Finals

Finals are a bit intense. Yes, the similarity to Law School Musical is a bit disturbing. I will have a life again on December 19th, for any who haven't received a prompt reply lately.

Shopping

Today I had to get out of the apartment so I went shopping. I really enjoy living so close to everything. I got all bundled up and braved the snow and cold. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that it snowed within 24 hours of my arrival in NJ.

I took the light rail to the Newport mall and I went shopping. While I don't enjoy shopping I really like finding things and for a discount. I ended up getting myself a 3 quarter length jacket and two pairs of jeans. I got Miles two pairs of jeans but I have to return them because Miles is skinnier than he told me he was.

Miles is studying again. I really hope all this hard work on his part pays off or I am going to feel jipped that he is not paying attention to me and I just got here. I am not upset about him ignoring me...yet...I will let you know when that happens.

Hoboken

Now that I am finally here it is time to start blogging again. It is amazing how much time I have on my hands. I didn't believe that I could get bored in one day but it is possible.

On Friday I went to my school for my last day. I had the worst headache of my entire life but it was good to see the kids and the teachers one last time. Two fellow TEPers were with me observing in some of the classes. After school got over we went to the Cheesecake Factory and then the airport for my flight.

[Cheesecake Factory with Emily and Jen]

The first flight was delayed but I was able to make my connection out of Portland, OR. I wasn't able to choose my own seat when I got the ticket and I ended up sandwiched between two big men in the second to last row in the plane. That was a bummer but it is the last flight I had to take for a while so I sucked it up. I didn't really sleep on the plane. I think I am becoming immune to Tylenol PM.

My plane landed 45 min early so I had to call Miles to wake him up so he could pick me up. He ended up getting to the airport at the perfect time. I picked up my bags from baggage claim and he was right there with the car as I walked out of the airport.

We got back to Hoboken at about 6:30am. We parked the car and had to walk a few blocks with all my luggage. It was really cold out. Really cold.

I was exhausted by the time we finally got to the apartment so we crawled into bed and passed out. I slept until 11am and Miles was gone when I got up. He had study group in Newark so he was gone most of the day.

When I got up I cleaned. The apartment wasn't dirty but it was messy. Some of the boxes from when we moved here in August were not unpacked and Miles had been through them looking for who knows what...there was just stuff all over the place. I got myself unpacked and the apartment semi cleaned...

I was bored. Really bored. Miles wasn't at the apartment and I knew I didn't want to go out in the cold by myself so I stayed in and cleaned and that is just not what I am cut out for. I need a little more excitement in my life.

Miles got home around 7:30pm and we had to go out shopping for food as there was nothing in the fridge. We had pop-tarts, coke, some cheddar cheese and that was about it. Weather.com said it felt like 19 degrees outside and I have to say I agree with that assessment of the cold. I was freezing not having more than my fleece and a sweatshirt. Seattle weather is always mellow. No highs and no lows.

Miles made us dinner and then I had to be quiet so I watched some TV on my computer before going to bed a little after midnight.

Oh, and our heat doesn't work in the apartment again. I have to call to get it fixed tomorrow.

Another Great Quote

From my torts professor:

How do you make that argument not sound like a war crime?

Two Hoops Away...

...From Quiting the Teacher Profession

I have had a really rough day. For the past few weeks I have been trying to get emergency substitute certification so that I can get paid to teach (As I already am) on days that my cooperating teacher is sick or takes time off. I finally found the 11 pages of paper work that need to be filled out online and I filled everything out, sent it to the printer in the main office at school, went to pick it up, and...nothing. So, I sent it to the other printer, the one in the staff work room. Again, nothing. So, I asked in the main office and they said to try it again. So I did. And then again to the staff work room. And the again the main office. These are the only two printers that are installed on the computer. I don't have a printer at home. After running back and forth from one end of the building to the other and back again I finally found a tech guy to install an different computer and with 2 minutes left in my prep I got the form printed.

Or so I thought. Turns out only the first 8 pages printed. I have no idea what happened but at least I got the opportunity to print it again later and it worked.

So, after looking over the forms I noticed that I have to have part of it filled out by the district superintendent. So, I call the district office to find out about where to send the forms and I was on hold for over 12 min. before I had to hang up because my lunch break was over.

