Apartment Smoke and Mirrors

July 22
Well, today I got "the letter" to post to the tenants, basically saying "pick up your trash, leash your dog, and pick up your crap", padded with "we want the place to look pretty and we'll be making improvements". We'll see how persuasive it is...

July 30
I started the beginning of this post before we went camping with Pat and Dan and our tent and their RV. I had to stop short so we could get ready, but rather than scrap that post, I'd like to continue on with it now. Camping was great, and so was my week teaching four and five-year-olds at nature camp this week. More on that later. In our business, I have not been picking up everyone else's garbage, because family comes first, then work, then the ghetto. I'll just say that the letter mentioned earlier has had minimum impact. Some, but minimal. From both sides. People should be evicted, repairs should be done, people should be responsible. But I know that my next trash cleanup will take a loooong time, and the lobby cleanups will be an obstacle course, and the cops will probably be called, sooner or later, for a drunkfest or some random neighbor(s) peeing somewhere other than in their home. We're pretty done. Done enough to think about a plan B.Like when do we decide to not worry about our next location and decide to make our farm here. I really, really want Shelby to get her manager position soon. She deserves it and it will be a catalyst for everything else. But, if it takes too long and we just can't deal with "here" anymore, and we have the money to do something about it, and I get a job in the area that we want to be...I'm just sayin'. In the meantime: cleaning, sorting, trips to Goodwill, trips to storage, prettifying the neighborhood, and supporting our dreams, egos, and sanity the best that we can. We remain optimistic, regardless of the current state of suckness, and we do so with a smile on our faces!  :S

Monday

Monday - a new week, a new chance for opportunities! We finished packing a few boxes and pictures this weekend, while helping Bess UNpack. Saturday night brought the ghetto to a new low, and also brought the police...three times. Once during the day to door 4 for some unknown reason, once at night when we got home for a blasting front yard drink fest, and once later that night for drunken stupidness and our door 2 neighbor peeing in the street. Classy. Which in turn fueled our packing, which is our only outlet for getting out of here right now. On the bright side, we found awesome deals at Target for Acer notebooks and a portable digital tv, which will come in quite handy. And the kids got a bunch of stuff from Eve and their unpacking marathon. Come on, week of July 19, baby needs a new place to live (casino reference for Shelby)!

Their Big Move

Yesterday we helped friends move into their new apartment. It is a big deal, and we're so excited for her and her daughter because this is the first place of their own since about nine years. She got married, they lived with his parents temporarily... which ended up being years, until they got divorced. Then they moved in with a friend, then they moved in with her parents, and here we are. Very long story short. Anyways, we helped her move her stuff out of storage units into their apartment. The larger storage unit was filled with boxes, bags, and furniture from nine years ago - a mini time capsule, if you will. The other storage unit had been used for about a year. Now it is all piled in the apartment, their new home, and the unpacking can begin.

What this has to do with us, my wife reminds me, is that we have boxes and boxes of stuff in our own storage (Grandma's attic) that have followed us around from apartment to apartment (and a small house). They have stayed packed for most of our life together. Lack of space has always been an issue. We have six people in our home now, and have had as many as seven. Add a few animals, and we barely fit in our home ourselves! It will be so nice to get our place, go through our boxes, and actually use, display, or repack all of the things we've collected and not had space for. Still not sure when that time will be, but we're taking it day by day, week by week. Any day now, right? And when it happens, we'll all be in motion, preparing for the that big step in our lives where we're both working and all of us are building our dreams together in our new home. I'll be packing some stuff today (started already) and we need to get some of Shelby's work stuff shipped out. A quick trip to Time Warner will get rid of a converter box and replace a broke one. We should release our tadpoles and let them become frogs in the wild, since they don't seem to want to cooperate in their tank here. Either way, today we'll work on the house, maybe go to Bess's and help them unpack, maybe chill a little. Gotta love summer :) This summer, especially! Exciting times...

Happy Birthday, Shelby!

Happy Birthday, Shelby! Today is my wife's birthday - a day to celebrate the creation of my best friend, my partner, my love. Shelby is definitely a people person, unlike me, and a water person, like me. We're an odd combination, but somehow we work. We've been nearly inseparable for the last fifteen years (this month is our anniversary, also) and our togetherness has sped up the wheels of time. Shelby has a glow that attracts all others. She is warm and positive and funny. She loves Wonder Woman and she is on a mission to save the world. We are fortunate to have Shelby in our lives as a friend or a mother or a wife or a daughter or even an acquaintance. You have done so much in your life so far, Shelby - you should be so proud of your mark on the world. And the future is going to be an incredible journey. Happy birthday, Shelby - thanks for making the world a brighter place for us to be in :)

Unemployed

Yesterday I took a trip to Kemp School, the school that I spent last year student teaching, to pick up a letter of reference and drop off a few school books that I inadvertently left in my bookcase past the end of the school year. I saw the secretary, the principal and a few teachers, including my CT, who just happened to be there for a data meeting (school = data...lots and lots of data). Suddenly I feel very unemployed. Not loser unemployed, just unattached unemployed. I guess it started with the trickling of back-to-school displays and sales that are appearing, but the trip to school did the trick. I know we have a plan - I/we still feel the plan. Shelby was nominated for outstanding employee, which she deserves so much because she is awesome. This nomination includes her efforts to grow as an employee towards a role of Program Manager and her capability to fill this role. We're on the right track. In the meantime, we're staying so busy with the day to day things that keep popping up. Life is not slow - life is busy. I am enjoying being able to help take care of home and things that always seem to slip to the bottom of the list. I just need to have faith in destiny as I see my teacher friends get ready for the new school year, and hear about my fellow graduates becoming new teachers. We're on the right track, we feel it, we're just ready for the next stop...

