Sightseeing Without A Camera

I know, I know. What's the point of blogging about things you've seen if you can't prove you've seen them? Well I'll tell you. The point is...I'm bored and I feel like blogging, K? Mmmkay.

As you might recall from previous posts, my roommates and I are all on a frantic search for new digs. We have to vacate the sweet 925 premises as soon as possible, so we've been viewing houses and emailing potential landlords and sending email after email to each other in attempts to get this thing settled! Ack! Well, we think we've found a place, but I'm not going to blog on that until it actually happens and the ink on the lease is dry. Until then, let me tell you why the stress of finding new housing led to an incredibly relaxing and wonderful weekend.

You know when you're super stressed and you just can't handle it so you decide you need to spend money to make the pain go away? No? That doesn't happen to you? I don't believe you. It happened to me on Saturday. I was talking with Roomie K about housing and we went from hero to zero in T minus 2. In other words, we got all frustrated and overwhelmed as we tried to figure out the housing crisis (not the nation's housing crisis, thank you). "I think we need pedicures," says K, "You want to?" Who am I to slap a good-suggestion-horse on the flanks? (???!!!) Of course I said yes! So we two-stepped on down to Modern Day Spa and got ourselves some pedicures. And they weren't just a buff and polish situation, either. No, no - we got the foot and calf massage and the hot water and all the buffing and then some more massaging and all that awesomeness. And then they painted my nails a delightful color that I like to call "Cranberries and Creme." I'm sure O.P.I. likes to call it something else, but I didn't take the opportunity to look at the label. Creativity wins.

After the pedicure we got a bite and walked home in the rain. Yes, the rain that suddenly fled the sky on some secret mission to pelt Arlington to death. Soaked. So that was relaxing weekend activity number one. Now are you ready to hear how I not only pampered myself but did something awesome for my body as well? Well we'll get to that in a second. Let's start with Sunday morning.

Sunday dawned clear, crisp and bright. I went to church, watched the tots for a bit during children's church (they were crazy!) and came home. Wait, back up. How about them tots? The toddlers? As we were understaffed yesterday, I had about 8 kids to myself and a few of them were NOT happy. I was running around like a fiend, some child on hip at all times, singing songs and making finger puppets sing opera-style to get these kids to dry their eyes and play like civilized 1, 2 and 3-year olds. Not the easiest job in the world. Those kids never cease to find great entertainment in pulling my hair and hitting me in the face with Brio tracks and trying to shove finger puppets in my mouth. Oh, they also like to turn on the TV and scream when they hear the loud static it makes when it doesn't get a signal. Ack! Alright, I love the little boogers. They're all cute and stuff and they generally seem to like me so I can't complain.

Anyway, on to the part where I impress you. Yesterday was the Marine Corps Marathon.

................Okay, I can't do it. I was trying to find a way to make it seem like I ran the marathon and stuff, but I have no words to even begin to craft that kind of falsehood. Suffice it to say that Roomie K and I went running yesterday and passed a LOT of people who in fact HAD run the Marine Corps Marathon and they all looked near death and we applauded them as well we could whilst jogging past them at a brisk pace. Yes, we jogged (on our 2 mile run) past people who'd just run 26 miles. How's that for feeling like a dud? Blerg. I mean, most of the people I saw were at least 20 years older than me. Maybe that's what inspired me to not be my usual wimp self and keep up the pace for as long as I did. And I'll tell you, I impressed myself by keeping up with Roomie K. I'm usually the one who says, "Let's walk now....and again.....and again." But yesterday was different. I wanted to keep going! Hey, how can you not get a little extra running energy when it's an absolutely gorgeous day and you're running over the Potomac and by the Lincoln Memorial, up the reflecting pool and to the WWII Memorial? I mean, right?! Then when you reach the WWII Memorial maybe you run up to the Virginia post and high five it. That's right, you don't high five your running buddy, you high five the memorial. But no, I won't be doing that again soon. I'm so sore today I can barely function. Cut to me never, ever running a marathon. Mind over matter, you say? Yeah well my mind says heck-to-the-no and I'm sticking to it.