I also have been trying to figure out the certification process for NJ and NY for once I move. I tried to take care of these certifications during the summer when I had time. However, the NJ department of education is only open for phone calls between the hours of 3 and 6 on week days during the school year. As I live on the west coast this means I have to call between 12 and 3. I am teaching right now and I have not been able to stay on the phone long enough during my 25 min lunch to get my questions answered. The menu before you even got on hold to talk to someone takes about ten min.

We had an assembly today so I decided to make the phone call during this time. After being on the phone for an hour I found out that I have to take a total of science tests to become certified in both NJ and in WA. I don't know about NY yet. At 100 bucks a pop I not only don't feel like I can afford this added expense but I am pissed because these tests are practically the same, only offered every three months or so, and you can't take more than two on any of the dates offered. I ave no idea when I am going to get the opportunity to get these taken care of.

Ok, so that was frustrating. By the time I got off the phone with the NJ people it was to late in the day to call the NY people and find out what I am going to have to do to get certified there.

Because I could not get a hold of the district people during lunch I decided to track down the principle after school. It took a little doing but I finally did. The one good thing today was finding out that she is the person to actually fill out the district part of the forms. At least she says she is and the forms are signed.

So, after going through the ringer of trying to get information from different departments of education I can't believe we have as many teacher in the US as we do. If I were a smarter person I would not want to be a teacher. Every year it gets hard to do the job and even more complicated to get and stay certified. Teachers get paid crap. They are constantly at risk of losing their job. The hours suck (even with summers off). And the hoop jumping is ridiculous. They make it so hard for the people that actually want to be teachers to become teachers that I am amazed anyone even tries.

Why, oh, why do I do this to myself. I am worth more that this headache.

My Seemingly Boring Life

My days right now would seem pretty bland to most of the population, of that I am sure. I get up at 5:15 (before my alarm goes off), get ready for work, and I am walking through the door of my classroom by about 6:15. I plan, I teach, I eat, I teach, I plan some more, and then I leave at about 4:30 only to come home, eat, plan, and sleep. When I put it like this it seems even worse than it is in my head. I am spending all my time preparing for a job that I am not even getting paid for. In fact, I am paying to do this job...just one of the beauties of my masters program.

At least I think it is fun. This last week I have had students run up and down stairs to learn scientific notation and the metric system, swing meter sticks around like swords and light sabers (sp?), learn about Fibonacci, and race around the room to find the leaf in the leaf line up. It has been a pretty eventful week considering all I taught about was measuring and the metric system.

To top it off I got into some trouble with the administration because I am teaching something different than the other 6th grade science teachers. We are actually all doing our own thing around the same topics. The 6th grade house leader wants us all to be doing the exact same thing on the same day. Well, I am sorry but I teach science and we only have enough equipment for one class at a time. Which means that while we all did the same 2 day activity we all did it on different days, spanning over 10 days. This means we have to have different ways of teaching the same material because we have to font load some learning depending on when we get the materials. Even after this has been explained the administration doesn't quite understand.

One of the great thing about teaching is you can be really creative about how you teach a topic. You can cater to the kids you have. We can't all teach the exact same way because we are different people. If I wanted to have my curriculum handed to me each morning and basically read off a script I would have chosen to work in the Bellevue School District. What they are asking for is teacher proof teaching. And yet, they all talk about the "great" teachers of the world. Let me tell you this...Those great teachers are not reading someone else's lesson plans every day doing exactly what is written on the sheet and then moving on to the next day, no thought involved.

2 more quotes

From property today:
All right, they will all die....big deal

If he does not graduate Harvard, because he is dead or because he is dumb, it doesn’t matter

Frighteningly Close to Home

Ahhh...the bureaucracy

Today is Tuesday the 11th. This means that I have taught for all of five whole days. Already I am fighting the bureaucracy and the politics of the education system. I am a strong believer that for the most part those people in the education field want to do what is best for students. Call me naive or optimistic but I know they didn't get into the field for the money.

Well, in all of five days I am already fighting with other educators at my school for information. I think that I should have access to all of my students that have IEPs, 504s, or are ELL (basically all my students that have special needs). I want to know which of my students get distracted so I can avoid seating them facing the window. I want to know which students need extra help so I can assign them a lab partner that will accommodate this need. I want to know which students are more than 2 grades behind in writing so I can make accommodations on their assignments.

