We Made It, We Made It.

Ok, not really but we are pretty close. Today's drive took us through Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The trip was incident free other then me falling asleep. Miles noticed that I did not laugh at a funny part in the story we are listening to so he looked over and I was asleep. It turns out that I only missed about 2 minutes of the story but still. Miles was really nice and he let me take a nap at 9am while he drove. I really have not been sleeping well this trip. Not that I normally sleep well but this trip is taking a toll on me.

We got up earlier this morning than we have on other days of this trip so we could miss traffic and get to the hotel early. By 3pm we were in West Orange, New Jersey, and at the hotel. We decided to stay in West Orange (about 10 miles from Hoboken) because it was the only place we could find for under $200 that could accommodate our parking needs.

We took the car off the trailer and drove to Hoboken so we could get our parking permit and make sure everything was in order for our move tomorrow. We had some friends reserve the meters in front of our apartment so we will have somewhere to park the tomorrow while we unload...THANK YOU MARY AND RED...so we also got the information about that.

Our drive over to Hoboken was a little un-nerving. Google maps had us taking a road that was having major construction and it had narrow lanes, low over-passes, and huge potholes. It was also a really confusing route and it was by sheer luck that we made it to Hoboken and didn't end up on the Holland Tunnel on our way to Manhattan at 4pm. This was also the route we were planning on taking until meeting up with Red.

Red and Mary are my two favorite people in the area. They both went to Rutgers Law, Red just graduated and Mary is still in attendance there. They took Miles on his tour and then out for drinks in Hoboken during our first visit and the night before I got there. Mary has been emailing Miles tons of helpful information ever since. It is because they took Miles to Hoboken that we even knew about the location and how nice a place it is to live. As I mentioned before Mary and Red are also responsible for getting us parking for tomorrow. We needed someone in New Jersey to physically go to the town hall to reserve the meters 24 hr in advance so without them helping us out we would be screwed for the move tomorrow. I had not met Red until tonight and now I am in love with both parts of this duo. We talked with Red for about an hour about our trip, how to get to Hoboken (the easy way), and he even gave Miles a beer. What more could we ask for. (For more info about Mary and Red see their website http://www.maryandred.com/)

We were in Hoboken for all of two hours, which happens to be the exact amount of time we fed the meter for. We ate and took care of all our business there that needed to be taken care of before tomorrow.

We then took Red's advice and took the easy way back to West Orange (he even gave us a map) which is where we are now. I am pooped, ready to be in bed for the night and done with this damn move.

Below are pictures of the broken cooler (bandaged with band-aids) and Miles in the truck (for Chase).

[broken lid of the cooler]

[this band-aid prevented the cooler from leaking for 2 days]

One Day Left

It has been a rough day today. It is nice to know that we have reached the end of the middle states and we are now in Eastern Time but still. We have finished our 6th day on the road and we are both starting to get a little testy with each other. We have not worked, cooked, cleaned, etc. in almost a week and all we have done is sit on our asses and eat fast food. I have eaten subway in 4 or 5 states now and I didn't like subway that much in the first place. We need to get back into the normal daily activities that, while we might not enjoy them, they are normal and thus will be appreciated at the end of this trip.

We have been cut off one to many times. Driven on narrow roads. Spent hours bouncing up and down in the truck because the roads are all torn up for maintenance work. Missed our TV shows. Gained weight from to much McDonald's and Subway. Oh, and we have slept on the most awful mattresses.

I forgot in my last post to tell you all about how I broke our cooler yesterday. I leaned on it (something I have been doing to days now) and I managed to put my elbow through the lid and I put large cracks down two of the corners. We couldn't find another cooler this morning so about 4 hours into today I decided to put band-aids on the cracks to minimize the squeaking coming from the cracks. This looks really funny but actually works quite well. Miles is really upset that I broke the cooler but I am hoping that will be forgotten in about 24 hours when we are finally within an hour of Hoboken.

Nothing terrible has happened today. Like I mentioned above we have been cut off multiple times. This usually results in Miles flipping someone the bird and cursing under his breath. For some reason people think that we can stop in 3 feet. We can't. The other big frustration is that for some reason people have been trying to merge onto a freeway with cars traveling at 65mph at the tremendous speed of 35mph. It is often difficult for us to change lanes so we end up slamming on the breaks while these slow pokes go from 30 to 60 in 60 sec.

One really nice thing about Ohio and also Indiana is that while they have tolls they also have plazas (think fancy rest stops) along the way so you don't have to get off the highway. These plazas are between 30 and 60 miles apart and have gas stations (with diesel) as well as food, restrooms, and trucker parking. They average about 3 food options from Starbucks to McDonald's, to TCBY and Panera. These have been great.

This is really all I can manage to remember from the day. Everything is starting to blur together.

