the month in review... so august started out pretty well. i was spreading the word about my birthday month, like i always do. i even made cupcakes for the workers on august 1st. i was in full celebration mode. one of the first nights of the month, i called an apartment we had found on craigslist that looked perfect for us. the man i spoke with was very nice, but he basically told me that dust and claudia and i were going to live in the ghetto. we would have to live in a place where we wouldn't be able to go outside after 5:30. i was a little freaked and started looking into tickets to get out to california. it was more than 400$ to get there and back, and i would miss my own birthday due to travel time. i freaked out a little more. but i was convinced i could keep us out of the west coast the ghettos. no we come to the 12th... our friend forrest had been going to open houses for us in california (thank you, forrest!). we had filled out rental applications, given all our financial info to strangers and been turned down rudely by one home owner, and one called us up to say she had so much interest in the house that she had decided to re post the house for 400$ more a month, and were we interested?. we had to say no because it brought the rent up to 2400$ a month. that is a big chunk of change. then on the 12th i get a phone call from my school saying that my transcript for my online chemistry classes had gotten there, but my grades were funny, could i call them back? i called. (i was told from the university of new england that they had recorded my second semester of organic chem as a "B" just as earned. but i was told that the 70% i earned in organic one would be a "C". i was fine. my grades would transfer and all would be merry.) the admissions woman at my school, told me that my believed "C" was recorded as a C- and would not transfer and did i retake the course? i hung up the phone and just erupted. all the stress of moving across the country and going to school and getting so much money in loans and bringing my friends to see me fail all came out. i called my mom, bawled. i was genuinely scared. i left a message for my online teacher, i emailed him, too. no word. so i did the same the next morning. (it was a long night. i had come to terms with retaking the class in two weeks, but i struggled with why i was dragging two people across the country with me to watch me fail at achieving my dream. it was a long night.) the 13th, karen and jack take the workers to six flags. i love rides and roller coasters. they are pretty much my favorite things in the world, but my gut was in knots after a night of no sleep, and i really felt horrible. so i rode half what everyone else did, and i was pretty quiet and reserved for amusement park me. we got home just after 6 and i found out my teacher had called and the grade was recorded wrong, and he had changed it. we are still waiting on the new transcript, but he assures me it has been done. with less than one week to go until my first day to be thirty one, i was relieved that i was no longer dragging two folks and two cats across the country, and i just might not fail. so what if we all had to live in the car?! i cancelled the birthday party. it was to be a robot party. and everyone would have to dress up. that had to go because i needed to have a garage sale to get rid of some stuff, and i needed to throw quinn a bridal shower. this would happen in the weekend following my birthday. i spent the birthday week gathering things for the garage sale, pricing them, et c. on the birthday, we went to boston with claudia and ate lunch in the north end (italian food). we had wine at lunch. it was nice. we went shopping and i got boots at the fluevog store. pretty much a good a day. hands down the best day of the month so far. we had no real worries. we were in the city, and life was good. we met up with friends at the people's pint in greenfield for dinner. it was good. the next day (the twentieth) the cousins came up from connecticut, that was good. we went to see tropic thunder with them. i think they loved it. they left the next day. friday was my last day of work at the farm. it was pretty uneventful, but it was sunny and warm. it was claudia's last day, too. and i think all in all the whole thing ended just as it should have. no real fanfare, a few hugs and well wishes from customers, it was pretty good. but dust came in around 4 to give the standies their checks for the week. he just hovered over me while i was checking some poor customer out. when i was done, i handed the register over and went to talk to dust. something was obviously up. he told me we had gotten a house that forrest had talked us up to the owners. i was shocked. it took a good hour for me to realize we had a place to live. by five thirty claudia and i were excited and by six, closing time, we were a little petrified by the fact that we were now out of work, and had a very large rent to pay every month for a year. so i think things have worked themselves out. we are pretty excited to see where we will live. it is strange to send a four thousand dollar check across the country for a house you have never seen. but it will be good. saturday was full too. we had the garage sale. i made a whopping 20 some odd bucks. i got a sun burn. i sat int he yard all day and drank a margarita at 11:45 with claudia. we were successes. that night we had a sort of customer appreciation dinner at the farm, and came home to friends ready to play rock band. it was pretty good. sunday we woke up and went to move allison and jeremy into their new home. then hilary came over and took me to get groceries so we could make the food for quinn's shower. i spent the rest of the birthday money, but i think it was worth it. people seemed to have a good time and most of the food was eaten. yesterday we started packing the house. the movers will be here friday between 12 and 5 pm. then we are free to do whatever. until then i will get everything ready to go. now you should be up to date on what has happened. and what stress we have been through. why we have been a little down or out of it when you talked to us. we have really had a full plate this month. but we are in a better place now. we are moving forward in all of our plans. we have a place to live, the loans are good to go at my school, dust got his job back at the farmer's market. things are looking up. so what that i didn't have a real birthday party. or that things were not as easy as i like them to be. we are good now.
note the sweet van does not come with the house. it is a little yellow wooden number with a tiny palm tree. you can see the little front porch, too.
here we have our future tiny kitchen. i'm not sure how that two panel oven will work, but hopefully it does. my future classmates will need a few cortcakes.
a future bedroom. ours will hopefully look nicer. especially when we know photos will be taken. anyway, you get the idea.
living room? and dining room? the dog's (white tail you see walking out of the room) name is elvis. sweet huh.
