RSS
Monday, October 13, 2008
Holy Cats!
Where has the last month+ gone?
Let’s see: Johnathan and I signed the lease on a new apartment in mid-September. We painted two of the three rooms that we planned to paint before we ran out of time and interest in painting for the time being. We still plan to paint our bedroom, but we’ve got to unpack first. The living room, which was planned to be a nice, soft gold color, is more like a pumpkin. It’s not what I was hoping for, but it’s still nice, and I think it makes the room very cozy. The bedroom was supposed to be a rich blue, which… well, it’s definitely rich. It’s also bold. So bold that the room seems to glow in regular daylight. When we have the soft desk lamp on, though, it’s much tamer and it’s a very nice color. I’m now hesitant to see how our bedroom will turn out. It is supposed to be a kind of mocha color, nice rich brown. I’m hoping it won’t turn too dark, although I think it will still be okay even if it does. It’s just a little worrisome that we’re 0 for 2 on intended paint colors. We like both of them anyway, though, so maybe it’s not so bad.
We also had to pack up the old apartment and move everything to the new apartment. The packing part started out really well. I was cataloging everything so that we’d know where every one of our possessions was. I got about ten boxes put into the spreadsheet, then just gave up. With everything going on and working full time on top of it, there was just no way that I was going to have time to deal with trying to log everything at the same time. We got the bulk of our stuff to our new place before my family got into town, but at that point, everything started to fall apart for the moving business.
My dad showed up on Saturday while I was at work. They drove out from Portland and took a week doing it, but I had no idea when they were going to get to the Cleveland area. It was a bit of a surprise for me. Johnathan and I went over to their hotel room after I got off of work and hung out for a while. Some things never really change, and that’s all I’m going to say about that.
On Sunday, we went out for lunch at Red Robin with my dad and his family 2.0, and then my dad and my older half-sister came to our new apartment and we shot the breeze for a little while. Allison arrived while my dad and half-sister were still at the apartment, so there was more chatting as well as some perusal of Veggie Tales videos on youtube before they left. In the interest of my dad’s sanity, I lent them some DVDs so that he would no longer have to watch the same four over and over on the trip back. I’m sure they were just as tired of the new ones as the old ones by the time they took the trip back across the country with the two little girls.
That evening, Allison, Johnathan and I had what we called a Bachelor/ette party. I got to wear a sparkly crown that announced my “bachelorette”-ness, a bright red boa and attempt to use straws with little penises on them to drink beer. (I think that was the strange part.) We had some Harvest Moon and some Woodchuck, which Johnathan and I insisted on calling Chipmunk. We played Disney Scene-It, and Allison and I tied throughout half the game. We must have had at least ten tie-breakers, and at least one tie-breaker to break a tie from a tie-breaker. I still won, though! My record is still nearly perfect. Whoo! 
The next day, we waited for my mom to come into town. We watched The Devil Wears Prada (hooray for cable!) and Dan in Real Life. Both are excellent movies. My mom didn’t get in until about 5PM, though we were originally expecting her to be up to the Cleveland area by about noon. They got lost on the way up from Cincinatti, apparently. We went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, which was very yummy. I’d never been there before. My mom and Allison and I were going to go shopping at some point, but after such a long drive up, my mom wasn’t up for it, so Johnathan, Allison and I trekked over to Avenue. I got a lovely jacket, a nice shirt and a very nice sweater, as well as some jewelry to wear while we got married. I so infrequently wear jewelry that I didn’t actually own any to wear. Now I do! Hurray! Afterwards, we went back to the apartment, Allison and Johnathan had a bit of alcohol (I opted for pop instead), and we watched Bernstein’s Candide. I do love that operetta so!
In the morning, I woke up way too early, as is my habit whenever I have a deadline. I was showered and pretty much ready to go by about 8:30, when we didn’t have our appointment until 11AM at the courthouse. Johnathan ran out for breakfast and coffee, and we hung out and watched HGTV until it was time to go. We were planning to get there early, and left even earlier than originally planned, getting there just before 10:30. Almost everyone else arrived just after we did, so we weren’t hanging around doing nothing. There were lots of pictures taken, none of which I’m interested in sharing at this time (maybe later!), and lots of semi-awkward family interactions as two divorced couples tried to make nice for our day. Nobody was rude or even slightly terse to anyone else, so I’d say it was a roaring success. The judge was running very behind, so even though we were there plenty early, our 11AM appointment turned into an 11:45 ceremony. The ceremony itself was short and sweet, with very little religion injected into it and not much outside of the vows themselves. It was perfect. We had a few pictures, and more hugs than I ever like to give in one day, and then we all headed to Buca di Beppo for lunch. Lunch was good, excepting that the families made things needlessly complicated by insisting that we split the checks. It was a good lunch, even if we had to look at a bust of the very creepy pope the entire time! Afterward, Johnathan and I left for the Red Maple Inn, and we holed a way for a few days. We had fairly good food, wine, cheese and a fair amount of scrabble playing. The vacation wasn’t as relaxing as it might have been due to the fact that we had a ton of stuff left to do when we got back.
The day we left the Inn, we went straight to the DMV BMV so that I could get my Ohio license with my new name on it. I called a bunch of places and got my name changed that day. We got new car insurance and purchased renter’s insurance (finally). We did very little else that day because once I was done jockeying with the phone, I was exhausted.
The rest of that weekend involved a lot of packing, cleaning, moving, more cleaning, some unpacking, and even more cleaning. We cleaned that old apartment from top to bottom. Every cabinet was wiped out. The stove was scrubbed until my fingers almost bled. The fridge scrubbed out, the carpets scrubbed and steam cleaned. We’re convinced we left that apartment in better shape than it was in when we moved in October of last year. It felt pretty good. Let me tell you, though, those late nights getting it that way were brutal. By the time I went back to work on Monday and Tuesday, I felt like I needed a vacation from my vacation! I still do, actually. We’ve been very, very slowly unpacking the new apartment. We should be doing more to get it unpacked, but by the time we both get home from work, neither of us is very interested in doing anything involving cleaning or tidying up, let me tell you. Especially with the added distraction of having cable television at home now, it makes it really hard to get motivated to do anything some days. I’d rather just veg out!
We’re finally back on track with our groceries, now that most of the kitchen is unpacked. We cooked for the first time in the new apartment this last week. We’ve made chili (a hacked up version of my dad’s recipe), mishmash pasta (or velcro pasta, however you like), and beef stroganoff. We used our brand new, empire red Kitchenaid Artisan Series Stand Mixer yesterday for the first time, too! We mixed pizza dough in it. It was gratuitous use of the stand mixer, but we’re totally okay with that. Imagining all the things that will be made in it in the months to come makes me very happy. Pies, cakes, cupcakes, cookies, breads… mmmm! Between the mixer that Johnathan’s mom gifted us with and the cookware that my mom gifted us with, cooking, even in our miniscule kitchen, is a dream.
So, that’s where we’re at after a long month of moving, packing, family, getting married and other assorted life chores. How’s everyone else?
Share
