Post from Yesterday

I wrote this yesterday.  Unfortunately the internet was down all day so here it is now.

Wow! What a morning it’s been and its not yet 8 am.  I just got back from taking Joey to his first day of work.  This morning he’s at “Main State” which is in Foggy Bottom, apparently somewhat of a trek from the nearest Metro (or so I’m told – methinks its akin to not wanting to ride the school bus the first day).  Starting tomorrow, and for the majority of his time here, Joey’ll be at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) in Arlington, which is accessible by a Metro.  However, as we currently are juggling two cars and one parking space, Joey may be driving himself to work tomorrow since FSI has a parking lot. 

The drive to get Joey to work was easy – straight down 9^th, take a right on Constitution (at the Smithsonian), go down Constitution to 23^rd, take a right and he’s right there.  Unfortunately, the drive back was not so simple.  I couldn’t really turn around since there were 2 lanes of traffic in between me and the other side, and so I headed up 23^rd.  DC is on a grid, with the numbers going one way (East/West or North/South – I don’t know which) and the letters going the other.  Diagonally are the state roads (i.e. Pennsylvania, etc.).  Well somewhere between 23^rd and M and 9^th are a lot of one-way roads, none of which seemed to be going the way I needed to go.  Though I got quite a scenic tour of the city (including Chinatown where the frigging street signs are in Chinese – a lot of good that does me – which resulted in a turn onto a one-way street and oncoming traffic (don’t worry I backed up, almost into several pedestrians crossing the street), I really would have preferred it on foot.  

Upon finally finding our address and attempting to parallel park the Volvo and a 7 or 8 point turn later, I was driving around the block back to the all day parking lot.  Now I don’t have to move the car every 2 hours and find a spot and parallel park.  The guy had me back into the back corner (since I told him I’d be back at closing time) and I thought apparently he didn’t see me driving around DC like a chicken with its head cut off.  Then, even though they take your keys, he made me pay now, which of course I don’t have cash.  So luckily there’s a little market across the street so I just had to walk pass the vagrants (I don’t know if they really were vagrants) to go inside and find an ATM – thank God there was one.  So $9 and a block later, here I am, relieved that when I opened the door the dogs weren’t barking up a storm in their kennels. 

The dogs seem to have adjusted pretty quickly.  George made friends this morning with 3 other dogs while out for his morning constitutional.  Joey, while taking Max out yesterday, met a woman who told him the neighborhood was not only very friendly but very dog friendly and told him about a dog park nearby so when we have a minute to breathe we’ll check that out.  Joey also met the neighbors below us yesterday when he fell down the stairs in front of our house while taking Moe out (it was raining) because he made such a thud they came out to check on him.  Apparently they were very nice too and offered help with anything we needed.  I’m happy to know Joey has interacted with some nice neighbors because the first neighbor I met was a royal asshole. 

Like I said above, we have one parking spot.  It’s in the back alley, where there are 4 other parking spots.  Ours is in the top right corner, parallel to a fence.  Someone parks behind us and three cars park perpendicular to us with a large space between.  Well, since we were unloading the cars, we moved both into our spot (parallel to the fence).  We’d been there about ½ an hour when Joey went to the corner cafe, The First Cup, to get us some sandwiches.  Soon I heard some knocking on the back door.  Smiling, I walked to the door, assuming a neighbor had come to say hello.  Facing me was a short, bleach-blond, ruddy-faced queen with his hand on his hip.  “Is that your car?” he blurted.  “I can’t get my car out you need to move it IMMEDIATELY.”  

In the meantime I’m trying to get out the door without the dogs getting out and Moe gets through.  Thank God he didn’t jump on this prick because clearly he already had his panties in a bunch – the guy goes “GET that dog away from me.”  Well no problem, asshole, Moe has run away. 

I said “Is that gate open?” 

Rupaul replied “The gate is always left open” then he goes into this diatribe about how I need to move my car and I’m like hey princess, my dog is in the alley I’ve got better things to worry about (I wish I’d said that but I only thought it and was really worked up at this point).  Thank God Moe is terrified of DC because he came running back immediately so first I get Max inside (who has also come out to see what is going on) then Moe inside, shut the door and now face my friendly neighbor and say, “Ok, I will move the car.” 

