The going away BBQ Saturday was, well, okay. I enjoyed spending time with friends outside or our normal situation, such as gaming or work, or whatnot. It always seems like I am too busy making sure everything runs smoothly and I never get enough time to visit.

The sun was shining, and we managed to snag the last covered bbq area down at the beach. The problem wasn't the weather and it wasn't that we didn't have a good time. The problem was that we had something like 25 or so confirmed definites, and another 20 or so might be theres. We bought food appropriately. We ended up with less than 20 people there, including Jamers and I. The result? We have one whole package of hamburgers (24 count), 2 packages of hot dogs (20 count), 15 garden burgers, and buns to cover the above. We are moving in a week and a half.

Sooooo last night for dinner we had hot dogs. Today for lunch I have hot dogs. Tonight for dinner, um hamburgers? Tomorrow is intrepid_glory and Ryan night and they are doing dinner, but maybe I can persuade them to eat some dogs or burgers along with what they bring. I love meaty goodness, but this next week and a half is going to test even my meat capacity.

In other news, the house is getting really, really bare. I packed up the bedroom closet this weekend and we condensed all the clothes we are keeping out into the chest of drawers. That way I don't have to pack anymore clothes. I ran out of boxes so I was unable to finish. Jamers is going to bring more home from work tonight so I should be able to finish it off 'cept for cooking and essential bathroom things this week.

Don't know what else to say. I'm getting real weird in the head about quite a few things and I'm hoping they all go away after we move. Talking to my uncle last night, he reassured me that we are making the right decision. He went as far as to say that if he and my aunt were in the same position at our age with Santa Cruz being what it is now, they would be leaving too. He than said that perhaps more of the family would be heading up that way as well.

See, Santa Cruz is quickly becoming an overpriced cess pool, where the local government caters to the people who don't live here for generations. They don't make laws and ordinances and plans based on keeping Santa Cruz a place to raise your family. They continuously pass resolutions and waste taxpayer money on things that the majority of true Santa Cruzians aren't behind. This has caused quite a few people to leave this stinkin town. The more people I run into around here, the more people I hear about that are like Jamres and I and are moving away because this place isn't worth the cost. It is sad really when you think about it. This town is becoming a place for the ubber rich, college students, and the lower class that will abide being forced to live in overly priced undersized houses just so they can live in what was once paradise. Middle class can't sustain themselves in this town anymore.

Sorry about the rant, but I just am angry and sad. I truly thought I would live my whole life here, like my mother before me and my granny. Hell even my dad was second generation, just from Soquel, not SC city. The realization that my kids will never know the carefree and relaxed small town that I came from is heartbreaking.

Enough. I'm done. That is all.

the sun was gone again, pooplins. Tonight we shall finish what we didn't get done last night, mainly the house cleaning and stuff to storage. I will feel infinitely happier when the house doesn't look like a junk yard.

Forlori is in at the shop today getting regular maintenance work. The shop I took her to by recommendation seems real honest and nice. They called to tell me that she needs a tune up in addition to the extended servicing, the total estimated price is like $340, which compared to the last place I took it, is infinitely cheaper. Plus they got 'er done today, well, we'll see, but she should be done today for afternoon pick up. Which is good, I don't like not having her around.

Tomorrow we takes Pretty Lady, aka: Velvet to the vets to get her caught up on her shots. Next Saturday Bazzy goes in for his catch up. We got taxes, Jamer's resume blast, and the pics/statements to the AAA lawyer mailed off today.

When the house gets clean today, and with the above all done, we are in pretty good shape for the move I think. We'll look into getting a PO Box later tonight/tomorrow, so that we can give a forwarding address to the bill peeps in the coming month or so. It is all beginning to come together!

Ohhhhhh! Matt let me borrow the Star Trek movies DVD box set for the weekend in exchange for me letting him borrow Firefly. Last night we special ordered Babylon 5 Season 2, it should arrive in a month or so. It costs just as much as Season 1, which made me almost choke. However I have $70 in replay certificates, which will cover most of it thankfully. We were debating whether or not to start collecting Red Dwarf with the certificates, but I think poor Jamers is now addicted to Babylon 5, so we really should get it now.

Anyhoo, hopes everyones' weekend.

