100 calorie snack packs

That's what JC and I love lately. I wish they wouldn't include cheese nips though- they're not bad as the regular ones but still.

Today was so-so. We went to the church with my sister. It was the one we got married in. The pastor was bitter though half his sermon was about forgiveness. Eh. We then went to help out my sister by getting her a new breast pump. I was aghast Target allowed the return of a breast pump. Go figure. Anyway, we had a late lunch at my mom's house and there was the obligatory kissing of the babies. They are so f'ing cute. My cousin and his wife, who are expecting, came over. They just live down the street so that was nice. My second cousin, who is four, was totally inappropriate and I had to remind myself that she was four. She told Maria she wasn't a 'real' big kid because she couldn't walk. Y'all know how much I love my Maria! I had to step out of the room. JC and I did some budgeting work and that was really all.

I'm going to be contacting people tomorrow. We have a strong feeling that something's coming down the pike this week. My sister is doing her connections thing for each of us tomorrow. We're gonna help her move which I consider ample pay for staying with her. You all know my feelings on moving. The only good thing about this is that she's smart enough to have saved and hired movers. Phew!

Well, if nothing else you now know my feelings on moving and my niece. Heh.

recap

man! what a wild and crazy forty-eight hours it's been!

tuesday, july 17, gabrielle rebecca janice & isabelle elizabeth april, were born to my sister. gabby was born two minutes earlier. she was two pounds heavier and one inch taller than izzy. that night i stayed with my sister in the hospital, helping her feed and holding them when they cried and not sleeping. it's so humbling for me to be around babies. i know it's cliche for a thirty year old woman to wax philosophical on the miracle of birth and how wondrous babies are but i'm sincere. i don't want one of my own so i like to think that gives me a little more cred. *grin*.
anyway, they are absolutely adorable and i will be so sad when they pack up and move to alaska. my sister had them via 'c section' and she's doing well. she got up and walked around today. she blamed me and JC for a blood line on her stitches' bandage. she said we made her laugh too much. heh.

yesterday was truly a blur. JC got a job lead so we ran around town for that. we visited my sister and the twins again but other than that i really don't remember what happened.

today, i went to an info. session for the social work temp. agency in town. it was great. we had what i like to call 'social work church'. we got the info. and then we sat around and had a group venting about the horrors of the justice, mental health and drug counseling systems. it was great to hear. the coordinator was saddened that me and JC were both out of work social workers so i think that means she'll work hard to get us a contract. the pay is really good with them so i hope that something works out with them.

otherwise, life has been moseying along as it is wont to do in this region of the country. i've been enjoying all the extra time i get to spend with my husband. something told me yesterday to be glad for this because we'll be working soon. he's taught me to drive his truck; we've been exercising; i've been teaching him how to get around this area...in short, we're bonding.

i sometimes really miss portland but it ebbs and flows; just like when i moved from nyc to portland. i've had a lot of time to think about all the moves i have made and what may happen in the future. i don't know but i know i do believe i can only do such an upheaval only one more time. i used to be much better able to handle the change but this last move has shown me that this moving thing, along with other things, has changed with my advancing age. i don't know....just felt the need to type that.

so here are some pictures.

cheers.

"WAKE UP G*DAMMIT!"

talk to me So my sister and my grandma wanted to go see 'Ocean's 13' but as loyal readers you already know that I have seen it. JC and I went to see this movie instead.

"Talk to Me" is the story of Ralph Waldo Petey Greene, a D.C. dj in the 1960s and 1970s who rose to fame due to his street-wise real talk. He was an ex-con who fought his way to his position with the help of straight laced Dewey Hughes. Don Cheadle, aka Acting God of the Universe, plays Greene to comic and dramatic perfection. Chiwetel Ejiofor does great by Hughes making sure that we see the conflict he has between seeing his dreams realized versus doing what's right as Greene's manager. The movie is an epic story of these men and their friendship during personal and politically turbulent times. It is both hilarious and heartening. I highly recommend seeing it. However, if you're bothered by "the n word", seeing as how they recently buried it, then you may want to stay home. A-

"NECK!!!!!!!!"

So I spent probably an inappropriate amount of time kissing my niece today. She, JC, my sister and I were out and about today. Well, out and about here really means going from one retail area to yet another. Eh, it was something to do. We first went to my sister's new house for her second walk through. The house is gorgeous! The builder is a great guy and my sister and I are involved in a little scheme to hook him and our mother up. Hee hee. Speaking of the hook up, I'm also trying to get some info. for my friend about a tasty morsel of a man I met right before I left Portland. Keep your fingers crossed.

JC went to a job fair and got a very promising lead. I followed up with Social work, prn but had to just leave a message. I'll pound the pavement on Monday. I suppose now I'm just on vacation. There are some plans floating about regarding going to the Atlanta Aquarium tomorrow. You know what- that'd be nice however it costs $24 per person. WTF?! As we are unemployed and homeless, we're going to take in a free attraction called the MLK Jr. Historical site. Free is good.

"that's what they used to call me..."

and that statement was followed by a puzzled look and, "...excuse me?" JC was making a joke about drinking Wild Cherry pepsi but it didn't go over too well. It may take some time for my family to get used to his wry humor. I love it!

