We know how to relax on vacation. Instead of walking down the street, down a flight of stairs and parking ourselves in beach chairs- we decided to embark to South Coast Plaza, the mega of all malls, on the day Apple released their new G3 Iphone. We had some required shopping to do anyway, and decided it would be fun to check out the hoopla at the Apple store.
With Coffee Bean lattes in hand, we strolled over and giggled at the throng of people that had lined up at 3:30 in the morning. A lowly Apple employee was passing out bottles of Smart Water, and told us that the line was only 2.5 hours long. Matt laughed and started to walk away, but my competitive spirit kicked in and I ran to the back of the line.
"What are you doing?" my husband asked.
"Look, would you rather go shopping with me, or wait here in hopes you may actually get a new phone?" I asked. (feeling guilty that the reason he needed a new phone was because I accidentally dropped his on the tiled kitchen floor).
So we waved goodbye to Matt, and headed off to shop. And shop. And shop. And eat lunch. And walk around. And walk around some more. The line took FIVE HOURS to get through, and Matt would die if he knew I was telling you this because he's ashamed he had that much time to burn.
The whole thing was pretty interesting. People showed up in their Empire Strikes Back t-shirts- and everyone was very chatty. Matt stood in front of a lighting designer for a local theatre, and a computer programmer- both friends that had taken the day off work for this glorious event. One guy was savvy, and sold his spot in line about halfway through for $50.
Once Matt made it into the store, I dragged the kids along- we wanted to see what all the ruckus was about. Because of fire laws- there was an army of Apple employees manning the door, and they personally escorted you in when your time came up. We saw one young girl exclaim that she had to use the ladies room- and a chagrined Apple guy had to personally walk her through the mall and wait outside to make sure she could get back in. Crazy.
While Matt was haggling through all of the options, I played Dora and Ratatouille on the kids computers- while giggling at the crowd. There seemed to be an inordinate amount of young 20 year old guys, with ratty t-shirts and converse sneakers. They kept calling their friends on their new phones, and I heard more than one say:
"Dude, guess where I am right now? In the fucking Apple Store, man. G3 is awesome."
Sigh. It almost made me wish for my stuff to come out of storage so I could rejoin the land of responsibility.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Dazed, Not Confused
So sorry for the delay in posting. I've entered the neverland of moving-turning-into-vacation. With our stuff in storage, our house sold, and just a month or two to wait for Matt to start his job- we are finally relaxing. Matt's Mom hightails it out of town during the summer and we are the fortunate souls that get to crash here and bring in her mail.
At the bottom of her street is a great family beach. We've been going daily. We trot the kids down the steps, park our asses in our beach chairs and watch them put huge quantities of sand in every part of their little bodies. (up the nose, people!) My poor mother-in-law's house is getting such a workout- it will soon look like I felt my last few days in Houston.
When we arrived, we were all pretty tired. Moving itself is exhausting- but couple that with a terribly long roadtrip and then a terribly fun, but tiring stay at my brother's for the 4th and you have one pooped family. Matt literally slept for the first 3 days we were here. He is just starting to return to the land of living, and I think I saw a glimmer of color enter his cheeks on the beach today.
The kids are handling the change pretty well. They did ask where we were going for playgroup tomorrow, and I tried to explain it to them. They continually ask to see the same Max and Ruby episode over and over and over again- and I tried to explain to my husband that this makes them feel secure- not sure if he believed me or not. We tour their new school next week, so that should be interesting.
We are so in love with the town we are in, we have tried our hardest to find a house we could afford here. We thought we found one- a new craftsman, built in 2003- and located in the canyon-within walking distance to the quaint village filled with shops and such. I quickly sent it to my realtor, who happens to live around the corner from my mother-in-law. He was driving by later in the day, and popped out of his car to say hello. I enthusiastically asked him about the listing . He replies:
"Are you planning on teaching Annie and Lucy to roll joints?"
I guess that's the "artistic" section of town. Damn.
At the bottom of her street is a great family beach. We've been going daily. We trot the kids down the steps, park our asses in our beach chairs and watch them put huge quantities of sand in every part of their little bodies. (up the nose, people!) My poor mother-in-law's house is getting such a workout- it will soon look like I felt my last few days in Houston.
