Glass in the Garden & Gale-force Winds

I saw about three trees like this - roots ripped out,
taking the concrete with them.

Just because I've left Texas doesn't mean I've escaped ridiculous weather. Texans like to say, "If you don't like the weather here, just wait a minute," since it changes so rapidly. Well. Last week, a storm that brought down trees I couldn't wrap my arms around hit in about that time.

I was out running with Paparazzi Thursday evening, and I knew it was likely to rain because the humidity rivaled Houston's standard mugginess. The dark clouds coming in were motivation to pick up the pace, but when I felt the cool breeze, I accepted that we were going to get wet.

What I didn't expect, however, was that with the cold front I felt came winds that immediately started breaking off rather large limbs from the trees around me. All of a sudden, I envisioned myself bleeding on the pavement with only stupid Cobra insurance coverage for the stitches. So I ran a block back, hoping the buildings would block the wind better. Eventually, I got to a place where I could call John, who came and picked up me and the smelly dog.

This guy's car was crushed by a fallen tree
(see stump in background).

When we got home, I went to turn on the TV to see if there were any tornado warnings (as it turns out, one or two did touch down nearby), but all that came through was Sesame Street. I crossed my fingers that somebody would interrupt Elmo kissing babies if I needed to get in the basement.

While mother nature is busy tearing down plant life, I've been busy trying to grow it. I do not have a green thumb; I've killed many a plant. But I still like to try. I think this time could be the most promising since I'm growing in the ground instead of undersized pots. I've also bought lots of Miracle Grow.

Let me say, however, that digging out a 2x5x1 piece of ground is not as simple as I thought it would be. Fortunately, it's not clay, but unfortunately, it's full of crap: enough glass to replace one of my windows, a plaid shirt, a beer can or two. It's gross. But, with any luck at Lowe's today, I'll have the plants in the ground before the sun goes down. I'm trying to be modest - just a tomato plant, a bell pepper plant and a jalapeño plant for the ground plus some herbs in small pots - and while I'm planting a little on the late side, I'm hoping something will come of it. After I get everything planted, I'm also starting the war on weeds - most of my "yard" is actually weeds, so I'm trying to remedy that so it looks half decent.

I don't have work today, which is exciting, though I very well might end up doing some work from home any way. In addition to the medical system project that I'm working on, I've started doing some work on a new client that I'm very excited about: Art of Tea. I've been learning a ton about tea, resulting in a serious spike in how much I'm drinking. Part of that is that it's hard to read about tea and not want to drink it and part of that is I've realized the low quality of most of what I have and want to drink it up so I can get better stuff.

And while most things are going well, there have been two low points over the last week. First, John will be leaving in a week. He's sick and needs to get back home to see a doctor. Second, my ex-roommate from Austin has decided to steal about $300 from me. She owed me overpayment in rent, which she agreed to send minus any bills I owed, but decided she didn't feel like it. So in addition to finishing the garden, one of my goals today is to finish filing a suit against her. Maybe being served papers by the constable will be enough to make her realize that it's better to just honor your agreements.

Making this House a Home

The long downstairs area was a bit tough to figure out,
but I think between Dad and I we figured out a good layout.

John put together the pantry (center) since there wasn't
one in the kitchen.

It's been almost two weeks since we unlocked my back door for the first time, and it's been a super busy between moving in and my first days at work.

So far, I've met two of my neighbors and spent about 30 minutes chatting with them on the first visit. I'm in a changing neighborhood - my row of houses is half black and half white tenants. While it used to be a less than desirable place to be because of crime, it's changing every day. People like my neighbor Laila won't stand for that shit. That's the attitude of lots of people on the block - we're a strong, healthy neighborhood and we won't tolerate criminal activity.

Anyway, my POD arrived and John supervised the less than cordial attitude of the driver frustrated by the tight situation. Within a few hours, however, John and Dad had everything emptied into the house, and the POD was picked up less than 48 hours later.

A week later, I'm still organizing nearly nonstop. Most of the kitchen boxes (the largest number for any room - surprise//1) have been emptied and the necessary cleaning is complete. Praise the Lord I got my laundry done (with the nice new matching w/d set) and have clean things to wear, though I was disappointed to realize things won't dry terribly well in the basement. I have more cardboard than I know what to do with now!