Hey beansbouf, I know you gave me the info on various areas of Portland before but I can't seem to locate it. Could you be ever so sweet, and give me the rundown again? Or noss, manicgiraffe, or anybody else out there in lj land that knows the area - any information I can get now would be greatly appreciated. With only a little over two months left until the move, I need to hone down where we're going to be looking. Since Nosslins and ManicG appear to be moving out of the Beaverton area and KurtXine are only going to be living with Xine's parents for a few months before they locate an apartment, we should probably evaluate all the areas of the big P before picking one. I think we were looking before in the general area where Noss/Manic, Hunter/Jen, and Xine's parents live, only because they would be near to us. I'm planning on getting a PO Box up there soon and I would like to get one in the general area of wherever we end up living for the next year or so.

I invite anyone and everyone to comment about P.

I've posted my resume on monster, careerbuilder, accountemps, and a couple of others. I'm getting responses either via emails or calls to the house. That is great! What isn't great is the fact that all the calls I'm getting are for jobs locally in California. Okay, I can see if they search and get my address on the resume how they might think I'm looking for a job locally, right? The wrinkle is that I've subsituted my address on one page to read: Moving to Portland, Porland, OR and I've made sure that my desired locations are in the Portland area. So now I wonder.

Is the job market here in California getting so bad that they will recruite any way they can? Even if it means trying to get people who are obviously moving out of the state? Or: Are HR/Hiring Managers/Recruiters that flippin stupid that they don't even really read my resume?

Anyhow, this is causing me a minor amount of grief. One place that I've posted my resume, Accountemps, I had to go through this huge process giving lots of details. Which is great. They are a temp to hire type place specifically for accountants. I spent quite a bit of time filling out all the required information so that they would have a good idea about what I can do before the initial contact. They specifically asked desired location. I listed only two: Portland, OR and Beaverton, OR.

Yesterday when I get home from work there is a message on my machine. The message is from a guy at Accountemps, Accountemps in Monterey. He says how I've got strong skills and great experience, blah blah blah and then how he would like me to call so he can get further information and discuss jobs with me. Otay peeps, what part of Oregon did they not understand? I don't know. So I returned his call and left him a voicemail. I was ever so polite and made a point of stating that I would love to work with Accountemps, however I will be moving to Portland, and I believed that I had entered that in my profile. However, if there is something else I should do to ensure that I get job leads for Portland, please let me know, yada yada yada. You get the picture. I'm hoping that he just the local contact and can still help me with jobs up in Portland, but some part of me thinks that they just saw my current address and assigned me to the local office, not paying any attention to the desired location of Portland. We'll see today if I get a return call from the guy. If not, I'll try him tomorrow on my lunch and find out how to proceed.

In other news, the last piece of granny's furniture is now in storage. Woot! I feel slightly accomplished right now. We still have stuff to box up and a few more pieces to take to storage. I'm so excited about moving. All we have to do is line up the Uhaul, get a place to live, get jobs, and all the necesary paperworks in order such as address forwarding, etc. But that is all we have left to do, teehee!

We have decided to move up the move. We will be leaving at the beginning of June instead of the end. That means 2.5 or so months left. I told Matt today as soon as James had confirmed the earlier move date. He seemed a little worried. I told him that's like two and a half months to find somebody and for me to train them. He still seemed a little aprehensive.

I feel good about the decision. I really want out of Santa Cruz. I really want for us to start our family and to start our road to home ownership. The sped up move date also allows for me to focus on jobs now instead of waiting another month. Hopefully I'll be able to persuade someone out there that even though I currently live in California, I am an exceptional employee and they should hire me! Looking on career builder and the like, I think the Robert Half staffing agency or Accoutemps are going to be my best bet.

Tomorrow at lunch I'm actually leaving the office again to go and apply for my passport. I'm going to pay the extra fee to expedite it. intrepid_glory's bachlorette party in Paris may actual happen for me afterall. Hopefully I'll be able to drink enough that I'll be okay with the flight. 'Cause yeah, I'm like scared to death of flying, falling, large bodies of water/drowning, heights, I'm mildly claustrophobic and I think if the plane had spiders on it, that would be like all of my fears wrapped up into one neat little package. However, if I can survive that trip with my wits about me, I think I'll be ready for kids.

Now I shall leave you all. Tonight will be furniture moving, packing, job searching, writting up my offical resignation, cover letters (I'm just so bad at them!) and all that jazz.

Let me see, firstly, I've been a crabby face all day today. It doesn't help that I'm PMSing, but on top of that, as soon as I got in today, problems. Now I "start" work at 8, that is when my time to deal with work begins. I usually get here early, like today, I was in around 7:35. Getting here early, allows me to get my computer up and running, coffee, read through my emails, etc. Normally I don't have a problem picking up the phone or whatnot before 8. Today though, as soon as I put my bag on my desk, I hadn't even sat down yet, Mike tells me that his computer is all messed up. I said, we'll Dave did put the new server in this weekend, perhaps that is the problem? Anyhoo, everyone was having computer problems, and my computer is still having stuff happen that Dave just doesn't know how to fix. My whole day was pretty much shot from the second I walked in the door and hasn't gotten any better, pooplins.

