The Difference Between Here and There

There: Last year I trained for and ran a marathon. Co-workers were curious, and yes, called me crazy. MDs were curious and would talk to me about their running, their training, their races, their race memories, their family running, and how great it feels to run and/or exercise (swim, bike, etc).

Here: This year I trained for and ran another marathon. Cardio-Thoracic surgeon finds out (via other RN) that I ran a marathon and says, "What?! You? Why would you do that? You could die doing that."

One Monh

It's been four weeks since moving to our new location; it's getting a tad better.

Sunday mornings have a typical routine spent running, driving to Publix to pick up the NY Times, and then driving to Starbucks to read the NY Times (for whatever reason, the NYTimes supplier of NW Florida does not deliver to any of the Starbucks in the region. Maybe he/she is protesting their 'no decaf after 12' policy). Then it's a quick lunch out, trip to the commissary (and sometimes back to Publix for produce and/or meat), nap, and if it was like yesterday, an afternoon of The Kardashians.

Not quite the home depot, bed bath and beyond of Old School, but eerily close. It would be fun to decorate a house, unpack a box, or shop.

There are certainly highs and lows to living here.

The lows: the newspaper. With each move, the local newspapers get smaller and smaller. And now more than ever, it's scary to read the locals' take on national issues. Some of the sound bytes, quotes, and letters to the editor are jaw dropping.

The highs: Thursday night I crashed the local running club's Thursday night run. As we were waiting for 5:30 to roll around, I was the only female amongst pierced and tattooed men, most of whom were shirtless. In otherwords, I'm thinking, "What am I doing HERE?! Where are the turtles?!"

(there really weren't any turtles to be spoken of.) People welcomed me, and nobody made fun of me when they asked my normal pace (10:30). One of the male members ended up running with me (good thing as I would have be lost with all the turns we made). It's hard for me to talk while running 5 miles at a 9:15/9:30 pace...so here's hoping I'm not dubbed the new snooty one. The pizza, talking, laughing and beer following the run was probably the best part.

Finally, after 4 weeks of not meeting anyone, I was meeting locals and socializing. Quite a high for the week! Now if only we can move into a house and get our house hold goods out of storage!

Goldilocks on the Move

The past few weeks have been nothing if not stressful.

Back in July there was the minor surgery, a quick trip to NYC for a last easy taste of the city, and part 1 of the move.

Our packers came, and spent the ENTIRE day packing boxes. And by entire day, I mean, not leaving until maybe 6:00pm. They packed everything, including the microwave we were planning on leaving for the renters and items in the pantry (olive oil, kahlua, you name it. it's packed. And hopefully not leaking through a box right now...).

Around 0800 the next morning we have a giant moving truck parked on the street in front of our home. The driver and crew weren't happy (a car was parked in the street and we were unable to get a hold of the owner of the car). To wake up the neighborhood (in hopes of finding the owner), the driver leaned on the horn. And kept leaning. And yes, kept leaning. The joys of dealing with movers.

The driver was straight up out of the bronx, and filled every stereotype (not going to list). The moment he stepped out of the cab, I thought "ETOHer" If I didn't know any better, he could have been a patient on my old floor going through DTs. Quite an interesting character. Certainly with a past and have considered if the man is a member of the witness protection program.

Our stuff is hopefully all in storage, and all in one piece. Granted, anything that had screws in it was unscrewed. Hopefully every piece of furniture that had four legs will come out of storage with all four legs (a piano bench with only three legs will be interesting). And the parts box will hopefully make it as well....with all the parts. (am I the only one that thinks a parts box is a dangerous idea? Let's think for a moment...what if the parts box doesn't make it?

Never mind. Let's NOT thing that. Think good thoughts...positive thoughts.

So we made it to our new town. It's hot, humid and I'm weary of stepping into the water or eating anything that came from it (thanks to certain government waivers and a certain corporation). The homes are on big lots. Few trees. No landscaping. Large homes, high ceilings, small bedrooms, and for the most part, a lot of above ground utilities. Unfortunately lots of foreclosures. It is difficult to find a neighborhood where all lawns are kept and boats are parked in the backyard vs the driveway. (An area we like, where people keep their yards maintained and the boats parked in the back behind the house, is well over $300,000 for a house). A little steep considering we're keeping our other place.

We may have found one house, on the cheap end, but it needs a lot of work and we are trying to literally steal this house; only because it needs so much work and because again, some of the homes are unkept (you would literally need a weed wacker to get to the front door of one neighboring house). We'll see what happens. Who knows what-or where- we'll end up.