Okay, now we're finally to the sightseeing part of the weekend. After our run which, to be honest, afforded some good monument/memorial sightseeing, Roomie K suggested we stop by the Pentagon to see the Pentagon Memorial for 9/11. That was amazing. Sobering, for sure. I didn't have my camera and I was kicking myself. (Not literally cause that would be weird.) I metaphorically kicked myself again when we decided to stop at the Air Force Memorial because that is probably my favorite (or second favorite - I can't decide) memorial in the city. The three spires that represent planes speeding off in flight - pure awesome. I kept making plane noises with my mouth and shooting my cupped palm off in the air to trace the spires. Shoooooop! Seriously, did that probably ten times. I was like a little kid in that place. A stinky little kid, mind you, because this was right after a run. Ew. I again wished for my camera but my "Accio camera" spell wasn't working properly. Gotta work on the swish and flick motion, I guess. (If you're confused, read Harry Potter #4.)

So there. It's boring, but it's my life. Actually, it's not boring. It was a really fun and eventful weekend. Now my task is to pack up my house ASAP and get things ready to move this weekend...if all goes well. Providing I get a moment to catch my breath you'll be hearing from me next week about the move and maybe I'll have some pictures of the new place.

Maybe.

Update-A-Matey!

I'm back. Phew! That's right, after what seems like the longest hiatus ever (though I know it's not) I am back in business. Blogville, Blogchestertonfieldville. And I'm the mayor. Or I'm on the city council or something. Whatever.

Anyway, there are a few updates I care to share. These are some big ones so brace yourselves. My boss quit. Yes, I told you that she would be quitting, and she did. Wait - I should reread the last post - maybe she'd already quit when I wrote last. It doesn't matter, I've now officially had two weeks of work without my boss and it's been insane. I've recited Philippians 4:13 so much to myself I might as well get it tattooed on my forehead. As I mentioned previously, our fiscal year ended September 30th. This means that all the museums are sending us thick packets of gift forms to record in our system, more than we get at any other time of year besides December 30th. Marlene and I have done pretty well holding down the fort, I think, but it's hard not having my boss around to bounce ideas off of or go to with pesky questions that need answers immediately. Now I have to go to her boss and he doesn't always know what I'm talking about. All in all, it could be worse. I haven't drowned in all the paperwork yet, and the only impending moment of possible doom I can see on the horizon will be when we do fiscal year reports. Don't worry, the old boss is coming back around to guide us through the process. But what about next month when she's not around? It takes forever to hire people around here so I'm sure my co-worker and I are going to have to do reports by our lonesome at least until the new year. At least. Yipes.

Big change #2: 925 house will be disbanded by the end of the year. Yes, my landlord and the building contractor worked out a deal. He got the permit from the county to build two houses on the 925 lot and he will be purchasing the house from my landlord. For those of you who never got to see the house, I couldn't be more sorry. It was magnificent. The last person who will ever get to see 925 intact will be my friend Michelle who's coming to visit this weekend. The rest of you will just have to look at pictures from my previous posts and mourn the loss of the thing you didn't know was as awesome as it was. That's right, MOURN. I sure am. So now comes the big annoying part of it all - moving. Gotta find a new place. Gotta move into that new place. Have 90 days to do so. And oh my goodness do I HATE moving. Yes, I used the "H" word and I meant it! But whatever, I'm sure we'll find a great new place to live and we'll make it just as much a home as 925 ever was. Oh horse apples...I forgot about the basement and how much junk is down there that doesn't belong to a single roommate here. All the old ones moved out and left their stuff. Yard sale!

So those are the two big things going on. I'd been planning on doing some job searching and option-looking, but that's all on the back burner right now. Things just got a little too crazy for me to focus on anything else. Except, of course, Fall.

That's right, I focus on Fall because it's awesome. It's finally sweater weather around here and at night we have the heat on. Granted, it's on pretty low but it's still on. I bought a pair of house shoes this weekend. And they're amazing. So, how have I celebrated Fall?