When we arrived, we were all pretty tired. Moving itself is exhausting- but couple that with a terribly long roadtrip and then a terribly fun, but tiring stay at my brother's for the 4th and you have one pooped family. Matt literally slept for the first 3 days we were here. He is just starting to return to the land of living, and I think I saw a glimmer of color enter his cheeks on the beach today.
The kids are handling the change pretty well. They did ask where we were going for playgroup tomorrow, and I tried to explain it to them. They continually ask to see the same Max and Ruby episode over and over and over again- and I tried to explain to my husband that this makes them feel secure- not sure if he believed me or not. We tour their new school next week, so that should be interesting.
We are so in love with the town we are in, we have tried our hardest to find a house we could afford here. We thought we found one- a new craftsman, built in 2003- and located in the canyon-within walking distance to the quaint village filled with shops and such. I quickly sent it to my realtor, who happens to live around the corner from my mother-in-law. He was driving by later in the day, and popped out of his car to say hello. I enthusiastically asked him about the listing . He replies:
"Are you planning on teaching Annie and Lucy to roll joints?"
I guess that's the "artistic" section of town. Damn.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Not On The Road Again
The roadtrip is done. At long last! I wrapped a bunch of small presents, and thought I had timed it to deliver them out to the anklebiters every hour and a half or so, to help break up the time. 15 minutes into the trip, my 2 year old had the ultimate freak out and my well prepared treasure chest was almost empty.
Highlights of the trip?
The Liberty Bar in San Antonio. As opposed to eating nonstop Sonic and Mickey D's, we splurged on a delicious dinner at this falling down house in a random part of town. I had a roasted hazelnut salad with fresh parm and a slice of lime buttermilk pie for dessert.
Leapsters. Keep kids occupied for long periods of time. Thank you Leapfrog. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Big brothers that can cook. Tom made a stuffed flank steak & a grilled shrimp orzo salad.
Portable DVD players. As my kids were transfixed by "Finding Nemo"- Matt and I had this conversation:
Matt: Did you ever realize Nemo is actually in very little of this movie?
Me: Wow. You're right. It's just like "Saving Private Ryan." But with fish.
Matt: I wonder if that was on purpose. Do you want Sonic or McDonalds for lunch?
And scene!
Highlights of the trip?
The Liberty Bar in San Antonio. As opposed to eating nonstop Sonic and Mickey D's, we splurged on a delicious dinner at this falling down house in a random part of town. I had a roasted hazelnut salad with fresh parm and a slice of lime buttermilk pie for dessert.
Leapsters. Keep kids occupied for long periods of time. Thank you Leapfrog. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Big brothers that can cook. Tom made a stuffed flank steak & a grilled shrimp orzo salad.
Portable DVD players. As my kids were transfixed by "Finding Nemo"- Matt and I had this conversation:
Matt: Did you ever realize Nemo is actually in very little of this movie?
Me: Wow. You're right. It's just like "Saving Private Ryan." But with fish.
Matt: I wonder if that was on purpose. Do you want Sonic or McDonalds for lunch?
And scene!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Unpacked
Hey Oprah! You were right! Remember your show on "The Secret"? Well, it works. At least for me. But not the way I want it too. Remember last week when I told you I kept calling our movers to confirm our packing and moving dates because, as I told the customer service woman "my worst fear is to not have anyone show up"? Next time I will spend my time calling Publishers Clearing House and asking when my check will be ready.
This morning, I had 2 dozen doughnuts on the kitchen counter, a car packed with suitcases, and anklebiters that had been up since 5am. We were ready to go. At 8:15am, I called our salesguy from the moving company to ask when they would be here. At 8:45am, I still hadn't heard, so called the customer service rep. She sounded nervous, and said she would call me back.
I suddenly had a very, very bad feeling.
Sure enough, they screwed up the scheduling. There was no one available to pack us today. They kept trying to tell me it was no big deal to push everything by a day, but our lease ends on Friday. I kept telling them "you are putting the burden of your mistake on me. You need to figure it out." They stopped returning my calls. So, I tracked down their General Manager, and left him a message on his cell phone.