I'm pretty antsy to unpack my books and
set up my library.

Internet (slow but secure) is also up and running. Almost all of my books are upstairs, but the bookcases aren't up yet since I can't find those damn little pegs used to put up the shelves - it's stuff like that that makes moving so hard.  I'm also  realizing what kinds of furniture I need (in time and at the right price), and plan to hit up local garage sales and used furniture stores for anything without cloth (i.e. not a couch or chair).

Work has been busy as well - it's basically been a thrown-into-the-deep-end kind of experience, which isn't too traumatic for me since I learn by doing and I'm used to a chaotic environment. The way this office uses technology makes my old office look like all we had were glorified typewriters  - we chat, we use Yammer (basically like Twitter for just our office, resulting in wonderful HR nightmares), everything is uploaded and worked on online, etc. I love it because it really facilitates faster, more effective communication and a better company culture instead of constantly interrupting each other, sending emails, etc.

This is the spare room. Mine looks a lot like it but
without the balcony door and much messier!

I've been working primarily on writing copy for a website redesign for a health system, which means it's pretty much the same story as before - I get to write about lovely things like colonoscopies and prostate surgery. (I was so naive to think I left behind writing disgusting phrases like "projectile diarrhea" when I left Guitar Veterinary Services). There's nothing like asking, over the phone in the middle of a room full of tech guys quietly coding away, "Can you explain what a patient can expect during an in-office vasectomy?"

I do wish there was a half bath downstairs, but this works.

I've also functioned as a floater, helping with other projects as needed and as I can, which has allowed me to learn some company-specific software by simply jumping in and doing it. And everyone is so busy that I'm trusted to ask the right questions and get it done, which is nice. There's definitely a sense of teamwork to achieve company goals. I experienced that willingness to help out my first week when I put a Yammer post out about needing help transferring info to my new work computer and three people jumped in to make it happen within minutes!

Last week, we were told that the company structure will be changing somewhat - not an unexpected change given the growth we're experiencing, but growing pains are anticipated nonetheless. For me, that means I'll be taking on a lot of the duties of my manager and, I think, essentially be the primary (but not only!) copywriter on staff. I think the change comes at a good time for me since I'm not really attached to any particular way of doing things so as long as it's for the better, it should be simple for me.

Overall, I think being homesick hasn't set in because I'm so busy and John's here, though he'll probably need to be gone by the end of June. We tried a Mexican restaurant the other day and it was sub-standard as expected, but other than that, it hasn't truly hit me that I'm so far from home. I'm sure it will catch up eventually.

A quick summary of everything else:

• Yes I've looked at the Taylor Daily Press website a few times, and it seems to be the same headache as before. I'm so glad I didn't have to work Election Day this weekend!

• I'm still working to clear up all of the Austin apartment (the bedbugs one) nonsense. Thank God everything has gone smoothly with this landlord, though there was some disagreement over blinds - they said they don't provide them, but they took down the ones that were here and would put them back up for a fee. I picked my battles and had Dad do it while he was here, among many other Dad jobs.

• John and I have both been taking runs about every other day. We don't go together (he used to run cross country so I'm not even going to put myself up against that), but we take Paparazzi and he seems to enjoy it, even if it doesn't entirely wear him out.

• I think I've finally sorted out my mail forwarding situation; a pile of it was sitting in Austin, but it's moving along now. Email me if you need my new address. I might also be getting a new phone number since I keep getting unwanted sales calls about health insurance and furthering my education...

• I'm hoping to have my spare bedroom rented out by early next month, but I have to get an actual bed first and take pictures of my place when it's not a cardboard explosion.

On the Road to a New Home

Part I

Paparazzi enjoyed fake freedom with his head out
the window while safely strapped in.

Monday John and I made the long (11 hour) haul to Memphis in our first day of driving, and we spent the next day exploring the city. I expected it to feel bigger, but in reality it isn’t much beyond the size of Austin. Probably the best thing we did was visit Sun Studio, a place established by a white man who loved the blues and recorded greats like Howlin’ Wolf, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis. It was very sweet.

