Old Friends

One of the perks with Jackson and Brandi living on the west coast is that one of my oldest - and bestest - friends lives in Oregon in a town about 5 hours away. We let them know ahead of time when we will be in town and they do an overnighter at a local hotel so we can visit. When I saw Kim this time she said "do you realize we've seen each other more in the past year than we have in the past 30 or so?" And she was right - we've see  each other 3 times, when she came to my house in August, when we were here in December and again this time. 

Kim and I have know each other since Elementary school and became best friends later on - but she moved away when she was 18. She married Stephen and off they went, they never came back to live in Hampton Bays. I stayed for about 20 (?) more years(against my better judgment I might add) and then off I went. Between the two of us we've leap frogged all over! She's been in Virginia, Maine, I think Vermont, Oregon. We've been ping-ponging back and forth across West Virginia and Pennsylvania for now almost 20 years, I often think it's amazing that not only did our friendship continue but has always remained intact - we've never lost touch with each other. When they were first married it was a bit easier, we saw them all the time as it was driving distance for them to come home on the weekends and of course the summer vacation that all college students have. Then they moved to Virginia - but still came home, just not as frequently. Then we all had children and it became harder, we managed to visit them a few times, they still came up, but not as much. We began to depend more on phone calls and letters, pictures of babies in the mail. Email came and that changed it - no more waiting for a week for letters, instant response. And now - cell phones so no more worrying or limiting calls because of long distance charges. Email has given way to texting and I told Kim we can start video chatting. At some point we will live near each other again, full circle. Ending where we started - near enough to ride our bikes to each other's house I hope. 

Washington!

So, Jackson is finally home from deployment and we decided it would be a good time to go visit before everything explodes real estate-wise. At this point we have sold the Waynesburg house(again), we have a contract for the house in Mather which is contingent on the first house selling AND if all that goes through we will be selling our house in Garards Fort and moving to Mather until we can find something else we can annoy our family with. Before any of you start muttering They're Moving AGAIN, please note Mather is only about 25 miles from where we live now - I plan on this house being our opus. We've found a great real estate agent and she is working it back home while we're laying round out here on the West coast. The flight this time, with one minor exception when really well and we shuttled from the airport to here as the drop off is only about 20 minutes from their house.

The babies are really growing fast - part of the problem with living so far away is they are doing all this great stuff and they're doing it without us.  But we got to spend a real holiday with them, we were here for Easter so that was fun. I made lasagna and we sat around doing my favorite thing which is eating Peeps and chocolate for one day. The naval housing here is really amazing, the whole place is clean and the houses are huge. Of course the yards are tiny and you have lots of neighbors, but there's park areas on every block and it's pretty quiet here - and very very safe.  We went to a tulip place on Monday - this is where they grow them so it's miles of them! We did the tourista thing which was very fun, Delilah is now a walker so she insisted on walking so we saw a lot of it at Toddler-speed, but that's OK.

We're seeing Kim and Stephen on Thursday, she lives about 4 hours from here so they make a little trip of it. I love that I get to see her at least once a year now. I know she'd like us to consider moving out here and part of me really does think about it. But we don't know where Jackson and Brandi will end up next and with me, a large part of it is my job. It's hard to find a job where they don't tear you to pieces on a daily basis if you're a nurse - I have a great job with Bayada that not only treats me well, but pays me too! People will say it's not all about money, life is too short,etc... but realistically? I have to work, I have no choice and it's a big part of my day at this time.Even though it's "just a job" I don't want to have to spend 40 hours a week being miserable and overworked - and believe me, having moved multiple times I can tell you there are far more places willing to grind you into the ground than places that respect you. So for now it will be twice a year visits which will have to do for now. 

Just Eat It

So, for the past couple of months David and I have been eating what's in the downstairs freezer. It came with the house and it's one of those old Hide-A-Body sized ones - you could probably hide 2 or 3 actually if you bent them up right. But I digress. The problem with having so much food storage is we tend to buy the same thing too many times not remembering it's down there and we end up with 10 bottles of  coffee creamer. Then there is the things we thought we would like,...... but hmm, yeah no. We've learned not buy any new foods at Sams Clubs if we haven't tried it yet - it's one thing to choke down one small package of something, it's a whole other ball game to be faced with the Economy Jumbo Size. So,  I moved what was left upstairs and was left with an ice encrusted giant freezer with bits of schumtz plastered to the bottom. Ew.

I actually had to hang upside down to reach the bottom but I did get it cleaned out and it's airing right now, I may or may not plug it back in because everything that was down there fits upstairs easily. We have been really good lately not buying things we don't need, we're down to only shopping once a week which really cuts down on the impulse buying. If I go into  a store for milk, chances are I'll leave with more than that, bet it's the same with you. Now, on the flip side I've gotten rid of things I will never use. I pitched some weird flaked garlic that I have no idea where I bought that. If  I open it and it's disgusting - out it goes - but I also don't buy it again because no matter the claim it will be the same thing no matter how hard you try. There is a calorie free maynaise I've bought twice, it has zero calories and looks great. It's fine until you try to eat it - seriously if it needs to taste like a mouth full of chemicals can't they at least make they vaguely likeable? It's like licking a tire and is completely inedible which probably accounts for it being zero calorie....