4 States and oh the Tolls

We didn't realize it when we got up this morning, but we were all of about 10 miles from the state border. That was nice. This trip has been punctuated by catastrophes and state lines.

I realized about two hours into the drive that the major difference between Minnesota (include North Dakota and Montana in this also) and Wisconsin was the billboards. In Minnesota we passed anti-abortion sign after pro-life sign. It was all about life starting at conception and your parents not aborting you. On the other hand, Wisconsin's signs were more about naughty nights + erotic bakeries. They even had an "adult" store right next to the truck stop. We had definitely gone from Christiantucky to Sexville.

Illinois was interesting. We definitely found civilization. There was a lot more traffic in the last 30 miles in Wisconsin and all through Illinois than we had encountered in the entire other portion of our trip. We also hit toll booths in Illinois.

Now, I was under the impression that a highway would be tolled when you got on or when you got off. Not so the case. We hit a toll booth about every 30 miles. Because we are driving a large vehicle our tolls were also more than twice what cars were paying. We hit one booth that cost us $6.50. All told we spent over 20 bucks just for driving on one road. We didn't even got off I-90. The real kicker here is that as you leave Illinois you have to pass through a toll and then you travel 1 mile over a sky bridge and guess what...as you enter Indiana you get to pay another toll. if you ask me this is the biggest scam ever.

Earlier today we couldn't figure out what day it was. This is apparently what happens when you drive thousands of miles and, this is all you do for multiple days. When we figured out that it was Sunday we were really happy as we knew we were going to have to drive though Chicago today. With it being Sunday we figured we would miss rush hour traffic. We may have missed rush hour, but we didn't miss the traffic. It took us an hour and a half longer than we anticipated to make our journey today. Two hours to travel 30 miles. Chicago is increasing their highway by three lanes and to do this they have cut the 4 lanes they normally have down to 2 lanes. On top of that they have placed cement barricades right next to the white line on the side of the road making the lanes really narrow and there is no curb. This was somewhat stressful for Miles. In fact, there were multiple times when we held our breath while driving though a particularly narrow stretch of road.

We also encountered the worst drivers in the country. Multiple times traffic would come to a complete stop because some driver decided they wanted to get off at an exit they had already passed by a few feet. I actually saw a car going in reverse a few feet and then turning around to make it onto an exit. We almost got into a few accidents as well, none of which would have been Miles' fault. To be perfectly honest Miles did a fantastic job driving today. His effort is shown in that when we got to the hotel tonight he was so tense from focusing that he had to take a hot shower to relax his muscles.

Back to the near misses. One time this old man we weaving in and out of his lane and going 10mph under the speed limit. Miles decided to pass him and he laid on the horn the entire time we were going past and the old guy still went into our lane at one point while we were passing. I was a little worried about this because we might have killed the guy if he had run into us.

The other major near miss was just outside Chicago where the lanes were narrow and we were traveling at about 55mph. Traffic was pretty heavy and a bus cut into our lane missing the front driver's side of our truck by about a foot. The back end of the bus was about 2 feet from us when he got into our lane. This was really frightening as if he (another old man) had hit us he would have tipped the truck at the very least.

I am really thankful to be off the road now. I actually can't wait to be back in unpopulated areas (I can't believe I just typed that) so we can relax a little for the rest of the drive.

We are now in a nice little room with a bathroom the size of NY studio apartment. The wireless Internet is fantastic and we have just eaten enough Chinese food to feed my entire family. Full and tired we are heading to bed.

Update on last night

So I called the Penske guy at about 5 and he didn't end up showing up until 7:20. He had fixed the part that was broken by 7:30.

We ate a really nice meal (I guess it wasn't that nice but the food was good and it wasn't fast food so I will take it). After eating we went to Barnes and Noble and picked up the new Stephen King book on CD. It has already been a life saver although I am not quite sure what is going on.

Miles loved driving the Mazda as you can tell from the post below. He was a little crazy about it. We also got him some beer so he got to knock a few back after we returned to the hotel room. That made him really happy. Yay for Miles being happy.

Mantra of a non-Semi Driver

Mantra of a man who has driven 1400 miles in a 22' Penske truck, and then tries to drive his Mazda 3.

1) You do NOT need to put the gas to the floor to get going,
2) My car is NOT on rails, unlike how it may feel,
3) Just because you CAN make a corner at an excessive speed doesn't mean you SHOULD,
4) The gas peddle is MUCH more responsive than you remember,
5) You will stop MUCH faster than you think, and
6) You do NOT need to put the gas to the floor to get going.

This mantra will greatly help your driving if you're ever in a situation similar to mine.

My numbering did go 1,2,3,4,5,4 if that gives you some idea of my current state of mind....yes, I've been drinking.

