Evening Keel

I'm just going to skip the apologies on neglecting this blog.  We all knew it was going to happen sooner or later. At any rate, here I am, so bygones?

Things are....well.  Not that they are well, simply that they are, and nothing more can be said about that. I am settling in, this is starting to feel like a long-term situation, and I have never been so homesick in my life.  I have never missed mountains and altitude more in my life. I have never missed my family and friends more in my life.

But, here I am, and here I must stay.  So, to that end, I've got myself a crappy little job.  I'm writing freelance, of course, but I'm also now working for Ryla, which is a call-center oursourcer. We will be running the Verizon Wireless account, so the next time you call them for service, you might very well be talking to me.   That is to say, at the end of the next five weeks you might, because for the next five weeks, I'm in training from 4:30 PM through 1:15 AM, Monday through Friday. It's not what I WANT to do with my life, it's just what I could get after having been home with the girls for the past five years. So, it gives me something to do. It doesn't pay well, but it pays something, and I can supplement with my writing, so it ends up being OK.

And I kinda rock at it, too.  We had our first "assessment" on Friday.  It was 32 questions, and they gave us 2 hours.  I took 10 minutes and got a 100%. I'm kinda awesome that way.

There are thins to like about Indiana. I like Steak 'n Shake a LOT. I might be a whale when I go back home, just because of the weight gain from steakburgers. They're the shiznit, but everyone looks at me like I'm crazy when I say that. That's because they've HAD Steak 'n Shake for most of their lives....we don't have them in Colorado.  It's a trade off, though--they don't have Del Taco here. Give and take, I suppose.

Peyt and Chuck are doing well.  Peyt's teacher wrote me a nice e-mail to tell me how much she's enjoying having Peyton in her class and to thank me for sharing my daughter with her.  I thought that was pretty nice! She's already been taken up two reading levels, and I think she'll be going up one more here soon.  She's way more advanced than they're giving her credit for.  She also just got her "wings"--they have a behavior reward program at her school (she goes to Amelia Earhart Elementary), and she got recognized for good behavior in her classroom.  On Monday, she'll have her name announced with daily announcements and will have her name in the school newsletter at the end of the week. She's proud and excited, and I'm proud of her!

Chuck is doing REALLY well.  She's gaining weight and growing tall and starting to speak in sentences, even! I think we've just about recovered from the time she spent in the PICU, and she's just about caught up with the rest of her age group.  She's also a big snuggle bug...and she loves to give hugs and will come up to me and say "Hug-a me!" Love!

So, things are OK here. I don't love it, but I'm getting used to it.  I guess at the end of the day, that might be all I can ask for.

I really didn't ditch this blog...

...I just haven't had internet access until now!

OK, let's be real honest.  I'm pirating off someone's unsecured connection.  Hey, if you don't secure your network, don't be surprised when people suck your bandwidth.  I'm not a pirate, I'm an educator.  Learn the lesson!

Although, pirates are sexier.  Oh well.

So, we're in Indiana.  We got here on Thursday of last week.  A trip that was supposed to take us 18 hours took us nearly a week.  But, I can't complain too much, I didn't do any of the driving. :)

The girls are adjusting well.  Peyton had her first day of first grade today.  She goes to Amelia Earhart Elementary, and the school is beautiful.  It was built in 1995, so it's fairly new.  Her teacher is bubbly and energetic (just like Mrs. Sharp, her Kindy teacher, was back in Denver).  She came out the door today all smiles and when we asked how her first day was, she said "AWESOME!" and bounced and danced around.

I think that's a good day.

We're all settling in.  The girls are taking over the place like it's where they were born.  Eric's in his element, so he's back to behaving like a high schooler (love you, sweetheart!) and I'm....well.  I'm just here.  I'm keeping busy, because when I don't, I want to cry.  I miss Colorado.  I hate humidity, I hate not knowing my way around, I hate feeling isolated and alone because I don't have my friends.

I'll get over it.  I'll find a job here soon and things will work out.  If I keep busy, things are better, so I'll keep busy.

But I'll never stop hating Indiana.  God, the corn.  The hideous amounts of corn.  The smell of rotting corn.  I want to cut off my nose.  Don't even get me started on the humidity.  Barf.

The Adventure Begins...

My name is Amber, I've been a Colorado native for the past 33 years.  It was a condition I was not eager to change.  Really, I was well on my way to achieving that goal when several things happened.

Well, realistically, just one thing happened.  2010 happened.

This has been a bad year for our family.  It all started with a very sick girl (who is much better now!) and ended with job loss and losing the home we were renting to foreclosure.  We've bounced back from problems like this before...but this time, there's no bouncing back.  We've gone through our savings, we've gone through 401(k) funds, we've used all of our leeway on time we can stay in our home.  We have no more resources, so the time has come to do something drastic.

It turns out that our "something drastic" is an interstate move.  We're headed toward Lafayette, Indiana, and a cozy little house we will temporarily reside in with my mother in law.

I have resisted this move with all my power.  When it first became the only clear and realistic solution, I threatened suicide.  I'm not proud of that, but I did it.  I also screamed and picked fights and cried a lot.  I did a lot of very non-adult things.  But, I am not a stupid person.  Overly emotional, yes, but not dumb.  It quickly became apparent that this was not only the best choice, but the only choice.

So.  We're moving. Temporarily.  I've committed to a year, no more.  We'll see.

Thus far, the move is not going well at all.  First of all, we were supposed to leave on the 13th of August.  We ended up leaving on September 3.  Clearly the packing took longer than anticipated--plus, I had to have an emergency root canal, and severe environmental allergies hampered my ability to help to a certain degree.  But, it got done and we got rid of the majority of our belongings, put some in storage and packed the rest into two minivans and hit the highway.

We made it as far as Limon, Colorado.  8 miles outside the Limon exit, both the battery and brake lights came on.  We rode into a TA truck stop and checked into a Comfort Inn.  And that's where I'm typing this from right now.  The van is now fixed, we might leave tonight.  Or, we might all rest tonight and head out in the early morning.  Right now, nobody seems to want to include me in decisions--they just tell me what's going to happen and then act surprised when I get pissy.

Whatever.  That seems to be the tenor of this move--just spit instructions at Amber, don't give a crap what she thinks.  In making this move--which was supposed to be the RESPONSIBLE decision--I've apparently rescinded my adulthood.  I anticipate a lot of pissiness in my future.  At least for a year.

And that's the backstory.  I've started this blog to chronicle my year in exile. Both the bad and the good--because everyone assures me there will be both.  I have my doubts.

I guess we'll both find out together, won't we?