First off, I had a three day weekend this past weekend. Miraculous. Turns out Columbus was kind of a meany and not very culturally sensitive, but at least I got a day off because of him. Thanks, man. Remember the roommate I replaced? Kate? Well she was in town this weekend. And when company arrives, you gotta pull out the big guns. So the 925 girls flew into a Fall frenzy. On Saturday morning we all breakfasted together and then drove off to Breaux Vineyards in Somewhere, VA. Loudon County, I think. LoCo. Anyway, we tasted some wines, feasted on gumbo, baguettes and cheese, and listened to a homegrown band play songs everyone but me seemed to know. It was fun. Then we zipped over to Crooked Run Orchards for some good old fashioned apple and pumpkin picking. We saw people making apple butter, we tried our hand at "Guess-That-Carcass" and I got nothing right. We climbed apple trees and ate the fruit right off the tree. I constantly wanted to burst out into "People Will Say We're In Love" from Oklahoma, but I resisted. That would have been weird.

The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing. We're trying to figure out what to do with the ungodly amount of apples we have in our kitchen. Kristen and I made a crostata on Sunday, but that only got rid of four apples. I probably need to make about 3 apple pies and that will take care of it. But that sounds like something I really don't want to do. Too bad I don't have a juicer. This is the one time of year I'd use it. Anyway, I'll let you know what other apple thingies I make - or not - before the apples rot.

So there's that! Oh, yesterday I went to the Foundation Center offices downtown to take a "Proposal Writing Basics" class. It was informative. I learned what constitutes a grant proposal and how much time and effort it takes to write one. Juuuuuuuust great. Maybe someday I'll get the chance. Oh, you want to know how I've lived here for about a year and a half and don't know this city at all? I was supposed to exit at Farragut West yesterday, NOT Foggy Bottom. The metro stops are right next to each other, and I was to take the Farragut West stop. Right? Then why did I get off at Foggy Bottom? And why when I got to the street level did I wonder why I was at 23rd and Eye St. instead of 17th and Eye St.? Yup, I walked the blocks to 17th and Eye so that I could slip into the back row of the class about 5 minutes late. Horse apples!!!

Anyway, here's what's to come: my roommates and me looking for a new house, my boss-bosses hopefully hiring me a new boss (no, I do not want that job, ever), me convincing myself that it's not too cold to walk the 5 minutes to the gym so I can keep in shape as it gets colder and colder every day. I just got a flyer from the Washington Ballet letting me know I could get half price Nutcracker tickets right now. So, naturally, I'm already excited about the holidays. But for now, I'm enjoying Fall. And that's your update, matey!

Niagara FallsVegas

Vacations take work. You might not realize this as a child, but as an adulthood you really grasp the difficulty that is vacation planning. I mean, you have to plan it yourself. Gross! I miss those days when my parents would say, "We're going here, pack your bags" and I'd just go and enjoy myself. Anymore I have to decide where I want to go, how much money I have to spend going there, what I want to do, and if I have enough vacation time to do it! Blechity blachity bluhhh. Who knew that even the R&R times mean different things to adults? Thanks a lot, Real World, with your restrictions and responsibilities. I'll follow you till the end! Thank goodness for friends who'll plan for me :). Well, that's kind of all they can do when we decide to go camping. I don't camp. I don't know the first thing about it. If you want me to camp you have to treat me like a child and tell me where to go and when and what to do when I'm there. Oh, and how to do it. With that said, you should know I had a simply splendid time camping at Niagara Falls over Labor Day Weekend...

Oh, so beautiful! Right?? Look at all that pure, un-tampered-with natural stuff. Why, I could have just happened upon this stunning view whilst on a hike (well, only if I were into hiking and that sort of outdoorsy thing.) But it's majestic and glorious, right? Um, not as right as you'd think. Correction, not as right as I anticipated. Dear gussie was this place a surprise. Have you been here? On the Canadian side? To Niagara FallsVegas? I know a couple different cities that tack on "Vegas" at the end for kicks. It's kind of annoying, too - Lex Vegas (Lexington, KY), Nash Vegas (Nashville, TN). I've spent quite a bit of time in both these cities and neither, in comparison to Niagara Falls, merits the suffix "Vegas" in its nickname. No, indeed! People need to start calling this town, on the Canadian AND U.S.A. sides, FallsVegas cause boy oh boy it is. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. Before I tell you about the wonder that is FallsVegas (besides the amazing falls, naturally), let me start at the beginning...

Here were the plans: two roommates and I were headed to Niagara Falls to camp on the NY side for two nights. Friday night - drive to Kane, PA, to stay with a former roommate and her new hubster. Saturday - drive to falls and splash around in them, perchance. Sunday - falls. Monday - drive home.