The rest of North Dakota and on to Minnesota

From some unknown reason we decided to get up earlier today than yesterday. Again the alarm did not go off (not my fault this time as Miles set it). Apparently we are not smart enough to set an alarm clock properly. You would think that between the two of us we would be able to figure it out. The real problem here is that both times we thought we had mastered the thing only to find out in the morning we were wrong. This time I was awake when the alarm was supposed to go off so we got us 2 min later than planned. We would have gotten up on time (2 minutes earlier than we did) if Miles had let me sleep on the side of the bed with the alarm clock. But no...after I am already in bed and ready to go to sleep he decides that I am on his side and he pokes me until I move. I am the picky one in the relationship. I am supposed to be the one that can only sleep on a specific side and that has to have the covers, not Miles. Maybe North Dakota is the twilight zone for sleeping arrangements.

Anyway, back to the real story. The drive today was boring but went off without a hitch. The scenery in ND is lacking for sure. We passed a lot more places with "No Services" and we didn't see anything interesting.

Minnesota is definitely a step above ND. Minnesota has had only a couple of exits with no services and there were definitely signs of life even if these signs were mostly John Deere Stores. We also passed some really pretty sun flower fields.

Last night I made reservations for a place in Oakdale, not far from St. Paul, and despite the extensive road work, detours, and sign changes we managed to make it to the hotel without making one wrong turn.

Other then one truck stop where we had to wait for more than 10 minutes to get to the pump because all 4 diesel lanes were occupied by trucks with empty cabs (we think the drivers were paying for their gas or getting food) we encountered NO problems. Really...nothing went wrong. Even checking into the hotel, finding parking, and getting the Internet working went really smoothly. But, this wouldn't be a blog for Hannah and Miles if there wasn't something that went horribly askew.

So, I am on the Internet looking for the nearest Barnes and Noble because we have almost finished Harry Potter 7. We NEED more audio books. I didn't realize before we left how important HP on audio disks would be to my relationship with Miles. I think Miles is going deaf and he is currently on a Goo Goo Dolls/Blink 182/Greenday kick and he has to listen to it really loud. I actually put my purse over the speaker on my side of the truck today because I just couldn't take it any more. I like these bands, but not so loud that I think my eyes and ears might bleed (note to Sam...if this happens I will take pictures for you of my bleeding eyes and ears). If I have to spend the next three days listening to really loud music for hours one of us is not going to make it to New Jersey. This is why we need another audio book. We only have one disk of Harry Potter left.

I find a Barnes and Noble and it is really close to the hotel. It is also in a shopping center and I am hungry so decide to have dinner there also. We go out to the truck to take the car off despite the hassle (I said we NEED the new audio book) and what do you know...the lever on the car trailer that allows you to tighten the ropes over the tires, thus securing the car, has broken off. The car is currently secured to the trailer but we can't take it off the trailer because if we do we cannot get it back on.

[here is a picture of the perfectly functional winch thing. Notice the level locking the gear into place]

[Here is a picture of the broken one. Notice the lack of lever.]

I called Penske's road side assistance and they leave a msg for someone in the service department about my situation. I got a phone call about 15 minutes later telling me that someone is going to come out and assist me in the next hour. Now I am starving (it has been over an hour since I was hungry and we were going to go get food and a book). It is 6:20 and there should be someone here by 7. Now supposing they bring the right thing to fix our trailer or a replacement trailer it is still going to be to late to get an audio book and I might actually die of starvation.

I suggested to Miles that we order in food but he insists that we can't (this was a cranky insisting as he is really frustrated) because the Penske guy might show up while we are eating. I think he might regret this decision in about 20 minutes when I am passed out on the floor, whithering away...or his might be relieved that he doesn't have to deal with me now. Either way its not good for me.

Another note to Sam: There hasn't been any blood involved in today incident but I have attached a photo [below] of the next best thing. This is a picture of part of our grill. My finger is there as a size reference.

North Dakota

Ok folks. I can say folks because we are in North Dakota now. Here is the latest installment.

We started this morning by having the alarm clock not go off. Lucky for us Miles woke up all of 20 min after it was supposed to wake us so were weren’t that late. We ended up getting out of the hotel at the time we wanted to be out by anyway so that wasn’t too bad at all. We then went to the gas station just down the street and as we pull in a jeep drives up to the one pump that also has a diesel pump and proceeds to start pumping gas while looking right at us. Not that big a deal until his finally finishes pumping his gas and he climbs into his vehicle only to climb out a min later. He then began reading something off the open door of the jeep. At this point I am pissed and thinking to myself that whatever he is doing surely he could have done it from the many open parking spaces rather then in front of the only pump we can use.

My anger only increases as he starts checking the air pressure in his tires. I am not sure he knew how to do this properly as he put the meter in the tire 4 times before moving on to the next tire. He checked all four, letting air out of the last, before climbing back into his car and sitting their for a minute before pulling out and finally letting us get gas.

