Had the chance to get an apartment yesterday -- or at least apply for one -- waited less than 24 hours (wanted to fill out the application at home and put together some extra questions for the potential landlord, because I didn't have my prepared list of questions on me in the moment) but it's already been snatched up by someone else.
I guess it's a case of "You snooze, you lose"... it's a brutal world out there, people.
So bummed.
In a bit of coincidence (or scary Big Brother knowing all, LOL), I just checked my emails and one was an advertisement for Bath & Body Works. Their ad copy said in big letters, "If you see it today, it WILL be gone tomorrow!"
Gee, thanks for rubbing salt in my wounds, Bath & Body Works.
It's been all day, and I'm still bummed. I guess I was reeeeeally looking forward to getting back out on my own. Most places out there are SO expensive right now, or the apartment is a dump or in a crappy neighborhood where I wouldn't feel safe, but this place seemed like a good one. I could see myself living there. But I guess it wasn't to be.
Angela: Well, what about love? What do you have to say about love?
Hodgins: It´s overrated-most of the time Dexter: They make it look so easy-connecting with another human being. It's like no one told them it's the hardest thing in the world.
I'm hoping this means that there's an even better, more wonderful (and affordable) place just waiting for me out there somewhere.
Given that my new job allows me to do it from basically anywhere with a good internet connection, maybe I should become like a gypsy, wandering and seeing the world. Or at the very least, see all of the United States. LOL. Maybe if I do that, I'll eventually find the place I want to call home.
Side question: But how will I be a gypsy if I can't bring all my music and DVDs with me?
Hi people!
Again a HUGE apology for leaving my contributions for such a long time - I have been looking in, I promise. It looks as if all of you have been having a busy time too, judging by the paucity of posts of late. It is of course our ‘fallow’ period – make no Bones about it (:D). Personally I have been swept up on a tide of end of term chaos, with everyone having to do massive amounts of admin in a very short time. Reports and field trips and passing on of various duties to those who will be doing them next year and end-of-year farewells to the many who are passing out to pastures new soon, retiring or going on to promotions. We are losing about half the department! I have got my timetable for next year and it couldn’t be more precisely what I wanted. Admittedly, being part time and now being minus a form (I think that’s home room to the US contingent?)I don’t have my own classroom, and that will mean both a lot of removal of stuff during the holidays and considerable nomadic wandering next year; neither will I be teaching as much of the German I love, but this is compensated by the three, count them, THREE afternoons off a week and the chance to do some more creative work and proper planning. And to see the family occasionally and get involved in drama and music at school again.
At the moment I am ‘lucky’; having caught what looks like it’s going to be a humdinger of a head cold from 2 of my colleagues (it’s normal – everyone is going down like flies at the end of the school year through sheer stress), I am not in a fit state to attend church and have retired to the keyboard to say hello to neglected cyberpals. Sincere good wishes to you Sherry, in your search for an apartment – hope it works out for you. Simone, I am hoping to catch you at London Comic Con (though I am not sure about this – I am relying on Jude for arrangements and she hasn’t contacted me for a while. Don’t want to bother her again so perhaps someone could mention me on FB or Twitter?) and maybe see you when you come up our way the following week. Our new Museum of Liverpool is fabulous and it would be great to take you round it.
Aside of all that has been the great culmination of months of preparation – son no.2 is safely ensconced in California and, following an intense induction period, about to embark on his first soccer coaching placement in Orange County. Goodbyes were very difficult and tearful at Manchester airport last Wednesday. He’s never been away so far and for so long. I must admit my main concern was the journey. So much can go wrong on long haul flights and there was a layover at Atlanta; when we heard of his safe arrival in LA (at 4am! Gonna have to get used to this!) we were very relieved. Thus begins a four-month adventure for him, one that everyone is saying will be ‘the making of him’. Hopefully he’ll be able to contact us more often now; we now have his first, very matter-of-fact, email and I know he has been on FaceBook sending photos of LA! We do need to arrange some Skyping but it’ll have to wait till he’s more settled and we have more time.
That is the other reason, you will understand, why I haven’t been in touch here, shame on me. I have decidedly not forgotten you and am thinking of you all. I am also very sorry if there are new arrivals I have not welcomed – I’ll get round to it. Much love to you and thanks for your tolerance and support!
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"We make our lives out of chaos and hope. And love." - Angela Montenegro
I'm so sorry about your head cold. How miserable. Sometimes it seems when we finally get a chance to settle down after long periods of stress and work, suddenly our bodies are like, 'Oh, NOW you want to relax? Okay, here, I'll MAKE you relax! You'll feel so lousy it's all you'll be able to do.' And of course that's no fun because we'd actually like to be doing something fun or creative, which is tough to do when your head feels like it's full of cotton (or something much worse, heh). I hope you feel better very soon.
Speaking of which, how is your son doing? Did you get results back re: his tests? I may have missed you talking about that here. Unless it's too personal, of course, in which case I apologize for talking out of turn about it. Nevertheless, I hope he's feeling better as well.
Sounds like quite the busy time for you. Are you about to go into a summer break?
No news on the apartment front yet. The woman from the management office did call me and tell me that someone else might be leaving, but they're in the middle of buying a house so they might extend their lease for a month or two extra while they finish that process. After that, their apartment would become available. But she needs to get it in writing from them first, and then she said she'd call me to come in an fill out security check paperwork and have me put money down to reserve the apartment for me.