Friday I got so upset when we got home and the parking was all taken (as usual) I was ready to pack up now and move. I'm so sick of this town and all it's bullshit. Jamers and I talked about it and I just don't see why we should wait til the end of June, why not the end of May? It will still give the Slatter's two and a half months to find somebody else for me to train to take over my job. Plus, life will be way more hectic trying to get a Uhaul at the end of June than the end of May.

Now that Monday has rolled around, I'm double checking with the Jamers to see if he really wants to step up the moving date. If he does, great, if not than I'll just pull out my hair one day at a time.

I just feel so overwhelmed right now between the moving stuff and today's work stuff I'm stressing. I know that in the long run that the learning experience will be good for me, but damn I just want things to start falling into place already.

I think I'm going to have to go to the docs office, which I hate. My sinus cavity is very warm, still or again, or whatever, but I can't seem to get rid of all the crap up there so I'm gonna need some help. Pooplins to that as well!

Anyhoo, less than 3 hours in the work day, that has to count for something, right?

I'm soooo very happy today is Friday. I need some serious rest. I've got circles under my eyes and my shoulders and lower back are in achy land. It looks like it may not dump the buckets of rain it is supposed to this evening, but we'll see. If it is clear after work, we'll run the daybed pieces to storage. If its raining, then I'll just do box packing, grocery shopping, and house cleaning. The sad thing is, that is a laid back evening for me lately.

We got the chairs to storage last night, woot! Gaming ended early, but we stayed and talked to Duane til shortly after 10. Got home and I practically passed out.

Anyhoo, tomorrow I want to take all the crap we don't want to the Last Chance Merchantile down in Monterey. That will free up quite a bit of space in the house. Due to miscommunciation, Kurtxine won't be making it up Saturday night for dinner and movies, and I guess that means we also won't be driving down the dresser and night stand to them. Then driving down to Monterey just to drop the stuff off seems silly. Maybe SC has something similar, but I've never heard of it if we do.

Emillo and Sahara are coming over for dinner Saturday. I enjoy their company, but when we went up to their house a couple months back, I was practically falling asleep by the time we left. They appear to be night people, and I don't quite know how to handle asking them to leave around 10 or so.

Sunday was going to be my day of doing nothing, but that has changed as well. Kurtxine are supposed to come up and watch movies or something. I guess I can handle that. Somehow I know that I'll feel like just moving the sofa to storage if it isn't raining, and that will most definitely ruin my do nothing day. However the up side to that is, once we've moved the sofa, than we won't have to worry about taking anything else out of granny's house.

I want to donate the bedding and pillows to the homeless shelter, but I can't find a flippin phone number for them in the useless yellow pages. I'll see how that goes.

I'm getting antsey about moving, but I'm subdoing it by focusing on moving furniture and packing. I know the two are directly related, but if I concentrate just on the physicality of it, I'll forget about the rest.

I'm rambling, sorry. Happy news! Crystal just brought be a huge garbage bag filled with work clothes she doesn't want! I have a whole new wardrobe! I'm so excited.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Last night I meet my old boss and a few co-workers for dinner after work. We went out to chinese and it as yummy. The problem was I didn't get home until almost 8. Then since it wasn't raining, I decided we should probably do a run to storage. We packed up the dining room table and chairs, and hauled them on over to storage. I think we are going to be okay space wise there. The 10x20 should have ample space of everything, woot! What a relief that is.

While we were up at granny's I went ahead and fabreezed the sofa and the two easy chairs as well as the mattress for the day bed (we've decided to keep it). It really did make quite an improvement in the smell. I love my grandma's smell, but not the smell of stale cigarettes. I'm quite sure I'll have to spray them again, but any step in less stink is a good step.

By the time we got home from the storage run, I was so exhausted. Today we're going to try to take the two easy chairs to storage on our way to game. If it doesn't rain we'll be able to do it. Then the only things left to move will be the mattress, bottom of the daybed and the sofa. The problem with the sofa is that I don't think it will fit into the truck bed, so we're trying to come up with a way to move it. Crystal says just to put it on the bed and bungee the hell out of it. Not quite sure that will work. Anyhoo, went to be around 10:15, much later than I had wanted. I haven't even had a chance to read in like a week.

