Sunday, January 29, 2012

T (-) 1 week!

Today is Sunday night, and my scheduled leave date is this Saturday! 6 more days and i am outta here; hasta luego! I've been having a great time hanging out with family and getting together with some friends. I've been going thru my boxes, piles, and drawers of stuff that i would like to bring, and getting rid of even more stuff! I have to make another trip to GoodWill. I feel like just getting rid of so much stuff has been very cathartic, and i feel a lot less stress (even with such a huge change/adventure looming). I'd really like to try to maintain a lifestyle of having less "things" around. I don't want to sound like I'm gonna try to be a hippie, hitchhiker, minimalist, or whatnot, but I do like the idea of keeping my things under control. We'll see :) I've kinda stopped applying for jobs. I'm still looking, but more for ideas of where I can look into applying once I'm out there. I'm nervous about the idea of going out there with no job lined up, and still having to pay car loan and insurance, student loans, and some cc bills. But, I just keep reminding myself that I have a bit 'o money saved up now, so that I will be alright for a few months. (Whew, huge relief) I've been emailing and texting the people I know out there and just getting myself psyched up by hearing how excited they are to have me come out! That's really been the best thing. I don't think I could have ever kept up my determination to go if I didn't have such great relationships with these friends out there. (Huge shout out to Kara, Coltin, Coltin II, Caiden, Mira, Alyssa, Vincent, Jada, Joe, Adam, Coco, Devon, Seth, Angelo, Vega, and 'soon to be baby #4 - congrats Coco and Devon! (and special thanks to Coltin II, and Caiden for being so awesome about me taking over their bedroom, You guys Rock!!!) I just got my mom set up with Skype today and made sure that that works, so we can video chat. And hopefully I can make sure that Clare and Trevor have a skype account set up before I leave as well. I am getting ready for my last 2 days of work at Park Nicollet this week!!!! It's gonna be so hard to go! After 9 1/2 years, can you believe that? Then I have to really start packing like a fiend. I read somewhere that you should pack the most important stuff first, cuz if you run out of room, you don't want to have your important stuff left out. Makes sense, but everything that I consider "important" is stuff that I use on a daily basis, so how the heck am I going to pack that before friday night??? And speaking of friday night... I am still having a going away party with my friends at Wild Bills in Blaine! Hopefully I will get to see most of you there! I had a going away party with my family over the weekend, and that was great. Most people were able to make it, and everyone was so great and supportive! I love you all so much, thank you! So I can't wait to have another great night with all of my friends - or at least those of you who will be in town, since I know some of you will be away :( I have been checking the weather frequently. Seattle's weather has been awesome. But the trick will be making the drive out without hitting any of the bad weather that's been going thru Montana and Idaho, and the Cascades. I really really don't want to hit a snowstorm going thru the passes in the Rockies or the Cascades! Other than that, just living :) I'm sure I'll have some more to say as it gets closer to friday. Buenas noches

Friday, January 20, 2012

And you think I should stay?

So, we get a tiny amount of snow in the morning on my way in to work and I'm stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic for 2.5 hours! And you think I wanna stay?! Ok, granted Seattle just had what amounts to a massive snowstorm out there (8 inches, and that's their usual annual amount of snow for a while winter). But it's all gonna melt in the next couple of days, since it'll be in the mid 40's for the next week. What have we got going on here? Oh yes, more snow and probably more freezing temps. No thanks, Minnesota. See ya later!

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Birthday!

So it was my birthday today! 28 years old! My mom took me out for sushi at Osaka. We had a great time, and then Clare, Trevor and the kids came over and we had ice cream, stood on our heads, rocked back and forth on our tummys while holding onto our feet, and ran around the living room screaming our heads off. LOL. yeah, we know how to have a good time.  And we'll probably do it all again on sunday :-)

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

getting some details figured out

I just jumped on here late tonight cuz i wasn't tired yet, and updated all of my profile info, including a lengthy "about me" section. Anyone interest can decide to read it or not :)  I'm still figuring out exactly how this all works, but I would like to think i'm getting it a little bit.

Anyway, I've been thinking about my upcoming move, and since i have only a very small Kia Rio5 hatchback, I've been stressing a little about how on earth i'm gonna fit everything in there that i want to take with me, AND fit in my mom with a small bag for her! I was able install an aftermarket roof rack by myself the other day (it was amazingly easy), and have been considering the different ways that i could make use of that. It was, of course, brought to my attention that we own a rooftop cargo bag that i could use, but i've been thinking of buying a metal basket system and using that. I think that i could then strap quite a few things on top of the car that way :)

However, packing doesn't seem to be my only problem.  I have begun to realize how ridiculously easy it is to lose something in one's own bedroom! There are several things that i have the receipt for, but which have mysteriously vanished; even tho i'm pretty sure that they were in my bedroom at one time.  I'm going to attribute this to my recent move and the stress of another, more dramatic move/change.  I'm sure these things would turn, if only i had the opportunity to really look.

how it started

When I started telling my friends  and coworkers that I was leaving my job and moving out to Seattle, someone mentioned to me that a great way to keep people updated on how I’m doing would be to start a blog.  I immediately thought it sounded like a great idea.  So that’s where this all started. I hope keep up to date with all of the things that I’m thinking about or seeing and doing.  I’ve told myself that I will at least stick it out in Seattle for 1 year.  So I expect there to be a lot of posting on here!