Update

Packing sucks.

My goal for this week is to get everything that we are shipping back to the States packed. I have 4 boxes done so far. The apartment already looks different. The cats are not happy. We've had an increase in fighting. Their terror alert level is at Level Orange. Cuddles is especially bothered by this. Patches is amused by all the tape and the boxes.

I still have 16 days to get everything done (we don't actually leave for 23 days though). Plenty of time. I'm not going to rush this. It's all baby steps. I have a plan. By the time Itchy gets done with his last final, we will be all packed. We will spend the last week living out of suitcases as though we are on vacation.

Good times.

It's ours

So the apartment that I showed you all last week is ours.

The deposit and first months rent has been paid. The application and lease are signed.

So unless the unthinkable happens, we have a place to live. And it turns out that one of our friends from the Island is living on the same street as us. She was in our orientation groupwhen we came down here in August 2006. We're not neighbors or anything, but what are the odds that we'd end up on the same street.

I guess it's not that weird, since we know 3 (one that was in our orientation group! and two that are going there with us) people who are all living in the same apartment complex.

Happy Birthday Cuddles

I so remembered it this year! I do believe it's the first year I've remembered his birthday. I suck. He's been particularly attached to me lately, I think he may have been trying to remind me. I'm pretty sure Itchy forgot. He's been preoccupied with school, understandably, and I'm not sure he would even remember his own birthday right now. We'll give him the guilt trip later.

He'll get some strawberry ice cream tonight. It's one of the only things he actually enjoys. He begs for it. Nerd cat.

He is a whopping 6 years old now. He's an old man. Next year, he'll be considered a senior pet. Itchy and I are both seeing the signs of him aging. He's a blue gray cat. His face is definitely looking more silver these days. His behavior hasn't changed much. He's more of a lap cat than ever before though. He's still very fast and very agile (when he wants to be) but he still loves a good nap.

Ka BOOM!

Did you all hear my head explode? It was pretty loud and messy. Aside from the excruciating headache, I'm feeling better today.

We finally have our flights booked. Our cats finally have reservations on said flights. This should have been a hell of a lot easier.

It started when we got a start date. It freaked us out. We had to get a flight sooner than we thought we would. Getting the cats off the island was suppose to be the hard part. Limited number of flights+limited number of pet spots on the flights= pain in the ass. We found a flight off the island, with room for both of our cats, with little difficulty. We even got them as far as North Carolina with no problem. It was getting them out of NC that sucked.

I totally got the run around trying to make these arrangements. I booked online and than had to wait until the next morning to call the airlines and reserve spots for the cats. I called American Airlines first. No problem. Got spots and reservation codes for the cats. Also got the guy's name, the date and time I called. Warned this guy that I didn't want to have the problems that I had last time. So if I had any problems with this reservation, I'd be calling and speaking to his supervisor. American has crapped on me before, so I wasn't taking this lightly.

Than I called US Airways. They were not as helpful. The flight from NC to MN already had a pet booked on it. They only allow 2 pets in the cabin. Ugh. I had to change that part of our flight. But that was the last flight to MN that day. We'd have to spend the night in NC. With the cats. Fine. Whatever. Change the flight. Sorry, they can't change it. The flights were booked through American so I have to call them to change it. I asked them if there were pets booked on the flight the next morning. She didn't think there were.

I called American to change the US AIRWAY flight. It just doesn't make sense. In order to change it, I will be charged $550. Or I can cancel all of it and just lose all of the money. Great. Why is it that I can book this flight that I want for $200 on their website? Wouldn't it be easier to just "miss" that part of the flight and book a new one? But what happens to our luggage? There's no way it would just continue on to MN. If you miss your flight, your baggage gets taken off the plane. All that 9/11 stuff. We just don't have time for them to lose our luggage.

I call Itchy to find out what he wants to do. Than my phone runs out of minutes. Itchy is going to put more on there so I take a break from calling. I take a walk to the Fed Ex place downtown to mail our apartment application and lease. They can't mail it without a phone number. I still do not understand this. I walk back home, get the phone number, and walk back. Pay $43 to mail 4 sheets of paper. This is insane.