The other stuff I threw out was a bag of couscous. Not that I don't love couscous BUT when I cooked it,well....there's a place that I usually don't buy any rice, grains or flour because of coming home with more than I paid for. This must've been a left over before I smartened up. I started boiling the water, dumped in the couscous and the Bonus Bug drifted up to the top, sigh. SO I hate throwing anything out, I didn't see any other bugs, just the one so I finished cooking it and put it in a container in the fridge. I took it out a couple of times and then gave up the ship and tossed it. And the rest of it. All I could think of is finding little bug feet or little bug eyes mixed in with my dinner. Or EGGS. So, out it goes and no more buying grain based foods at that store. 

Fresh

The other day someone posted some silly article about rules for visiting a new mother - it was the usual crap. So I just made a little comment about how it doesn't apply to grandmas, just something silly. Of course we immediately  had the Easily Offended who felt the need to make rude comments, such as "selfish", blah blah blah. I turned off the notifications as I've learned from experience ANYTHING you say will just esculate the situation, like a cyber dog pile. The thing is - the article was stupid in my opinion, all it really was was common sense and and somewhat offensive. Why would I bother visiting anyone that had a list of rules for me before I even hit the door? But that is neither here nor there.

What I found offensive was the people that felt the need to attack what really was, no matter how you read it, a silly comment. These are people that are raising our next generation and it's frightening. They have no filter, no common sense and are so focused on thier "rights" they take nothing else into account except thier own opinion. Any other view is attacked and destroyed - and the things people do and say are almost breathtaking. All I can think when Iread some of these things is - would you say that to someone face to face? If you were across the dinner table would you do all that name calling? Do you really behave like that in real life? 

During the election I probably unfollowed a dozen people - and unfriended a few more - that is something that doesn't need to be on social media. EVER. I know there's some people thinking now it's their right to voice their opinion - and you are very correct. But there's a bit differentce between voicing your opinion and being a screaming piece of shit bully that insists on pushing it down my throat - regardless of whether it's a manifesto on what is required to visit you and your baby (and just for the record I hope you like being alone, all the time with your bubble baby and list of rules) or an opinion on whether Trump should (NOT) be president. I can't say I follow my own rules all of the time, but I will tell you when I feel like I'm not - I stop and leave. I try very hard to read what I'm posting first before hitting send - if that person was in the room with me would I actually say that to them? Would it hurt thier feelings? And if it would - I don't. 

Home again

So, we stayed with Brandi and the girls for 8 days, that's longer than our usual stays, but since it's such a long trip to get there and it's not often that we do, we made it a bit longer of a stay. The entire time we were there it was rainy and cold with occasional sunshine - except the last day. That would be the one and only day it decided to snow. Our day started at 3:30am with the airline texting me a delay in flight. I called Orbitz and the guy said he'd call back, which he did as soon as I fell back asleep - the first flight was delayed but we would be able to make the connection. That is until the next text, and the next.... we decided to go to the airport early and would deal with it there. It had been snowing a bit before we left as Brandi pulled out of the drive it got worse, the road was starting to look messy - of course!! She needed gas so while David pumped the gas we looked for a shuttle service - success. And better yet the pick up was 20 minutes away and the next one was due in an hour. We hung out at McDonalds - we had to change the babies and took them in the bathroom. They had a changing table that made us laugh, ive never seen one so high up in the air. It was about chest high on Brandi, if it had been any higher she would have had to toss the baby up. One of the twins had an epic poop and thats when we discovered the wipes were still home so we had to improvise. As you can see, the whole day was slow going, but the shuttle showed up on time and off we went. 

We checked our bags and then got on The Stranded People Line which was long and crabby. We were near a woman from NJ and she was killing us - she was loudly complaining with a running commentary ("Did ja see that - he's flirting with them, FLIRTING - like we need this!"), she was ordering her husband around and had a bag big enough to fit a couple of bodies in - it did make the time go faster. SO, when we got up to The Flirter he managed to get his attention back on his job (and honestly, I would not want their job re-routing a legion of disgruntled passengers). We were given the choice of flying into Chicago and then not flying back out til 2pm THE NEXT DAY - no thank you! - or we could fly into San Francisco, hang around for a couple of hours and then direct fly to Pittsburgh landing at 6 am in the morning. We took the second option, we were up for the night either way. San Francisco was not bad - we had wifi and outlets to recharge, the food was GREAT, I had Spanish which I love, coffee and lots of seating. We took off a little later than planned but as long as I was heading home I did not care. 

