A Real Winter.

Back when Jamie and I first made the decision to move to Minneapolis I had a picture in my head of what the winter would be like.  I envisioned blankets of white snow on the houses, the crunch and squeaks of boots on the snowy sidewalks, the smell of logs in a fireplace, and plenty of cold.

Now that I'm actually in winter in Minneapolis I am realizing that I never really knew what "cold" was.  This is cold:

The fact that it's actually warmer than it has been the last couple of days...or the fact that when I was looking at the forecast for the rest of the week and thought to myself, "oh it's going to be warm out!" because it's getting up to 20 degrees...that's cold.  When there is frost on the inside of the front door...that's really cold.

I worry a little bit about what's in store for January and February.  But all that said, I have to say I love it.  

I love that it snowed on my birthday for the first time in my life.  I love how holiday decorations glow on houses when the lights reflect off the snow.  I love the added camaraderie that comes when you bump into a neighbor outside in the bitter cold.  I love how bright the sunlight is now that it comes from the above and below.  I love how despite the cold, everybody is still outside and living their lives.  What I love most of all is how warm the house feels.

While I'm sure the novelty of it will rub off soon enough, I feel like this is where I belong.

View from our lake last week.

Living Teddy Bear.

Oh shoot.  I said every other day, didn't I?

You see, I had big plans to take a bunch of pictures of our house to share today, but got sort of swamped with work. Instead, I will share some Cody stories.  Because everyone* loves a good Cody story.

You may remember when we got Cody.  Since we adopted him as an adult cat from the animal shelter we don't really know how old he is.  I'm guessing he was probably around a year or so when we got him, so that would make him 8 or 9ish.  With age, he has become more and more of a teddy bear.

Yes, that is what I wake up to most mornings, yes his head is on my pillow, and yes his arm is around my neck in that picture.  Sadly, also with age he is taking it slower up the stairs and is no longer able to jump as high.  That may have to do more with the fact that he is a BIG cat than it does with age, but he still can be quite spry when he is chasing after Junior or the laser pointer.

One of the most initially-endearing/currently-annoying manifestations of his age is that he will paw at my butt when I'm working so that I will lift him up to the desk.  That's right.  My cat can no longer jump onto my lap or the desk without assistance.  I have a video of this phenomenon so you can truly see how annoying it is, but to be honest, it's not the best lighting.  Since he does it every day I will see if I can get a better shot of it tomorrow.

Another manifestation of his age (or sheer laziness) has thankfully ceased.  But, while we were in our first digs in Minneapolis and there were ample sunbeams to lay in, Cody picked up this lovely habit.

Glad to report he no longer does that and can be bothered to stand while he eats now.

Finally, as I am now working from home and spend a good chunk of my day at the computer, Cody has found a way to ensure that he is getting the attention he craves.  That is, of course, after he pokes my butt incessantly until I lift him onto the desk.

I love my crazy cat and Jamie can confirm that I tell Cody as much on a daily basis.  I love him even more for knowing that I don't like him sitting on my keyboard and that he has the good sense to sit behind the monitor.  

He's a pretty great cat.  And in case you're worried about him, he has a teddy bear of his own...

*"Everyone" is being used very loosely.

Second (Fourth?) Wind.

So it has been a while.  

Betcha thought I wasn't coming back!  As usual, things have been hectic with the move, the new job, etc.  But, I feel like the move, the job, etc. are exactly the reason that I should be keeping the blog up to date.  So, I'm going to try and do one of those post-a-day efforts, or maybe I should try a more attainable post-every-other-day deal.

Either way, I'll be posting more frequently...at least for the rest of August.  Check back!

Happy Father's Day.

Because it deserves its own post, I'm double-posting today.  I want to wish a Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers in my life.

Of course, first and foremost to my own father who taught me about love, compassion, generosity, loyalty, and the importance of family.  To this day, there is no one who's advice and wisdom I value more.  Thank you, dad.

To my brother who has been an incredible father to his two little girls.  While I always knew that he had hogged all of the math skills in our gene pool, it is clear now that he also got the lion's share of the patience and parenting prowess.