After losing over ten minutes waiting for this idiot to get his jeep out of the way we finally start our drive through the rest of Montana. Now, let me tell you about Montana. It is boring. Ok, I’m done. That is really all there is to say about Montana. It is big and boring. Oh, and the rest stops are really far apart. We pretty much looked at the same bit of countryside for 4 hours. Maybe longer. I am trying to block it out.

We did make it through Montana. I was worried slightly that it would go on forever but no. We made it to North Dakota.

I have decided that North Dakota is actually worse the Montana. We have stopped for the night in Bismarck. This means we have traveled 160 miles into North Dakota and I have actually seen more exits onto dirt roads than exits in which pavement was involved after traveling 100 feet. At least Montana had black top. Not only that but we tried to take an exit that had diesel gas clearly labeled on the sign only to travel 3 miles in a circle, through detours, finding only one gas station and it did not have diesel gas. This was in Miles City by the way. We lost a half an hour on that little adventure.

We did manage to find a Dairy Queen in ND. It didn’t take credit cards. What kind of a place doesn’t take credit cards? Luckily I had plenty of cash on me.

Another thing about driving though North Dakota is the wonderful symphony presented to you by the enormous bugs squirting out their innards onto your windshield. I have never seen bugs of quite this size. We had juice splatters so large that if they had been white instead of green and yellow you would have thought a swarm of pigeons had a pooping party on our truck.
We did see a family of deer and a buffalo. That was exciting for the split second they were visible before we drove past.

[This my friends is North Dakota. This is all you really need to know about the whole state.]

Harry Potter is interesting. I would highly recommend that if you are planning a long drive you get a book on tape. It makes it so your mind is occupied and you don’t have to talk to whomever you are traveling with. I have heard people talk about how they really like driving across the country. I mean, people actually do this for a vacation. I really love Miles but I think I ran out of things to talk about somewhere back in Idaho and now all the talking I do is joking about nothingness that we are driving though. We both get cranky when we travel so I really can’t see us ever doing this again. After the first night Miles said that if he could go back in time a month he would hire someone to make this trip for us. That was two days ago. I have no idea how he feels about it now but I am not thinking he feels any better about the trip…

I also have two more exciting signs for the day. Upon entering North Dakota the first city sign that you see if for “Home on the Range.” I kid you not. There is even a hill with these words written on it in large white letters that appear to be painted rocks.

[I don't know if you can read it but this is the Home on the Range sign]

The other sign that caught my interest was a sign for a city that read “[name of city]: with more than 40 friendly businesses.” I don’t know what happens if you are not a friendly business or why you would want to advertize that you have little more than 40 businesses in your city. Do you get to be a city at this point? How spread out are these businesses? It this really all there is to North Dakota? Please let this get more interesting.

After our adventure trying to find a hotel last night we decided to get a reservation for tonight. That worked out well. We are going to try this again for tomorrow. We did have a hard time getting the internet to work. We almost took the car off the trailer so we could drive to a Starbucks to get internet as we were so frustrated trying to get online. If you knew what a pain it was to get the car on and off the trailer you would really understand how frustrated we were and how far we will go to get internet...anything so we don’t have to talk to each other. We can sit on our respective computers typing away without a word.

Just kidding. Miles and I have actually had pretty good attitudes thoughout the last day days. It was a little touch and go last night but that was understandable. I think Miles enjoys all the jokes I make about the signs and my other observations that while funny at the time have not been important enough to have stuck in my head so I could really them to you now. *fingers crossed that I can keep him laughing for the next 4 days*

Montana...Historic?

We got woken up this morning by the fire alarm. At least I thought it was the fire alarm when I first awoke, turns out it was just the alarm. I have never heard an alarm that loud and obnoxious. I am thinking about getting Miles one so he doesn’t sleep through his law school classes.
We checked out, got gas and ice, and were off in an hour (9am). We had about 60 miles in Idaho, most of which was going up a mountain side at 40mph despite the sign telling us that the speed limit was 75mph. I think they make the speed limit higher just to piss us off because the truck is the capable of goes that fast up an incline. I don’t think we had ever seen a speed limit sign with that high of a limit and now the only time we would be legally aloud to drive 75mph we can’t. Bummer.

Speed limit sign that was laughing at us.

About 30 miles into Idaho portion of the drive I realized that we left our pillow at the hotel. I don’t sleep that well at hotels, and I hate their pillows, so I took one of ours into the room and I actually slept better than I usually do in a hotel. Turns out it was Miles’ pillow that I left. Add one to the list of screw ups for this trip.
We make it to Montana just fine (other than the pillow problem). We passed on interesting things such as a city sign that said “no services.” Now I am not completely sure about this but as far as I am concerned you can’t be a city/town if you don’t have a gas station, place to eat, or lodging. I think you have to have at least one of these three commodities to get a sign on the side of the road with your city/town name on it. We also saw Manhattan. Manhattan, Montana that is. (see picture). We also saw suburban Montana…there were about ten houses in a cul-de-sac that were all identical. Across the highway was a gravel pit. I really wish I had a picture of this.