Here's what happened: Friday at 5:40pm - call from one of the roommates that, in essence, said this, "I'm sick, go without me." What the horse apples??? To go or not to go? That was the question. The other roommate and I went. But starting the trip off like that was a real crack in the otherwise foolproof plan. Okay, not foolproof. We were going to play the trip by ear anyway, but hello! We had food for three, sleeping bags for three, and plans for three. Now there were two.

You know that out-of-body feeling where you can't believe something's happening and you just keep replaying it in your head? And then you laugh incredulously? Welcome to the entire 5.5 hours drive to Kane, PA on Friday night. Two people in a car, randomly laughing in incredulous tones. Weird. We got to Kane about midnight or a little later. We were treated to tea and cookies by our benevolent hostess, and we passed out on her living room floor. (Poisoned cookies. Sike!) Saturday we decided to stick around the little town a bit longer so we could see the sights, say hi to our hostess' family and just hang out with our friend. Great times. I have to say, I really do love small towns. I also love sunny blue-sky days in northern PA when the breeze is blowing just right and the temperature is a cool 78-ish degrees Fahrenheit. Doesn't get better than that. Except when you throw pumpkin chocolate chip cookies in the mix. THEN it gets better. Also, I even loved walking and bear clapping around the pond + wild flowers area in the woods behind my friends house. That's right, clap sporadically so you don't sneak up on a hungry bear! Yipes! Ah, serenity.

Okay, so after we left Kane we drove straight up through Buffalo, NY, to our campsite on Lake Ontario. We got there around 5 or so in the evening and decided to set up the tent, gather kindling for our fire, and check out our surroundings before it got dark. Kristen, the roommate I was camping with, is a camper by hobby. An aficionado, if you will. She had all the equipment and all the experience to make this an easy trip for a novice such as myself. By the way, I think everyone and their dog(s) were out camping this weekend by the falls. I mean, the place was packed. People riding bikes everywhere, playing the guitar and singing. (Yes, it's weird to see someone riding a bike whilst playing the guitar and singing, but things happen differently in New York.) Dogs running around willy nilly. I mean, I saw an RV with a satellite dish set up next to it. People had electric lights strung around their campers and even lawn ornaments planted on their camping plot. Um, WHAT?? I wasn't in Kansas anymore. Cue the incredulous laughter bit. Cue it again. Seriously, keep cuing it until the cue button is broken cause that's how long it lasted.

The tent's ready, we have kindling, we've checked out the view of Lake Ontario (gorgeous), picked up some cool looking rocks for sport, skipped some rocks on the lake (mostly failed at that one) and decided we'd have hot dogs for dinner. On a whim, we decided it would be great to see the falls at night. We'd heard from a couple sources that the Canadian side of the falls provided the best view and that the falls simply must be seen at night. So we thought we'd go over for an hour or so (please, stop laughing - we'd never done this before), come back and make dinner and generally vegg out before night-night. Ahem...

At 6:40pm we got in the line to cross the bridge into Canada. It was light outside on account of the sun. Now look at the picture below. Use context clues to guess what I'm going to tell you next.

Here's a clue for ya - that wand in my hand belongs to a 3 yr-old and she uses it to make traffic go away. "Go away, Traffic!" she says, giving a quick swish and flick with the wand. Those are her sunglasses, too. I don't think they have any power over excess amounts of cars on the road, but it just completed my look, K? You see how it's dark outside, right? Yeah, that was 2 hours later and we STILL hadn't crossed the border yet. By the time we got to the border guard we were a bit delirious and trying to be positive about wasting so much time at a standstill. Okay, we didn't completely waste time. We made some friends on the road, talked to some other drivers, listened to some good tunes, and laughed more...incredulously. Oh, and I felt way embarrassed that I was wearing a good ol' state proud shirt to see the falls. I mean, really?? Can you get any more dorky tourist than that? So the border guard was scary and asked us (may I say incredulously again?) why we were coming over at 9 at night to see the falls and then go back to New York. We sheepishly told her that we didn't realize it would take so long to get through customs and onto the Canadian side. She said, "You should have taken Rainbow Bridge. It would have gotten you there a lot faster." Um, okay. Thanks, scary lady. We put that in our metaphorical pipes and smoked it. It was bitter.