But, I cannot get this information. I don't even know which students are English Language Learners. I have 150 students and some of them are quiet so I can't exactly tell which students are having trouble understanding me when I give instructions. I can't get the information I need because the people in charge of the student files don't want me to label the students before I get to know them.

This makes some sense to me. I wouldn't want to assume a student couldn't perform in my science class just because I know they have a learning disability. I wouldn't want someone to do this to me. However, I have the best of intentions. I just want to be able to accommodate those students that we know have a specific need we can actually meet. I just want to do my job to the best of my ability. Why is it so hard to see that all I want it what is best for my students and what is best for them is for me to have the information I need to accommodate their learning styles and abilities.

Actually said in law school

Two actual quotes from today's torts class:

One does consent to have their feelings hurt when they get married

When you get married there is a certain amount of trust........supposedly

Attention to detail

2 pages. Everyone has written 2 pages before. The question is what does 2 pages mean to you? Is it double spaced? How big are the margins? Tomorrow I turn in my first memo and 2 pages couldn't possibly be more precisely defined. 26 lines per page, 12 characters or less per inch, 1 inch margins and an entire grade drop if you go so much as 1 character over. 6-8, 10-12....undergrad was all about some indiscriminate length where you really weren't punished if you came anywhere close. NOW though, now I spent an hour removing the last 2 lines of text from 2 pages of writing. I've never rewritten so many sentences just so that I could remove one stray 5-letter word here or there. I am really enjoying law school, but this exercise was like pulling teeth.

Rick Ankiel

I love sports. Anyone who knows me knows this, and baseball trumps them all. Its more than a past-time, its damn near my religion. Being so, the story of Rick Ankiel was most likely the most compelling/wonderous/uplifting/inspiring to come out of sports in my lifetime. At 20 years old he was at the top of the world, pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals and doing a fabulous job. Then he forgot how to pitch. He couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a baseball. In the playoffs that year he set numerous records, including the most wild pitches in one inning. In very places in all the world can you have personal struggles so openly viewed as in sports. We read about celebrities and news makers everywhere, but it is always a second hand account of their misdeeds or misfortune. Ankiel's nightmare played out on his sports biggest stage while millions of people watched on. Can you think of something more humbling. After 5 years of failure trying to learn how to pitch again and devastating surgery he called it quits. The game wasn't fun anymore (can anyone blame him?) and he went on his way. Except that wasn't it. He was a damn good hitter growing up and he asked the Cardinals if he could try out being an outfielder for a while. 3 years after having quit, Ankiel got the call from the Cards and was in the show again. What an incredible story. A man watches his dreams get flushed away, not knowing why and in front of MILLIONS of people, and not only has the perseverance to keep at it for 5 years, but also was humble enough to start over. How many people are that strong? Not just that, but how many people are both that talented AND willing to work that hard? I can't express how amazing the story is, and if you don't have a passion for baseball I probably cannot convey how unreal it really is.

I'd like nothing more than to say that was the end of the story. I was so devastated when I read what comes next that I had to take a day to compose myself before I wrote about it. Ankiel, to me, had been the poster-child for all that is good in sports. Hard work AND talent. Never giving up. Humility. Success. Playing for the love of the game. But that isn't the story that will be remembered. What will be remembered is that Rick Ankiel used HGH. He is Bonds, Giambi, Sheffield and every other player who shits on the game. Was it against the rules, written or unwritten? No. Did he stop before it WAS against the rules? Yes. Does any of that matter? No. Why? Because if you'd asked those players if what they were doing was right, not okay or necessary or widespread, but right, they'd all have said "no" themselves. Anyone with a heart felt for Ankiel, but he committed the unforgivable sin. Ankiel's story made me feel like a kid. Like anything was possible, and wonderous things came to those that didn't simply slide along on their talents. I had told people that I'd be telling kids about Ankiel in 50 years, the story was so compelling. I took a day to make sure I wasn't over reacting because it was so stunning, but I feel worse today than I did yesterday. Nothing in this era of sports is sacred and NO one is free from suspicion. My most crushing moment as a sports fan

Teaching Science Is SOOOOO Much Fun

So the first week of school has come to an end. I am teaching 6th grade science and boy is it a good time. I am starting to think that the 6th grade is the perfect age to teach. My students are so excited about science that they hang on my every word. I am sure it helps that I am so much fun in the classroom but still.