Manhattan, Montana (notice the background. Montana is boring)

Another thing that I noticed along our drive is that everything in Montana is historic. There is historic I-90, historic towns, historic forts, historic buildings, historic everything. Now we were traveling on the non-historic I-90 and from what I could see there were more log cabins than modern homes, run down farms, towns without “services”, and barren land. I am not really sure what is not historic about Montana. It all seemed pretty run down and old to me. I can only imagine what the actually “Historic” places must be like.

508 miles later we arrived in Billings. This is where we were planning to stay but the Days Inn that we found online for cheap did not have a parking lot that we could pull all the way though and as we cannot go in reverse we had to nix that plan. So, we went down the block and stopped at the Super 8 only to find out they were full. No problem. A little frustrating but there were a few other hotels down the street. So we pull up to the Comfort Inn. After waiting 10 min for the receptionist to return from fixing a broken toilet we find out that they have a room but we can’t park. Their lot dead ends. This would have been nice to know before we pulled in as it appeared to go all the way around the building. So after trying to back out (turns out you can go in reverse a few feet but it puts a lot of stress on the car trailer and should not be done) Miles figures out how to get out of the lot. We decide not to stay there because parking is too difficult. So again we go down the block to the Extended Stay American and we can’t tell if the parking lot goes all the way around but there is a huge parking lot across the street for the state troopers. We pull in their so I can run across the street and find out if they have openings and parking that can accommodate us. Miles works on turning around while I get information. This place too has no vacancies. As I am walking out I get a phone call from Miles. He is stuck.

It turns out that the parking lot is broken up by medians and we cannot turn around to get out. After trying to back out for about ten minutes Miles is completely frustrated and he starts unhooking the car to take it off the trailer. We get the car off (after I have to push it forward enough to loosen the chains so Miles can unhook it) and the truck turned around. We even got the car back on the trailer but we encounter some problems winching the ropes tight around the tire leaving Miles with a bleeding finger and both of us completely covered in black car dirt and grease. This fiasco lasts about a half hour.

We drive across the street to the Hampton Inns which we can clearly see has a parking lot we can get out of. I run in and find out they are all booked. But, the very nice ladies their called the Best Western (100 yards away) to see if they have any rooms. They do. So we drive there and finally get a room.

While I regale the employees with our traveling tale Miles parks the truck. We aren’t sure if we will be able to get out tomorrow because we might get blocked in but we get parked anyway. After cleaning our hands and arms we get dinner at Subway and return to the room to eat. Not five minutes later Miles has dumped marinara and meatballs from his sub all down his shorts. It is on that note that our night ends.

The beauty of this story is that we get to do it all over again tomorrow.

And...We're Off...

Miles and I got up at oh-dark-30 this morning (also known as 5:30am). We are sharing the truck with another couple that is moving from Seattle to Brooklyn so the plan was to have Mike pick us up, drive us to the Penske station to get the truck and then we would follow him to his place to load their stuff before driving to our place and loading ours. He called right on time at 6:30 saying he was at Starbucks across the street getting breakfast. We decided to meet him there and I reached for the door handle and it fell off in my incredibly strong grip. We couldn’t get out of our apartment until we jimmied the door open with Miles’ keys. And that is how the day started.

Miles with his BIG truck...

Picking up the truck was no problem. It honestly went very smoothly. We followed Mike to his place in Bellevue. Changing lanes was a little scary, but we made it there without incident. We had all his stuff loaded by 9 which was amazing and we headed to our place to load our stuff. We did hit some traffic getting back to our apartment but by 11:30 we had everything in the truck and it was the perfect size. We had lunch and cleaned our apartment so it wouldn’t stick when I get back to Seattle in a month. Getting the car onto the car lift thing was a little rough as the car is too low and it scrapped the bumper a tad. I actually had to lift the front in order to winch down the cord holding the tire (again, notice my extreme strength).
Right before we left the owner of my apartment building shows up so I tell her about the door handle and I go back to the apartment that we have already locked up…we were about to drive away…to let her son fix the problem. I was waiting for him to get his tools, so I figured I would take one more look around to make sure we hadn’t forgotten anything. And what do you know, all of Miles’ travel clothes (some of his favorites) are sitting in their plastic bag in the closet just waiting to be left. Thankfully our apartment manager was doing work on the apartments because otherwise we would have had to re-live the Italy incident in which Miles left all his travel clothes for our ten day trip locked in the school and we had to go find shirts and shorts in Rome with our limited budget.

Even with all this we were on the road by 1:30. We were hoping to be all loaded and on our way by 3pm so we were really happy that we had eaten lunch and set up my stuff in the apartment and after all that we were over an hour ahead of schedule.