To my father-in-law, who has known me for going on half my lifetime now and who has made me feel like part of his family from the get-go.

So, even though I'm halfway across the country from my favorite fathers today, I hope that my virtual hugs can make it over there.

The Move (Part 2).

I had every intention of following up with another post much sooner than I did!  Hopefully, I will still be able to have some kind of coherent narrative despite writing about something that happened a couple weeks back.  Still, I definitely want to capture it here -- just to remember this milestone some years down the road.

Jamie and I left DC in our big yellow truck filled with all of our worldly possessions.  Or should I say: we attempted to leave DC.  The city seemed to be conspiring against us and blocked our path out with road closings or vertical clearances.  In the end, the extra 45 minutes of driving through the city was actually a nice way to say goodbye to the city that had been our home for nearly a decade.  We said goodbye to the monuments and memorials, marveled at the sheer number of Harleys in town for the rally, and slowly lumbered our way away from the city.

Originally, Jamie and I had planned on splitting up driving responsibilities -- that is, until I saw the sheer size of the truck.  22 feet long + a trailer for our Prius.  It was terrifying to even sit in it while it was in motion, much less be responsible for the well-being of the people inside it and the other cars.  Jamie drove that whole thing to Minneapolis.

That truck went through a LOT of gas.  The first fill-up was something like $120.  Not long enough after, we stopped for our second tank.  We were pretty pleased that it was an even $100 to fill it up.  What are the chances!  we thought smugly to ourselves.  Then, on another gas stop, we hit exactly $100 again.  Pleased as punch that we hit it again -- it softened the blow that we were going to spend over $700 in gas by the time we were through.

It wasn't until we hit $100 the third time that we realized that it wasn't a coincidence: the gas station capped the charge at $100.  That makes sense. It also meant that we were stopping for gas much more frequently than we needed to.  D'oh.

Still, we made it to our destination after 18+ hours of driving, plenty of gas stops, some caffeinated drinks, a Home Depot stop for a new lock, and the the fastest motel stay ever.

Here is the moment our big, yellow truck first crossed the Minnesotan border.  We had some hired college guys meet us on the other end and they unloaded our truck at super-speeds.  By the next day, this is how our new (temporary) home looked:

It felt like home pretty quickly over here.  (The cats agreed).

                        

                                                                              

The Move (Part 1).

It has been an eventful week but we are emerging from the other end of it as Minnesotans.  It was a pretty bumpy ride though (literally and figuratively).

Through this move I learned quite a few things:

1) Always check your flight information as soon as you get to the airport.
Jamie attempted to fly to DC on Friday evening after work.  His flight was scheduled to make it in around 12:50am.  Sadly, that late hour turned out to be much earlier than he actually ended up making it into town.  Perhaps it was the fact that he wasn't traveling with me, but he took a much more laxed approach (I tend to be a bit of a worry-wart).  This meant that upon arriving to the airport early, he grabbed dinner before checking the gate information for his flight.  (Edited to add: Jamie wanted to make sure I let you all know that we had checked his flight status on the way to the airport and it was on-time -- lulling him into a false sense of security)  By the time he arrived at his gate, he learned that the flight was delayed an hour and a half and that they had been calling him to board an earlier flight direct to DC.

This turned out to be the first of many bumps in the road.

Jamie figured that with the delay he would miss his connection and would therefore be stuck in Chicago.  Instead, he booked a flight to Newark (the only other flight going to the East Coast) and I rented a car for him online.  This would get him to DC around 4am.

We later learned that the flight from Chicago was also delayed and he would have made his connection and gotten in a few hours earlier.  Sad times.

2) We are leaving behind some pretty generous people in DC.
Working off of only a few hours of sleep, we got started packing and loading our house bright and early Saturday morning.  Our friend, Leah, had been graciously holding a ton of our stuff in her extra bedroom and Scott agreed to meet us there.  We were joined for some seriously heavy lifting/packing by Dan, Garth and Andrea, Katie and Matt, and Dave and Tracy.  Needless to say, we could not have gotten it all done without all those extra hands and big hearts.