So I go inside and realize that Joey has the keys with him.  I get Joey on the phone and told him he needed to come back and he said it’d be about 15 minutes.  In the meantime (this is about 1 minute), dickhead is back and he is banging on the back door.  I mean just pounding.  The dogs, of course go nuts and so I just stay in the other room where he can’t see me.  When the pounding stops I go to the back door to close the curtain when he comes back again and as I’m closing the curtain the frigging curtain rod comes crashing to the floor.  I’m like great, this guy is being an asshole and here I am pulling curtains on the floor.  Meanwhile Joey and I have arranged that he’ll come back and deal with Princess and I’ll go to the deli and wait for our lunch.  So Joey arrives (through the front door) and I leave, shaken and totally annoyed.  Joey goes to the back and tells the guy in Joey’s oh-so-annoying-when-you’re-mad-at-him-but-awesome-when-you’re-on-his-team-supreme-calm way to calm down, “no need to throw a temper-tantrum,” we’ll move the car. 

Apparently Princess then said, “I called the police.” 

Joey replied, “Oh good, I’ll wait for them.” 

This sent Princess to a whole new level of rage who said , who began yelling “F you” (he said the whole word) repeatedly as well as “Move your f-ing car.”  Joey told Princess that since he had called the police he didn’t want to move the car and be charged with fleeing the scene.  Princess is still yelling the F word – now mind you, there was room this entire time for Princess to get his car out.  He just wanted to pick a fight.  So anyway, Princess and Joey go back and forth and Princess admits he didn’t call the police.  Joey acquiesces to move the car and Princess says “I got a picture of your tags.” 

Joey asked him what he planned to do with them, to which Princess replied his refrain (“F you, you f-ing asshole”).  Finally Joey moved the car but I’m glad he put Princess in his place.  Next time I see him I am going to woman up and thank him, as warmly as possible, for such a warm welcome to the neighborhood.  I’m still thinking about putting a sappy thank you note on his car but this dude is the epitome of a righteous, flaming gay man and I’m pretty sure it would only incite him to call the ACLU.  Because he’s the type of guy who would say we picked his car to block because he’s gay.  (Which now after my diatribe I feel like I should insert that I really like gay people and I am all for gay marriage and rights but this guy is the type who gives gays a bad name).

After that lovely incident, we parked the Eos, emptied the Volvo and went to Target (because what else will make you feel better more than a trip to Target?).  The Target here is really cool – it’s situated in a mini-mall with Bed Bath and Beyond and Best Buy and you can take your cart from the parking garage below up into all of the stores and the Target even has a cart escalator.  So two hours and $200 later, we found the Whole Foods, parked in its free garage (I love you Whole Foods), and walked across the street to get some food and much needed alcohol.  After a pitcher of strawberry-mint sangria, we walked back to Whole Foods, bought our groceries and drove home, exhausted. 

More unpacking yesterday was broken up by a run to the Capitol, past some of the Smithsonians, to the Washington monument (where there was a triathlon and Tea Party rally – seriously I wish the Tea Partiers would realize their message would carry so much farther without the camo gear), then by the White House.  We also had a gathering last night in Falls Church (only a few miles outside DC but it took us 45 minutes to find the place because A) the traffic, even at 4:30 on Sunday afternoon, is freaking nuts and B) the town of Seven Corners has seven different ways to turn off the highway and Google Maps doesn’t really cut it.   It was nice to meet some of the people we’ll be spending the next several years with – I also thought it was really funny when some of them told me they had read my blog. 

After the gathering we went to church, where the Archbishop of Washington said mass (random), and then out for beer with a few of Joey’s friends from Principal who were in town for the triathlon.   

Today my goal is to unpack some more, find a yoga studio, gym and map.  I really need a map.

Update

It's official - we're Tennessee residents!  Shortly after I finished my earlier post, Joey finally appeared.  Apparently I had given him the wrong directions (I got them from the website, which I suppose I shouldn't have trusted after the documentation issue) so he drove around for an hour and a half before actually finding the station.  Then it was just a matter of waiting while the middle-of-nowhere, Tennessee-tri-state-area folks took their time processing everyone.  After he got back it was my turn.  Two hours later, we were on the road again.