[Dangerous chemicals I prepared for Tuesday's lab]

Not only do I have great students but I get to teach such a cool subject. In what other class do you get to play with dangerous chemicals like baking soda, phenol red, and calcium chloride? In what other class do you get to figure out how to turn two circles into a square? And, in what other class do you get the excitement of burning things? Ok, so we haven't had any fires yet but we have done the other two. Oh, and did I mention that we don't even have a text book. Can a class get any better. Later in the year we will be learning about killer lakes and after that we are going to build our own batteries and battery powered cars and race them down the hallway.

After reading all that can you really say you don't want to be taking my science class??? I think not.

But, why am I excited? I am the teacher. I have already done all this stuff. I have to be at school at 6:45am and on days like today (a Friday I might add) I stay until after 5pm. While it doesn't sound all that glorious I have yet to find another job where I can talk about all the nerdy science stuff I want and where I get to come up with awesome ways to share my knowledge and understanding with others. For example, on Wednesday I will be eating a flaming candle. Why? Because scientists should not jump to conclusions and they should be very careful when describing things. So, what will I really be eating? A peice of string cheese with a sliver of almond that I will have lit with a match. But do my students know that? No...because to them it looks just like a candle.

Finally

I'm not usually the quiet one in class. I love to engage in a good debate, to further discourse, answer questions, etc. After 2 weeks here I definitely hadn't been my usual self. I'd only spoken when socraticized by my LRW and Contracts profs and not otherwise. Over the long weekend I decided that is was time to start talking. Enough time had passed to take the temperature of the room and the profs so I figured I might as well jump in. Yesterday I finally got around to it, and it wasn't so bad. I answered some questions well and didn't fail too miserably once the profs fired out questions in response to my answers. I also learned one valuable lesson. In contracts I need to be stoic if I don't want to be called on. My prof, Hyde, asked a question of the class and no one wanted to raise there hand for a few seconds. I could literally feel the light go on above my head when the answer hit me, and Hyde saw it immediately and called on me without my volunteering. I must have done one of those "ah HA!" faces. Hyde was looking in my general direction and the SECOND I figured out the answer he called on me.

Learning

On a happier note, I thought I ought to express how much I'm learning every day here. Never in my academic career have I taken away so much from any given reading, class, or lecture. I still have my reservations about the usefulness of some (LOTS) of the in-class discussions, but that isn't to say that I'm not learning a great deal from even those classes. Property has recently been about how to steal other peoples stuff, including land, and get away with it. We (the lawyerly type) call it adverse possession, but I think its fair to describe it as theft by someone with a good lawyer. Say something is yours long enough, and openly, and you just might end up owning it. This is a bit of a simplistic view, but it sure does help me understand why people hate lawyers so much.

On another front, I'm almost finished writing my first memo for my Legal Research & Writing class. The writing is painful in a way, because the legal way of writing is equivalent to choppy sentences and forumlaic structure, but it is calming to know exactly how to format my paragraphs and remove any and all fluff. The best part has got to be that I get to actually write, rather than regurgitate something that someone else has written. Read, analyze, synthesize, and apply....it sure beats memorizing.

Socraticized

Well, the first full week of Law School has come and gone. I quite nearly made it through without looking too ridiculous, but if you're reading this blog then you probably know nothing ever goes that simply for us. None of my professors are of the Kingsfield fashion immortalized by the movie "The Paper Chase", but that isn't to say the socratic method prevalent at Rutgers Newark. I was called on to recite the facts and tell what happened below in the Peevyhouse matter. Peevyhouse is a classic little guy gets screwed case about a mining company in Oklahoma in the 60s. I thought I had a pretty solid hold on what was going on, the facts/issues/reasoning/etc. so being called on was a good thing. I was going to have the opportunity to at least look competent, or so I thought. But here's the rub, I started getting quizzed on policy questions in the case. I hadn't read the case from that perspective (hell, I was happy to have understood the rule and the reasoning) and I quickly got lost in the professor's questions. Each of my classes has had this tone. We're constantly talking about the underlying policy and I feel its to the detriment of learning the power and interplay of the rules themselves. I love the material (who knew you could steal land from people legally?), but I'm still not completely comfortable in class because of it. I GET the material, or so I feel every night, but then the profs are firing off questions that I don't see the relevance of or at best think are not nearly as important as larger issues. I'm sure I come to realize more and more what is expected of me at every step of the way, its just hard not to be frustrated right now.

