Ah, city life.

I have a really interesting neighbor (neighbor being used here to describe someone who lives nearby, but not directly next door). Beginning yesterday, I have heard, at random intervals, what sounds like a hearing-impaired, adult male (who I can only assume has some kind of mental or social disorder) singing quite loudly. His song is atonal, with no melody, and very repetitive, with the same nonsense words sung over and over. It usually lasts 15 to 20 minutes. I hear it best from my bedroom window, which would imply that it's someone else in my building or the building across the way who also has his windows open. At first I assumed it was a homeless person, and it didn't seem to be bothering anyone else yesterday.  Then this morning around 8:45, I awoke to the lovely strains of the song again (it seems to always be the same song). Then I heard someone else, very close and very loudly, yell "SHUT UP!" Ah, city life. If it starts again, I'm going to go prowling down the hall and see if it's someone from my building. I know from reading the 'policies and procedures' that any behavior that is obnoxious or offensive to others outside your unit is prohibited. So, we will see. 

Leaving on a jet plane

To celebrate my mom’s last night here (and because every other night we’ve been putting furniture together, finally remembering to eat frozen pizza and soup around 9 pm, then falling into bed), we went out for dinner on Tuesday night at Ray’s Boathouse. It’s right on the water, designed so that every table has a great view, and best of all a 5 minute drive from my building. I had previously decided that I would have to start trying seafood when I go out to eat here, and at Ray’s my courage was richly rewarded. I ordered the blackened red rockfish, served over polenta and with a salsa of onions, tomatoes, and peppers, accented with a delicious spicy avocado sauce. It was easily the best meal I’ve eaten in a long time, and it was FISH. Also the ambience of the restaurant is really great. I’ve already decided that is where I will take any and all of my visitors for dinner. 

 After we ate, my mom and I decided to try to find a Fred Meyer that was supposed to be close by. My roommate’s mom had told us that Fred Meyer is kind of like Target, but with groceries. So we had decided to stock up my pantry before she left. After trying to find it without the Nuvi and getting lost, we were directed to the store in a not-so-great area of town. (Let me pause here to tell you that the woman we are renting our second parking space from who also lives in our building, named Joan, told me all about how I should not carry a purse when walking in this area, and gave me mugging-prevention safety tips. She’s a retired nurse, and is pretty great.) Anyway, we got to Fred Meyer, and my impression was that it is like a Super Wal-Mart on steroids. We did all of our shopping, and when we were checking out, my mom asked the cashier what the limit was on debit cash-back. My mom wanted to leave me some cash to buy more furniture or whatever else when my roommate comes back into town on Saturday. Neither her question nor the cashier’s answer was spoken very quietly. My mom got the cash and gave it to me, and I put it in my pocket. I had to stop to go to the bathroom as we were leaving, and noticed a very suspicious looking man walking really close behind me down the narrow hall. He went into the men’s room, then came out of the bathroom just as I was leaving the ladies’ room. He left the store before us, and then stood sort of pacing near the entrance to the store. We exited and steered clear of him, and walked quickly to our fortunately close parking spot. I tried to exhibit a ‘show of force’ (what we called it in psych nursing when dealing with an agitated/violent patient), by keeping my shoulders back and forcefully lifting the heavy box that my just purchased desk chair came in. My mom even grabbed the serrated knife (useless due to its being encased in impenetrable plastic) out of our grocery bag. He was still in front of the store pacing oddly, and watching us. I’m just thankful to God that he didn’t try to do anything. After we got in the car and locked the doors, he went back in the store. It was very weird, and my mom and I were creeped out and I promised that I would not go back to that Fred Meyer at night. And also perhaps be more careful about not broadcasting that I have a large amount of cash in my possession. 

Wednesday morning I took my mom to the airport. It was sad to say goodbye, and I cried my way back to the city. When I got home the sun came out and I had lots of things to do (like put more furniture together), so I didn't have much time to wallow in despair about her leaving. I'm so thankful for the time we got to spend driving across the country together, talking and laughing, and all her help in getting me settled here. 