Our drive today was pretty easy.  We're staying in Harrisonburg, VA tonight, which is about 2 hours east of DC.

We stopped along the way at the "Natural Bridge" and were going to take the dogs on the trail (it was allowed) but it cost $18 a person and we decided that you should have to pay $36 to see a natural rock formation and that if we were going to pay that much we'd rather do so when we didn't have to worry about the dogs.  So we climbed back in the car and here we are at our hotel for the night. 

Add this to the weird category.  See the person?  Up close it looks like he's hanging himself.  Joey and I both stood there, dumbfounded, until we realized that we had really been found dumb - he was made of wax.

Joey's out picking up pizza - I figured since it was the last night of our trip and eating like crap (I had a Hardee's Little Thickburger and curly fries for lunch and Gobstoppers for dessert), we might as well cap it off with pizza.  Tomorrow after getting everything out of the cars, I'm heading to Whole Foods and cooking dinner.  I can't wait!

Waiting...

Joey left over 2 1/2 hours ago to go to the TN DMV...they opened at 7 and our hotel is only about 10 miles away so I'm dying to know what is going on.  Especially since he left his cell phone in the room. 

In the meantime, I've showered, blown my hair dry (a first in several weeks), and applied makeup (a first this week) - hey, drivers license pictures are inherently bad - I might as well do my best to mitigate that.  The boys and I had a nice surprise during my shower when the fire alarm started screeching.  I called the front desk who sent up a repair man - as I stood there in my towel I thought how the hell am I going to keep the dogs off him and my towel on me - and the alarm stopped - thank God!

Since I've had some downtime, I got to really read my friend Lauren's blog - on it she has an amazing quote that I think describes how I feel today, only one day from finally moving into DC:

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
- Mark Twain

 

Day 2

As I sit down to write it takes me a little while to think back to this morning - it's been a long day.  We got up this morning to the smell of cinnamon rolls.  Turns out our hotel in Indy was directly across the street from a bakery factory and OMG did it smell good.  Talk about torture - it's been hard enough to eat even sort of well and then every time you take the dogs out for 12 hours you smell that. 

After hitting the road (no cinnamon rolls in tow), we made about an hour and a half to Louiseville and the drive just turned gorgeous.  The hills and pines and farms throughout Kentucky just got more pituresque as we drove and by the end of the day I was trying to take pictures and drive at the same time (safe, I know). 

Yes, taken from the sunroof.  I was just so excited we were going inside the mountain!

We stopped for lunch in Corbin, Kentucky.  For those of you not familiar with Kentucky history, Corbin is the home to probably the most famous Kentuckian ever: Colonel Sanders.  Yes, you read right, we stopped at the original Kentucky Fried Chicken for lunch.  Half the building was the quaint, original restaurant but the other half was the modern, ubiquitous KFC you'd find anywhere else.  For this reason I stuck with the grilled chicken.  We filled up with gas (and somewhere along the way Joey managed to lose his gas cap - which some very helpful Kentuckian woman searched under cars with us to find) and hit the road. 

Enjoying his lunch away from prying noses as I returned from my shift inside the restaurant.

We made it as far as the "Natural Tunnel State Park" when we had to stop - Moe and George were itching to use the restroom and I was itching to take pictures.  We ran the dogs around the park for about half an hour (we knew it was time to hit the road again when Moe plopped down in the shade and refused to move any further), drove the mile back to the main highway and then turned around when I saw the sign that said "You can go inside the tunnel!"  Obviously I could not leave without going inside the tunnel.  So after calling Joey, who was very patient as usual, we headed the mile back to the park to find the tunnel.  Unfortunately, it required a hike to get in the tunnel, which as anybody who's ever tried to walk our dogs knows, a hike is pretty much out of the question.  So back on the road we went, and here in our hotel in Bristol, VA, just over the Tennessee border, we are.