Emily's House Warming

Emily Elasky had a house warming party in celebration of moving in to her new apartment with Ross. Just a few of their friends were there and after eating some yummy food and chatting about movies, tea, and Tacoma we all went bowling.

Most of us are really bad at bowling. The high score for the night was 123 (yeah Tim). The rest of us, struggling just to keep the ball out of the gutter, had a great time laughing at our inability. Jen (wife of Tim and fellow TEPer) was hysterical, walking up to the line only to yank her ball back because she had started walking on the wrong foot. Emily takes the cake getting two gutter balls in a row. I was the most consistent bowler managing to knock over nine pins almost every time. However, the strike and the spare remained elusive leaving me with a final score of 91...on the low end of the scores.

After a night of bowling I returned home (around 12:30) and crashed a little while later.

Life Without Miles

My first day without Miles was the day of my brothers wedding rehersal. This was somewhat stressfull for everyone else. I got to sit back and enjoy the show as I decided ahead of time that I was just going to try to keep everyone else happy and calm. This turned out to be a bigger task than I had origionally anticipated...however, I did my job quite well.

Bride (Kelsey) and my brother Elias at their rehersal. The ring bearer is my littlies bother, Sam.


The next day was the wedding. I have never really understood why people don't like going to weddings by themselves and I am still as lost as I ever was. Miles wasn't there and while I would have prefered his company I had a fine time dateless. This is probably because I was really busy trying to keep the calm between my family and the bride. Kelsey (bride) is 5 months pregnant and I am attributing this to her higher than normal stress level and inability to go with the flow. On the other hand my family is large and forcefull and I completely understand how she could be pissed off when my younger brothers were climbing all over the fence with the sign that specifically says "no climbing" on church property or that fact that my dad was packing heat. Not really sure what that was about but I am not going to ask.
My brother Elias, his wife, and me...

I flew back to Seattle on the third day without Miles and it was at this point that I had my first break down. I only had an hour long flight but because my parents could only drop me off at the airport 3.5 hours early I waited around for a long time before my flight. I had been living out of my carry-on for almost a month and I was ready to be in a place that I would be living for more then a couple of weeks.

When I finally walked though my door the TV was on so without even thinking about it I turned it off. A half hour later I went to turn the TV on and NOTHING. It had worked all of a half hour ago but when I pushed the power button on the tv it would not turn on. I thought the power might be broken so I spent 15 minutes trying to find the remote to see if I could get it to work using the remote. This didn't work either. I had checked all the outlets and connections and I could not think of why it would not work. This set me off. Miles is supposed to take care of the technology and he was really far away and I missed him and not being able to solve my own problems was just a little to much.

In tears I call Miles. I was having a break down and I knew calling him would make it better. Within 5 minutes he had the TV working and while he couldn't fix his not being in the same state as me he did what was important at the time.

So, it has been 5 days and I have had 1 meltdown. At this rate I will have freaked out 22 times while we are not living together. This is not a good statistic. Here's hoping it gets easier with time.

What Is With This State...

and people not being on the same page. We have run into countless problems with taking care of business here in NJ and we can't get two people to tell us the same thing. Miles has tried to get his NJ licence and registration twice. The first time he went in with all the paperwork that it said he needed online only to find out that our copy of the lease is not proof of residence (the original lease would work but the broker has that). They told him that a piece of mail would work so we mailed ourselves something and Miles took it in to the DMV only to find out that this mail has to be a piece of government mail or a utilities bill. We went to the utilities place today to get the paperwork that the DMV said would solve the problem. Miles is going back tomorrow to see if he can finally finish this task.

Then there are the customer service people at F.Y.E who told me that my reserved copy of 300 in HD-DVD would be in on Monday at about 2 (it still wasn't in at 4) and then when I picked up the DVD it turned out to be defective. So I called F.Y.E and was told I could exchange the DVD but they couldn't hold one for me until tomorrow unless I came into the store to reserve it...what would be the point of going into the store to reserve a copy of a dvd that I want to exchange and they just told me they have extra copies of it? So, I ask to speak to the manager that apparently said I couldn't place a hold on the DVD over the phone and guess what...without any hassle they are holding a copy of the DVD for me at the front desk and I can pick it up whenever.

These are not limited incidences of people working for the same company not having the same information about policies and procedures. I just don't get it.