Miles freaking out at the size of the truck.
Miles managed to get us to the freeway and we had gone about a mile and a half on I-5 when this woman pulls up next to us and signals for me to roll down my window. Turns out the tires on the car were smoking. So we pull over and immediately a cop shows up. No problem really. We just had left the emergency brake on, thus dragging the car for a couple miles before realizing the problem. With tires still smoking 5 minutes later we were off again and what do you know, the truck can get to 50 mph (something we had not been able to do with the emergency brake on in the Mazda).

So far the rest of the trip has been without incident. But, then again we have 7 more days of driving and we are bound to have some problems. We went 45mph up the pass and maintained a steady 55mph the rest of the way to Coeur d’Alene, which is where we are now. The first two motels we tried to stay at were over $150 for their cheapest room but the Super 8 motel across the street turned out to be a bargain at $65+tax and that includes free Wi-Fi. The truck is even parked in such a way that we can drive straight out of the parking lot. This is good, as we can’t go reverse in the truck. It won’t let us.

Hopefully my next update will be tomorrow and much shorter due to fewer incidences of stupidity.

Wedding Drama

Miles and I are moving in 3 days and we spent all day yesterday packing. I was packing some more today and doing laundry so I could pack only clean clothes when I got a phone call from my mom. She has spent the last few days at "Convention". She works for this company, Demarle, that is kind of like Pampered Chef. She has parties where she shows off the cookware and people buy the products from these parties. Long story short, she is doing really well and is in the top ten in the country for sales. Because of this the company flies her all over the place (Mexico, Texas, Arizona, Oregon, next year France) as incentives and for conferences/conventions. I am happy for her and her sucess. My dad is upset because she spends a couple nights a week out hosting parties but it is all forgotten when they get to go on vacation for free.

Back to the phone call I got this morning. My mom wants me to change my wedding date that I have had set for months now because she is going to have to miss one of these conventions for her business in order to make it to my wedding. I have my venue, photographer, DJ, caterer, cake, all the big stuff already set for this date and now my mom wants me to change it because of her convention. Did I mention that I am already under a lot of stress because I am moving from Seattle, Washington, to Hoboken, New Jersey? I can't handle this.

Even if she covered the money I would lose due to already paid deposits I don't want to change my date. My cousin is getting married 2 weeks after me and my enormous family is already threatening a family reunion. I can't get married earlier and any date later would almost guarantee a family reunion, which is more then I can take. My dad is the oldest of five children and none of his siblings have less then 4 kids so I have quite a few younger cousins that not only do I not want at my wedding but I can't afford to have at my wedding, so, I am not inviting them. My family is the type to show up at my wedding with all their un-invited kids in tow because they didn't want to get a babysitter or they assumed their kids were invited even though they weren't listed in the invite. Damn, I am going to need a bouncer at my wedding. I was really hoping it wouldn't come to this.

I can't believe she is even asking me to do this. I think it is time for a bridezilla moment. I am imagining me standing over her screaming, "Its my wedding and I will have it when and where I want and if you think your cookware is more important then you don't have to come." I am only her eldest child and daughter. Isn't she supposed to do what I want for my wedding day?

Ok...bridezilla moment over...back to the reality of trying to make everyone happy in an imperfect world.

Getting Antsy

Well, I am sitting here in my apartment bored out of my mind. I can't really pack any more because what is left to pack we still want to use in the upcoming week. And yet, my apartment is a wreck. There is nothing like moving to make your living space cluttered. Stuff is everywhere. Things that had a place only yesterday have somehow found a way to be sitting on my coffee table, the floor, the couch, the table, everywhere, not belonging anywhere. Pictures that should be hung are not on the walls and yet not boxed either because we don't have a box to accommodate them. And then there is all that stuff that you use every now and then but aren't sure if you should bother to pack it or just throw it away and buy more when you actually need it again. I am currently staring at two Ziploc bags of pens. Who needs two, not one but two, bags of half used pens. So I ask, are these pens worth the effort to pack, move, and unpack? Should I waste them but throwing them in the garbage? It isn't like pens are so expensive that I can't afford to replace a few pens.

(the infamous pens and overwhelming clutter)

But it isn't really about the pens. The pens are just bugging me because I want to not have to look at them anymore. What I really want is just to be moved. I want to be in New York, at the fabulous gay bar in Chelsea Miles and I went to before our friend's show. I want to be out. Not here in Seattle. As much as I love Seattle I could not be more bored with this city. I feel like I have done everything there is to do. Which could not be farther from the truth but there it is.

I hate moving but oh to I love un-packing. I love finding a place for everything during that time where you don't have any clutter. The mail has not piled up on the table and there aren't Coke caps sitting around waiting for Miles to do whatever it is he has to do to get the coke rewards points before he can throw them away.

