A Hodge Podge From the Last 2 Weeks

Okay since I haven't written in like, forever, this is my attempt to catch up on the goings-on of my life over the past couple of weeks. So what's new and exciting? Well, I started my new job last Tuesday. I'm still not sure what to make of it. There's a ton of stuff to learn and I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. But the people I work with are pretty nice and have been very helpful so far. My supervisor is great, too.

I get the impression though, that things in our department/program aren't all that organized and there is miscommunication & bad feelings between them and administration. Definitely things I need to work on while I'm essentially the middle man (woman) there. My commute in the mornings is about 40 minutes and almost an hour going home. Could be worse, I suppose. I'm grateful to have a job which pays me fairly. Hopefully I'll be good at it.

Gregg and I are still looking here and there for another place to rent. We've discovered some strange things about the house we're currently living in, which are also pretty amusing. The light switches in most of the rooms seem to be placed illogically- like the one for the kitchen is out in the hallway and the one for the master bathroom is in the bedroom. There is also carpet in all of the bathrooms. Ew, I don't even want to think about what kind of grossities are just hiding and breeding between the fibers. And then there's the air conditioning- the master bedroom has ten vents in it alone, freezing us out every time we go in there, while the rest of the house cooks from the massive amount of floor to ceiling windows. None of the features have been updated since the house was built in 1985, so it is literally like being trapped in time. We have traveled in the Delorean from Back to the Future and are eternally stuck in the 80's. Mauve colored carpet sprawls out in every direction and brass plated fixtures adorn every bathroom.

And the piece de resistance: Monday night as I was getting ready for bed, I turned on the bathroom faucet and no water came out. I checked the faucets in the other bathrooms and kitchen- no water. I told Gregg and he went down into the basement to investigate. Our landlord had "fixed" this problem before we moved in (apparently it is a recurring problem that the water stops flowing to the house) by doing something with the water pressure, but it didn't work. Gregg concluded that it was a clogged pipe, but didn't want to fix it himself since this isn't our house to "mess around with", and said he'd call Mr. Stouffer in the morning. So with no running water to brush our teeth or take showers with, we had to improvise. Gregg went out to his truck and brought in one of the gallon containers of water he used for Tess on our trip up here from Florida. There was still 3/4 left, so I used it the next morning to wash my face and hair in the sink. Forget the 80's- we were now back in the 1800's! Oy.

We are getting an incredible deal though, by staying here. It would be nice to actually unpack, oh I don't know, one entire box and really get settled in our own place. There are still several boxes with our stuff sitting in the garage, some opened, some not. We have a few good leads that we're pursuing and hopefully they'll allow a dog.

On May 21 our niece, Katelyn Elizabeth, was born to Gregg's brother and his wife. She arrived a day early by C-section. So that makes a grand total of 6 family members now, between the two of us, who have birthdays within two weeks of each other. They couldn't spread them out more?

Last weekend, we had a very nice visit with my mom and sister. The last time I saw Valerie was Christmas of 2005. Gregg and I took them on a tour of Chambersburg and showed them around the massive house, we took turns looking at each other's pictures, then went out for dinner at Cracker Barrel. Val left that night to go back home and my mom stayed over and went to church with me the next morning. I made a pot roast in the afternoon for an early dinner and for dessert, we got ice cream. Memorial Day wasn't all that spectacular. In the morning, I did laundry and ironed. That afternoon on their way back from North Carolina, Gregg's parents met us right off of 81 for a late lunch at Red Robin. We caught up and his mom showed off pictures of the new baby. It was a nice time.

So hopefully it won't be another 2+ weeks until I post again. Before I know it another month has just flown by.