Running News: Back in April I signed up for the MCM. Training got off to a late start due to the minor surgery. True training actually started here, in Florida. It's rough; I am only running early in the morning (not exactly how-or why- people on base actually run in the afternoon). The first long run, 8 miles was last week, I ran 6.75, took a 15 min break, and then, angry with myself for quitting, finished the last 1.25 miles out on the track (with no problem!).

This past Sunday, for the 9 miler, I got through 7. something miles when I had to walk for a bit before starting up the run again. A mixture of negative and positive splits....hopefully this is heat related. I just ordered a box of my favorite gu (lemon sublime) from the local running shop.

Workout so far this week:

Sunday was a 9 miler.

Monday was weights (my first time since probably November/December time frame)

Tuesday: today was a nice 4 miler near the water.

Tomorrow, hopefully more weights, another trip to starbucks, and maybe even another post :)

Keep Movin'

and we're back on the train again.

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind with no hope of slowing down.

Last week was my last day of work at an incredible hospital and I feel fortunate to have had an opportunity to work at and with such an incredible group of people. There is a group of people that I work with that make up an incredible team: the Rock Star Nurses.

They are the ones who are always calm, always willing to help, and always seem to know just what to do. The are great with patients. What can I say...they are my idols. There are also a few nursing students that work on the floor who I know will make fantastic nurses, and I hope to keep in touch with everyone.

No rest for the weary, after the last day of work, I had a minor surgery. As a nurse, I hate being a patient. It might not be the actual act of being a patient as much as the fear factor: completely out of control and aware of the worst possible outcomes (real and imagined).

And I can't really go jogging right now as it's still too close to post op. Bother.

But the day after the surgery I met up with some former classmates, aka sexy, zany nurses. Drinks, dinner, more drinks, delicious desert, wonderful laughs. Could I ask for anything more?

Well....maybe.

A house to move into would be nice. And a job.

The movers come in less than one week to pack up the house and lock all my belongings into a truck (and then move it into storage).

As for the job front....I've applied to three or four, and have only heard back from one. My "salary requirement" is about $8 per hour than they can offer me. The application (for all the jobs) requested that I fill in my current salary or salary requirements. I had figured that I would be taking a pay cut, but I feel like I was blown off.....I don't need to make the same dollar amount; but not even an interview. At least call me. I hate how impersonal the internet can be.

Just keep movin'...it will all come together.

Anniversary

It's been almost a YEAR since we moved to Delaware! We got here April 25. Humor yourself and read some of the posts from 2007...those back in early March when we checked out the area, and then again when we moved up here in April. One is linked, the others you'll have to be click the link to the right (2007), scroll down and hit "older posts."

I LOVE LOVE LOVE that we will be LEAVING Delaware for a weekend wedding on the very day we moved here.

New Digs

FINALLY-I'm posting some pictures of the townhouse. It's still not finished though (even though I'm constantly saying, "we're practically done"). We still have lots of pictures to hang (no, I'm NOT in the practice of leaving pictures on chairs) and we still have more painting to do (we still need to paint inside the picture molding downstairs). No pictures of the bathrooms (boring), or the office and master bedroom because those walls are still white (EEK!). Last night, Ryan came home and said, "Let's go look at some different colors for the entry way downstairs"

The downstairs was the first thing we painted when we moved in, before any of the furniture was delivered. Question...I think the green should be on the two side walls (not just the wall with the door, ie. the entire entry way)...what do you think?

And another questions. there is a picture of our eating area (third picture below. You can kind of see hat the table is centered with the light. Do you see the gold mirror learning on the wall behind the table? Here's the dilemma: If we center the mirror on the wall (as shown, leaning), it is not centered with the table and light. Should we center the mirror with the light/table, or center it according to wall? I say we center it with the light and then put a series of Turkish bowls/dishes or pictures towards the right of the picture so that it appears centered/balanced on the wall. I probably just lost everyone. Maybe I should take that 'critical reading and writing' course...

We Made It!

Not only are we in the new place, but...

We have furniture (a couch!!). The movers pulled up Tuesday at 8:20am...a flatbed truck with 8 crates & a forklift. Good news: My piano arrived in one piece, horribly out of tune, but at least it's here. Bad news: the only piece of furniture that is truly broken is a dining room chair. It was the dining room chair that had a really wobbly leg (so wobbly that I wouldn't let people sit on it). Good news: The chair leg was delivered with the chair, so hopefully I can fix it. Even if I can't, the dining room set only cost a mere $99 at the thrift store.

We also FINALLY got phone/internet/cable service.