Public School Issues

Hannah and I have both become well acquainted with the bureaucracy and red-tape associated with large scale public institutions, but I recently ran into a completely new level of ridiculousness. I received my tuition statement and it reflected my first semester classes. Of course they were the usual first term law school classes: Freshman Interest Group, Sub-Sahara African Politics, Chemistry for Engineers, and something abbreviated as Law&Amer Lab Mov Sem. I'm worried I may have purchased the wrong casebooks, I don't see how Tort and Accident Law is going to be of much use.

Our Apartment Video

For those of you interested in our new place here is a video for you.

Hoboken

We have been here for a few days now. Moving in is a chore but one that I don’t really mind. Miles really hates the hold un-packing thing so I have done most of it. Miles has offered to help but if I do it everything will be where I want it and everything will get done without complaint. We only have about 3 more boxes to un-pack (I am not including the books because we don’t have a bookcase for those yet) so most of our stuff is where it belongs.

With most of our stuff un-packed our apartment feels enormous. We have a lot of open space and not enough furniture to fill the space. Our bedroom has just a bed and nothing else. Everything fits in the closet. So, we are trying to decide what to do with the rest of the space. I don’t feel the need to do anything with it but it might be nice to have a rug or something to make that space nicer.

My klutzy moment of the week was when I was hanging a picture on the wall and I put the hammer down on the desk and promptly managed to knock it onto my toes. They are really sore now and there is a nice little bruise on the underside of my foot. Miles offered to get me ice before laughing at me for being a moron.

It has been 3 days since we moved in and we are both still walking around like cripples. We are both so sore we can hardly move. Miles is doing a lot better than I am but I am really hurting. I was thinking that it would be my arms that hurt but it ended up being my calves. I am fine after I have been walking for a while but when I first stand up, or first go down the stairs, it is really painful.

We are really enjoying living in Hoboken. We went out to eat the first night at an Italian place that is fantastic and only slightly more expensive than Olive Garden. We have actually eaten their twice. The second time, a night later, we had dinner with Josh and Sam, law students at Rutgers.

We made our own dinner last night rather than going out and we realized that we have nothing. Because we left all food products in Seattle we have no condiments, spices, etc. We have realized that we are going to have to go to a large chain grocery store to get most of the stuff we need because while all the shops in Hoboken are great they also are really expensive for the little stuff. They are kind of like Trader Joes in that the food is really good but we don’t need deluxe ketchup. Dinner was really good though.

In other news…

Miles got a video game that he swore he was not going to get because he is starting law school. He loves it of course though I might have to take it to Seattle with me so he doesn’t spend all his study time playing.

We got our cable hooked up today. Internet is way faster here. That’s nice.

Oh, there was a huge thunder/lightning storm last night. We turned off the lights in the living room and I just watched it while Miles played his video game. The lightning actually hit a water plant and 6 cities have to boil their water before drinking it until the situation gets fixed. It rained as well and the rain here is not like the Seattle rain. When it rains here it POURS. The rain cut down on the humidity making today more tolerable than last night.

I am adding some pictures of our new place below for those interested...Please ignore the clutter as we are still moving in.

[this is our living room]

[here is the kitchen]

The Move

We got up early thinking it would be good to eat the breakfast provided by the hotel. We knew we were going to get pretty tired as we had to unload two apartments worth of stuff into walk up apartments. We did have a little breakfast and then we hit to road. At one point we did end up going west on I-78 when we wanted to be going east but that little detour only cost us about 20 min. Traffic was bad but not what I was anticipating.

We got to Hoboken right when the street cleaning was supposed to be done. That was perfect because if we had gotten there too early we would have had to move the truck so the street cleaners could do their thing.

We went to park in the spots we had reserved (4 meter spaces) only to find that there were cones blocking 2 of the meters, a car parked in one of the spaces, and the another space had not be bagged. Two foreign ladies are upset with us for pulling in front of the cones as it turns out that they have reserved the spaces in front of the ones we reserved for every Wednesday. However, due to a construction dumpster in the spaces they reserve they had called city hall and reserved the same spaces that we reserved.

I get on the phone to the parking people at city hall only to be transferred a few times to people that are not there. Finally some parking guy comes with a meter bag to block of the meters that have been booked. The meter bags are placed over the meters and say “no parking” and it prevents people from paying the meter. - Note: this should have been done last night so that the spaces would be free when we arrived in the morning, but whatever. - When I start asking why our meters, that we paid for, are not covered he gets confused and calls in another guy. I am really upset by this point because I am tired of hearing that we cannot park in the spaces all while I am holding a receipt saying I paid 100 buck to be able to park in front of our building. So, I am waving the receipt around, frustrated, and getting really irritated with the parking guys that can’t figure out what they are going to do.

