point where I yell back at it, in it's annoying mechanical tone "SHUT UP" and "HATE YOU" and "DIE NOW" (or any other expletives that occur to me at the time) and then open and slam the door to stop the damn "BEEP BEEP."

I did not include in my Craigslist description why I hate this particular fixture in our kitchen. It's fatal flaw is not a defect really. In fact, it's quite the opposite - some microwave engineer designed it to be just the way it is. So, I'm not legally bound to disclose it's totally annoying beeper (or dinger or chimer or chirper) when I say "looks great and in perfect working condition." When the Craigslister comes over this week to trade cash for my nemesis, I will give a silent cheer.

Goodbye, Samsung MW1080STA microwave oven. You will not be missed!

Firsts (and Seconds and Thirds)

Sunday night I made Jesse open up a small part of his birthday gift early. Ta da! A roll of packaging tape. Aren't I thoughtful? And generous! What more could a man want for his 30th birthday?! To celebrate, we packed up two boxes of CD's. This beauty is the first of many boxes to be sealed and crammed. Goodbye CD's. We'll see you in September.

For the record, the tape is awesome, but it's definitely not going to make labeling any faster. He spent about 10 minutes just coloring in all of the lines. The outcome was pretty cool though, "Music - A through Eels." Nothing but the best for our move! Unfortunately, all of the packing materials we acquired this weekend are taking up precious space in the giant blue box. So, the boxes of music are stored right next to Jesse's side of the bed where he can keep an eye on their status.

Speaking of the blue boxes, yesterday I reserved our crate (with slightly different dimensions, so I'll have to re-tape this weekend for accuracy). Our plan is to pack the taped box perfectly so when the crate arrives the Saturday before our move, we'll know that everything has its place. We also gave notice to our apartment yesterday, so it's official. We have to leave. There's no turning back (unless we want to set up a cardboard box fort in the alley behind our building).

Oh, and yesterday I received word that my first phone interview with the architectural firm in Portland went pretty well. The second interview will likely be over the phone with the head of the Preservation/Conservation department in San Francisco, and the third (in person)interview, is scheduled for August 7th! But I don't have time to worry about that now, only 24 days until I'm out of here! Oh boy, I can't wait.

A Quick Break from Life

This weekend we drove to Philadelphia to visit my parents and to pick up a few of my things. As usual, we never make it out of my Mom & Dad's house without a car packed full of stuff. We scored big time in the moving paper/boxes department and can now really start thinking about packing. The weekend was a lot more than just a quick trip to pick up stuff. It was the last visit to Philadelphia before we head out to Portland - and maybe the final visit to the city since my parents may be moving themselves.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon and had a wonderful dinner at our favorite microbrewery, Iron Hill. With full bellies walked over to the local high school for some pre-July 4th fireworks. Friday was pretty relaxing, my mom and I went out shopping and Jesse and my Dad stayed at home and talked about sports and other dude stuff.

Saturday, we set out for Amish country near Lancaster, PA since Jesse and I had never been. It was a beautiful drive with pristine farms for miles. We had an early lunch at Good 'n Plenty, which is a family-style restaurant serving some local favorites, such as "ham loaf." The loaf defies description (cut like a meatloaf, but very different in taste and texture). It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. The menu item that more than made up for the ham loaf was their fried chicken (some of the best I've tasted), mashed potatoes, and browned buttered noodles.

The weirdest thing about the day (other than the ham loaf) was driving along the main roads behind little black carriages that were driven by the Amish. The horses were surprisingly well-behaved, considering the close proximity to passing cars, but there were a couple of times when we had to cover our eyes to avoid seeing a couple of pretty close calls. I've seen plenty of photos of the carriages and the people, but they don't do the experience justice. It is such a strange feeling to gaze as they went about their everyday "normal" lives.

I say "normal" because, well, they don't use machinery and refuse electricity. But also, they named their towns Intercourse and Bird-in-Hand and Paradise. My Dad and Jesse schooled themselves on the "Milestones in the Life of the Village of Intercourse" while my mom and I perused a quilt shop and museum. Fact: there were exactly zero milestones between 1924 (when the first bus line was established) and 1951 (when dial telephones were installed in Intercourse). Oh and 1966 was a big year for the town when "Eros Publishers, a pornography business, is turned down in its efforts to establish Intercourse as their mailing address."

The weekend was such a nice break from the intensity of Washington. We've been pretty frantic lately trying to accomplish all of our moving tasks by August 5th. For a few days, I was actually able to relax and take a breather. The downtime was definitely needed to energize for the next days to come!

Too Perfect?

Last night I relayed the story of my job interview to my parents and then to J, so I didn't have the strength to do it for a third time on my blog. Luckily, I slept like a log and this morning woke up refreshed and ready to kick butt at work. As I mentioned yesterday, the job interview went really well. It was pretty standard in terms of questions, and luckily I had prepared myself for just that.

Ok, Rewind.

The Background:
The company is an architectural firm headquartered in San Francisco and they have done quite a few interesting projects. They specialize in historic buildings and seem to be expanding beyond California to include the Pacific Northwest. The Portland office was just opened about 6-8 months ago. I randomly sent them my resume (one of probably about 12 or 15 that I have sent out so far) indicating that I'd be moving to Portland in August and would be looking for career opportunities. I totally didn't expect to hear back from them, but last week I was contacted about potentially joining the company.

The Time Frame:
The best part of the whole interview was when I found out that they won't have full time work for me until after September 1st. What? Too perfect! I really don't want to work until after September 1st! Jesse and I will be able to take that month-long vacation that we've been planning. I certainly could use the relaxation!

At the end of the phone interview, we talked a bit about the next steps and how the in-person interview process would go. First, I'd meet with the head of the Portland office and then would interview with the principals in San Francisco. There weren't any promises made, but I think the discussion of flying me to California sometime in August is a pretty good sign!