Week One

Now with pictures!

March 15^th, 2019 Friday

Whooooo a lot has been happening!!

I made it out here with Nova. She hated being at Nicole’s with Missy again, and mostly hid under the bed. At night she did come up to sleep on my feet, though. Poor thing has had a rough month. When we got to the airport the Delta agent didn’t measure the carrier, which was good. We went up the escalator and I was like, ugh this is a long security line. But a TSA lady told me a drug dog was working and so I could cut to the front; I followed her to the front. Then the problem became there was no female agent to do a pat down so a guy held Nova while I went through the metal detector and then we went to a private room. (I never even had time to think about asking for one, it was just a whirlwind kinda day.)

Nova was on her leash and was fine to be out of her carrier for a minute while it was put through the x-ray. Everything came back good so we headed to our gate. She did better while were walking because I think she was too nervous to do anything. Once we were sitting down she started arching her back and clawing at the carrier trying to get out. She found a zipper and pushed her head through and luckily I noticed in time before she could get all the way out. Panic.

We definitely got some looks, and “what do you do with a mad cat?” comment, but mostly people who said things were cat people. I had an empty seat and then a nice older man who was very understanding of her distress. In the row behind me were the people who I sat next to when I flew to Salt Lake, crazy.

The problem with her carrier turned out not to be the height of it, which I had feared, but the width. It almost wouldn’t fit in the space between my seat and the seat in front. I had to really squish her down, but we made it. For the first few hours I could put my hand in the carrier and pet her and it would temporarily calm her down, but by the end she was just mad and would try to scratch me if I did that. I think the thing that scared her the most besides when the engines started roaring for takeoff was when we landed and all of a sudden everyone was standing up and chattering and opening the overheads and everything.

Then we had to go wait for our luggage and it took forever and I thought mine was lost. But it did show up and then I went to find Justin. Nova was so happy to be out of the carrier and seemed to get the idea that we live here now pretty fast. She has a closet under the stairs that is her space; poor thing was so thirsty. But we made it and it wasn’t the worst.

When we got home Justin ran off to the office to turn in our move in checklist and tell them about the leaky ACs. As he left I heard a dripping sound and thought he had left the sink on. Walked into the kitchen and there was water everywhere dripping from the ceiling! Not ideal. Called him and luckily we were able to get an emergency maintenance man out real fast. It was coming from the dishwasher of the tenants above us, but it was fixed fast, and nothing important was damaged. It was just like, the last thing I wanted after that really stressful day. But it all worked out.

A few days again we went to see Captain Marvel. I was confused by a lot of the first part, but once it got going I was into it. Of course I cried. Duh. But that montage of Carol getting up after failing, from the time she was little, I just-- unstoppable women are so important and the patriarchy is terrified of us. Also I would die for Goose.

March 18^th, 2019 Monday

The catch up continues although I have an interview in seven minutes so we’ll see how much I can get done. Went to my first in person interview on Friday; it was by far the strangest interview I have ever had. It was in a hospital building, for a real estate company, but it turns out they own the complex so that makes sense. The two girls who interviewed me were extremely dressed down-- jeans and tanks tops and messy hair. Like, great, although I definitely felt out of place wearing my snazzy interview outfit. But that’s what’s expected, right? Anyway girl number one gets right down to it and is like “what is your background?” I explain and she says “do you have any other skill sets?” Always a good look to answer no to that. :/ Then they go into a five or six minute explanation of the position and the company and ask if I have any other questions.  I’m like, oh boy, the interview is about to get going, yikes!

Then they go, okay well we’ll be letting people know next week.

GIRL what? ? I was asked two (2) questions and they weren’t even interview questions and I feel like my skill set is a good match so saying no shouldn’t be an instantly disqualified thing because it’s an admin position and I have admin skills!! Are they just picking people based on their vibe? Do they already have someone they want and the rest are courtesy interviews? Did I somehow do something so egregious that they immediately decided the full interview would be a waste of time??? I am baffled, folks.

After that I walked around and took pictures of some old churches; I love how things are just old. A mix of old and new. Obsessed. 

Then decided to try my hand at driving downtown. The roads here are pretty crazy, especially trying to figure out if you’re in/going to be in a turning lane or not, so that can be terrifying. But I wanted to see if downtown was any better, so headed there. Turns out it’s real the same and I spent most of the time driving in a lane I’m not completely sure was a lane, and people parked in the no stopping lanes and I never know the turning protocol. But I saw so many old buildings and am psyched to take a bus down there and start exploring!!

Set the radio stations through trial and error although it’s disorienting not to know what mood is associated with each channel. And some have static and I think others may have been “false advertising”, as it were, ie they were playing Taylor Swift and I immediately saved it without further listening and now they seem to be hip hop. It was just a lovely day with a clear, sunny sky, and I felt good about our choices. Taylor is the same everywhere.

I picked up Justin from work and we decided to go on a walk in the nature reserve across the street. It’s nice, and will be nicer when the trees start to bloom. I spotted a little curled up garter snake, which I was quite proud of. We also saw some squirrels, one who was hiding nuts in an unused birds nest. I’m glad of our location, it’s not downtown with the crazy parking and lanes and all that, and it’s close to everything but in the middle of none of it. Also, this picture of us makes me think of a Renaissance artwork; I think it's the light.

Yesterday we went to Jersey for the first time to take Justin to see the Atlantic Ocean! It’s ninety minutes away, so close! The drive wasn’t what I expected: wooded and farmland and we saw at least twenty five deer. Also some bird of prey: hawk? The restaurant we’d planned to go to was seasonally closed, so we went to the Shrimp Box right next door. Y’all know I love shrimp. We got to sit by the window overlooking the harbor, so blue!! The sun was sparkling off the water and it was so warm and just ahhhh! Beautiful. I got the four way shrimp and Justin got a sampler platter and we both agreed with the shrimp was divine.

(Also the other day we went to an Italian place that had delicious ravioli and Justin got some crab topped noodles that were also delicious. Good food here!!)

After relishing in the delicacies of four kinds of shrimp we went and found the beach! It was minutes away. This is crazy, it hasn’t really sunk in yet that we can just go to so many different states whenever we please. And the beach is free yo. I took off my shoes because I didn’t want them to fill with sand. The first stage of the beach was normal sand. Second filled with rocks and broken seashells, and the third just the lovely fine beach sand. Justin gave me several seashell fragments which have been worn perfectly smooth by the sea, and I found a pearly dragon egg rock.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a sunny beach, excluding Puerto Vallarta, which was so warm and like paradise that it is not even comparable to any other beaches I’ve seen. Cannon Beach is gorgeous but always the weather is imperious. Justin touched the water, and took a vide of the waves. I love the Ocean!!

And Nova is settling in just fine :)