Luckily, we wound our way through the dark streets of Niagara park (good thing cars show how many kilometers per hour you're going) and finally came within sight of the falls by about 9:30 Friday night. And WOW were there a lot of people. We found a place to park (goodbye, 20 USD) and walked through the mist to gaze at nature's wonder. Misty! I should have sung that song the whole time. Wish I'd thought of it then. As it was, I spent the entire weekend talking in a ridiculous Canadian accent and subsequently sending myself into fits of giggles. I really crack myself up, apparently. But anyhoo - my first glimpse of the falls wasn't as amazing as I'd anticipated. As I alluded to earlier, it's like tourism on crack. Casinos everywhere, neon lights, attractions that cost thrice as much as they should. It's a zoo. The pictures below aren't great, but that's what I saw of the falls that night. Shrouded in mist, there they were all lit up by giant spotlights.

No, the falls don't come in rainbow colors. Pay some attention to the man behind the curtain...


We didn't stick around long. We decided to return to camp, cook our dinner and get some sleep so we could come back on Sunday. Kristen was a dear and got the fire started while I watched. Hey! I helped gather kindling! I did my part. ish. We ate hot dogs and s'mores and went to sleep. The next morning we stumbled out of the tent about 9 and cooked ourselves some oatmeal. K-dawg had a sweet stove (think Bunsen burner) that boiled our water so we could add oatmeal to some and Swiss Miss to the other. A few bananas cut up in the oatmeal and voila! Delicious.

After breakfast we pulled out the map and drove off into the daylight. Destination: Rainbow Bridge. I was driving and we found it with only one turnaround, thank you very much! Just like the cranky border guard promised, we got across the bridge and into Canada in a lot less time. 20 minutes, you might say. And that's a generous estimate. Whilst on the bridge, we could look to our 8 o'clock and see the falls, and to our 10 and 11 o'clock we could see this...

FallsVegas. And that's when it's not all lit up and gaudy. Anyway, I must say that the falls did look much better after a good night's sleep and only 20 minutes in line for customs. They are impressive, can't lie. When I tuned out the man-made ridiculousness behind me I was able to enjoy the spectacle of water falling over a cliff. Seems simple but it isn't. It's breathtaking. However, I think I'm getting ahead of myself again. Because after we crossed Rainbow Bridge we didn't go see the falls immediately. Instead, on my boss's recommendation, we drove up the river to a little town called Niagara-On-The-Lake. By the way, that was one of the most beautiful Sunday drives I've ever had. We would our way North on Niagara Parkway, a lazy windy road hugged by wineries and bike trails and beautiful houses. The town itself is a quaint New-England-y kind of town. Lots of shops and horse drawn carriage rides, etc. My favorite part, however, was the waterfront section of the town. There's no better place to be than by the water, in my opinion, and Lake Ontario was beautiful. I could see the Toronto skyline in the distance, and the gently lapping waves provided the perfect soundtrack for a tasty lunch of...peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Yeah, I know. But I was not about to change money over for one day of travel and even though they'd have taken my USDs I was not about to do that and get my change in Canadian coins. Great way to save money on a trip, by the way; just don't exchange your currency and keep your credit card glued in your wallet. Anyway, this is a view of the lake from the lovely town of Niagara-On-The-Lake, Canada.

After lunch and a nice stroll through town, we hopped back in the car and tootled our way South towards the falls. We parked quite a ways away this time (about 2 miles, I think) so that we could park for free. It worked out great, because we walked along the river towards the falls and came across some spectacular views of the rapids and the waterfalls. The water is very green there, by the way. It looks like they put a ton of chlorine in there. That is, it looks almost fake. To sum up, it looks like a maniacal scientist decided to create a wave pool of death at his backyard Mad Scientists Amusement Park. Nonetheless, how can you not be blown away when you see something like this...?

Even after a night in a sleeping bag I was pretty happy to see those falls.