Tangent: Miles is making me Margaritas...because I just really need one. And NO, I am not an alcoholic but, this move might drive me to become one. I think he just ruined a spatula by dropping it into the blender.

Hannah's Margaritas Recipe:

• One container of Frozen Limeade Concentrate


• Tequila


• Ice

Blend and drink. Don't let Miles ad the Tequila if you want to remember the night.

(Miles making margaritas)

Ok...back to my bitter diatribe on moving and the wonders of it all. I am starting to think there are a lot of things we can live without. I mean, who really needs a spice rack? Really. Would I die without a spice rack? Because I really don't want to pack it and move it 3000 miles.

Miles just said he was going to help this time [with the packing]. That is great but the best part is that he followed it up with "for the first time ever." Do you have any idea how many times we have moved? At my work we did this get to know you activity where we had to get in line in order of number of siblings, followed by number of places we have lived. In both cases I was at the high end of the line. I work with people twice my age. I should not have moved more times then an 50 year old. I am 22 and I have moved 9 times in 5 years...we are about to make that 10 times. My mom has dedicated 2 pages of her address book to me because she has to change the listing every 6 months or so. You would think I would have moving down to a science. Not so the case. I guess one benefit is that we leave with less stuff every time...so, until now, it has been getting easier.


BTW...does anyone want a coffee table, because I am looking to get rid of one?

For the love of SHOES

I L-O-V-E shoes. Not that ever girl doesn't love shoes...but I really love shoes. Despite my love affair with shoes I rarely buy any because they are so damn expensive. Don't tell Miles I said that because he thinks I buy shoes all the time. I don't. I just wear through my shoes so quickly that I have to buy more every 6 months or so. And I'm sorry, but a girl has to have more than one style of shoe.

So last week I got two new pairs. The top picture is of the heals. I would not normally go for a wedge but I am horrible at walking in heals so I got the wedge in an effort to prevent me from falling walking up and down stairs while student teaching. The bottom picture is of the shoes Miles actually picked out (I am so proud). I really like both pairs of new shoes. I really do. BUT, man do my feet hurt. I wore one pair yesterday and got blisters on my heals and then I wore the super cute heals today and tore sides of my feet. I have dime sized rips on my feet...not blisters. Rips. The skin was literally torn off my feet.

So, what I don't understand is this. How do the other fabulous ladies wear these shoes and manage to make it through the day? I had to switch to flip flops after just a couple hours and I am paying for those few hours now.

THE All-Star Game

The second Tuesday of July, for some, hails a great American pasttime. Baseball's All-Star game is perenially on this day. You might think, me who says baseball IS my religion, that I love watching the game. In reality I hate the All-Star festivities, and that hate is only redoubled because the All-Star game also signals the 3 most worthless days on the sports calendar. At best there are some basketball Summer League highlights and perhaps some NFL or NBA hot stove rumors. Otherwise there's nada, every sport is on some hiatus. So, while its 90 freaking degrees outside, there isn't a sporting event worth watching anywhere. King Co's juvenille courthouse has NO A/C, so right now all I want to do is crawl into our apartment, sit in front of our own A/C, and watch some manner of sporting event....but I'm screwed.

Don't get me wrong, the MLB's All-Star game is the best of the bunch, but its still the best of a bad lot. 30 years ago the game was about league pride, and we had Pete Rose running over Ray Fosse at home as evidence. Now? Now some of the starters couldn't be in any more of a hurry to get out of the game and head for their plane home. The game is no longer baseball, its become solely a marketing gimmic.

Miles' Blogroll

So I thought I'd toss up some of the sites I try and read quasi-daily. They range from politics and religion to baseball statistics. I hope to keep this list fairly dynamic since I'm always looking for a new perspective on my favorite topics.

Drinks and Fashion

So, one of the other things I am worried about is my lack of fashion. Living next to the ultra trendy, sexy, fashionable NYC is going to force me into completely revamping my wardrobe (something I should be looking forward to but really I am dreading).

So this all came about because when we went to NJ to find an apartment we went to a show in Chelsea. Our friend's sister was in the show and she got us tickets. It was really fun and we were going to grab a drink or two at a bar with her after the show. She got a call from two of her friends and they were going out and they wanted her to join them. So we did. The club/bar was the penthouse of a hotel where the minimum priced room was over $450. The rooftop bar was complete with pool, bouncer, and a little rope letting the desirables in and keeping the undesirables far far away. Oh, and all the seating was reserved for parties buying bottles of booze.

Miles and I had walked from the Natural History Museum (81st street) to the show (19th street) plus a little extra and I was hot, sweaty, and wearing khakis, a black t-shirt, and Nike flip-flops. Not exactly dressed for the NY club scene. After having a little panic attack that everyone else would get in and I would be left standing on the wrong side of the rope they let us all in and the five of us got drinks...80 bucks for 5 drinks. That I was not expecting though I don't know why I thought it would be cheaper.