I get back home and Itchy is here for lunch. He wants to talk trucks. He wants a new truck. He wants me to look at trucks. What kind of truck do I want? Should we get a truck or a SUV? This doesn't really matter to me. A small SUV looks prettier to me, but a truck is more practical. So get a truck. All trucks pretty much look the same. Just tell your dad to get a good deal. They all get crappy mileage. We'll just have to deal with it. Itchy heads off back to school.

I have to call US Airways again to make sure that in that time no one has booked pets on the flight I want. No one has. But they can't save it for me. So I call American Airlines back. Except they won't answer their phone. Their hotline isn't open 24 hours a day in the Caribbean. Island hours suck when you need to get shit done. I have a little breakdown. But I know I have to spend this much to get the cats home. They are worth it.

This morning I called US Airways again. To confirm that the cats would be able to get on the flight we want. I call American again. They change the flight. For $546.40. The lady warns me that I only have 24 hours to pay for the change. I ask her if I can give her my credit card info. She says no. Than, this is no joke, the next question she asks me is for the cardholder name. You've got to be kidding lady. She must not have understood what I asked her. Or she is a raving moron.

I get the change made and call US Airways. Again. If this seems repetitive, that's because it was. They reserve the spots for the cats. But this lady can only give me one reservation code for both of the cats. The other guy gave me a code for each cat. I wonder if this is going to be a problem?

Now I need to get a hotel that allows pets and that is close to the airport. This sucks.

Apartment Pictures

I just thought I share these two pictures of what we hope we is our new apartment. Sorry it's so dark, but I didn't take the pictures. The walls are a nice mocha color. These are the cat windows. Their cat tree will probably go in this corner. There appears to be a tree right outside the window, so hopefully we will have some birds out there. Cuddles makes the best little bird noises. I miss them.

Oh and that is the new hardwood flooring that they are putting in. They have done a complete renovation on this place. Everything is brand new.



Here is the staircase. Isn't it pretty? Sorry the picture is so small. Again, I didn't take the picture. If I make it any bigger it gets blurry. Anyway, I really like the stairs. Our potential apartment is the entire upstairs of the house. I'm sure the stairs won't be quite as delightful when I have to haul groceries up there, but for now, let's look at how pretty they are.


Itchy and I have spent most of the evening trying to figure shit out. I had been talking to this landlord for a couple of weeks, so this just happened to coincide with us getting a start date. We spent the evening filling out the applications and reading over the lease. I need to go find the Fed Ex place downtown tomorrow to get this overnighted to the owners. That sounds like an adventure!

Please send "I hope you get the apartment" vibes/thoughts/prayers/whatever you may believe in our way. I really like this place. And let's be completely honest I don't have the time or patience to find something else.

I guess any date is better than no date at all

Well we got a start date. It's much, much sooner than we had anticipated.

This sucks. All the tentative plans we had are shot. We have all kinds of things that need to get done.

I just booked our flights off the island.

I need to call the airlines tomorrow to reserve spots for the cats.

I also have to send out our apartment application/lease stuff. Tomorrow. Yesterday would have been better. Apparently the apartment we found is in high demand. The owner told me that she's already got one other person that really wants it and has had a few other calls, so we need to act fast.

This is just so much fun! Not. Not at all.

Progress

We all know that I need to be packing. I know it, really I do. My denial just isn't going to get this task done. So yesterday, I took a huge leap and made a dent in the packing.

That's right folks, I bought packing tape.

One whole roll of packing tape. It even has a little cutter thing on it so when I actually start putting things into the box (that's right, I only have the one box so far), I can pack the scissors. I don't think that they are that high on the list of things I need to pack, but it makes me feel better knowing that I could pack them.

In other lack of news, we still don't have a start date. It's annoying. Itchy needs to know if he needs to start looking for an externship. I need to know so I can secure a place to live. I don't want to be homeless. Itchy already told me that I'm going to have to get use to wall sitting since we won't have any furniture. It's bad enough that we won't have furniture, but it's going to be hard to wall sit with NO walls. But it's true. We really don't have anything. I should show you the list of things I think we need. It's enough to make anyone cry. Would it be wrong to get married just for the gifts? I mean, we're planning on getting married anyway. It'd just be bumped up a year or so. But hell, we can't afford the things we need, how would we pay for a wedding?