Did you know several people have survived the falls? You know, like oh I'm fishing with my dad and oh no the motor's not working and we got caught up in the current and oh no rapids and oh no get my life jacket on and ahhhhhhhhhhh!!! I saw an Imax movie about it. Gave the ticket lady a twanky in sweet USDs and got back American bills and, wait for it, Canadian coins. Ugh! Why, God, why??? Oh well, Kristen and I pooled our coins later to purchase a postcard at the gift shop. The remaining coins we threw into Lake Ontario when we got back to the camp site. We felt it was important to give back to the community.

Wow, quite the throwing arm I got there. You'd think I'd never touched a football before. Well I have. Fingers on laces, got it!

Anyhoo, that night we drove back to camp and got ready for a night o' fun. Now THIS is the part of camping I like - the part where you make a campfire and eat good food and play card games outside with your hoodie on and laugh and blah blah blah. That's the good stuff. Sitting next to the campfire with your toes as close as you'll let them go. Mmmm, toasty. We (and by we I mean Kristen) made the best fire ever that night so we could cook our hobo meals. Yes, hobo meals. Take some ground meat and season it with whatever. Throw in some minced onion and garlic and just work it all into a patty. Place patty on sheet of tin foil. Cut up some carrots and potatoes. Place those with patty on foil. Get some frozen corn and sprinkle it on top of all that other food stuff. Fold up tin foil. Place the whole thing in the coals of a fire and cook for 10 minutes. Open tin foil, insert fork. Nope, no plate, just you and the tin foil and the fork. And the food. Yummy, hobo-style.

So the trip was great. Monday we packed up and drove back home, wending our way through all the other travelers on highway 70 East towards DC. I had fun. I camped and I enjoyed it. Granted, I wasn't really roughing it. I had a bathroom and shower at my disposal. I didn't have to hike to my camp site; we drove right up to it. My camping buddy had all kinds of good gear that made my stay quite enjoyable. Heck, I don't even own a sleeping bag anymore. But there are a few things that really stand out to me from the weekend. You know, the things that will make me smile when I think about the trip from now on:

Driving through Canada and seeing signs that say "U.S.A." this way - that's just weird. Talking to morose border guards who have enough authority to make me nervous answering questions with no wrong answers (because I have nothing to hide, I tell you, NOTHING!!!). Not getting my passport stamped. (Argh!) Blue Moon and s'mores. Bananagrams (a.k.a. Speed Scrabble) by campfire light and lantern. Skipping rocks on Lake Ontario.

I'm still not a camping buff. Doubt I'll ever be one. But camping at Niagara Falls (Vegas) for a weekend? I recommend it to a friend.

The Sweet 925

Welcome to my humble abode. Cozy, huh? This delightful residence is known to all privileged enough to live there as 925. See it there on the right pillar? I have lived in this house for almost three months now, but it feels like I've been here for years. In fact, the moment I saw this view from the street I knew I wanted to live in this house.

Throughout May and June I searched for reasonable places to live in the DC area. Not easy! I thought about living by myself for a while. Yeah, good luck with that, self. Sure I could live by myself if I wanted to pay out the nose for the tiniest place ever. (Pay out the nose? Really?! That's just unappetizing.) Or I could go with something a little more cockroach infested for a little less money. No, thank you. There is no shortage of available rooms/apartments in the DC metropolis, so I had no fear of finding a place to settle, but I did have a fear of finding a place that wasn't supremely awesome. Luckily, a friend of a friend who'd been in this area for a while sent me a couple links to church classifieds. I found a couple places to investigate through those sites, and one Sunday afternoon I walked up to 925 and fell head over heels in love with it.

Bekka met me at the front door, ushered me into the living room, and I was sold. I didn't even need to see the rest of the house. Don't worry, I saw the rest of it. The kitchen, the sitting room, the dining room, the back porch, the back yard, other people's rooms, the staircase, my future bathroom, my future room. Everything pleased me. The location was ideal. The house is located in the Clarendon neighborhood of Arlington, just 10 minutes away from the Orange line metro that takes me right into work every morning. Within a 7-10 minutes walk is a variety of shops and restaurants to please the pickiest of yuppies. I loved it! Oh, have I mentioned that the backyard is glorious? 'Cause it is. Glorious, I tell you. Plenty of space for BBQ parties and grilling with friends. And we roommates take full advantage of it, too. In fact, after meeting all the girls who lived in 925 they invited me to a BBQ they were having that weekend as a little get-to-know-you house party thing. I took my good-sport brother with me and we spent a lovely summer's eve dining with Arlington's finest. If I had any doubts to that point about moving in (which I didn't) they were gone. I knew this was the house for me.