In other news, here is a list of restaurants I want to go to before we leave California:
Ristorante Italino
Tyrolean Inn
La Fondue
I'm sure there are more but I can't remember them now.

Toodles.

We got the first round of furniture loaded and off to moms! We unloaded it and started loading my Cobra chairs right as it started raining. Luckily for me that the storage is pretty close to mom's house. After unloading those, we headed home. We were going to take a second load, but mom and Annie called and said that we didn't need to make a second trip. They fit the last piece in mom's car. I told her to hold off, that she needed to take my office chair so she would have something to sit on at the computer. When we got here, mom was pulled up in the driveway, and I had James pull in behind her. We got Annie's chair out of the house, and James' chair into the house, no problem. Then James goes to start the truck to move it for mom and Annie, but it won't start. He tries again. It won't start. Several attempts later, but still no go. We open the hood, everything looks in place, the battery doesn't seem to be the problem. Sounds like the starter. So the three buff Dalpoggetto women that we are, my sister, mom and I pushed the truck out of the driveway so mom could pull out her car. Then the three of us pushed it back into the driveway and in far enough so that Lizzy could park.

James is going to have Mark at work take a look at it tomorrow. He called momma Donna and apparently this truck has been known to have starter problems. Before she gave us the truck, she had it looked at and stuff, specifically the starter and ignition. They couldn't find anything wrong. So I'm a little pissed. I told James having a truck we can't rely on means we don't really have a truck. It was lucky that it happened to be in the driveway, but what if we were at storage? Or over the hill? Or down in Monterey? I don't want to dump money into it even though we didn't have to pay for it. Hey it got the bar up from SLO county. It got mom's furniture out of granny's. I guess if worse comes to worse I can call my pop and have him come down with the big truck and move stuff that way. I don't want to have to do that, but I don't want to be moving stuff and get stuck at the storage or in a parking lot somewhere.

We accomplished what we needed to today and that is all that I'm focusing on now. We've got 25 mins to dinner for Vireo's birthday, but I just don't know if I can must up the energy to do it now. I hope if we don't make it she'll forgive me. It was just a pooplin afternoon.

This week looks just as if not more busy than this weekend.

Tonight we are helping mom move her two pieces of furniture out of granny's, moving my cobra chairs out of mom's house, moving my computer chair to my mom's and taking James' computer chair out of storage and to the house. Oh and we have a vireo's birthday dinner at 7.

Tomorrow is Ryan and intrepid_glory night. Which is really a kickback evening, but it doesn't allow for me to clean or pack or stuff. Not that I'm complaining. One day without working on house stuff shouldn't kill me.

Wednesday I'm meeting my ex-supervisor at Chopstix for dinner. She is going to bring the letter of recommendation with her. Pat will be there too. I'm so excited to see them!

Thursday hopefully we'll be gaming SW. The last like month of games have been cancelled. It is getting to the point where we game less than we don't game. It's okay. Although we've only played one session of Star Wars, I'm not as excited about it as I could be. I think it has alot to do with the fact that we have only 3 players.

Friday is free. Which means that we get to move all the stuff that belongs to us out of granny's on Friday night. We'll also move it out when we've got time on the other 4 nights of the week but yeah, it is alot of furniture. The couch, two easy chairs, the daybed (I did get it taken apart Sunday), the dining room table and chairs, and the china hutch. Thank Goddess we got the big storage.

Saturday during the day a trip to Monterey to take all the stuff we don't want to the last chance merchantile. We will also bring Kurtxine the dresser and end table from storage that they are taking! Then Sahara and Emillo will be coming over for dinner as well as Xinekurt.

Sunday I have no plans other than housework and that is exactly how I want to keep it. I need a day with no obligations right now.

Anyhoo, must toodle off to make a deposit for work. Later Sunday post make actually happen!

Everybody has been posting in the last 24, and that makes me happy :)

This weekend was so jam packed with stuff. Here is Friday/Saturday's post:

Friday we left work a little earlier and headed on down to SLO county. I'm going to gloss over the night at the Ghetto 6, or Motel 6 as some call it. I will say, neither Jamers or I slept very well. We got up around 8ish, got showered and headed over to Momma Donna's house. She had already moved the stuff out of the way so we could get the bar out. Since we were all there, we went to the Cowgirl Cafe for breakfast. It was tasty.

Getting back to the house Jamers and I had to head to the hardware store to pick up a tarp and some bungee cords. Unfortunately, a miscommunication caused James to only pick up 3 bungee cords. We didn't realize just how many we needed until we hit the road. We loaded up the bar, and bar stools into the back of the truck and tarped them down with the bungees. We left Momma Donna's at 11.

