Mr. Noodle

Mr. Noodle
Mr. Noodle

Monday, June 27, 2011

when we last left our hero

O I MISS MY SWEETY

It's killing me. I'm grumpy, you see, because I'm in this big dumb empty house, I still wake up and have to put a toque on because it's cold, I feel like I have a mountain of stuff to deal with and I'm lonely.

Dan and I aren't managing to have Skype conversations as often as I was hoping we would, say once a week. We largely communicate by text message (more specifically, a free app for iPhone called WhatsApp that allows us to send photo and video as well as our location). And as easy as text messaging is on an iPhone, it's still not the same. We don't always have time to have a proper conversation so sometimes it's just snippets. And he is three hours ahead of me so when you consider both of our work schedules, it's proving difficult to connect. It sucks.

Now having said that, on Saturday Dan went window shopping. He went to an antique furniture store in search of potential items for our home. He had put a deposit on a lovely 1824 bed frame, but they forgot about his deposit and sold it to someone else. Curses! Later that day Dan found himself in a fabric store, looking for curtain fabric. He must have sent me about 20 photos (which for some reason I can't upload to my computer or I'd show you) of bolts of pretty fabric. We have together settled on blues and yellows for our house, and now we need to sort out what will represent "us" as we actually decorate our home together for the first time since we've been together.

See when we met, Dan had only recently returned from Japan and I was a student, so neither one of us had very much in the way of furnishings. When we moved in together, nothing matched, but it was comfortable and we were happy. We had big plans for our home in Ucluelet for decorating but the money to do that never came (for which I am thankful now!) and we still don't know what the "Dan & Stacey esthetic" really looks like.

Dan wants to hold off on any real decorating until I get there, but there are certainly some things he can do in the mean time until I get there, to make it more comfortable and homey for him. This coming weekend he'll take the 200 mile trip to Charlotte to the closest IKEA and buy us a queen sized bed! I cannot tell you how excited this makes me. We three (me, Dan, kitty) have been cramming ourselves into this double bed four more than four years now. It's time for a big bed!

Meanwhile, my last day of work is on Thursday. The girls from Tofino's Stitch Night have decided we need to move Stitch Night to a restaurant for our Sex and the City themed dress up party. As luck would have it, I still have my gold tango shoes! And a saucy little top I got in Japan. Photos to follow.

I go back and forth from complaining about how much crap I have to dispose of and then remembering how glad I am to be getting rid of it all. It will feel amazing to leave here with only what is in the truck, feeling a lightness and freedom of a ship under sail. I'm tired, to be sure. On top of my work at the hospital and the commute, I've been packing, cleaning, organizing, connecting with people, finding homes for things, missing Dan, responding to my family's frequent "what's happening NOW" inquiries, wondering when the postal workers are going back to work, and worrying about money. What I really want to be doing is knitting. And I do, in between everything else, but not as much as I'd like. Soon, soon I will have time.

I think Sam will be fine. She has adjusted to her new litter box, and I found cat food for her that she doesn't throw up. I tried using a harness on her and while she didn't really like it at first, she stopped struggling after a while. Kitty knows she is coming with me and she'll be okay.

Dan is doing fine. I get a bit worried when his Twitter messages express wonder whether the BBQ place he's been eating at puts crack in their food because it is apparently that good. I get a bit worried when he tweets about the violent storms. And I'm sure he worries about me. He'll worry about me every day that I'm driving towards him and probably won't settle until I'm there. Immigration said "75 days" which puts me crossing the border around the first week of September, give or take. If I get a job, it will be sooner.

Meanwhile, my sister is thrilled with the idea of having me there for the summer. She has big plans for me: pruning trees (is totally okay with my motto: "it will grow back"), harvesting fruit, painting walls, moving furniture. It will also give me a chance to reestablish myself as the Favourite Auntie. With four aunties and I'm the only one who doesn't live nearby, it is obvious that I need to be the cool/fun/best auntie. Will do my best to work my auntie mojo.

Had my garage sale yesterday. Thankfully Kirsten handled most of the sales while I was inside cleaning - that girl could sell salt water to a sailor! It was great! It relieved me of having to deal emotionally with putting prices on my crap. The deal was fill a box for $5. Twenty boxes left yesterday. If I ever have a garage sale again, that will be the way to go. I brought home lots of boxes from the hospital for the purpose. Today, everything that didn't sell, went to the dump. I know, I'm sorry, I just didn't have time to get it to the second hand store. I'm still in #purgemode and time is running out.

Time is running out. Three more days of work, a few more dinners with friends, and I sweep up behind me as I back myself out of my life in Ucluelet, step into that liminal space before my life in North Carolina begins.

As always with me & Dan, the adventure continues...

No comments:

Post a Comment