Unpacking

I unpacked glasses in my new kitchen today singing, "It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday" by Boyz II Men in my head. This move is bittersweet like an early 90's love song: pretty bad at the time, but 10 years later is totally awesome.
One thing I've noticed about this house is that it has an inordinate amount of light switches. It seems for every series of bulbs, there are four switches for different lighting combinations. I went to bed last night listening to David click his way through the house until he finally made it to the bedroom about 5 minutes later. If anyone were out on the street, they'd think we were sending distress signals.
People in Florida are so nice. I had forgotten. David made fast friends with the alarm security guy this morning. He stayed for almost an hour after he finished the install. He's coming over tomorrow morning. David has a play-date.
The paint in the bedroom looks great, at least.

Leaving Los Angeles - Last Leg

Nothin' says roadtrippin' down south like...

Leaving Los Angeles - Day 8

We drove through what has been deemed an "Ice Storm" today. What is an Ice Storm? Does the sky turn into a huge ice maker and rain down half-moon shaped chunks of ice, or even crushed ice for that matter? Or is the ice, in fact, bagged ice falling at hundreds of miles per hour like wrecking balls from heaven?
Instead of minding our parents (and everyone else we spoke with), we decided to drive south directly into the "Ice Storm" to find out just what it was. Also, the moving guys had to leave by Thursday afternoon to drop off their next move, so there was that motivation.
As it turns out, an Ice Storm is nothing more than nasty weather. It rained. It snowed. It sleeted. Our windshield wipers froze. The side view mirrors sprouted icicles. The tires grew beards in the wheel wells made of mud, pebbles, snow, and ice. Dave had to concentrate pretty dang hard to see the road, but we weren't sliding around on big sheets of ice or driving through icebergs at every exit. It wasn't so bad. So don't let those weather guys fool you. Ice Storms are not that big of a deal and if you have to drive through one, go for it.

*Addendum: Apparently 23 people died in Kentucky on the day of the "Ice Storm." Disregard the previous paragraphs. Ice Storms are dangerous and you're an idiot if you drive through one.

Leaving Los Angeles - Day 6 and 7

I must say, Beyonce has become a staple of this trip. I'm not sure if you've heard her hit single "Single Ladies." If you're living in America, nay, breathing, then you've heard it. We have heard this song in every state, in every city, in every restaurant and bar. And in every place we hear it, we notice people grimacing and changing positions and yet, they still sing along. At the very least, they mouth the words between swigs of beer. We've now embraced Beyonce and her anthem to the single life. We appreciate what she's trying to do there. And now that we've reached that level of acceptance, I'd like to formally ask Ms. Knowles to go to the radio stations and request her song be permanently taken off the radio. I've tried, but I think she has more pull. If she's concerned about the money she will lose having this song taken off the air, please note that we will gladly pay to never hear it again.
Please, Beyonce. Don't let this happen again.

Leaving Los Angeles - Days 4 and 5

Several of the kids who attended my children's theatre in Iowa met me at a local coffee house. They're teenagers now, and can't finish a sentence without, "like" or "whatever." I attempted correcting them a few times, but what an amateur move that was. Futile.
We went out to dinner at Salami's (the nicest place in town) where the finest wines were known by color only, and the battered mushrooms were frozen in the middle. We went on to the Cellar, the place I spent many a night when I lived in Oskaloosa. The same 5 people I used to spend my evenings with were still sitting on the same stools drinking the same beers. They didn't remember me, or each other for that matter, and one of them told me I looked like a liar. I asked for a dirty vodka martini at the bar, where I was served what appeared to be 6 ounces of Grey Goose vodka mixed with olives and pickle juice for $4. I drank way too much and had asinine conversations with strangers who had no idea they were telling me the exact stame story they'd just told. In fact, a few times I finished the story for them and watched in delight as their eyes widened and they mouthed, "How did you know that?" It was special to be back in Osky.
We've moved on to Chicago to Corey and Dawn's place. And what a place it is. Their new house in unreal. Beautiful and big and covered in snow. Charlie is loving the backyard and Dawn cooked a dinner to rival everything we've eaten thus far on the trip. Charlie has two new friends, Max and Daisy, who he is having the most fun with. It's adorable to watch. :)

Leaving Los Angeles - Day 3

We are back in my old stomping grounds, Oskaloosa, Iowa. I lived here while running a children's theatre. We reached my best friend Amy's house this afternoon, who I lived with back in the day. We went on a smashing trip to the Walmart and got some ingredients for supper. Amy has a cat, though, which is pretty exciting to Charlie: a toy that walks. Needless to say, Charlie has gotten popped in the face a time or two.
It is cold like Satan got tired of fire and traded in for ice. I'm pretty glad we're moving to Florida. Ahhh, a few days of relaxation. :)

Leaving Los Angeles - Day 2

David and I were loopy the second we got into the car today. Charlie was SO bored he found approximately 28 different ways to looks out the windows: forwards, backwards, sideways, on a suitcase, (etc.) and even with his face out the window. We quickly learned that the extra skin on Boxers' faces is not conducive to 80 mph winds. We thought his face was going to peel off.

David learned our American Express had been suspended because of suspected fraud since we'd been using it in different states. We called and got the operating system lady, who I like to call Betty. She asks you questions and you respond. David has the Parrot in his car so we can hear the person talking through the speakers and respond through a small microphone. As Betty was giving us our options, we passed by a a HUGE cow farm. David quietly tapped my arm and said, "Babe! Look! Those cows are doing it!" Sure enough, two cows doing it. What he forgot was that Betty was still waiting for an answer. When he said it, we were both silent to see what Betty would say.
"I'm sorry. I did not understand that request."
David and I laughed so hard that we spit out our sunflower seeds while repeating, "Representative! Representative Betty!" Finally, Betty got frustrated and said, "I'm sorry. You seem to be having trouble. I'm going to connect you to a representative."
Until day 3...