We decided it would be best if I followed James for awhile in case something happened with the truck. Soon as we got out on El Camino Real, the back of the tarp started flying up. Stop 1: James pulled onto a side street and I headed over to the hardware store to obtain more bungees. This time I got a gaggle, all different sizes. We bungeed the crap out of the tarp and headed on our way.

On the freeway it became quite obvious that the tarp, although completely held down, was not going to work. Stop 2: We pull off the freeway into a parking lot and pull the tarp off. James rebungees the furniture and we head on our way.

On the freeway again, 10 or so miles down the road, James needs to put gas in the truck. Stop 3: we pull into the Arco and he fills up. We decide that I should just continue to follow him home, just in case. We get back on the road at 11:45am.

Now my brilliant idea of us going Friday night, was so we could be home around noon on Saturday. Unfortunately, we didn't get out of Paso until quarter to noon. At that point, I sorta gave up hope of being able to move the day bed on Saturday.

The ride home was pretty uneventful except for a short stop between Salinas/Castroville to rebungee the bar. It was getting a little wobbly. Off loaded into storage and we headed home. As I was sitting at the stop sign to drive onto my street (James in the truck behind me) a car drives by and low and behold, it was vireo and haunteddiner. They came over for a short bit and Kurtxine decided to come up and join us.

So Saturday evening was filled with hanging out with friends. Woot! I went to check on the assembly of the day bed, and I discovered I needed a rachet set. None to be found at my house or granny's Xinekurt told me they would bring their set up on Sunday.

That wraps up the Friday/Saturday part of the weekend. It was a jam packed first 24 hours and Sunday was just as busy. I'll post that later me thinks.

I think that people who used to be in James' life have dropped out of it because of me. I'm not talking about people I specifically don't want in our lives, but his friends he used to hang out with. I feel sometimes like for whatever reason, they don't talk to him anymore because of me.

I guess I just feel like I've ripped him away from some aspects of his life, despite him telling me to the contrary. I'm not saying I feel guilty, because I don't. He is his own person and does what he wants. But those of you who know the Jamers from before the Kelly was part of his life would know what I'm talking about.

I know one of the reasons why the offer to stay for a shit load more money isn't worth it, is because of our friends up in Portland. Most specifically, James' friends are almost all in Portland. I've had people tell me to take the flippin money, stay, and make it work. I won't of course because James' life is my life and his happiness means way more than any monetary amount ever could. I'm really hoping that once we get up there, his friends that have pretty much stayed away from him will find their way back. Either with phone calls, or emails, or whatnot.

Maybe it is just this rainy weather, but I'm feeling sad today. Not sad at anything or anyone, just sad in general. I'm making a real good effort to not be that way. The book I just finished reading was such a great comfort to me. It really opened my eyes to a bunch of things. I'm hoping to be able to incorporate it into my daily life. If I can manage that, I think things will feel real good. I think I can be real happy, the majority of the time. That is my goal. Happiness.

To both xinejaquette and my friend Lila. Tomorrow night we'll be driving down to Monterey to see Xine and Kurt and celebrate her special day. Saturday night, health allowing, we'll do something with Lila for her special day. That should be the end of the month of birthdays.

Erin called me last night and we had a nice little chat. She left for Guadaljuara this morning. She is going to be gone for almost 2 weeks with her cousin. This will either be her second or third trip down there, I can't remember which. I just think it is awesome that she can travel. I don't ever go anywhere, so I love it when people I know go places. They tell me all about what they did and the things they saw, and it makes me form a little connection with the place.

We closed out the little storage last night. We got to the office like 5 minutes before it closed. I was worried that we wouldn't make it in time and I would have to go back, but we got it done. Put yet more stuff into big storage, which from now on will be known as storage. We still have lots of space, which is good. We still have furniture to move in which will take up almost all the rest of the space. I got almost everything out of the attic storage and we should be able to finish it this week(end). All that is left is a space heater, the automatic litterbox (which I got as a gift, but it is too loud to use in our little house), my picture of New York City, and last but not least, my Little Tykes choochoo train. We've had it since I was well, a little tyke. It has a bell to ring, you can push a button to make the whoowhoo noise, and it goes forward and reverse, has a caboose and I think 3 cars that hook on. I've got the tracks and everything. Of course, I can't ride it anymore, but when we've got little ones it will be so fun to set them up with their stuffed animals and have them ride it aound in circles. I really look forward to that time.

Anyhoo, work calls, but I wanted to get these things out now. Toolies.