Scott actually was with us for a marathon-esque 16 hours.  (We got a little loopy around dinner time.)

That crazy amount of devotion and lifting/packing/organizing more than makes up for his part in the next bump in the road...

3) Never ever leave the key in the lock.
Around 1am we put the last items in the truck.  The sound of that door sliding down was music to our ears.  The latch closing was even sweeter.  We awaited the satisfying click of the padlock...but it never came.  Rewind several hours earlier when Scott told us casually that he left the key in the lock so that we wouldn't lose it in the chaos.  Strange, I thought, did he mean the house key?  Sadly, that question was answered when we didn't get the satisfying click.  In the time since that the key was left in the lock, the sliding door had been opened and closed a few times, breaking the key off in the lock in the process.

We were stuck, at 1am, with no way of locking our truck with all of our worldly possessions contained inside, in the middle of the District of Columbia, and no means of purchasing another lock that would fit our truck.

We hit the internet looking for solutions, we WD-40'd and banged that lock, we broke out the needle-nose pliers.  No luck.  Instead we just had to laugh at how ludicrous the situation was after so many hours of labor.  To me, it was the perfect way to end our time in DC with Scott.  Scott who -- let's be honest -- is the hardest part about leaving DC.

Jamie and I pushed our air mattress up against the open window so that we could hear if someone opened the truck and took turns getting out of bed to check on it throughout the night before our 7am departure.  In the end the truck was fine and the next day, Jamie and I hopped into our GIANT moving truck and set off for Minnesota.  We learned a few more lessons along the way...but I'll save them for the next post.

It's a weird perspective, but this is Jamie's last time walking down our steps...

A Different Kind of Love Story.

Yesterday, Cody fell in love with a bird.  This bird, to be exact:

Bright and early morning, Cody and I were woken up by a loud thud.  And then another.  It was this robin flying repeatedly into the bedroom window.  Cody was immediately intrigued.  So he watched the bird all morning...

...and all afternoon.  I left the house for a meeting and sure enough when I came home hours later, he was still watching that bird.

The bird was being a big flirt and would periodically fly into the window.  At times, hard enough that the person I was on a conference call with could hear the sound...over the phone...coming from my bedroom...across the house.  It was intense.

In the end, I'm sure the bird was just trying to impress his own reflection in the window and Cody was simply a sad Echo to the robin's Narcissus.  When I woke up this morning to the loud thud of the robin returning I immediately threw open the window and yelled it away -- there is only so much repeated thudding one person could take, and I didn't want Cody to waste away watching that damned bird for another day.

When I left for work this morning the bird was gone, but the evidence of his love affair with our cat remained right below my bedroom window.  

Arijit.

I'm currently flying back from Phoenix, AZ after spending time with good friends and celebrating the remarkable life of our friend, Arijit.  The truth is, while there was the obvious undertone of grief to the gathering, there was also a lot of laughter and, of course, love.

Everyone had stories to share about Ari and his antics.  What struck me most was the sheer volume of stories -- where I may have a meager handful of "crazy" experiences/coincidences/etc. that could be told about my life -- Ari had heaps of them.  He truly grabbed life by the cajones.

I am not nearly a good enough writer to be able to say much more other than: my heart is full.

Hot Minute.

So it's been a hot minute since I posted.  While I don't really have enough time right now to actually give this blog the attention it deserves, I do want to get back into regular updates.

This is especially important because today this appeared outside our home.

Man Boo and I are moving away from our home of the last 9 years.  It's sad, it's scary, and I am worried that I will not find the same kind of friendships that I found here in D.C.  That said, it is also exciting, full of hope, and I am so grateful to be sharing this next chapter of our lives with the man I am sharing it with.  I hope to stay connected to the friends I have made in this great city

I will be updating some of the happenings from the past (almost) year soon.  Of course, I will be starting with  updates about the BIG MOVE.  But for now...I just have this.