The bad news? The computer is on its deathbed. Ryan's oldest brother left a voicemail the other day saying, "Hey guys,blabhalbha, my computer died and Justin's computer died this week. I know you guys have the same computer, so back up your files!."

Our computer hasn't been connected to the internet since we were in Charleston (about 2 1/2 months now). Still, I turned on the computer, only to hear "beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep" Hitting f2 helped, but even the Verizon lady said something was wrong with our computer. So now we're scared to shut off the computer.

But otherwise, things are finally starting to look up!

Out of the Lion's Den

We DID IT! We finally closed on the townhome! Did it go smoothly? That depends on your definition ;)

Considering all of our experiences in DE, a 2 hour close felt great. But with all things, there were problems. Silly mortgage company omitted the hypen in my name (even though every other bank & attorney paperwork had a hyphen). So the closing started an hour late because the attorney had to change all the information from hyphen to no hyphen (why didn't they just change the one piece of paper that was wrong to begin with???) Then we found another error on the HUD...nothing major, but still, it needed to be fixed (and the mistake should never have been there in the first place). So anyways...

We are no longer in the condo & FINALLY in the house. I woke up at 5:15 this morning because it was so sunny and bright in the room (yes, the blinds were closed)....The condo was a serious cave (I was able to sleep until noon sometimes because of how little light seeped in.

So now it's on to more important things...like paint. I've narrowed it down to two colors that look incredibly similar, it's hard to figure out the differences. Behr's Cracked Wheat or Behr's Stable Hay...they actually sit next to each other (not on the same strip though) at HD. Ryan really doesn't want me to use the same River Rock color from the Charleston bedroom, but I'm going to see if I can't convince him otherwise (I think river rock will look nice with stable hay, but he thinks river rock is too dark...Charleston friends: what did you HONESTLY think of the bedroom color??)

I promise to take pictures (still need to upload older ones)....the Verizon FIOS guy will be at the house on Friday, so check for updates next week!

Changes in Lattitudes...

On the way to the gym today, there was a Jimmy Buffett Triple Play....the second song was Changes in Latitude

"Changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes......if we couldn't laugh we would all go insane."

THAT line is EXACTLY how Ryan and I have dealt with this move (which still isn't over....we close on the town home on Tuesday, and we receive our household goods on July 3rd-keep your fingers crossed for us).

As if the house thing wasn't stressful enough, a certain bank that many many military families use for insurance F*#$ed up so incredibly that it's hard to believe. So incredibly f*#$ed up that I'm in the process of writing a letter. Without proper introduction and signatures, the letter is three pages.

More later...off to the gym and maybe tomorrow I'll write/post about my trips to Charleston & Manhattan.

Wednesday 4/25

Welcome to Delaware!

We woke up just before 6am. I was so tired that after sitting up in bed to get up, I literally fell backwards on to Ryan. We must have stopped 5 times on the way up to Delaware. Traffic wasn't so bad, but the drive was long and boring. I made it over The Bridge (a long, high bridge in Maryland) and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought.

Right after crossing the Delaware border, we saw a horse and buggy on the road.

Some pics:

Tuesday 4/24

Ahhh, what a week, where should I start? How about with the movers?

Tuesday 4/24, early morning: Ryan and I leave the Charleston on-base hotel to meet the movers at the house. It's 6:45am. I realize that while we have the coffee, coffee filter, and coffee maker, we don't have a mug OR any milk/cream. Remembering that Publix serves complimentary coffee, I decide we should have donuts for breakfast (from Publix).
Publix finally lets me in (they open at 7am) and standing at the bakery, I can't understand why they don't have any plain old chocolate icing donuts. They don't even have glazed donuts. Apparently, the bakery has all the icings to make the donuts, but the don't have the dough needed to make the donuts. Hm.

I end up grabbing the only box of mini cake donuts and make my way to the cashiers, but a box of cinnamon rolls catches my eye and makes me think how happy Ryan would be to have those gooey cinnamon rolls. At this time, as I pick up the box of gooey cinnamon rolls, the box of mini chocolate donuts miraculously grows a pair of wings and FLIES out of my hands, only to immediately crash on the floor. The package somehow opened up and 24 mini donuts were rolling around the floor at Publix. All this, plus Publix didn't even have the complimentary coffee brewing yet.

So there were no free donuts, no more mini choc late donuts, and most horrifying, no coffee.

The day turned slightly better....I realized we had cups. Red Solo cups left over from a recent party. Yes, I drank my coffee black out of a red solo plastic cup. The movers came at noon, left at 8:00pm, damaged two pieces of furniture (chips), and we didn't get back to our Charleston hotel room until well after 11pm. Moving sucks.