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freeing a soul : november 2001
11.24.2001
thwarted by fate
well, most of you know by now that i am not, in fact, in austin. instead, we are in sunny Tuscon, AZ. but since i have *somuchtime*, i might as well start at the beginning :)
tuesday: we packed the rest of the trailer and car in the rain. big surprise :) got on the road around 4....drove through rain for....well, all of washington and oregon. the bright side: there was no snow in the mountain pass between CA and OR that was sooooooo scary last time. this was indeed good fortune. so tuesday ended with us driving driving driving, feeling pretty darn good about the world.
wednesday: the sun rose on us still driving :) we pulled into LA around 3pm, avoiding the beginning of the Thanksgiving Fleeing - again to our good fortune. at the end of our 19 hour drive we found ourselves very happy that the suburban was doing so well, how much faster and better this trip was than the one up here last spring. we crashed at a friend's, napped, woke up, ate some dinner and did some more Serious Sleeping.
thursday: woke up late morning and was on the road by 11ish. this was to be our 26 hour stretch of driving, made so much more bearable by the Reward Awaiting Us In Austin. most of the day was driving through california, with its strange eerie, beautiful hills and landscape. they always remind me of sleeping giants with wrinkly skin. it was a good day of driving. we stopped for dinner in pheonix and got back on the road by 10ish.
then the suburban decided it was done. david tried to accellerate and we got nothing. it just couldnt change gears. hrmmmmm. so we stopped at a po-dunk exit, and found that we were out of transmission fluid. so we put more in, and crept to the nearest gas station, about 8 miles away. after a chunk of experimental time at the gas station trying to figure it all out, and with david's dad as our car coach, we decided to call it a night and pulled into the hotel behind the gas station.
dont ever let anyone tell you that Motel 8's suck. find a new one. they ROCK. this room had a living room, bedroom area, 2 tv's, fridge, microwave....the works. $55/night. we were pleased.
so we had some wine and gave into our fate of sleeping in a bed rather than napping on the road.
friday: 9am, we were on the road again to creep the 10 miles in tuscon to the nearest AAMCO. we were *praying* for a quick solution. we pull in, get the car looked at and find out that it will take until the afternoon to even know what is wrong.
the bright side is that it is *beautiful* out. sunny, 75 and perfect. so we walk down to the university, over to downtown and back.
upon our return, we recieve the news (and see the evidence) of various pieces of the transmission shredding itself. lovely.
the verdict: rebuild this transmission or get a new one. $200 difference. so we decide to rebuild for a measely $2k. the mechanic hopes to have us on the road by tuesday. *if* they have all the parts. <SIGHS>
so instead of 5 days in austin surrounded by friends, we are here in tuscon, paying for hotel rooms, rental car, food, etc.
we give into fate and get a hotel room nearby - ramada inn. nice enough....only $50/night. we are tired, stressed out and trying to stay optimistic. we try to have dinner at the resteraunt downstairs. i repeat *try*.
we ordered nachos and a pizza. the nachos had ROAST BEEF cut up on them for the "beef". the pizza was....worse than the worst frozen pizza in existance. $14 down the toilet, we walk down to the corner store (hike, more like it) and the liqueor store and return to sulk in our room. i spent the entire walk bitching, griping and cussing...i had earned it. and it felt GOOD.
friday was a shitty day. just shitty. (even with the nice weather)
david and i decided that we would make the best of this and think of it as a vacation. no point in every day being *this* bad :)
saturday: today, however, has been much much better. we got up, had breakfast and then rented a car. we spent the afternoon driving around a national park that was full of these *amazing* 20' cacti and desertscape. this area has so much beauty, and just aimlessly driving around lead to seeing some really beautiful things. and the sunset tonight was unlike anything i have ever seen. it was a true desert sunset with the whole sky on fire...the last moments were deep blood red and smokey purple. just amazing! (and me without my camera!)
we had sushi for dinner and it was marvelous. this day was *definately* a step up from yesterday. :)
tomorrow will be more of the same, i hope...perhaps sodona for some xmas shopping...who knows.
enjoy dinner on sunday night....i will be there in spirit :)
posted by belen 7:23 PM
11.19.2001
final madness
and so we enter the last 24 hours of Pack-a-Thon 2001 (Part 2)
i am to the point where everything left is a last minute packing item, so i am just pacing around the house in circles. :) productive, eh?
this afternoon we pack up the trailer, and tomorrow we jet off into the wild blue yonder.
