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I haven't been missing, just not writing. Been reading, though I'm behind (as usual!) and am playing catch up.
The big news is, Irish and I finally packed up, left Las Vegas, and moved back to Indiana. We actually got here on March 6 but I haven't taken the time to post an update - shame on me! As anyone who's read my lj knows, we've been wanting to move back here for quite awhile and were hoping to do it this spring. In mid-February, we got an opportunity we couldn't turn down. (Basically, the chance to quit my job and leave with not only my last full paycheck and all my unused vacation time paid out, but two weeks' extra pay as well. Did I jump at the chance? You wouldn't believe how fast I jumped!) Fortunately, I qualified for unemployment compensation as well, since it's taking me longer than I'd expected to find a good job.
The trip was uneventful. We just had our car, as our truck rental plans fell through (so most of our belongings are actually still in Las Vegas, in storage). We put our three cats, in three separate cat carriers, in the back seat, piled blankets and pillows around them, shoved our luggage behind the front seat, packed the trunk till we couldn't get another thing in it, and came on home.
Do you have any idea how loud three miserable, very unhappy cats can get over the course of a three and a half day drive? *g* Fortunately, we were able to sedate the younger two, which helped somewhat, but the vet didn't want to sedate Dizzy, who is 14, because of his age.
Now we're staying with my youngest sister and I'm spending most of my days submitting job applications all over town. Well, all over many towns - Bremen is rather centrally located, with several larger towns and a few small cities just 15 to 45 minutes away in each direction. It's a small farm town so the odds of getting a job here that will allow me to support us are pretty small. (It took me all of twenty minutes to submit my resume to all the law firms in town - there are three! - and that includes driving time.) I'm sure I'll end up working in another town and having a bit of a drive each way. It's not freeway traffic or inner-city traffic, though, so not a big deal. Though it could get dicey in the winter.
I'm actually enjoying living with my sister, but I'll be happy when I get a good job and we get our own place, particularly since the cats have to stay in the basement here. (It's ok; there's light and it's neither too hot nor too cold, and we've fixed comfortable places for them to sleep.) Not that L hates cats or anything, but they have three dogs and we all figure it's best not to mix the animals. The two larger dogs just want to be friends but the cats don't know that. (And the largest is a great dane - can you imagine what the cats would think about this great, black, pony-sized animal coming at them, wanting to play!) The small dog - not so friendly. She is with humans, and with the other two dogs, but with any other animals at all, she's kind of mean. Jealous, really. So the kitties are in the basement and are doing fine there, but I'll be happy when they can have the run of our home again.
We arrived at the best time of year. There was still snow when we got here - in fact, it snowed our first night here and I woke to find my car covered with it - had to go out and buy a snow/ice scraper for the first time in seven years! - but that melted pretty quickly. Of course it snowed and slushed a few more times - as recently as April 14, I believe - since then and last week was rainy and chilly, but this week is much warmer - up to the low seventies in the afternoon. I've loved watching the transformation from winter to spring. The trees are all green now, the daffodils and hyacinths have come and gone, tulips are in bloom now, there are dandelions all over (I know they're a weed, but I like the looks of them - so cheerful!) and patches of violets in most lawns. There are lilac bushes all over with blooms in multiple shades of white and purple - mostly the lilac color people associate with the flower, but plenty of white and dark purple bushes as well. I'm hoping I'll see some lily-of-the-valley somewhere soon. (Tulips, daffodils, lilacs, lilies-of-the-valley - they're my favorite flowers.) The corn fields are all empty, so it's a perfect time of year for driving the back roads and site-seeing. (In the summer, it can be dangerous - sometimes it's literally impossible to see cross traffic because of the corn and there've been more than one fatal accident over the years just because of that.)
We live in Amish country and rarely a day goes by that I don't see a horse and buggy or maybe someone walking or riding a bicycle down the road. I've been taking my middle sister into Nappanee for work this week (she had a minor accident Saturday - no one hurt, fortunately, but the radiator's a goner) and one of the roads we can take, if we don't want to take the highway, goes past several farms, both Amish and English. (English = us, that is, non-Amish people. Even if you're not English, you're English.) Speaking of horses, rarely a day goes by that I don't see horses and/or cows. Also the occasional sheep, pig, llama, alpaca, and donkey. When I said farm town, I meant it literally.
It's been so good seeing people - I've been to my grandparent's house several times (and if I get one of the jobs I've applied for will probably see them quite often since I'll have to drive through their town to and from work), seen many (but not all) aunts, uncles, and cousins, sleep at my youngest sister's house, eat most evenings at my middle sister's house (youngest sister and her husband generally don't cook - she works first shift, he works second, and she either eats with middle sister or eats take-out), and have spent lots of time with my best friend.