Saturday, June 28th, Barron and I moved my stuff via U-Haul to 925. That day was a dark day, my friends. After throwing 'bows with the U-Haul people for a while in an attempt to get the van they'd promised me, Barron and I loaded up all my things from the Eisley's house and the storage unit. We drove to 925 and got out my mattress. We wanted to move the big stuff first, you see. What better piece of furniture to have in my room than my luxurious queen bed with pillow top mattress? HA! We brought up the bed frame with no trouble. Then we went back downstairs for the box springs. Evil, evil day. We tried for a full 45 minutes to get those stupid box springs up the stairs. There are scars on the wall and ceilings to prove it! We took off the banister, we changed positions, we readjusted. We theorized, we took the springs back to the first floor and tried again. We were famished, weak from all the lifting, and a bit testy (on my end, mostly). Plus, we'd gotten the mattress up the stairs cause it's all bendy and whatnot, but no box springs. There was just no feasible way to get those box springs up the stairs. I just about flipped my lid. What??? How is this possible? What am I going to do with my bed? I love my bed, what am I supposed to do, just forget it and get another bed? I don't want to spend money on a bed when I have the perfect bed right here, this is ridiculous, I will not cry I will not cry I will not cry. Barron, in his patience and wisdom, suggested that we take a look at the windows.
"Maybe the frame can fit through the window if we take off the screen."
"Um, yeah, okay Barron. That will never work."
"Well, let's take a break and eat some dinner and we'll tackle it after that."
Wise words. We ate, we watched some TV, and then we took up the box springs again to reattempt this impossible feat. Nope, still not working. Barron and I put down the springs and started measuring the windows. I knew that there was a master bedroom upstairs, and even though my other upstairs roomies had twins in their rooms, if there was a master bedroom upstairs there HAD to be a way to get a queen bed up there. Bingo!
"Barron! Barron! There's a door in the master bedroom that leads out to the roof!"

So what do you think happened next? You think all was easy from there, now that we knew how to get the bed to the second story? Oh, my naive friend, you couldn't be more wrong. The next problem was getting the springs on the roof. Plan A - Barron stands on lawn chair at side of house and he and I raise the mattress as far as we can to roof, he holds while I gallop upstairs to roof and pull mattress up, then he gallops to roof and helps me get it inside. We attempted Plan A and got as far as the me galloping part. Mid-gallop I hear Barron yell my name, then I hear a crash.
Plan B - ask neighbor for ladder and pretend not to be embarrassed by my disgustingness, put ladder at back of house where deck is, reattempt the raising bit and the galloping bit. So, we lifted, I galloped, I pulled, I held, he galloped, we pulled, and we got it inside. Oh, and then we had to finish carrying in all the rest of my junk because only big pieces go first. blah blah blah.

So that was moving day. After that I was in no rush to unpack my things and make my room presentable. I'd done enough work for about the next month, I reasoned. Well, eventually I did get my room in working order (in perfect time to welcome my first visitors, but more on that in another post). I am now happily settled in 925, enjoying life and loving my room.

I have 4 other roommates, two upstairs with me, and two downstairs. We have the usual shared common areas, and we coexist pretty well. Everyone is nice and respectful, so that's always a plus. We have flowers outside, our lawn is mowed regularly, I even cook my own meals for crying out loud. I have a cookbook and a box of recipes I've copied from my mom over the years, and I cook up a storm. Okay, I exaggerate. Not a storm. I cook up a windy day. Maybe 20mph. I'm learning, and that's the point. I've never been so domestic in my life, sheesh. But it's fun. This is a great place to come visit, friends. You'll love this house as much as I do. I have three testimonials from friends who've come to see me already. Wait, four testimonials, because Barron knows this place inside and out now. :)

Yesterday my roommate, Kristen, planted mums around the place so 925 is ready for fall. I'm going to break out the citrus tea soon and keep us stocked on that through the next two seasons. In fact, I think after I finish this I'll go sit out on the front porch and read my book.

Life in the 925 is great. I recommend it.