Ready for a misadventure?

When I was originally scheming about writing a blog, I was intending to write about being a young married person and wanting to document the tumultuous period that is being a fledgling adult. I thought I would write about the slow food movement, social change, politics, eco-friendly living; however, now that the time to write is here, the only thing this foolish soon-to-be-Seattleite has to write about is misadventure. I promise to be cool eventually, but today is not that day.

I was not going to write about what happened with the moving company today, because I did not want to jinx our luck for tomorrow. Then I remembered adults are not supposed to be superstitious, so here goes.

The moving truck was supposed to arrive between 8am and 10am this morning. Around 9am, as I am editing a cover letter for a job I plan to apply for the power goes out. At first, I thought maybe it was a hiccup or a power surge. Checked the appliances in the rest of the room, yep, no power there either.

As I am walking outside and calling Matt to figure out how to flip the breakers (thinking that this was just a simple issue of blowing a fuse), I see the moving truck at the top of the ¼ mile long drive way up to the house. After a few seconds, I realized that the truck was not coming down the driveway even though I already checked that the gate was open and unlocked. My apprehension for this situation grows as I walk on down the driveway to see what the problem is.

If you have ever seen the rural property where we are living, you may remember that there is a power line directly over the driveway with two poles on either side. That is when I notice the tremendous sag in the power line above the driveway. And the inward tilt of the poles on either side. And the anxious look on the drivers face (we shall call him Joe).

After Joe informs me that he accidentally hit the power line while trying to come down the driveway, I call my father in law (with panic in my voice) and ask him to call the power company and let them know what happened. At this point, I wasn’t positive that Joe and I had knocked out power in the entire neighborhood but I had an inkling…the neighbors poking their heads out their windows was not a good sign.

Joe and I headed back to house to try to figure out what to do – we were still mostly concerned with how to get our belongings from the garage to the moving van. Walking the 40 boxes one by one up the ¼ mile driveway did not sound like an enjoyable task here in the Texas heat. It may have been early in the day, but it was already 90°.

That was when I heard it. The sirens, of course. Because what is a misadventure without the authorities getting involved? An ambulance and two fire trucks loudly careen around the bend in the road in our neighborhood. Joe and I set off at a trot back up the driveway, both muttering words of consolation and damnation.

The neighbors are coming out of their houses in earnest now to see what the fuss is about (who knew I was going to host a meet and greet in my pajamas?!). I am sputtering apologizes. Joe is an endless flow of reasons how this was all an accident.

It was all over with quickly. Joe and I realized we were not going to be risking our lives dragging boxes up the driveway under broken power lines so we rescheduled and he left. The emergency responders took their leave after taking our information. And before we knew it, the power company was out here with a truck and a cherry picker to right the poles, straighten the cables and turn the power back on.

Disaster struck and left me and the household company of animals (the chicken, 3 cats, 3 dogs, and 3 horses) all bamboozled and exhausted. Joe is coming back tomorrow, but we have arranged to meet him with all our stuff at the end of the driveway. Cross your fingers for us!

The Countdown Begins!

Tomorrow, I will drive 5 hours to visit my childhood friends before being the first to move away from the state.

In 3 days, we will have a going away party to retrieve all the luck our friends can gift and give the biggest hugs possible in return.

In 4 days, Matt and I will stow our belongings in a moving truck to live out of suitcases for 2 weeks before our possessions reach us.

In 8 days, we will begin a 35 hour road trip from Texas to Washington - the longest we have been on together.

In 9 days, Matt and I will have spent 24 hours in a car together. Who knows what kind of delirium we will be experiencing at this point!

In 10 days, we will arrive in Seattle exhausted and excited and anxious and on-the-edge and oh so many other emotions.

What are you waiting for? (Source: PostSecret.com)

Negatron Uninvitedly Visits

Moving is difficult. Moving is tough. No one told us any less than that exact truth, but because things were going so well I chose not to believe them. There are so many things to consider and plan and coordinate. There are so many things waiting to go WRONG.

This morning, I would have sworn that we had everything figured out! But alas, I have been smited for how many times I smuggly said "Ahh, it will all work out!" to the wise adults that warned me to be prepared for the unexpected.

I should start with the good before I begin my complaints. Last night:

• Matt was offered a full time position in the Seattle suburb we wished to relocate to!
  
• We narrowed down the moving companies to 24 Hours Moving, Inc. or U-Box.
   
• We narrowed down the apartments we wanted to our top 5 choices, then top 2 choices and called our #1 choice who just so happened to have one 1b/1b apartment left with a fireplace, washer/dryer hook up and a special that got us $100 off the market rent.

Last night, we toasted our plans and success with Limoncello and life was good. Did I mention the potential apartment complex was also located 1.1 miles away from Matt's new work location? Now, we only had to FedEx our rental applications and deposits to the apartment complex and it was ours!

This afternoon, after paying an exorbitant amount of money to FedEx our info to the complex, I get an e-mail. The apartment was leased. To some California jerk that managed to FedEx his application a day sooner.

