the first day of driving

We made it to Denver. It was a rough day, we were able to get on the road at noon and I got to see my sisters and my nieces before we headed out and I'm glad we waited. Wyoming was as boring as expected but I was able to entertain myself with an audiobook that was better than I thought it'd be. Rusty was very well behaved considering that we were in the car so long with very short breaks. Of course when we got to the hotel he lifted his leg on the bed (near the floor not actually on the bed). And so the adventure begins.

(I actually wrote this post a couple days ago but had issues posting so I'm posting it now... more to come... hopefully soon).  

Delayed start

It's a long story but basically my sisters and neices got stuck in Hawaii (the joys of flying stand-by) and won't get home until late this morning. So, instead of leaving at 5ish this morning, as planned, my dad and I will end up leaving closer to noon so we can see them before we leave. I re-figured our route and stops and changed our reservations to different hotels and we will still should arrive in Virginia at about the same time as planed- but we will have a couple really long days of driving. Good times.

Empty-ish condo

Yesterday I stopped by the condo- to straighten up a little before my sister got home and passed out at the mess- and I must say- it was strange (kind of like hiring movers). Even though all my sister's stuff is there, as well as more than half the furniture, it still felt so empty. It felt strange being there now that it's no longer my home. It's like I'm in limbo, I am a girl without a place to call home (aahh... sad).   

The Movers

Well, the movers have come and gone. It took far longer than I thought it would. I've never used movers before and I have to say it was strange. I wasn't sure if I should help so I started to but then felt like I was kind of in the way and I was paying them so why should I have to carry heavy stuff, and then (seeing as I'm a social historian) I started to think about what hiring movers said about class, and well, it was a downward spiral from there. So I basically stood around and occasionally helped but mostly tried to stay out of the way.    

On the bright side of this whole moving thing I will be escaping the bird. A couple years ago a pigeon (at least I assume its a pigeon- what do I know about birds) took up residence on my bedroom window sill and has used it as his home base ever since, making noise, making me think I had a mouse, cooing- or warbling whatever pigeons do, and pooping all over everything (sorry about the strong language there). I began calling him DB which is short for Damn Bird, and my sister called him Tom (she didn't hate the bird as much as me likely because he wasn't living in her window and waking her up). We tried to get rid of the bird, we got a fake owl and some fake snakes- both of which were supposed to scare away birds- both of which failed miserably. The one thing that worked was bringing over my parents dog Angel (these were pre-Rusty days) and this was only a temporary fix- about an hour after Angel left he was back. But since he has been in my life for several years now, I thought I should include a picture of him here... so here's DB aka Tom.   

Volunteering

Today was my last day volunteering at the VA. It's the beginning of  a long week of goodbyes. Today was nice, they gave me a certificate of appreciation and my supervisor seems sad to see me go. Now I need to decide wether to volunteer near my new home. I would like to volunteer somewhere but I'm a little worried about overloading myself and not sure what to do. I'm sure volunteering at the VA there would be a very different experience than here. 

Music

Music is seriously amazing. I've been kinda down all afternoon (the impending move is getting to me) so I choose some upbeat songs for the drive home and it cheered me up- I may burst into tears at any moment but it is far less likely now than it was just an hour ago. Now I'm going to fix myself a drink which may help as much as the music.

Warning

Never let a four year old play with glitter. Ever.

My niece got a hold of a bottle of glitter and dumped the WHOLE thing on her head. Her scalp is glittering green. They slept over last night and as soon as she got into bed she starting getting itchy- thanks to the glitter that was now all over everything. We tried to rinse it out in the sink- who knew glitter is impervious to water. So her scalp stayed green and itchy for the night. This morning I had the bright idea to use a toothbrush to rub the glitter out of her scalp (I used a new toothbrush). Well the toothbrush worked much better than the water but it also flung glitter everywhere. Bella is covered with glitter (even more than before), I'm covered with glitter, the chair is covered with glitter, the floor is covered in glitter, the dogs (all three of them) have tracked through the glitter and they are all now covered (lightly) with glitter. 

Seriously people- stay far away from glitter!