New yet old

Today is day #4 in my new place. I moved in this past Saturday and have spent the last few days unpacking, organizing and trying to settle in - well, and working of course. And mostly everything is going well. I'm 99% unpacked, about 75% organized (the desk is still lacking) and I'd say 50% "settled".

I'm enjoying having a roommate, even though we haven't had much of a chance to spend time together. I think I would have been very lonely to go from a full household to just me. Irie is enjoying her new digs as well and we both love having the park across the street from us. Today, during lunch we walked over and played catch for a 1/2 hour.

In terms of settling in, I think I'm pretty much settled in my room. There are a few things that are missing - I haven't really hung anything on the walls yet, I don't have a frame for my bed yet, and I have a makeshift desk for the moment, but otherwise, I feel good in it. The rest of the house I haven't spent much time in. In part that's because I've been trying to get my room set up and in part that's because I can (for a reason I don't even want to try to explain) only access my remote connection to work when I'm hard-wired into the modem in my room. I can get internet anywhere - but not remote access. Weird. Anyway, that has kept me in my room primarily.

The rest of the house is also taking some adjusting for me because it's one of those places that's old and even when it's clean (which it's really not at the moment), it just doesn't necessarily look it. I generally like to live in places that are newer, have fresh coats of paint, etc because it just makes me feel cleaner. I think I'll get there in this place - just like my last apartment in Chicago, it will just take some time - and some serious cleaning! The kitchen is my other area of concern. I generally really like to cook, but I just don't like this kitchen. It's small and cramped, and the appliances are old, and while functional - again food and a lack of feeling clean just don't mix for me. That will probably be the hardest room for me to settle in, but it will happen - mostly because it's a totally necessary room! All these moves are definitely helping me determine what I like in a living space though - specifically I think I've determined that I really prefer kitchens that have seating areas. Screw the dining room idea - I like to have social time in the kitchen!

But all in all, I think it'll be a good move for me. I'm really enjoying working full-time from home, even if it has been a bit of an adjustment to not have as much downtime. Work is keeping me extremely busy at the moment and there are lots of times I glance at the clock and can't figure out how that much time has passed.

The neighbors here are really nice and I've already met several of them and attended a neighborhood party the same day I moved in. I don't think I've ever lived anywhere that people have been quite this outgoing.

I love the area and the proximity to things. I hate the closest grocery store - again, feels old and cramped. I miss having a Target very close. Ahhh, there are always pluses and minuses to everything!

Anyway, I'll post pictures soon. :-)

Happy Earth Day!

Today is Earth Day. And in addition, April is National Poetry Month. So, my office in Chicago (which can be a very silly place) decided to have a poetry contest. The only rule of the contest was that our poems had to be about trees. So, here is my submission, written from the perspective of Irie.

Irie's Ode to Trees

Oh, how I love to bark at thee
I attack your trunk and growl ferociously

I know you harbor those squirrels I see
And one of these days they will fall down to me

Though my owner yells, “Stop it, I-rie!”
I vow to continue my assault on the tree.

We didn't win any awards, but we did illicit a lot of laughs which is what we were after. Happy Earth Day everyone! Do something good for the world today!

March for the Animals - Thanks for helping us meet our goal!

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So I'm not the most reliable blogger

I have been very neglectful of my responsibilities as a blogger lately, as a few of you have reminded me. I've been a bit pre-occupied with all that is happening in my world and have been a little reluctant to post anything about it until things became a bit more certain. And while I can't say everything is figured out, some things have become more clear.

So first and foremost, I have found an apartment for the summer. Utilizing my favorite tool ever, Craigslist, I found a two bedroom row-house in the South Baltimore/Federal Hill area. My will-be roommate seems to be a great person and we hit it off immediately. She's lived in the apartment for a few years and has it fully furnished (except my bedroom) which means I don't have to move (or get) a bunch of stuff. She's planning on living there through August/September and is on a month-to-month lease, so I get to take advantage of that arrangement as well. We each have our own bathrooms and it's a nice sized place with plenty of space. It also has a fenced-in large patio off the back of the house which is great for playing catch with Irie or working outside. And it's located directly across the street from a huge park for long walks with Irie and a public swimming pool which may be really nice on those hot summer days. She doesn't have a dog, but loves them and totally fell for Irie when they met. I've warned her about Irie's craziness and she doesn't seem concerned. We'll see if that lasts! :-) Anyway, I'm excited about it and think it will be a good experience.

Secondly, and fresh off the press, I am no longer employed at my after-school job. Ever since the weather has gotten warmer, I've been having a lot of trouble with it. All the kids want to do is be outside and it's so hard to keep them inside doing another three hours of school work after they've been there all day. They mostly don't want to be there and while we have shining moments of bliss, they are few and far between. So, for the past few weeks I've been contemplating this and trying to decide what I want to do.

Then yesterday happened. First of all, I walked into the cafeteria for snack time and there were roaches everywhere. That just kind of started the day on a bad note. Then, at the end of the day I was standing outside with a group of my kids when I noticed two older boys (probably high-schoolers) near the basketball court. They reached into the side of the dumpster and pulled out a gun. Upon looking around, they noticed me watching them and shoved it back in the side of the dumpster. I, of course, reported this to the school staff. They then wanted to see the gun (to make sure I wasn't just imagining things, I guess), so we took a little tour by the dumpster so everyone could see it. We pulled all our kids inside and called the cops and then stood watch inside the doors where we could see the dumpster, but the kids on the basketball court couldn't see us. A half hour later the cops still hadn't shown up (despite seeing three cop cars drive by without stopping at the school.) Finally one of the boys nonchalantly walked over to the dumpster with a hoodie in his arms, took a final look around, grabbed the gun, wrapped it up and took off running. Still no cops.

So, not only was there a gun, but they know I saw it, they know which car I drive and they still have the gun. The likelihood of any of this really coming back to get me is not great, but I just didn't feel like it was worth it to keep coming back to a place where things like this are happening. So this morning I turned in my resignation. I'm very sorry that I didn't get to say goodbye to the kids and I feel a bit wimpy for running away, but when I put it all on the scale, it just doesn't balance out. I'm not naive enough to think that this is the worst of what's going on in the area and I know ultimately this is not a huge thing, but for a job I don't even really like??? It's too bad that kids and staff have to attend that school, but I'm sure it's like that lots of places.

Oh, and by the way, the cops still had not shown up when I left last night at 6:15pm.

So anyway, I am currently back down to one job, but I have a few things in the works so hopefully that will work out. I'll let you know when I know.

Where a kid can be a kid

So, Bob. It happened like this. Mom had a teacher institute day, so I'm hanging with Aunt Ingrid today.

I didn't know what Chuck E. Cheese was, but Ingrid said they had pizza so I was game.

See ya later! I'm going to school!

I thought these guys were really cool, so I made sure to tell Aunt Ingrid to take lots of pictures of them.

Now me and Chuck E. are best buds!