I was supposed to have the middle seat but the teenage boy offered to sit in the middle so I could have the aisle, which was nice. Until he started fighting with the window passenger who happened to be his brother - I was VERY glad when they fell asleep. I knit for awhile, read, slept fitfully and since it was an 8 hour flight had to use the bathroom. I hate using the bathroom on the plane, it's so tiny and I'm always afraid will hit turbulence and I'll be sent flying out into the aisle - but nothing happened. I had called the parking place the night before to let them know we were delayed. We arrived on time, weary but home at last! Even our baggage made it which was amazing given how many people were rerouted. We collected our bags and called Globe who came and got us. Our car was warmed up (HURRAH!!) and off we went. What a long long drive home - we had been up for 36 hours, flown across the country and 3 time zones. I drove most of the way home while David rested and then when I started weaving he took over.. I unpacked and greeted the cats, got stuff going while he went and got the dogs - I fell into bed and slept for a few hours, boy were we a mess! But it was a wonderful trip and it was so nice seeing how well Brandi and the girls are doing. We'll go back out in the spring I think, I can't wait!

Our Trip

We were at Brandi's for over a week, how fast it went! Our friends Kim and Steve had relocated a few years back to Seaside, OR and when they found out we were heading out there - they made plans to hang out with us. I'm realistic, I know part of Kim's motivation was the opportunity to play with not one but TWO babies. They only live four hours away and made it into a mini vacation for them too. Kim and I are lifelong best girlfriends, there no time or distance we cannot conquer together. Brandi had a good time I think, Kim is a hilarious story teller so the afternoon went fast. We talked about when we met - for those interested, I met Kim on a pull out couch at a slumber party thrown by a mutual friend - she was 13, I was 15. 

We ended up going out to dinner at a hole in the wall Mexican restaurant I'd found on Yelp which I'm a huge fan of. My cousin John introduced me to it and I use it all the time, especially when traveling as everyone writes reviews. It's easy to sift through the nonsense ones - someone complaining about the color of the walls interests me less than multiple people warning you off. But this place was as promised - the food was amazing and since we were there on a weeknight we were the only customers. The babies loved it, they're at the perfect age where they're not walking yet but old enough to be interested in everything around them. It was a fun visit, but much too short. 

We took the girls out again to a waffle house - they had a cheese sandwich and fries which they pretty much just waved around. Too much going on! We got excellent service because everytime they spotted our waitress they would start smiling at her and then she had to come over of course....  I know as their grandmother I'm probably a bit prejudiced toward them, but they are really excellent babies. It's hard being so far from them. We video chat with them, but it's not the same as being there. We had such a great time - helping with baths, meal time, changing diapers, dressing them. It was great hanging out with my daughter in law too, we marathoned the Twilight Zone and she makes just as many comments as I do! We got to see downtown Whidbey Island - it was pretty cold but sunny. It reminded me a little of the Hamptons, small shops, local stuff, very scenic. 

Time To Talk About Our Trip

I usually blog as I go, but I forgot to take my keyboard and I hate typing on the tablet. So, I'm going to be doing entries to cover our trip. We did great leaving this time, dogs were dropped off, I had been packing all along - at least trying. I had bought the girls so many clothes I had to unpack most of them and mail them! We made good time up to the airport - we parked at Globe parking which we will do again. It was half the price and they shuttle you right to your gate. The flight out was not bad, since you're turning the clock back 3 hours it's fairly decent - left at 8am and arrived at 2. Brandi got a little caught in traffic but not a big, at least not for us. The party with the 9 month old twins in the back of the van might disagree! The time change really affects you at bedtime, the clock says 9 pm and your head says MIDNIGHT, arrgh. But we stayed up and toughed it out. The next day we were still a bit floppy but it was so great seeing Brandi again. And the babies! They are growing like weeds, it's amazing the difference 5 months can make. When I saw them last they were super tiny, now they crawl, smile, babble - super fun

Since it's an island there's stores and restaurants, we stayed on the island as everything is a bit far and really, we were there to spend time with our family. We did find one yarn shop and I totally splurged on silk spun yarn - on sale it was over $100 for 3 skeins, Merry Christmas to me! I was a bit on the fence - the shopowner was really pushing it, but I'm sure during the winter things get a bit thin for her. Whatever, it will be fun to knit with.  We took Brandi and the girls shopping for a Christmas tree and stuff, I made two lasangas, one to eat and one for Brandi to have after we left. 

The island itself is impressive, so beautiful. The lakes and mountains, the sea - it's about an hour from Canada and it was wierd seeing signs for that. Jackson and Brandi are in military housing but wow! What a difference from Tennessee! They have a huge four bedroom home with catherdral ceilings and hardwood floors, it's really beautiful. The neighborhood is so nice - when David was putting together one of the cribs the neighbor came over because she heard banging and she wanted to make sure Brandi and the girls were alright. It's hard them being so far, but I'm so glad they landed in such a nice and safe place! More tomorrow.