After pathetically whine/crying to the leasing landlord, she fandangled us another apartment that would be ready around the necessary time frame. Blah, blah. Blah, blah. Problem is, we won't know until Monday if the special for $100 off the market rent will stick around for the next month. Round and round we went.

Is the complex trying to rip us off? Maybe! But I love their location and the price was great and everything was so settled. Now Matt is so ticked off at them he doesn't even want to live there. Back to square one we go, comparing rent prices, amenities and locations.

And! When I was trying to scan and send back the rental agreement for our moving company the scanner gave me so much sass I started throwing things at it! I did not need any more crap tonight, especially from my electronics.

I am sure it sounds silly, but I am devastated. I pouted all night. Drowned my sorrows in wine at a dinner I did not help prepare (which is very unlike me). And now I am here to document how awful and stressful moving can be. There are a million other things (good and bad) but right now, I am stuck on this disappointment.


To end this pathetic post I will  leave you all with a relevant quote from the show that is my cure-all (most especially effective on Negatron moods): 

Lorelai:  Hey, I can be flexible.
Luke:  Please.
Lorelai:  I can! As long as everything is exactly the way I want it, I’m totally flexible.

"A-Tisket, A-Tasket", Gilmore Girls Season 2, Episode 13

Divorcing Car #1

As of five days ago, Matt and I can officially call ourselves a one-car family. After a good cleaning, we handed off the car (and the monthly payments) to Matt’s parents who were looking to get another vehicle. These past few days with only one car have been easy-peasy, principally because only one of us is working.

Matt and I have been considering going down to one car for several months now, particularly as I delved more deeply into the eco-friendly, minimalist lifestyle. These were our main considerations in why we decided to slim down to one car – feel free to chime in with a comment below.

1. Saving money. Giving up one car means saving money on car payments, insurance and gas. The cost of gasoline is going to continue to rise and I want to get out of the habit of paying exorbitant prices as soon as possible. Not to mention the effort and time required for the maintenance on a car – oil changes, flat tires, windshield wipers and other painfully expensive repairs.
   
   
2. Living green. In an effort to reduce our impact on the environment, we want to stop polluting the air we breathe as much as possible. Our daily action to do this is to limit the amount we drive our car and to lessen our dependence on this mode of transportation.
   
   
3. Sticking it to the man. Our culture is obsessed with commercialism and consumption. I want to reduce this tendency by consuming less and exhibiting better habits with the things I do choose to own.

Sharing a car requires planning and patience. Matt and I have accepted the challenge to live in suburban America with only one car. In many ways, not owning my own vehicle feels like I am sacrificing some of my freedom. (But has that feeling only been planted by car companies? Screw you advertising.)

I cannot just run off for a weekend getaway with the girls without considering how that would leave Matt stranded. And Matt cannot drive off for a snow cone when I have to attend meetings. Instances like this might be a nuisance, but the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages for us.

I expect that once we move to Seattle, we will undergo sticky situations with our car-lite life; however, I anticipate Seattle will have better and more accessible public transportation than what we have access to here in Texas. I hope to find that living in a smaller state will enable us to get around more readily with even less reliance on our car than what we currently foresee. Utilizing multiple modes of transportation will be a great solution and save us a lot of strife.

There are a myriad of difficult situations that we may chance upon. For instance, what if our work schedules clash? What if we both need to commute a significant distance to work in opposite directions? What if one person desperately needs the car and the other person has it? What if the car ends up in the shop and we have no back up transportation? What if the bus makes us late to work? What if it rains or the roads are icy when we are supposed to be riding our bike? Etc.

These are very real questions that I am sure we can problem solve if/when they occur. My hope is that because we are going to Seattle with only one car, we will learn to utilize alternative transportation more readily because we will not have a vehicle to act as a crutch. The limits of owning one car will encourage us to search for jobs within shorter commute times and schedules that we can coordinate. How these tentative hopes play out will have to be another update. Until then, wish us luck!

Car-lite definition: Either a person or place that is not completely car-free, but uses or allows for a variety of alternative transport modes in addition to the car. 

World Car-Free Network - A informational website about going Car-Free for any questions I can't answer

How to Live Well Without Owning a Car - An E-Book with tips on how to live without a car - most of it is available without having to pay for the book

Come hell or high water...

It has happened! After hemming and hawing around for the past month, a date and a location has finally been picked for our move. September 3rd we leave for Seattle. It is inexplicably nice to stop saying "We plan to  move..." and start saying "We are moving...".

(Source: Google Images)

We have been living rent free with our family and generally meandering about life. Matt has still been working, but I usually just hang out at home with the plants, animals and a book in the sweltering Texas heat. About a week past, I had some strange meltdown where I felt like my life was totally out of my control because I didn't have any direction or structure - no school, no job, no worries.

That amount of freedom was disconcerting and uncomfortable. My guess is that my pace of life changed so dramatically from being absurdly busy to painfully idle that it sent me reeling after a few weeks. I felt useless and indolent - the amount I accomplished in a day was so minuscule in comparison to my prior standards.

Now, that has all changed. Matt and I have a huge load of decisions to make, things to research and contingencies to plan for. I have never felt so pleased at the prospect of being overwhelmed.