I have to say, I don't really miss Las Vegas at all. I miss the friends I left behind there and I know I'm going to miss ConStrict this July - the four years I attended were so much fun and if I could get there this year, I would, but we've pretty much spent our big money for the year. I also miss Trader Joe's - the closest TJ's to us now is about 90 minutes away. But I'm not a big-city person; I don't miss the noise or the traffic. I don't even miss having things open 24 hours a day - it's just a matter of adjustment. I forgot how small a town I'm actually living in, until the first time I tried to go to the bank and get money out - my new debit card not having arrived yet - and it was closed! The bank closes at 4:00 p.m Monday through Thursday and at 5:00 on Friday. But it is open Saturday from 8:00 till noon. Also, the only grocery store in town closes at 8:00 p.m. and doesn't open at all on Sunday. It all sounds inconvenient but it's really not. (And if, for some reason, I were to find I really had to have some item or another at 3:00 in the morning, there's a 24 hour Meijer about 10-15 miles away. I haven't found that I've needed to go there at that hour, though.) I sure don't miss Las Vegas prices! (Though actually gas prices in Indiana are pretty comparable to those in Las Vegas. Michigan is about five cents less a gallon, but we're not close enough to make it worth driving up there just for gas - we're about 25 miles from the state line. If we lived in the north part of South Bend, though, that's exactly what I'd be doing.) Bremen is so small it has just two stop lights!
One annoying thing - we tried to get a library card and they looked up our names in the computer system and wouldn't let us have one because, apparently, we owe fines from when we each had cards in another town seven years ago. Before we ever moved to Las Vegas. And the amount of the combined fines means we would've had to have lost about half a dozen books! That sounds fishy to me. (I have, in the past, received past due notices from that library for books I knew I'd returned, gone to the library, and pulled the returned books off the shelf - they'd just forgotten to actually check them in before reshelving them!) Still, I suppose I'll eventually go over there and see what the deal is, and probably pay them even if I think there's a discrepancy, because I just can't go too long without a library card. It hasn't been bad yet, because both my sisters have books out the wazoo.
Last Saturday we finally drove up to New Buffalo, Michigan. Had cheeseburgers at Redamax (my eyes are rolling up in the back of my head all over again, just remembering how good they were), went to the beach, walked barefoot in the sand, froze my toes in Lake Michigan, had ice cream at Oink's Dutch Treat, then drove up to Union Pier and a little beyond, looking at beach houses, before coming back. We came home through South Bend and drove through the Notre Dame campus. Sadly, the Irish import store in New Buffalo is no more, but at least the one near Notre Dame is still there.
Tulip Festival in Holland, Michigan begins tomorrow and lasts though the week. I'd love to drive up there one day next week (not on the weekend - it'll be a madhouse) to see the tulips but don't know if we'll get there this year. If not, there's next year to look forward to.
Originally, we planned to visit here while I looked for a job in the Holland-Grand Rapids area - I love it there and still consider Michigan my home state (born there and lived there till I was 13, then for about three years as an adult) - but we've found that it's so nice being near my sisters, seeing them every day and doing things with them - that we've decided to stay here for the foreseeable future.
Wow, I sure do use an inordinate amount of parentheses!
I'm going to have to see if either of my sisters will let me load my digital camera software onto their computer - it's not a great camera, but it works, and it's so pretty here that I want to keep taking pictures and showing them off to everyone.
The big news is, Irish and I finally packed up, left Las Vegas, and moved back to Indiana. We actually got here on March 6 but I haven't taken the time to post an update - shame on me! As anyone who's read my lj knows, we've been wanting to move back here for quite awhile and were hoping to do it this spring. In mid-February, we got an opportunity we couldn't turn down. (Basically, the chance to quit my job and leave with not only my last full paycheck and all my unused vacation time paid out, but two weeks' extra pay as well. Did I jump at the chance? You wouldn't believe how fast I jumped!) Fortunately, I qualified for unemployment compensation as well, since it's taking me longer than I'd expected to find a good job.
The trip was uneventful. We just had our car, as our truck rental plans fell through (so most of our belongings are actually still in Las Vegas, in storage). We put our three cats, in three separate cat carriers, in the back seat, piled blankets and pillows around them, shoved our luggage behind the front seat, packed the trunk till we couldn't get another thing in it, and came on home.
Do you have any idea how loud three miserable, very unhappy cats can get over the course of a three and a half day drive? *g* Fortunately, we were able to sedate the younger two, which helped somewhat, but the vet didn't want to sedate Dizzy, who is 14, because of his age.
Now we're staying with my youngest sister and I'm spending most of my days submitting job applications all over town. Well, all over many towns - Bremen is rather centrally located, with several larger towns and a few small cities just 15 to 45 minutes away in each direction. It's a small farm town so the odds of getting a job here that will allow me to support us are pretty small. (It took me all of twenty minutes to submit my resume to all the law firms in town - there are three! - and that includes driving time.) I'm sure I'll end up working in another town and having a bit of a drive each way. It's not freeway traffic or inner-city traffic, though, so not a big deal. Though it could get dicey in the winter.
I'm actually enjoying living with my sister, but I'll be happy when I get a good job and we get our own place, particularly since the cats have to stay in the basement here. (It's ok; there's light and it's neither too hot nor too cold, and we've fixed comfortable places for them to sleep.) Not that L hates cats or anything, but they have three dogs and we all figure it's best not to mix the animals. The two larger dogs just want to be friends but the cats don't know that. (And the largest is a great dane - can you imagine what the cats would think about this great, black, pony-sized animal coming at them, wanting to play!) The small dog - not so friendly. She is with humans, and with the other two dogs, but with any other animals at all, she's kind of mean. Jealous, really. So the kitties are in the basement and are doing fine there, but I'll be happy when they can have the run of our home again.