My friend Dora had had a pretty stressful day, too, so she invited me over to hang out and just veg and watch movies. Her parents are out of town and I spent the night over there. Also she has this great little dog that likes me and likes to cuddle, and it helped me not to miss Tessa so much. 

The roommate and her parents are coming into town on Saturday, so I will probably spend tomorrow making sure everything is clean and organized. I will be so happy when everything is settled and I have all my furniture. Cannot wait.

Sorry, no pictures this time. In the very near future, I plan on going out and exploring the neighborhood, and I will try to acquiesce to my brother's request for pictures of 'Seattle' things.

Getting settled

Okay, I’ll confess. I love, love, LOVE putting furniture together. It’s like doing a jigsaw puzzle, only better because you have instructions and when you are finished, a piece of furniture. It’s making me wonder if maybe I shouldn’t run off and join a nice Amish community, and become a cabinet-maker. Except they probably don’t let the women help with the furniture building, now that I think about it. My mom said I should sell my services to IKEA, they could send me out with their customers to assemble the furniture. My future as a furniture assembly person is far more likely than a future as mover of fragile household objects. I believe the total damages include: 3 broken glasses, 2 broken coffee mugs, 2 broken plates, a shattered plastic Halloween candy bowl, and one beautiful lamp with only two legs where there were once four.

It’s been an exhausting couple of days, with the moving, and the shopping, and then moving what I’ve bought, and then putting things together, and then carting all the trash off to the recycling/dumpster, and then going out and buying more and doing it all over again. But this place is starting to look like a home, and I like it. Also I'm amazed at what we've been able to fit into my little car. Very large pieces of furniture including a desk and hutch, a side table and storage ottoman, and most impressively a bar-height table and two chairs to go with it. There's been a lot of taking things out of boxes and re-arranging several times. Again, sort of like a puzzle...I know it will all fit in there, I just have to figure out how. I think it helps that I grew up  with McGuiver's brazilian brother as a dad. 

I have a new best friend that I’m very excited about. The Garmin Nuvi 200. It’s a GPS navigation device that is extraordinarily helpful when I have to venture out into this extremely confusing city. Roads here are bizarre. They have tons of those six-way intersections, and streeets that randomly change names or stop then start up again 5 blocks later. Getting anywhere before meant looking up the address, then plugging it into mapquest for directions that weren’t always reliable. Not so with the Nuvi. It’s like the world’s best co-pilot right next to me, telling me when I need to get over and how many miles till I have to turn left. I love it, and don’t know how I’ve survived this far in life without one. Seriously. 

Here are pictures:

This is me in front of my building, right before I met the owner of the condo we're renting from. Her name is Nancy, and even though she defines "internet included in rent" as a 'business center' with two computers located two floors below the unit, I like her.

Here's the living room with our makeshift couch. It's two twin air mattress stacked on top of each other, and before today was our only place to sit besides the floor. My roommate and I are planning on putting a tv above the fireplace, and also painting that wall a different color.

This is our lovely kitchen. Neither of us knows how to cook very well, so it will be interesting to see what we fill all those cabinets with.

My best friend the Nuvi. I plan to drive around later this week and get lost, then let her find the way back home. Should be fun.

Here I am trying to blend in with the natives. All I need is a few more tattoos. It clashes pretty terribly with what I'm wearing, but I should invest in one of these scarves asap.

At last...

We made it. Nothing too eventful today, aside from the dynamic geography of the state of Washington. It starts as a desert (or 'semi-arid arroyo' according to our guidebook), then grows gradually greener as you drive west. This is a beautiful state that I've chosen for my new home.

Fun fact: No matter what time zone we happen to be in, if I ask my mom what time it is, she looks at her watch (set to Central time) and says something like "Well it's 2:30 here, but that's really 1:30 our time." As if the time zone from whence we came is the only one that matters, even though it's absolutely irrelevant to where we are now. It makes me giggle every time.

Here are pictures:

 

Here I am on the lovely lake in Coeur D'Alene this morning. It was about 60 degrees outside, and there was a lone blonde girl swimming in the lake. She was about ten years old, and I'm pretty sure a direct descendant of Vikings.

