I Wish There Was A Moving Fairy.....

I'm sitting here surrounded by the bare minimum as we've been working hard to move our things from Charlie's to our new apartment. You would think without owning furniture that things would be easy. Let's just say that "stuff" accumulated between two people is a lot of trips up and down the stairs and elevator. After making a solo trip this afternoon to move "light" stuff I was very much wishing that a "moving fairy" existed. I mean it's okay to tell kids about the tooth fairy, why haven't they created a story about the moving fairy? In fact, if my life continues to exist in 6 month increments with a new address each time, by the time we have a family I may well invent the story of the moving fairy......but I digress. I should say that although we don't have a moving fairy, we each have a very nice friend who was willing to give up their Friday and Saturday nights to help us move. From heavy boxes, to lamps that we forgot about, to the futon and all of its cumbersomness, we have the majority of our stuff in our apartment. Of course knowing what is in which box and finding new homes for all our things is a project still in the making, but we're getting there. Over the course of the last 2 days poor Nala isn't sure what to make of all of this. The last time she saw this many boxes she spent a week of 12 hour days in her kitty carrier. I talk to her like she's a child about her new home and of course the sinks for her choosing but I don't quite think the message is getting conveyed......guess she'll find out soon enough.

Moving......Again

I'm sitting here blury eyed from spending the last hour or so looking at craigslist and IKEA for new furniture for our future residence. It's that time again where Joe and I are packing up and moving; only this time instead of going 3000 miles we're only going six blocks. Charlie needs his condo back sooner than expected so Joe and I spent a whirlwind of a weekend looking at potentional new places for ourselves. We decided that location weighed more heavily than relocating to the "east side" near my job and so we've signed ourselves up for at least 6 months more of city living. We seemed to find the good, the better, and the bad through our search yesterday. From dingy hallways, to left over food stuck on a cutting board (I had to hold my true reaction to this until after we got outside!) we did get to see the variety of housing that Seattle has to offer. With the economic crisis and the celebration of Valentine's Day (yes apartment complexes actually acknowledged Halmark's holiday), we got a good deal on a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment in a high rise just six blocks from where we currently live now. We will still be considered the area of "First Hill" but the buildings around us are a little more updated than our current surroundings. We can still get to a lot on foot and have the space not to drive each other crazy which is always a plus! We just started the paperwork today with hopes of signing the lease and then moving in by next weekend. I am dragging my feet at the thought of packing and hauling things. I counted up the number of times that I have done this in the 10 years since graduating high school and I will be up to number 9 if you include my stint in England. I think it is safe to say that as of yet I am not worthy of permanent ink in anyone's address book and sharp #2 pencil seems to be the better tool. We have been spoiled by having full use of Charlie's furniture and besides our boxes of "stuff" and clothes, the only think we can lay claim to is a used futon and an IKEA coffee table. Considering our space, we have some work to do in filling it. I have dreams of owning "big girl furniture" which includes not having pieces to put together using wooden pegs and instructions that may miss a step (big shout out to IKEA here!). But alas that is where my search has taken me- both IKEA and Craigslist for the in between stage of furniture once again. Maybe big girl furniture magically appears when I turn 30, or maybe I'm destined to the life of buying and selling furniture on the internet, either way I I have two years to find out!

The Pacific Northwest's Answer to New England

After a long week of meetings, paperwork, and my first experience with attorneys, Joe and I took the nice weather as an opportunity to venture outside of the Seattle perimeter to the Olympic Penninsula. Our destination was Port Townsend- a small town across the Puget Sound and north up the coast. It has great views of both the Cascades and Olympic Mountains and the feel of quaint New England. We were able to take a vehicle on the ferry, and after 35 minutes arrived on Bainbridge Island. From there we drove an hour north to get to Port Townsend. It is an area that boasts Victorian Houses as a tourist attraction as well as the ship yard at the entrance to the town. The main street sits below by the water while the rest of the town looks like it's sitting on a cliff above. The main street is filled with speciality shops, restaurants, and more coffee shops in one square mile than I have seen since moving out here! There were coffee stands in the hardware store, a music store, and about every other building. Of course there were beautiful views of the Sound with sailboats testing the waters and birds enjoying a little sunshine. We had fun looking at antiques and peeking in windows of shops with clothes of questionable taste. Joe and I sampled one of the cafes for lunch and later the famous town ice cream shop for dessert. We sat by the water enjoying the sunshine, fresh air, and the views. A discovery I made while reading about Port Townsend is that is the most romantic place to kiss. As we sat by the water, I entertained Joe with ideas of how a love story could play out in this town as it carries that feel up and down each street and beyond. He teased me with my continous desire to cross fantasy and reality. Chalk it up to one too many reads of my favorite chick-lit authors! :-)

Only In Seattle........

Only In Seattle.......
- Would people wear shorts and sandals when it hovers around 50
- Would you see men dressed in drag with a full face of makeup wearing a glittery head dress and be the only one to stare (as was my experience on Saturday night)
- Would there be an earthquake at 4.5 and we'd hear about it first from the east coast (thanks Emily! :-)
- Would you see cars that had their windows bashed in, full of crap, with rope tied around it and wonder if it was art
- Would you be forced to pay for yet another garbage can to put food waste into and pay another fee for the garbage man to take away
- Would people be apathetic about the Super Bowl because they are still bitter about the Super Bowl against the Steelers years ago
- Would you get money deducted from your grocery bill for using cloth grocery bags (not complaining there!)

Thought I'd share a few of my observations/experiences from the week.......Gotta love the west coast!
And on one final note I just like to say "GO STEELERS!"