The two foreign ladies own the store right below our apartment and they get deliveries on Wednesdays so they need the spaces. We are moving in and we need the spaces. So without the help of the parking guys, who have no idea what to do, we decide to take off the trailer and roll it onto the sidewalk, park our truck in the couple of spaces that are reserved, and we agree to be out of there by noon as that is when the truck is supposed to come with the ladies' deliveries. This seems to work for all parties involved.

[some blood Miles aquired moving the trailor]

We start unloading. It is going pretty well. It is really hot and sweat is dripping down our faces and backs and leaving nice little sweat stains all over our clothes. It is already really hot at 10am. Our apartment says it is 82 degrees. We get most of the big stuff up the 3 flights of stairs and into the apartment without too much trouble. The back of one chair is broken but it is nothing a little wood glue won't fix.

*I should mention that when I say “we”, referring to heavy lifting, I really mean Miles and Mike. They did a great job lifting and struggling through getting our stuff into the apartment.*

At this time a construction guy shows up and they want to park in the space of one of the blocked off meters. This guy comes over to us while we are unloading and starts telling us that we have to move. He doesn’t ask and is quite insistent. Being already pissed about the meter situation Miles and I start going off on this guy because we have a freaking receipt that says we get spaces so NO, we don’t HAVE to move our truck. There is an open space behind us so we back up the truck anyway but not before making it clear that if he would have asked us to move rather than tell us we would have moved no problem. Hopefully the point was made but probably not as we are on the east coast now.

We are down to about 15 boxes still to move when a semi-driver double parks behind us. It's 11 and delivery guy for the ladies store is here - one hour early. He now needs the spaces we are in and we are so close to being done. We estimate that it will take about a half hour to have us out of there but he can’t wait and he cannot stay double parked. The boys keep moving boxes while I deal with the semi-driver (who, I might add, is so nice and polite). Between the two of us we decide that if we unload all my apartments remaining stuff onto the sidewalk we can roll up the walkway and that will give us a little more space. The semi-driver even helps me unload the rest of the truck onto the sidewalk. As we are doing this a car leaves a metered spot behind our truck and we move some cones to block off the spot giving us a little more space. I ask the construction van if it can please move for about a half hour or so and surprisingly he agrees to. After Miles pulls the truck forward there is just enough space to get the 60’ semi into the open spot.

Once the semi-driver gets parked this fat guy in a white shirt with really bad teeth starts asking me about the trailer that we have put on the sidewalk. It is not blocking the sidewalk as in Hoboken the sidewalks are about 3 times as wide as they are in Seattle. Fat Guy is some parking authority person. Apparently you can’t put a trailer on the sidewalk. So, I get our receipt for the meters and start explaining what is going on only to be shushed and told that there is a new girl working at city hall and she didn’t realize that the meters were already booked when we booked them (thus double booking the meters) and we are going to have to work it our with the other people that have the meters…but we can’t have the trailer on the sidewalk. I GO OFF. I tell him that we are trying to make everything work which is why the trailer is on the side walk in the first place. We have 15 more boxes to move and then we will be done but the semi-driver is here and he needs to do his job as well. I am practically yelling that we are doing everything we can to make this work and it isn’t my fault they fucked up the reservations for the meter.

As I am practically yelling and I am obviously really upset he starts “ma’am-ing” me and telling me not to get upset. (It is way too late at this point). I tell him we will be gone in a little over 20 min and this seems to work because he just leaves.

The ladies from the shop below our new apartment are so thankful that we were nice and trying to accommodate everyone that they send one of their workers to help us carry a few boxes up the stairs to our apartment. They even provided us with free drinks. Miles and I are going to have to shop there a lot.

We get everything into the apartment and the semi-driver helps us get the trailer on the truck. Mike has gotten us sandwiches and we hit the road.

*it is 11:30 in the morning and we are only half way though unloading the truck*

None of us can really eat because we are so hot and tired. The food actually rolls in our stomachs but we eat what we can and call it good.