#1 REASON TO BE HAPPY I AM MOVING NOW: the gas prices as so damn cheap it makes me want to cry :) when we first planned this move, we were frightened by how much it was :)
#2 REASON TO BE HAPPY I AM MOVING NOW: no more dreary rain. it was beautiful alllll weekend and now, jsut in time for packing the truck, it is doing that miserable drizzle shit. <GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR>
posted by belen 10:04 AM
11.17.2001
#1 on the list for saturday
bathe the cats
check!
needless to say, they are glaring at me now.
hobbes is punishing me with The Power of Guilt by not drying himself, but sitting instead in a pitiful ball on the floor shivering and cringing every time i walk near him. ordinarily david would hold him and dry him off for hours, but i am just not that nice. i know his games, and i refuse to play them :)
zephyr got through the bath ok, i dried him off as much as he would let me, and then i opened up the bathroom door to let him out. as he stepped out the door, he let out a sharp meow of surprise and shock as he stepped into the apartment that is about 15 degrees cooler than the heated bathroom. he then turned around to look at me and just let me have it with a whole slew of kitty-cuss words before he turned his back on me and strode angrily off. my quiet little cat said more in that 30 seconds than in his whole life, i think :)
posted by belen 10:51 AM
zenning with the boxes
hi there :)
its me...here, zenning with my boxes.
moving turns me into a very anal person. my home is my sacred solace...the very core of my peace and harmony. i really *enjoy* moving, and the whole process of coming into a new, clean space and arranging my things in a new way. but the pivitol part of this process is the packing and unpacking. boxes have very precise things in them....they are organized by content...most importantly, i *know* whats in every single box from memory...what is packed together...where any given thing is at any time.
this move, however, is a little different. with work so hectic, david has stepped in to do most of the packing and preparations for moving. in one way, this is a great relief...it reduces my stress because the house is magically packing itself.
on the *other* hand, my possessions are frolicing with *glee* that the Order of Packing is not being imposed on them. david packs with the "weight of the box" theory...not the "similar content theory". this leaves my stuff wickedly hiding in stealthy places in random boxes. if i *wanted* to find, for example, my lava lamp at this very moment, it would taunt me mercilessly from inside some box, probably under a pot, next to a candleholder, sharing bedspace with a few good books, snuggled into place with some random clothes of david's.
this makes me *nuts*.
however, because i recognize the stress that would be eating me alive at this moment had he *not* packed the house, i return to my happy place and just try to zen peacefully with the gloating boxes, so confident in their disarray that i do not know their precise contents.
so this weekend, my *last* weekend here, i am zenning with my boxes....all alone. this weekend, i will impose My World Order on the last remaining boxes, so i feel that i have at least some grasp on the situation.
david is in portland this weekend, enjoying the company of friends he hadnt seen in a while, going to some clubs, etc.
why am i not there, you ask?
aside from the obvious reason that being away for the last 3 days before i have to pack everything i own in a trailer and leave would make me a raving lunatic (yes, i *really* do get this anal about moving!), the situation is a bit complicated.
the person david is staying with is an ex-girlfriend, and, while she is happily(?) married now, i have never gotten the impression that she was all that happy about me having the "girlfriend" role in david's life. its nothing personal, mind you...she knows nothing about me. but its that "i couldnt have him, so i consoled myself with the idea that no one could have him" theory. and i seem to have shattered that one into tiny slivers.
when we travelled up the west coast 2 summers ago, david emailed her when we arrived in portland to see if she wanted to have dinner with us. she very curtly told him that she had no interest in meeting me.
hrm. well, ok. no big deal...other than the fact that david really enjoys her as a person, and feels some disappointment that i cant meet her. but i can understand the emotions behind her statement, even if i wouldnt personally behave that way.
so while we have been in the NW, she invited us both several times to events, but by then the car had died, so it was unfeasable.