We had a dinner of seafood gumbo, chili, Cajun BBQ shrimp, fried fish and ribs at a place called Blues City Café on Beale Street, where the music scene is rocking. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting soul food in Tennessee, but black culture is especially strong in Memphis.

John checks out the menu at Blues
City Café, where we had dinner Tuesday.

The Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum really explored the blend of white and black culture in Memphis music, explaining how white sharecroppers worked side-by-side with black sharecroppers in the cotton fields, feeding off each other’s music. Primarily, the way things went was white guys picked up black trends in music. At Sun, I learned that the original version of Hound Dog (Elvis: “You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog…”) was sung by a woman, which – when you think about it for two seconds – makes far more sense. Another artist came back with an answer song called “Bear cat woman,” but was sued over it since it sounds just like Hound Dog.

Anyway, it was a gorgeous day despite an 80% chance of rain predicted the day before and the same was true on our drive on to Grandpa’s house outside of Knoxville, Tenn.

Paparazzi enjoyed being outside for a while at Grandpa’s a little too much; he bolted when I let him in the backyard without the leash and I had to run after him across many a backyard and a street. As usual, I caught him because nature called and he couldn’t fight it. I write this as he sits panting behind me in the back seat, and I know it’s truly no wonder he ended up in a shelter; every time he runs I feel bad for whatever family lost him last.

Manny and Paparazzi scrambled for
Grandpa's attention Wednesday.

The weather has been beautiful and the driving is much more interesting than in Texas. We’ll be camping in Shenandoah National Park through Saturday, when we’ll get to Harrisburg and into my new place for the first time!

Part II

I didn’t have a chance to throw up the previous blog because there wasn’t Internet access at the park. When we got there, we found out we’d have to drive about another hour and a half to two hours into the park and fortunately made most of it in the remaining daylight.

We stopped for dinner at one of the many beautiful overlooks and dodged at least a dozen deer on the final stretch into camp. We set up camp in the dark and climbed into our sleeping bags without the rain fly, which meant we could look at the stars since John’s tent is all mesh covering. Unfortunately, that also meant I got pretty cold, so I woke up in the middle of the night to don a couple sweatshirts and extra pants and socks.

These two kicked my butt on the trail!

The next day, we headed out for a four mile hike after breakfast. Now, four miles in Austin is not the same thing as four miles in Virginia. It was up and down hill – flat for only short stretches – and included a decent amount of climbing over rocks, which Paparazzi made look easy, even in his booties (stickers got stuck in his paws when hiking in Texas so we got these to protect him this time around).

It was exhausting, but really pretty and fun. By the end, even Paparazzi was laying down if we stopped for anything. I paid $1 for five minutes of hot water (no warning when time was running out), and we passed out back in the tent for a hard afternoon nap.

I woke up first and am proud to report that, for the first time ever, I made a camp fire all on my own! We had tried to make one before conking out, but when it started to sprinkle, decided to put it off. John woke up about 15 minutes later, after I already had some food cooking over the fire (I impressed the Eagle Scout!).

We got him the doggie booties because
his soft fur catches stickers and hurt his paws.

After a slow dinner of soup, scrambled eggs and bacon, John showed me his expert s’more making skills – apparently, the key to a finely toasted mallow is waiting for the fire to die down to the embers. We re-packed the bear box and went to sleep with the rain fly on for extra warmth that night since I’m cold natured.

Saturday was our shortest driving day of the trip at under four hours on the road, and my landlord left the key for me. With a few minor things to remedy, the place looks great, though I don't know what I'll do with so much space!  It's a true house - three bedrooms - and so much space downstairs. I can't wait to get to settling in and decorating to feel more at home.

I've already met one of my neighbors and she was super friendly. Her name's Leila and she welcomed me to the neighborhood with unprecedented warmth. It was really reassuring that I did chose the right neighborhood.

Monday is my first day of work and Dad will be here later this week to help unload the POD, which is coming Thursday. I can't wait to get my stuff in here because now we're basically camping indoors. Look for more updates in the coming week!