Bionic Teutonic

It’s been a busy last couple of weeks. I went home to Montana for Christmas, which was a combination of great and a depressing. My sister is pregnant and totally showing. We got to go in to her ultrasound where she found out she was having a boy and of course all her Christmas presents were baby themed. I met the father of her kid for the first time too and got a good first impression of him. Everybody in the family seems to really like him, which is a first for her boyfriends. So that part was good, but my step-mother’s cancer has returned and she was pretty up and down all week. She has pretty much no appetite at this point and it was pretty hard to watch her butter a slice of bread and then just stare at it for 10 minutes. She has a surgery with a really good doctor in two weeks though that they seem to be really hopeful about, so there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel at least. I also ran into a couple of old soccer buddies in town and went over for a party on Tuesday night where I ran into a ton of old high-school friends. It was really great to see a bunch of them actually. I don’t keep in good touch with anybody from Missoula much, but it’s always good to catch up. Some of them have turned into such crazy looking mountain men. Mountain men that I know and love, but it’s still odd to be hanging out in a room full of what looks like a bunch of big burly loggers with huge beards, only they all have PhDs in things like glaciology and geology.

On another note, I just broke the odd USB copy protection key that I need to my music software. I’ve already lost one of these and had to pay $100 to get it replaced. Again, because software companies won’t trust me, I’m having to get a cracked copy of the latest version that doesn’t require the USB key. I hate it when my software problems are the result of something like this. I bought the fucking thing, I should be able to use it. Now I just get a screen telling me I can’t open the progam without the key so I can’t work on any music. Sucks.

Our friends Dallas and Erin have been visiting for the last couple of days, which has been great. We have been pretty lazy, just hanging out, talking, and eating. Dear lord, too much eating. I was actually in pain last night from eating way too much all day and had to go to bed early and sleep it off. Please self, remind me not to do that again.  Next, it’s off to Orcas island for New Years with a bunch of friends which I’m really looking forward to.

I’m pleased to report that we are settling in to our new place. We still have a few bins and boxes to empty and figure out what to do with all the contents, but parts of the condo are starting to feel like an actual home. We are definitely having to downsize a bit, getting rid of old desks and random items we have been hoarding over the past two and a half years, which has resulted in a freak-out or two on both my and Ariel’s behalf, but we are getting through it relatively unscathed. Having so many friends help us move was a definite blessing and the move itself went super quick. And the walking! To the grocery store, to dinner, to coffee in the morning. It’s awesome. I also cut about half an hour off my commute to work each day, which means I suddenly have more non-work time to enjoy. Supposedly we are closing on the sale of our house either Friday or Monday, which can’t come to soon as far as I’m concerned. I’ve already moved on in my head and though we still have stuff to clean out of the house (ugh), the sooner I can be done with Rainier Beach, the better.

Damn, it’s been a busy week. We just bought a condo up on Capitol Hill, so aside from all the paperwork, inspection, etc. this means that we are putting our house on the market on Friday. This makes me very nervous. I have never sold a house before and it feels like a big deal. We have been scrambling like crazy to get it ready - doing all the gardening and weeding that I haven’t done since last year. Planting some flowers in the yard to give it some color. Staging all of the rooms so they are devoid of any personal imprint (which results in some bland, but apparently appropriate rooms that we have to live in until the house is sold). On top of all of that, we have our summer camp-out next weekend and Shambhala the weekend after, both of which take some thinking about. Plus, I’ve actually been fully busy at work the last week, which is odd. I normally have some downtime where I poke around on the Internet, answer e-mails, etc. but not this week (although I am posting this from work, so I guess I have some time to spare)

All that being said, I’m excited about making some changes. Way back when I got back from Bali, I decided that some of the specifics of my life were not how I wanted them to be. The living situation was only one of those changes, and it’s taken quite a while, but I feel like I/we are doing the right thing for the way we want to live. Being back in a neighborhood that I feel connected to, that I have friends in, etc. will be really nice. The condo itself won’t be done until end of August (it’s a conversion) and I’m really hoping that we have sold our house by then. The idea of paying two mortgages, even if only for a month or two, is not appealing. I’m trying to remember that even the worst case scenarios aren’t really that bad. We will be fine in the end. The prospect of things lingering just feels kind of daunting.

Last night Ariel and I were awoken by the sound of two gunshots. It sounded pretty close to our house so I went to check if I could see anything (nope). I called the police to report it anyway (my first 911 call!), but what exactly can they do? Drive around after the fact and not find anything? Somebody else had reported it as well according to the dispatcher though which made me feel like I did the right thing somehow, even if it felt sort of pointless. I’ve hear other sounds that could have been gunshots at our house before, but they have always been far enough away that it could have been a car backfiring or something else entirely. This was very distinctly two gunshots. Hmm. I guess that’s even more incentive to figure out how to get back to the city.

So, I’ve begun remodelling our bathroom, which took up pretty much the entire weekend. There was smashing of bathtubs, miscalculations with the shut-off valves that resulted in an uninterruped stream of water pouring into the bathroom, miscommunications with some folks who are going to be helping re-do the plumming, 2 dump runs, random help from friends at exactly the right moment, and by Sunday evening, a completely bare bathroom, down to the studs. An empty slate, and also much looming work to put it all back together. I feel kind of exhausted. Normally, mondays don’t feel much different than other workdays to me, but today I’m really feeling it. Also: Home Depot stresses me the fuck out. While convenient as hell, I can only last for about 20 minutes before I really start to loose it. My normally sane brain goes all wonky and I turn into a little baby. I think I need a personal shopper to go to Home Depot for me.

So we are re-modeling our bathroom and I’ve been going around assembling all the items that we need (drywall, 2×4s, etc.). This morning I went and dropped over $400 on slate for the floor and a big piece that will either go underneath the window, or be used as a sink counter top eventually. As I was driving from the quarry warehouse to work, I got to thinking that I had just spent an obscene amount of money for a bunch of rock that somebody had made flat and square. This strikes me as sort of ridiculous.

Near our house there is a business that consists of a huge pile of dirt and a little office where (presumably) the owner sits and sells said dirt. I’ve always made fun of this place (Dirt! Get your dirt right here! Lowest prices! Dirt cheap!), but now I find myself buying flattened rock. I seem to have lost my high horse somewhere. If anybody sees it, would you please let me know where I can find it again?