Another shot of the lake. I would love to go back sometime (when it's actually warm) and go out on the water. 

Soooo nice to finally see this sign. We high-fived after crossing the border.

This is the Columbia River, as seen from the well-populated Scenic Outlook off of I-90. The surface of the water was like glass, and I was very jealous of the people down below in their boats.  

While eastern Washington was like a barren desert of despair, the last 100 miles to Seattle was through beautiful green forested mountains. I would really like to go back and visit some of the places we passed. 

The Little Corolla That Could

Today was our most ambitious driving day so far. We left Sheridan, Wyoming at 8 am (mountain time) this morning, and arrived in Couer D'Alene, Idaho at 6:30 pm (pacific time). A total of ~620 miles today, and ~1800 miles overall. 

We made a brief stop in Billings, Montana this morning to pick up another audiobook. It's amazing what a difference it makes. So today we've been listening to a lovely british gentleman reading the unabridged version of The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Most of the trip today was through Montana. I have to say, it's my favorite state that we've driven through so far. The landscape is beautiful, and the people are really friendly and normal. Unlike the people in Wyoming. There are some serious weirdos in Wyoming. But Montana's great. My mom is all set to buy a 20 acre lot and build a log house to retire to. 

The mountains proved quite a challenge for my little car. She chugged her way up the best she could, but it was kind of pathetic. I would have my pedal to the floor, and we would be going 45 mph. A line of semis with me at the rear, huffing and puffing our way up the inclines. Also it rained quite a bit today, which made for some frightening downhill stretches. 

Apparently Couer D'Alene is having an unseasonable cold snap...probably in the 50's right now, and supposed to get down to 45 tonight. It is still a resort town that is packed to the gills right now. We tried to get a room at the resort hotel (four stars and a lot like the hotels in Vegas), but they had no vacancies. We were able to get a very nice room at the Hampton Inn, and are going to try and take some pictures of the lake tomorrow.  

Here are pictures:

Tepees at Little Big Horn. We stopped at a gas station and were the only non-native americans  there. Well us and this one weird old guy who had on the shortest shorts I've ever seen on an adult male. 

When we passed this field, my mom got very, very excited. "Amber waves of grain! Amber waves of grain!" she said. I told her that they looked more like golden fields of straw, but she ignored me and started singing America the Beautiful.

"Where the skies are not cloudy all day" my left foot. There were plenty of clouds in the sky today.

Just one scenic hillside in beautiful Montana. I think that black thing cutting across the picture is a railroad track. Seriously, none of the pictures do it justice. At one point I felt like I was in a pine tree tunnel. A bear or a moose could have popped their head out of the trees and I wouldn't have been surprised. Very, very awesome.

We are going to sleep in tomorrow since we only have 300 more miles to go! It will be so nice to get there. I'll post more when I can.

Where the Deer and the Antelope Play

After a restful night at the Quality Inn in Sioux Falls, we spent the day driving across South Dakota. 600 miles of rolling hills, with crosswinds so strong it sometimes felt like the car was going to lift off. While the scenery was beautiful, it also became quite monotonous. When we finally reached a big city, I was so excited to see a Target, and a Borders, and a Shoe Carnival…made me feel like I’d landed back on earth after visiting a foreign planet. We did stop several times in what can only be described as po-dunk little towns. The first stop of the day was Mitchell; only 70 miles down the road from where we began. We were enticed by the billboards proclaiming “World’s Only Corn Palace,” and decided that we needed to see it. While the corn palace itself was quite impressive, we were more entertained by the gift shop. My mom and I were easily the youngest patrons of said gift shop, with a crowd of about 30 senior citizens intent on finding the very best corn-themed souvenirs for their loved ones.