I've also been in touch with a few more places. It's tough to make decisions right now. No one seems to have anything available at the moment, and they don't have model units available to see so I can't even see if the places are worth my time pursuing them, you know? If they have odd layouts or are really small or don't feel safe, then I can cross them off my list and keep looking. But when there's nothing available to see, I can't make any decisions. And then I feel nervous, like I might make the wrong decision. Which is silly. It's not like I've never moved before. If I don't like a place, I can always move after a year. I think it's just that I've been living with relatives for so long that I'm more than ready to find my own place and stay there for a while. I'd like to be done living out of boxes.
Part of me would love to be a little 'crazy' and live somewhere completely different for a while. Just somewhere I've never been. So that I could find the place that could be MY home, rather than what my mother deems appropriate for me, or where my family thinks I should be. If I hear one more time that I should move back to my hometown, even after I've already made it crystal clear that as much as I like my hometown it's not where I want to live...
I know where I don't want to be. I know what doesn't feel right for me. I just wish I could find the place that DOES. Not sure exactly how to find it.
Steph, Simone, Jude... are you going to London to meet TJ?
I feel for you, Sherry. I too have been in the position of looking round desperately to get away from particular surroundings and being disappointed. I do hope you get fixed up soon. Thank you for your kind enquiry about son no.1. He hasn't had a seizure since he went onto a small dose of my medication, has been ok at work and is venturing out quite a lot socially now. So all well at the moment, but there is always a slight background worry at times like this, so fingers crossed.
I am coming to London Comic Con with hubby - Jude is on a different train down but should be able to travel back with us, and we hope to meet Simone there - don't worry Simone, I will be in touch soon! Disappointingly, we can only stay for the day (we have various Sunday commitments) so I doubt very much we will see a lot of TJ, who will doubtless have a very busy schedule. I'm sad about that, but so glad he is having such a good time doing so many of the things we love to do (and indeed did last year).
School is ended. Unfortunately exhaustion overtook me last night and I slept through some of the Bones finale, so I will need to watch it again soon! I hope to recover in the next few days....
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"We make our lives out of chaos and hope. And love." - Angela Montenegro
Son no.2 is now in Victorville Ca. They were going to go to New Mexico but swapped with another coach duo as our boy had to share the drive and he has NEVER EVER driven on the right or indeed since he got his licence a few months ago. No probs though. He has adored it all so far and is even now developing US phraseology & spelling in his emails. I love it.
Talk about culture shock - I see the temperature is going to be in the 90s & even 100s this week out there in the desert. I hope he has got plenty of sunscreen.
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"We make our lives out of chaos and hope. And love." - Angela Montenegro
Ooh!! New Mexico!! My home state! If your son makes it there, please let me know what he thinks. It's always interesting hearing about new experiences when people visit for the first time.
Last edited by stargazer on Mon Jul 14, 2014 12:50 pm, edited 1 time in total. word count: 34
"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." ~Brian Littrell
No not at all, and besides, there is a LOT of land between the two of us, he'd have lots of room to run. And he wouldn't have to run hard because I am too lazy (and old) to chase him. LOL
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Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.-Camille Pissarro
He's not running, he's driving. On the 'wrong' side of the road! I'm really proud!
Sharon, I'm sure there's a lot more life left in you than you make out!
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"We make our lives out of chaos and hope. And love." - Angela Montenegro
Just wanna post and say I won't be on for the next week because my laptop is off for repair I'll try and get on but can't promise. Can't wait to get my laptop back so I can start posting again.
Ah yes, I have an early warning too; we are departing on our annual anniversary trip. Departure is on Thursday 24th & we won't be back until Tuesday 29th. We are going up to Alnwick in Northumberland, but also calling in at Ripon on our way there and York on our way back. I'll try to be completely up to date with everything by then. This is our 28th anniversary! Wow!
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"We make our lives out of chaos and hope. And love." - Angela Montenegro
Yay!!! Happy Anniversary to you and Ian! I hope you have a wonderful trip!!
I will also be traveling on the 25th to visit my sister-in-law and her family in South Carolina. It's my niece's birthday, my brother-in-law's birthday and we will be celebrating a few days early my birthday as well.
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"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." ~Brian Littrell
Steph! Have fun on your anniversary trip! Kathy have fun on your trip to SC! Maria, I hope you get your laptop back soon!
Just so you know, my day wasn't really that bad yesterday, but last night around 6 pm I received a message on Facebook from one of my good friends in Virginia asking me to call her sister who is one of my best friends. I hadn't talked to either of them in a while and I knew whatever it was it wasn't going to be good. So I called my friend Nelda and she told me that another friend of ours, Keith, someone I've known for over 20 years died of a massive heart attack yesterday. I hadn't talked to him in a while either but he was someone that was very important to me, one of those people you can not see for years and then when you do it is just as it always was. Long time friends you know? Anyway, that is what made my day suck yesterday. He was 46, has a daughter in her late 20s. It is just devastating and the fact that I can't even go to the services whenever they are is hard. Anyway, thanks for the hugs in the cbox.
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Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.-Camille Pissarro
I understand having that wonderful connection where you can not see someone for ages but be able to pick right up where you left off as if no time has passed, where your friendship runs deep and the person is very special to you. I understand that so well, and I wish there were some magic words I could say to erase the pain and sorrow you must be feeling. If there's anything I can do, if you need someone to listen, please don't hesitate to let me know.
Or at the very least, see all of the United States. LOL. Maybe if I do that, I'll eventually find the place I want to call home.
Great to see you posting!