Of course, no great NY drink could ever be as good as the mammoth margaritas I had with my TEP girls.

And I just got it...

So, I have been watching Sex and the City for years now. I watched them all when they were on HBO and then Miles got the DVDs for me for Christmas a few years ago. I have been watching all the episodes over again and I just watched the one where Carrie is looking for a new apartment because she can't afford to buy her apartment from Aidan after they break up. Anyway, Carrie is questioning how a tiny, smelly, run-down apartment can cost $2300 when she is paying $700 for an apartment twice the size. The broker responds with a comment about how with Carrie's negative attitude and price limitations she should probably look in Weehawken. Carrie was appalled by this statement and I had no idea why.

Now that I am moving to Hoboken I am going to have to watch all 6 seasons again. There are so many jokes that I missed the first few times around.

I am really dreading the move but I cannot imagine a more exciting place to live. We are going to be living so close to New York City and I could not be more excited that I am going to get to know that city as my home.

Moving Makes Me Mad...

With less than twenty days until the move it is starting to take over my life. I find myself constantly thinking about packing, the drive, the incessant heat we will be driving through and toward, how we will entertain ourselves while making the trip, what we are taking, and what we are leaving behind. Because I am also crazy and a worrier I am also trying to figure out what I have to keep and how we are going to move it to New Jersey in December.

*Catch Up: Miles and I are leaving for Hoboken, NJ on the 26th of July. Miles will be attending law school at Rutgers-Newark this fall and this is the reason for the move. He starts classes around the 20th of August. We are hoping to be in NJ on the 1st giving us about 3 weeks until Miles starts school. My younger brother (the third child, Elias) is getting married on the 18th so I have to fly to Spokane for the wedding before returning to Seattle to finish up my masters program. I start my full time student teaching on the 23rd of August so it all works out pretty well. I am done student teaching on the 7th of December and while I program will not be completed I will be moving to NJ at this time. I will complete the last quarter of my masters through a distance learning option that I am working to start at UW.*

So at this point I have bought my ticket to get me from NJ to my brother's wedding. It is going to be a long trip with two connections...from Newark to Portland to Seattle to Spokane. I am hoping that my sister will drive me home (to Seattle) because as despite how much fun it would be I do NOT want to be trapped in a van for 5 hours with my other 7 or so younger siblings. I am a little worried that I will miss one of my connections and thus ruin all my hard planning but whatever. It is out of my hands now.

What is still up to me is what I pack. I am going to be in NJ for almost 3 weeks and I will be away from my apartment in Seattle for almost a month. This leads me to believe that I will need quite a few items of clothing and the standard day to day stuff that you don't really want to go a whole month without. Oh, and I will need whatever I plan on wearing to the wedding. On the other hand, I would love not to have to check a bag on my flight back. If for some reason I miss a connection I don't want my baggage going on without me as I would end up missing the wedding and going straight to Seattle, not Spokane (the baggage destination).

My other struggle at this very moment is over what we have to leave here. Miles is taking almost everything. We are leaving me with just enough to get by with. We are going to have to buy some new things that we don't really need but because we will be living apart we both need one. For example, we are buying a new microwave so we can both have one. But, what do I really need for 4 months?

After I have finished my student teaching I will move to NJ but the plan right now is for me to sell everything that I can't get into a suitcase, get on a plan, and show up in NJ. Miles will be taking finals so he can't come get me. Now I am worried that I will have way to much stuff that I want to keep to put all of it in a suitcase. For example, I have three blankets that I was thinking of using on the twin bed we are going to get for me, but if I want to keep them in NJ (which I do) I will have to move them there and I can't fit them in the suitcase. I could ship them...but would it be cheaper to just buy me a cheap duvet that I can sell or toss in December and move the blankets I was thinking of using with Miles now? Also, I have a lot of class work that I need with me while student teaching but I will also need it in my final quarter so I will have to move that to NJ. I guess I could ship it but again, how much will that cost? In the end it doesn't really matter because it costs what it costs but I can't help but think that there is a lot with this move that is going to catch us off guard and it is going to be a lot more of a hassle then we are planning on. - Hannah

Picture

So as my first blog of course I have to have a picture. This is one of the engagement pictures we had taken recently by Amber Roberts.

I think I look a little silly ,but Miles loves pictures of me when I am laughing uncontrollably. He also likes pictures of us looking directly at the camera. I like pictures that don't look quite as staged. This is my attempt at a compromise. If you knew me you would know that I don't compromise as a general rule so this is a big step for me. It helps that while I think I look a little silly I still like the picture. - Hannah

#1

So as a blatant theft from a new friend of ours, we've decided to start a blog of our own. I'll probably end up writing about law school, sports, and other random musings. Well, here goes nothing. - Miles