Tomorrow morning it's up bright and early to the Tennessee DMV.  Today was our last long drive (another 8 hour day) - tomorrow we only have to go 4 hours so hopefully we'll be able to find something to do with the dogs other than sit in a hotel room and watch TV.  But then again, after a long day, its kind of nice to be held captive and relax (if by relaxing you mean every time the dog needs to go to the bathroom undertaking a miliary operation to get him down the hallway, into the elevator, down four floors, and out the hotel door without bothering other people).

Some pics from lately

Everything all packed up

The view of the top of the waterfall

The craziest caterpillar I've ever seen - it looks like a Yorkie in a vest and sunglasses.  This was only one of many, many bugs encountered in the wilderness.  I was very brave.

We went on the brewery tour during our stop in St. Louis on our way home from Nashville.  I seriously still can't get over how many people thought it was acceptable to bring their completely unruly children on a brewery tour.  Seriously, beer and screaming kids shouldn't be paired together.

Driving Across the Country with 3 Dogs Day 1

We are in Indian- apolis tonight.  I know I said in an earlier post that we were going to spend our first night in Bloomington, but since we didn't have all the papers we needed to get residence in Tennessee we have to go back on our way to DC (not really on the way).  Even though the Tennessee government website lists different documents that can suffice for your birth certificate and social security card, those are what they really want and since we didn't have them last week we had to get them yesterday in Des Moines and will present them Friday in Tennessee.  Nothing like taking a 24 hour drive before your cross-country drive and then having to drive back.  At least this time it's only 8 hours out of the way and the drive through the Smoky Mountains will be incredible.

Saying goodbyes to Mom, Dad, Mal and Lizz yesterday was a little easier than I thought.  Probably because we just left for a road trip and so it still kind of just feels like we're on another road trip.  Or maybe because I get to see them next month in New Orleans for Ryan and Shannon's wedding so that makes it easy to get to Christmas.  

The dogs have been angels - I really can't believe that after picking them up at the kennel yesterday we had no accidents at my parents house, our hotel in Des Moines or at the hotel here in Indy.  George rode with me - yes, we are driving both cars because mine didn't sell - we're hoping to have better luck in DC - I put his bed on the passenger seat and he curled up in it and slept all day.  

Joey had a little less luck - Moe and Max rode in the back seat of the Volvo - this morning around 11 I watched as Joey hit a cone in the road and totally scraped the side of the car.  When I called him to see what happened he said Moe woke up.  Luckily the damage is pretty superficial and everybody was okay.  No incidents since then.

Tennessee

Joey forgot to mention on his blog that he was so excited about his new cowboy boots that we had to find a mall so he could buy jeans to wear with his new boots last night.  After driving the 6 miles to the mall (which featured stores like Tiffany, Louis Vuitton and Stuart Weitzman), going to three stores to try on jeans (it must be an Italian thing where finding jeans that fit is just about impossible - Joey would have been perfectly happy in the baggiest pair he could find but I'm a pain in the ass and make him wear jeans that he considers a pain in the ass), buying a pair of $100 pair of jeans that weren't too baggy and weren't "constricting his legs," I decided he should have packed jeans in his "carry-on" (aka accessible bag taken to and from hotels along the way) and that we didn't need to drop $100 on jeans that he already has - in the car - and so he didn't get to wear his boots last night.  As I write this Joey is downstairs in the parking garage digging through the car for a pair of jeans he already owns so he can wear his boots today.  And on our way to St. Louis we are returning the jeans.

Our two days in Smithville were wonderful - relaxing, rejuven- ating - I  mean after hiking through these gorgeous woods for an hour we find this 90 ft waterfall with a private swimming hole and since we were the only guests on the property we had it all to ourselves.  Amazing.  It was easy to forget that we'd just left our entire lives behind us and are just treading water in limbo land.  Unfortunately you can't stay under a waterfall all day and once we got on the road to Nashville it was like somebody turned the stress switch back on, which, unfortunately for my husband, also means the bitch switch.  Hence the drama over blue jeans mentioned above.  Over a fabulous dinner last night we agreed to stop nitpicking each other and actually be the support system to each other that we promised to be. 

Joey just emerged from the bathroom all dressed for the day - in his jeans and cowboy boots.  "What do you think?" he asked me - I responded with the same question.  His reply? "I think they're awesome!"