Our second stop was in the town of Wall. I’m convinced we were brainwashed into making this stop. Right after leaving Sioux Falls this morning, we began seeing bizarre billboards that said Wall Drug. At least every 5 miles (not exaggerating) there would be another billboard, advertising Wall Drug…sometimes touting the home made ice cream, other times accompanied by a picture of a dinosaur, even mentioning that Wall Drug had been featured on the Today Show and in Time magazine. We were sort of intrigued, but felt that Wall Drug was trying way to hard too get us to stop. So we planned on driving 70 miles further to Rapid City. But after 200+ miles of billboards, I’m convinced there was some sort of subliminal messaging going on. Because as we approached Wall, it seemed like the next 70 miles would be tortuous, and that we had to stop NOW, in the town of Wall. Which we did. And of course we had to check out Wall Drug while we were there, mostly because we had no idea what it was. Turns out Wall Drug is a huge complex stretching about 2 blocks containing LOTS of souvenirs, cafes, and miscellany. Kind of like an airport, but without planes. We were a little disappointed.

My mom and I both got excited crossing the border into Wyoming, another state neither of us had ever been to. At first it was just like South Dakota, but with less cows and more deer. Seriously, there are herds of deer (or antelope, who can tell the difference at 80 mph?) grazing all along the highway. We stopped for the night in Sheridan, Wyoming, at a lovely new Hampton Inn that may just contain the world's most comfortable beds. And apparently also the world's thinnest walls. I can hear, word for word, the people next door arguing about where they are stopping tomorrow night. Hopefully they'll get tired soon and go to bed so I can, too.

Other Things of Note:

       The water in South Dakota is weird. The lakes are filled with opaque light gray water, with a white ring around the edge of the water. The one river we saw was opaque lime green-colored. I don’t know if there is some kind of sediment that does that to the water or what, but it looked gross.

   Day two of a road trip is exponentially harder than day one. I'm hoping day three isn't harder still. 

  My plan to buy miniature stuffed animal buffalos for my niece and future niece/nephew was vetoed by grandma Gigi. Also vetoed was the highly educational picture book, "Who Pooped in the Black Hills? Animals tracks and scat of South Dakota." She clearly has no appreciation for learning.

So here are pictures from today:

Here I am with a Jackelope in the town of Mitchell. He stands guard over the town by the highway.

This is the World's Only Corn Palace. You can't really tell from the picture, but everything on the front of the building is made from ears of corn. Apparently they do a new facade every year.

Here I am next to a picture of the original corn palace, constructed in 1892. More impressively, it appears to have been constructed entirely from corn, as opposed to the modern corn palace which is a regular building with corn glued the front of it.

This is one of the many fields of sunflowers we passed today. I thought it was kind of pretty.

Here is my mom with a cowboy in the town of Wall, at the 'featured on the Today Show' Wall Drug.

That's all for today.

Musings from the Road

Today my mom and I drove from St. Louis to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a total of 592 miles. Only 1,400 to go. Things went pretty smoothly, not too much traffic, and only minor road construction. My poor little '97 Corolla is absolutely loaded with stuff. We're afraid that if we both get in and sit down at the same time, all the tires will explode. Anyway here are pictures.

This is a picture from the passenger seat in Iowa. We are so thankful for the beautiful driving weather, and hope it stays that way!

This is a dramatic re-enactment of my first whiff of South Dakota air. It's fresh, but not in a good way.

Here's the cute little diner where we had dinner in Sioux Falls. Very comfortable cushy booth seats felt nice after 10 hours in the car. I had a hot turkey sandwich that came covered in turkey gravy (but was surprisingly good). As my mom said, you cannot get a sandwich like that where we come from. 

Here are the actual falls, after which Sioux Falls is named. A beautiful place, this one picture does not do it justice. So, if you're ever in the area, definitely visit the Sioux Falls in Sioux Falls.

Lessons from today:

- My mom has a worse sense of direction than me, and has no recall for scenery that was driven past one hour previously. She is however, much better at reading and interpreting maps than I am.

- Rest stops in Iowa have wi-fi. 

- Taco Bell is not as good as it used to be.

- I love listening to books on tape while driving! We've been listening to Marley & Me, and it makes the drive feel like it's going by very quickly.

I'm kind of exhausted, but I'll try and do a longer/better post tomorrow