They are going to pack us AND load the truck tomorrow. This means I will have an army of Mayflower soldiers in my house at 8am, until midnight. I am so not looking forward to tomorrow, but another side of me is happy I get one more night in my own bed.
This morning, I had 2 dozen doughnuts on the kitchen counter, a car packed with suitcases, and anklebiters that had been up since 5am. We were ready to go. At 8:15am, I called our salesguy from the moving company to ask when they would be here. At 8:45am, I still hadn't heard, so called the customer service rep. She sounded nervous, and said she would call me back.
I suddenly had a very, very bad feeling.
Sure enough, they screwed up the scheduling. There was no one available to pack us today. They kept trying to tell me it was no big deal to push everything by a day, but our lease ends on Friday. I kept telling them "you are putting the burden of your mistake on me. You need to figure it out." They stopped returning my calls. So, I tracked down their General Manager, and left him a message on his cell phone.
They are going to pack us AND load the truck tomorrow. This means I will have an army of Mayflower soldiers in my house at 8am, until midnight. I am so not looking forward to tomorrow, but another side of me is happy I get one more night in my own bed.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Moving Right Along
Movers come tomorrow.
Must write in fragments because house is a jumbled mess.
Been up since dawn.
Bags almost packed.
Piggy banks emptied.
Fridge is clean.
Pantry is too.
Almost killed hubby last night.
He (finally!) cleaned his closet night before big move.
Been begging him to do this for months.
Can't find one Leapster game.
This is driving me crazy.
I think Texas Treeroach stole it.
If you see roach playing Leapster Nemo game, give me a holler.
Best friend from California called me this afternoon.
With bad news.
She's moving to North Carolina.
This stinks.
My sister-in-law texted me this morning.
With very, very good news.
My little brother left Iraq and now is in Germany.
HE'S COMING HOME!
This puts everything into perspective.
Must write in fragments because house is a jumbled mess.
Been up since dawn.
Bags almost packed.
Piggy banks emptied.
Fridge is clean.
Pantry is too.
Almost killed hubby last night.
He (finally!) cleaned his closet night before big move.
Been begging him to do this for months.
Can't find one Leapster game.
This is driving me crazy.
I think Texas Treeroach stole it.
If you see roach playing Leapster Nemo game, give me a holler.
Best friend from California called me this afternoon.
With bad news.
She's moving to North Carolina.
This stinks.
My sister-in-law texted me this morning.
With very, very good news.
My little brother left Iraq and now is in Germany.
HE'S COMING HOME!
This puts everything into perspective.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Lost and Found
Matt bought us a GPS system today for our upcoming roadtrip across the country. We went to Best Buy, and I wasn't even noticing what was going on around me, but Matt clued in that the woman next to him was having the clerk run a price match on a system that was on sale at Circuit City. Best Buy was out of the system, but it was such a good deal that before we left the store, Matt found the closest Circuit City on his Iphone and reserved us one of the last GPS'. It saved us $100!
GPS is cool. We had fun deciding which "person" would give us directions. I wanted the British chick, but apparently, only Americans can give you warnings and traffic and such. We took the kids out for frozen yogurt after dinner, and purposefully went the wrong way more than a few times, in vain hope that we could piss off the GPS system and get "Jane" to sound a little exasperated. Didn't work.
The packers arrive in two days. TWO DAYS people. I have so much frickin' work to do before then, and Matt is getting killed at work. It's going to be a stressful week. Want to know what my biggest fear is? That a Texas Treeroach is going to hibernate in one of my moving boxes and hatch gazillions of babies to surprise me with when I open the box.
GPS is cool. We had fun deciding which "person" would give us directions. I wanted the British chick, but apparently, only Americans can give you warnings and traffic and such. We took the kids out for frozen yogurt after dinner, and purposefully went the wrong way more than a few times, in vain hope that we could piss off the GPS system and get "Jane" to sound a little exasperated. Didn't work.
The packers arrive in two days. TWO DAYS people. I have so much frickin' work to do before then, and Matt is getting killed at work. It's going to be a stressful week. Want to know what my biggest fear is? That a Texas Treeroach is going to hibernate in one of my moving boxes and hatch gazillions of babies to surprise me with when I open the box.
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