Mike has the directions to his place in Brooklyn, so he is directing and Miles is driving. We have to go through the Lincoln Tunnel and into Manhattan to get to Mike’s place in Brooklyn. While driving through the Lincoln Tunnel a bus driver tells us that we are dragging something on the cement. When we get a chance to pull over we do and it was just a piece of the trailer so we don’t worry about it.

In Manhattan we make a wrong turn and end up driving through the middle of Times Square, at lunch time, on a Wednesday. We manage to get going in the right direction again and we are back on track. We are going to go over the Brooklyn Bridge but as we are about to take the exit Miles sees that the clearance is only 11’9”. Our truck is 12’1” high so we would end up taking off the top four inches of the truck by driving this way. Thanks to google maps we find another route, this time through the Brooklyn Tunnel.

We arrive at the Brooklyn Tunnel to see that once again the clearance is 11’9”. There are some police and traffic workers that are checking trucks at a check point so we pull in to see if we can possibly make it through the tunnel. They make Miles get out of the truck and open up the back so they can see what we are transporting…blah, blah, blah… They confer and decide that we can make it through the tunnel, we just have to go fast and they will escort us. Miles and I look at each other, have a quick discussion about how maybe going fast will put more pressure on the tires and lower our clearance...but I guess we are just going to go for it. The truck is insured so at least there is that. The police car turns the lights on and we go. All three of us sat holding out breath and hunched over, as if hunching will make the truck lower, and we make it through. Not even a scrape. Thank goodness.

We get to Mike’s place and there is no parking!!! We pop the truck over the curb so it is diagonal to the street and over the corner of the side walk. Again the trailer comes off, and as the boys are moving it onto the sidewalk Miles tries to slow it down, stumbles, and breaks his flip-flops. I was supposed to remind him to change into tennis shoes but I had forgotten. The toe of the shoe had ripped out of the bottom leaving just a sad pathetic strap to hold Miles’ foot in place. Oh, and he is bleeding for the second time today.

We can’t pull the ramp out of the truck or it will be completely blocking the road so we know we are going to have to have someone in the truck to move boxes to the edge where the other people can reach them. Due to Miles’ lack of shoe he gets to be the person staying in the truck. Mike and I start taking loads up to his apartment on the second floor (another walk-up). After a while I am beat. Not that strong to begin with, I just can’t make it much longer carrying the heavy boxes up the stairs. Miles and I switch places. Mike manages to find him some shoes and they are only a little bit to big. It takes us about 3 hours but we get everything un-loaded and into Mike's apartment. About 45 min before we finishes we had all hit the wall and we were exhausted. It was purely by force of will that the rest of the truck got unloaded. By the end of it I was cursing Mike and Elisa for bringing so much furniture. Although, if I were being honest and we had moved them in first I am sure I would be making the same curse at myself…

[I forgot to mention this earlier but this is Mike. While Miles was parking the truck he ran over a water bottle that was in the street and it exploded all over Mike. This is a picture of Mike's water soaked pants.]

At about 3:30pm Miles and Mike got the trailer on the truck again and Mike took off to take the truck back to Penske. Miles and I set off to catch the subway home. We walked to the car (parked about 4 blocks away) and as we are walking Miles realizes that he parked on a street that was closed on Wednesdays for street cleaning. We are both sure that with our luck our car got towed, and when we show up at the space we have both never been so happy for a ticket in our entire lives. So, on our first day of parking in Hoboken we have already gotten a ticket. We are off to a great start with parking authority.

An hour and a half after leaving Mike’s place we open the box with the towels in it and take a nice cold shower. We are so tired and hot by this point. I don’t think I have ever been so tired. We both lay on the couch for a while and I try to comb my hair only to find out that I am so tired I have to take a break because lifting the comb and pulling it though the knots in my hair is just to much of an effort.

We decide we need drinks and something to eat because while we are not hungry we both know we should be. I run (read walk slowly) down to the shop below our apartment and buy two 1.5 liter waters and a couple of cliff bars.

After eating, drinking, and opening a few boxes we go to the Newport Mall and get some of the things we still need for the apartment (like a pillow - because I left one in Idaho). We dropped the stuff off at the apartment and had a nice meal at an Italian restaurant a block from our apartment. The food was really good and after eating we got Miles some booze from the liquor store. We got home at about 9:45. We were up until 11:30 unpacking at which point we both fell into bed, our bodies sore and our minds tired.

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?