Sunday, Sunday

It's Sunday. The end to a week that's seemed to have lasted forever. Hard to believe that we were in New York less than a week ago, and we were sitting on Oneida Lake having coffee. We're back, settled in, and more determined now that ever to get out of here. I completed my college exit interview (for loans) so I should be getting my diploma soon, and resolved a W-4 issue for my camp teaching, so I should get my paycheck soon. I have to do a background check for my teaching license, which I'll do tomorrow, and then I should get my Early Childhood teaching license...soon. We packed up a few boxes of stuff that is currently crowding our living room, but should make room once they make their way to storage. We have boxes to ship out Shelby's business packages, which will make more room. And we'll go from there...the more we can live without and temporarily relocate, the less claustrophobic we'll be and the more prepared we'll be for whatever move we are preparing to embark upon. We need to make a run to Goodwill, but we have to go through clothes and toys before we do that - maybe next week? More room. Breathe. Prepare.

Today we are going to clean up our garden, which is our solitude here. We are also going to pot the half-price peach trees that we scored at Home Depot, and drop off the storage boxes. The city offers free compost, so we'll see what is left there, and then buy our Ace dirt to make up the difference. After our dirty work, we're cooking out the New York coneys, dogs, and salt potatoes at the in-laws who also returned from vacation - a several week (7?) RV trip looping out west! I'm looking forward to chilling out at the cookout there - so much more of a relaxing atmosphere...hopefully.

Next week: Background check, start preparing for my next camp class, stop by Kemp School to check on the garden and pick up my letter, take a test ride on the motorcycle (first of the year!), help friends move into their new place, and celebrate Shelby's birthday! Hoot! Busy week...time to get rolling :)

Aggravation Station

Yesterday was a bit of a hissy...for a little bit, anyway. I received mail from the Office of Licensure - yay! But no, it was not my license, it was a notice of a hold on my license until I update my background check. It is a check that school says has a five year life, but the Office requires an update within one year in order to obtain an initial license. Grr. Not awful - just $30 and a trip to school to get it done - but it was the straw that made me snap. I haven't been paid for the week that I worked my part-time camp job (first check, so sure, it may take time...but I live in the ghetto, so you never know), I haven't received my diploma yet (I did have to complete an exit seminar first, so I'm trying to be patient), I live in a ghetto with a bunch of people who refuse to grow up and who trash the place with...well, trash, and we so desperately want to start our farm, wherever that may be.

I am better now. I did get past it. I paid for my check online and will go to WSU in the next day or so to get it done. I informed my advisors that the background checks must be within one year, not five, to get a license. I spent some time in the heat cleaning up the yard and building lobbies. I taped a box to get ready to pack. We went to my in-laws to welcome them home, and I had a beer. I'm more stable today, thank you very much. I'll still be happy to get my diploma, my paycheck, my license, or our new place to live because, frankly, the limbo is getting ANNOYING. But we're ok. We'll laugh when we look back at this...right?? And we will eventually be sitting on our own deck, watching the kids and our dog play in our yard, talking about our chickens and how awesome our life is :)

Chittenango Vacation

We just returned to Ohio (last night) from a relaxing, fun week in Chittenango, NY. We stayed at Shelby's aunt's house on the lake, Oneida Lake to be more specific, and it was gorgeous! Chittenango was home to L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of OZ, so the town is full of Oz references, including its own yellow brick road. We woke up each morning to coffee on the deck overlooking the lake and ended the evenings with a campfire and marshmallows, or a drink on the deck, again overlooking the lake. Since this is Shelby's hometown, we visited all the things that make hometown memories, including Eddie's (mmm!), Sylvan Beach and amusement park, New York Pizzeria, Chittenango Falls, Jreck Subs, Gulf Road (scary!) to the top of the world, old home and school drive-bys, and, of course, visiting with family. I dare say that it was one of our best visits to Chittenango, since the kids are not babies any more and were able to brave the attractions we brought to them. Our days were relaxing, yet we did the things that we wanted to do and saw the things that we wanted to see. It was a relaxing vacation, it was an eventful vacation, it was a long and overdue vacation!

Upstate New York is beautiful this time of year. So green and rural - farms and forests that calm the soul and feed the mind. We started playing the "what if" game about living in this area. Mind you, the winters are hellacious, from what I hear - the lake pictured in this post has a winter scene that resembles a blank sheet of paper. But the other parts of the year are very beautiful, and the land is perfect for starting our family farm. Of course, vacation is vacation - it would not be a life of long mornings on the deck or late evenings by a campfire...but that could be a very real part of it. Which leads me to think...if we are ok with moving to Florida, and if we are ok with living in New York, then isn't everything else in between these extremes?? I mean, we should be able to make any place a home, as long a we have a rural place to start our farm.

"Everything happens for a reason." This is our religion. I believe that this vacation served its purpose as a breather and a refresher to family in those parts, but I also think that this was part of our journey - a prerequisite to our next destination. We are back in our apartment now. One of the neighborhood kids smashed our potato plants and someone drew on our car with nail polish. But our berries are well, the rest of the garden is flourishing, and our dreams of a new life are stronger now because of our Chittenango visit. We have a better vision of our dream, a greater thirst for change, and a better understanding of what we are looking for. We enjoyed our vacation tremendously, but are not as upset to be back as I thought we would be. On the contrary - we are excited to work on what we can to move forward and prepare for the future. It's good to be back :)