Thursday, February 23, 2012

Movin’ on Up…to the East Side!

Spent quite a bit of time recently moving from the lovely wasteland that is California City, CA to Palmdale, CA.  To most folks, this wouldn’t seem like much of an improvement, but if you look at the amount of time I spend driving to L.A. and O.C. then you would realize it puts me an hour closer to most everywhere I go.  Yes, Palmdale is NOT the San Fernando Valley, my ultimate desired destination, but it’s a step in the right direction.  I *am* living on the East Side of Palmdale, aka the wrong side of the tracks, but I’ve spent most of my life that way either figuratively or literally, so it’s not that big a change.

It’s quite a bit of a downgrade in space, I must admit – from a four bedroom with two car garage to a two bedroom condo is a bit of a change.  I had to jettison quite a bit of “stuff” and get a storage unit for the things that didn’t fit – like my couch and my daughter’s bedroom furniture.

After several weeks of boxes traveling over by the car load, and then the moving truck for big things, I’ve finally gotten everything I now own out of my old place.  I dropped my keys off for the Realtor and we both are hoping for a swift sale on this place.

I had a garage sale, during which I showed the house to three separate families, two were brought over by the RE Agent who’s been such a….well, I can’t print here what she’s been, but I will say she’s the one who told me to set the whole short sale up myself and then call her when I was ready.  That put be behind the curve by at least nine months as I was struggling with my mortgage company.  Additionally I’ve heard her badmouth the layout of the house and outright lie to her clients.

The third family was an unsuspecting shopper at my garage sale.  I yanked her off the street to give her a tour of the house.  She said she liked it but it was out of her price range, I told her that the worst she could be told is “no” so go ahead and have RE Agent call my RE Agent.  I really liked this gal and wondered why it is I couldn’t have made friends BEFORE I left town. :-/

Anyway, garage sale was enough to pay for itself plus my moving truck (if you want to view it that way.)  What I didn’t sell was picked up by a local charity and left me devoid of excess stuff.  Between that and my three dumpster loads of miscellaneous household trash I was able to clean out the house.

Now that I’m done moving, though, I’m not sure what my exercise regime will be – hauling boxes upstairs daily has firmed up my butt….guess I’m just going to have to have a set of dumbbells I cart up and down the stairs a dozen times daily…that should keep that saggy old thing off the ground!

Monday, January 30, 2012

Trip to Pt. Mugu

Right after I got back from Kentucky, I hurriedly got my act together to go to a camping trip to Pt. Mugu.  Work has had me stressed out and I really needed a vacation that was full of nothing but relaxing.
Left for the beach on Friday morning, returned Monday and in between did little but walk the beach, listen to the surf, eat, drink and sleep in as late as I wanted.  Nice.
I read a little, crocheted a little and watched some T.V. – yeah, this wasn’t “camping” this was RV-ing. 
I did come back relaxed, happier, people at work noticed I wasn’t such a raging bitch.  Awesome. 

KY….The State, Not the Jelly

I had a great time on my trip to Louisville!  I haven’t seen my friend Heather in years and this was a chance to catch up, visiting and having a good time.  Usually these entries are really long, but I decided I’d just give you a list of highlights…bet you WANT to know the details when I’m done.

·         Made all of my flights, with all of my baggage, with plenty of time to spare *whew*
·         Watched a “drunk black woman sing songs written by high white men”
·         Toured a bourbon distillery – tasting followed
·         Unsuccessfully hung shelves well
·         Successfully hung shelves mediocrely!
·         Wrestled potato soup from a very determined cat
·         Stayed up late to eat pie and drink beer
·         Got a blacksmith demo at a working, modern forge
·         Spent time in a museum entirely devoted to whiskey history
·         Watched a restaurant manager get schooled on the rules for assistance animals
·         Bought more shoes than Imelda Marcos 
·         Watched a heavy snow fall, it was cold enough to freeze the fountain at the complex
·         Went to Indiana for a minute
·         Best of all: Spent time with a good friend that I’ve not seen in far too long
For the record, everyone was very polite and helpful and the state was beautiful

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

While this year has started with an epic plague on my face to include two cold sores in immediate succession, it is balanced by my two planned trips, one to Louisville, KY to visit a good friend of mine and a camping trip to Pt. Magu.

I won’t be able to visit CreepyKid for two weeks, but I am moving closer to her…February 1st is my official move-in date.

It’s starting out as a year of balance, maybe I’ll even be able to tip the scales in my favor.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Year End Recap

I grew yet another year older….and while marching toward the inevitable infinite I managed to:
·         Take CreepyKid to college, LMU in Los Angeles
·         Help Cousin H take care of her business
·         Go on some interesting dates
·         Finish up with another year of Faire
·         Miss out on haunting the ToyKeeper’s Lair
·         Spent time with family and friends
So, a pretty good year all the way ‘round, don’t you think?