First week on my own…

Well, kind of. My parents are about 20 minutes away (if they drive slowly). Moving down on the 12th was bittersweet. I’ll admit it, I cried when I drove away from Judy’s. A lot of good times (and frustrating) were had there. Judy cried when we said goodbye, but I was fine until I hit 6th and then it was all over. Spent some time with my grandparents, which was nice, I have a feeling I know what I’m getting from them for Christmas this year, normally I get a fair sum of cash from grandpa, but I think this year I’m getting bed sheets and kitchen gear. Grandma was asking about what I needed for my house. Personally? I want the cash!


The drive down was uneventful. Dad drove his very loaded down truck and I drove mine (also completely loaded). We made good time and got to the house earlier than we thought considering the packing up took very little time (Gaylord was overly enthusiastic on getting stuff loaded). Then we hit a snag – the keys wouldn’t work. Apparently the locks were stripped or something so the only key that would work in the lock was the original. That has been fixed, now, as we have new locks on the doors, but it was pretty frustrating all week having to hide the key so that my mom could continue getting the house in order while I went to work.

But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself, the first night went fairly well, we moved all of the boxes and furniture in and then I just zoned. Mom went and got pizza and Dad tried to get keys made that would work (they didn’t) and then we just basically watched TV and talked about a game plan. Mom was awesome and had my bed made in no time, and she cooked the pizza. Dad was my hero coming up and getting me and moving in some incredibly heavy items (books are heavy, just so you know).

After they left it was all me and Yuka. Yuka was –shockingly—more freaked out than I was. I felt so bad for her that I nearly wanted to cry. It didn’t help that I had my picture of Haille staring at me from the mantle on the fireplace. If there’s one person I’m “homesick” for it’s that little goon. I love her and it still kills me that I won’t be right there anymore to see her grow up. I still think her mom should move down here. LOL

Sleep came easier than I thought it would, but I was exhausted. Having not slept well the last couple of nights due to stress/packing, I pretty much passed out in my new room. My room is pretty great for what it is (a bedroom for one) the furniture is a little off, for me, but it’s free so I can’t complain too much. I can look out on the river from my bed, and I have had to pee so much more since living here. That’s the power of running water I suppose. The couple of complaints I have is that my room gets SO HOT at night (have to keep the temp in the house at 70 per the rules) and my downstairs neighbors are LOUD (and smokers) so I can’t open my bedroom window. I tried it the other night and it just doesn’t work. Sucks.

Sunday I basically did nothing all day, just slept and then set up a few little things in the living room, but for the most part I didn’t want to do anything. I was still feeling incredibly uneasy about the whole thing and kept asking God “what was I thinking? I’m not ready for this!” but He just let me vent. I did have a couple of meltdowns, and then I hit a turning point. I don’t remember what made me change my mind, maybe it was when my parents got here and we started moving things around. Duane came over Sunday night, too, and we watched the NFL channel and had a good time.

Monday was the get your rear in gear and get moved in. Mom and I broke down quite a few boxes worth of stuff and it was really feeling like home, which was great. We got all of my books in the bookcase (okay, well, MOM got all of that stuff up) and we moved my camera equipment into my spare room (I have a room that is for rent, if anyone is interested. Rent is $600 a month and that includes internet, phone, all utilities, cable tv, snow removal, etc. You’d be renting a room and have complete use of the kitchen, bathrooms, etc. But I’d have full use of the spare room). Then we went shopping at Fred Meyer’s and picked up a few essentials. It was feeling really homey and I was so thankful for all the help. My mom enjoys this kind of stuff, but at the same time she took a lot of time out of her schedule to do all of this for me and I really appreciate it. The company was great, but so was the work she did. Even if she did argue with my dresser for about a half hour trying to figure out where the drawers went.

Tuesday I started work over at AlaskaUSA’s Soldotna branch. Come to find out one of my childhood friends had moved back and is working there, too. That was a neat surprise. All last week while my mom was at the house finishing up the decorations for Christmas and moving my stuff in, I was in training at the branch. I’ve pretty much hit overload when it comes to the training, it’s a lot of reading and computer tests and what not, but I feel like I’m fitting in.

Once mom and I got my stuffed moved in – especially my books and my DVDs – the house started to feel more like it was mine. That it’s home. Yuka has settled in, and we’re doing pretty well. I’m a “big girl” now and it’s actually feeling pretty cool. Still, I’m stressed out with the rent issue – I need a roommate –and there are things about my job that bum me out. Sure the fact that I don’t normally get two days off in a row means I get more money to compensate for it, but I do enjoy having two days strung together to do things. It will make getting up to Anchorage that much harder. I’ll figure it out, though.

The other thing that became a huge snag was the internet. I am now looking at a phone bill that’s close to 140 a month. Why? Because ACS (and really all companies) stick it to the Peninsula. I live not even a minute away from the phone company and they couldn’t even guarantee I can get the internet, explain that to me? I had to get a phone-long distance-internet package, there’s no other option. It’s insane, but it’s something I needed, and they knew it. So very frustrating; top it off, they don’t carry modems there at the store down here, so I had to wait for one to be mailed to me. It’s just stupid.

Christmas is in Anchorage and I thankfully got Christmas Eve off (it just made it easier for my training I guess to give me Friday off). Going to be weird going back to Judy’s, and I have a feeling Yuka’s going to be REALLY confused, but I’m excited. Though, really, it’s going to stink because I don’t have gifts for anyone, and the small things that I do have are cheap little gifts from Disney. I might have to brave the stores on Friday in Anchorage and pick up a few things, depending on what the fundage looks like at this point. I don’t know when my first paycheck is being deposited. I think it’s Friday, but I am not sure.

On Friday of last week we did our traditional family picture. It wasn’t as painful as it could be, and we used my fireplace for our background. Poor mom has a horrible head cold, though, so she looks a little stuffed up, but we had a lot of fun doing it, actually. I also shot a few pictures of a friend of my parents’ and then after he left Duane wanted pictures of just him and me, so I let my dad try his hand at shooting. He did okay; we actually have a couple that I really like. I still can’t get over how Duane will be sixteen next month. It’s just crazy.

Other than that not much is going on. I will be sharing photos on my photography blog from the Christmas photo shoots soon. As you can imagine, with all of the time away from the internet I am completely backed up from all that I normally do on here. Going to have to play catch up for a week or so! Thankfully I’m able to check email from my parents’ house and work, but other than that I haven’t done much but read facebook and golden skate forums on my phone, which is incredibly limiting.

Well, I’m starting to wig out because I’m tired. It’s not even 9:30 but work is just making me braindead. I think it took me two hours to just type this all up! Insanity! Hope you all have a very merry Christmas!