last week, david got ahold of her because he wanted to get together with her before we left. and they arranged to hang out this weekend. and while she extended the invite to me as well, i am positive it was out of pure politeness, and not out of any real desire to see me.
so, looking at the situation, it didnt take me long to decide between a quiet weekend at home versus a stress-filled weekend trying to play nice with an ex-girlrfiend who doesnt really want me there, while my mind cant stop thinking about the million things i want to get done before i move. :)
all joking aside, i really wanted david to have a great weekend with his old friends (he knows her husband well, also) without the added stress. while i know he wanted me to come, he still looked relieved that i turned down the invite to enjoy some quiet before the mad dash across the country. i know i will cross paths with her again, and i would really prefer our first meeting to be when i have the energy and patience to dazzle her with my charm, rather than stress over a rushed encounter.
so, i find myself at home, with my solitude, my ornery boxes, my *very* affectionate cats (i think they are afraid we are abandoning them), and what appears to be a sunny and beautiful weekend here in the pacific NW. perhaps my digital camera will get a walk this weekend ;)
posted by belen 12:09 AM
11.13.2001
how bizarre
i was looking through my site statistics, and apparently people ahve reached my site by typing in search strings such as:
soul searching
1991 gmc suburban
avant-garde aquatics
how do i know if someone masterbates
i watched her paint her nails
masterbates
open eyes under water
porsche 1977 924 pictures
pretty in pigtails
tampa blogger
wind gust dress
bagel vendors
bolivian sex pics
fucking on the stairs
hair braiding in san francisco
milk residue on glasses
worthless mis degree
down on the ground bitch!
searching for the right girl
i'm seeking for sexy family; mother d
ohmygod my skirt
truly tasteless joke book
photography nude children androgenoussome of these i understand, but some are just too bizarre to believe that they could lead to any pages on my site :)
posted by belen 4:01 PM
11.12.2001
milk expiration dates
it scared me when a milk expiration date is a month from the day i bought it.
what the fuck do they *do* to the milk to make it stay good for a *MONTH* while other milk lasts 2 weeks?
i dont trust it, i tell you!
posted by belen 5:02 PM
11.11.2001
countdown
david is counting down. it is a little disconcerting to be sitting, working like a madwoman, with the house being packed around me (its like a commercial, i swear), and hear him chirp "only 1 more wednesday! (thursday/ friday/ saturday/etc)".
i have never ever let anyone else pack my stuff, and i find it unsettling to not know what is in each box. david uses the "random stuff in a box method, whereas i am usually very anal about specific groups of things being packed together. <SIGHS> it is a learning experience ;)
so it was bright and sunny for 3 whole days. it was great. but, as expected, we are back to grey. i changed my IM icon to "singing in the rain" - i am trying to be optimistic about this constant grey i will soon escape.
today is a lazy day...no packing, no working :) yaaay!
posted by belen 2:36 PM
11.7.2001
seize the day
today, it was sunny! it *was*!
so we took a field trip and took some pictures for you. (yes, now that we are *moving* we take pics)
mostly it was a digital camera begging to be played with!
here ya go:
http://www.belen.net/pictures/olympia.html
posted by belen 5:11 PM
11.6.2001
purring girl
<stretches and looks around contentedly>
who would guess that we are moving in exactly 2 weeks?
you *certainly* couldnt tell it from my stress level. i am so calm and happy. i feel like the bases will be covered with ease and that this will all just happen magically :)
i have tons of work, and that has kept me on my toes. david is busily packing the house and taking care of most of the moving details.
speaking of david - wonder of wonders - the company he worked for full-time in austin (Geopassage, then GPT - its so *cool* to change your name a few times!) looks like they may have turned themselves around from the death-slide they were on. they shifted david over to contract status mid-summer because they were going under, and somehow, it now looks like they are closing a deal with A&E as we speak. i think they are going to offer david a full-time position again. i just watch this with fascination.
<happy dance> i got my digital camera in the mail!!! i cant wait to start playing.
i miss andre. i hate being so far away and i havent heard anything from him lately. <sighs> i think i will try to give him a ring this evening.
posted by belen 10:13 AM