Where was I? Oh yeah. We'll have next to nothing. We're hoping Itchy's parents are feeling generous and will give him a bed, his desk, and maybe a couch. I've been browsing online looking for sales on things we need (plates, silverware, a vaccuum for all the cat hair) and found a few things. The only definite is the new cat tree. That was fun to pick out. I think they'll like it.

I may have found an apartment too. I just got the pictures today. It sounds great. My favorite things are the staircase and the cat level windows! Yep, it has cat level windows. My babies will have great big windows that are darn near floor to ceiling! Oh and the place sounds like it is owned by Taylor Doose (a guy from one of my favorite shows, Gilmore Girls). I think we'd be happy there.

Hey that's my name

Someone has stolen my name. I've known about it for about the last 10 years or so. I found her in the phone book. I was just checking to see if there was anyone that lived near me that had the same last name. It's a fairly common name but the spelling is a bit different. Well, not only was there a handful of people that shared the last name, there was one that had the same first name as well. Turns out she lived only a few blocks from where I lived!

Recently, I've been getting her emails. One of my email addresses is simply my name. Well, our name. She must have a similar email address. Her friends keep emailing me. I email them back to let them know they've got the wrong Lori.

From what I gathered, she is a teacher, has at least one hockey playing child, enjoys scrap booking, had a sister recently move closer to her, and had a birthday last week. Her friends seem nice. She got a lot of "Happy Birthday" emails. Since none of them mentioned an age, I'm guessing she's older than I am. The older people get the less people mention numbers.

All of this makes me wonder if she is getting my emails. Or my regular mail (when we were practically neighbors). Also, I wonder how many times we were in the same store at the same time. I mean, we had to go to the same Target or Cub at least once. Weird. It's kind of freaking me out.

Movie Recommendation

I just wanted to let you know that if you get the chance to see Slumdog Millonaire, you really should. It's a great story that is cleverly told. Parts of it are depressing as all hell, but it is a really great movie.

I know it has been out for a while but I live on an island. Things get here late. It might be on video at this point. I really don't know.

Itchy's arranged marriage

Itchy finally told his parents where he is going for clinics. We've known for a little over a month. He couldn't tell them right away. We have to limit the amount of time they have to buy a house there. Not kidding. They will probably want to live near Itchy. Our only hope is that they will want to stay close to the golden grandkid.

Itchy's mom also suggested that now that he is almost done with school, he should start looking for a wife. Remember, they don't know about me. At all. I have a feeling his mom is looking to arrange something. She would prefer that Itchy marry a career women. A doctor. Specifically, a medical doctor. A vet would be acceptable. Lawyer would be great. Some sort of high paying, respectable career.

Itchy told her that he wants someone that makes him happy. They came to a compromise at the end of the 40 minute discussion. He will find a wife that makes him happy, will go shopping with his mom, will learn to cook the way his mom cooks and pop out a few grandkids. I have a feeling a granddaughter would be preferred. His mom always wanted a daughter.

I can do all of that. I can be the daughter she never had. I can learn to cook Indian food. It could be fun. I can already make rice so I'm already half way there. Right?

I can take her shopping. I like to shop. I don't have any money which makes it less fun, but hell I can browse for hours. I'd even let her buy me things. Yep. That's how nice I am.

I'm pretty sure I still want kids. The longer I wait, the less sure I am. How weird is that? It doesn't make sense to me. But that is another topic all together.

Now, I just need a way to make Itchy happy. Maybe I will get him a new kitten. Kittens are so cute and fluffy, how could he not be happy with a brand new kitten. Or I could just continue being my charming, delightful, and witty self and he can just be happy because I tell him to be happy. Muwhahaha.

And if I can somehow come up with a career, I'll be all set. I wonder if being retired means that I once had a career? It must. You can't retire from doing nothing. You have to retire from something. Because I like to think of myself as retired instead of unemployed. It sounds less depressing.

So there we go. Who knew I was perfect for Itchy?