What to say: I woke up after fitful sleep that had dreams featuring long highways with miles of cars. Speaking of, we hit some pavement today. I put in an app. to do substitute teaching 'in the meantime'. JC got in some resumes and met one assistant principal who said he'll call tomorrow for an interview. We'll cross our fingers on that. After a lot of running around town we went to the house that we have under contract. We both met the realtor in person for the first time today. She was sweet. She talked to the builders and they've given us lots of extensions up until now and YES, they will continue to give us more time. Our hope is something will pop up for JC soon.

The weather was muggy. I raised my hand to see if I could feel the air it felt that tangible. It's such an interesting change.

JC made his infamous meatloaf and smashed potatoes and my grandma and ENORMOUSLY pregnant sister came over for that. It was really all quite lovely. My mother was 'off' but I saw her for all of thirty minutes. That's how it goes. We have tentative aquarium plans for Saturday...perchance I can dream.

Not all that much else to report. Here' good travel juju going out to all those lonely truck drivers making the long haul who will never read this blog. My heart goes out to them now.

A-T-L

Well, I have no room number tonight because we've made it to Atlanta.

We started out from Louisville this morning around nine thirty and got to the city around four. This fourth day was definitely the shortest and most enjoyable leg of our journey.

My thoughts are these: Tennessee is not so bad and full of very large cities. We went through Nashville and Chattanooga. A very lovely state. It almost scoured the memory of South Dakota. Oh well. There are FAR more McDonald's (and fast food in general) in the east. I never noticed that until I counted dozens of food exit signs that advertised McDonalds', Burger Kings and Wendys'. It was kind of sad. I already knew that the southeast is the least healthy section of this country but I was kind of able to see why.
I also noticed that being from Oregon has vastly improved my ability to drive in the rain compared to the others I was driving around. Wow, you'd think as much as it rains down here that people would learn but apparently not.

Got some great phone calls and messages - thanks guys! We pulled up and I played a lot with my niece. My sister cooked for us and then we unpacked both vehicles. It's sticky and warm, as expected. Fortunately, it cools down a lot at night and I enjoy it then. Fortunately also is the fact that September is in two months. Hee hee.

I will be updating more to give more information regarding getting jobs and employment. Hopefully soon, hee hee.

Room 200

The third leg of our trip found us going through seven states. JC and I added up how many states we'd each been to so far in life. He's done thirty seven and thirty four for me. This trip has helped with our life long goal of visiting each state in this country. We missed a prime opportunity to get to Hawaii when we were living in Portland. Oh well- just another reason to get back. *grin*


This drive was FAR better than the previous two. We started in Iowa/Nebraska onto Missouri/Kansas then Illinois then Indiana and now in Kentucky. We snagged a great room on hotels.com in Louisville's downtown. No major stories. The room is by far the nicest we've had since Silverdale.

We'll see what the trip to ATL holds. Thanks again for the messages, emails and calls!

Room 217

When I was about 12, my sister decided to do one of those debutante balls. She had to have a talent for it so she decided to recite a poem. She chose one by Langston Hughes. It wasn't 'Dream Deferred' but I really can't remember the title now. Anyway, it talks about how hard life is and my favorite line, perhaps the one that opens the poem, is "Life ain't been no crystal stair". That was my motto for today.

JC and I hit the road from Billings, Mountain (yes, that's what I will forever call that state) at 85 mph and didn't look back. We crossed into Wyoming and it pretty much looked the same as Mountain though less mountainy. What I'll remember most about Wyoming was the short distance we had to drive through it and it's highway system. Upon entering, we were greeted with a red road. Seriously, the highway was red. What I loved about Wyoming was that it had the best highway system I'd ever driven. Truly, the ride was like butter! So smooth and for only about ten miles through the whole state did I feel any bumps. Go Wyoming, go Wyoming!

Sadly, we had to leave the quiet and well paved state and enter into South Dakota or as we like to call it- a little bit of hell on Earth. I suppose it's not fair to characterize SD (so disgusted) like that but all we saw were badly paved roads and miles and miles of NOTHING. Few radio stations didn't help. I'd already exhausted all of my "This American Life" cds as well as a few marriage helping type CDs. I gave them to JC so I was stuck with some mixed CDs I'd made as an, apparently, sad, sad twenty-something back in NYC. Oh well. I did a lot of thinking. That's really the only good thing I can ever say to anyone about driving through SD--- it gives you plenty of time to think.

We then FINALLY left the state and wound up on the border of Iowa and Nebraska and Missouri wasn't too far. We hadn't eaten since our free continental breakfast in Mountain about eleven hours earlier. To say we were beat down is putting it lightly. We found a 24-hour diner and got to business. In hindsight I can only laugh at how hungry and tired we must have been. The place was a wreck! I don't even know where to begin so I won't.

We learned we were only a blessed twenty miles from Omaha. After our questionable meal, we took off and here we are. Turns out Omaha is just barely in Nebraska. We actually are in Iowa in Council Bluffs. I'll have to tell my old co-worker I actually made it to Iowa. It's not so bad. We lucked out and found a reasonable room at Days Inn (JC prefers hotels in the TripRewards network *shrug*).

So, that's our story, we'll stick to it.