We arrived at the best time of year. There was still snow when we got here - in fact, it snowed our first night here and I woke to find my car covered with it - had to go out and buy a snow/ice scraper for the first time in seven years! - but that melted pretty quickly. Of course it snowed and slushed a few more times - as recently as April 14, I believe - since then and last week was rainy and chilly, but this week is much warmer - up to the low seventies in the afternoon. I've loved watching the transformation from winter to spring. The trees are all green now, the daffodils and hyacinths have come and gone, tulips are in bloom now, there are dandelions all over (I know they're a weed, but I like the looks of them - so cheerful!) and patches of violets in most lawns. There are lilac bushes all over with blooms in multiple shades of white and purple - mostly the lilac color people associate with the flower, but plenty of white and dark purple bushes as well. I'm hoping I'll see some lily-of-the-valley somewhere soon. (Tulips, daffodils, lilacs, lilies-of-the-valley - they're my favorite flowers.) The corn fields are all empty, so it's a perfect time of year for driving the back roads and site-seeing. (In the summer, it can be dangerous - sometimes it's literally impossible to see cross traffic because of the corn and there've been more than one fatal accident over the years just because of that.)
We live in Amish country and rarely a day goes by that I don't see a horse and buggy or maybe someone walking or riding a bicycle down the road. I've been taking my middle sister into Nappanee for work this week (she had a minor accident Saturday - no one hurt, fortunately, but the radiator's a goner) and one of the roads we can take, if we don't want to take the highway, goes past several farms, both Amish and English. (English = us, that is, non-Amish people. Even if you're not English, you're English.) Speaking of horses, rarely a day goes by that I don't see horses and/or cows. Also the occasional sheep, pig, llama, alpaca, and donkey. When I said farm town, I meant it literally.
It's been so good seeing people - I've been to my grandparent's house several times (and if I get one of the jobs I've applied for will probably see them quite often since I'll have to drive through their town to and from work), seen many (but not all) aunts, uncles, and cousins, sleep at my youngest sister's house, eat most evenings at my middle sister's house (youngest sister and her husband generally don't cook - she works first shift, he works second, and she either eats with middle sister or eats take-out), and have spent lots of time with my best friend.
I have to say, I don't really miss Las Vegas at all. I miss the friends I left behind there and I know I'm going to miss ConStrict this July - the four years I attended were so much fun and if I could get there this year, I would, but we've pretty much spent our big money for the year. I also miss Trader Joe's - the closest TJ's to us now is about 90 minutes away. But I'm not a big-city person; I don't miss the noise or the traffic. I don't even miss having things open 24 hours a day - it's just a matter of adjustment. I forgot how small a town I'm actually living in, until the first time I tried to go to the bank and get money out - my new debit card not having arrived yet - and it was closed! The bank closes at 4:00 p.m Monday through Thursday and at 5:00 on Friday. But it is open Saturday from 8:00 till noon. Also, the only grocery store in town closes at 8:00 p.m. and doesn't open at all on Sunday. It all sounds inconvenient but it's really not. (And if, for some reason, I were to find I really had to have some item or another at 3:00 in the morning, there's a 24 hour Meijer about 10-15 miles away. I haven't found that I've needed to go there at that hour, though.) I sure don't miss Las Vegas prices! (Though actually gas prices in Indiana are pretty comparable to those in Las Vegas. Michigan is about five cents less a gallon, but we're not close enough to make it worth driving up there just for gas - we're about 25 miles from the state line. If we lived in the north part of South Bend, though, that's exactly what I'd be doing.) Bremen is so small it has just two stop lights!
One annoying thing - we tried to get a library card and they looked up our names in the computer system and wouldn't let us have one because, apparently, we owe fines from when we each had cards in another town seven years ago. Before we ever moved to Las Vegas. And the amount of the combined fines means we would've had to have lost about half a dozen books! That sounds fishy to me. (I have, in the past, received past due notices from that library for books I knew I'd returned, gone to the library, and pulled the returned books off the shelf - they'd just forgotten to actually check them in before reshelving them!) Still, I suppose I'll eventually go over there and see what the deal is, and probably pay them even if I think there's a discrepancy, because I just can't go too long without a library card. It hasn't been bad yet, because both my sisters have books out the wazoo.
Last Saturday we finally drove up to New Buffalo, Michigan. Had cheeseburgers at Redamax (my eyes are rolling up in the back of my head all over again, just remembering how good they were), went to the beach, walked barefoot in the sand, froze my toes in Lake Michigan, had ice cream at Oink's Dutch Treat, then drove up to Union Pier and a little beyond, looking at beach houses, before coming back. We came home through South Bend and drove through the Notre Dame campus. Sadly, the Irish import store in New Buffalo is no more, but at least the one near Notre Dame is still there.
Tulip Festival in Holland, Michigan begins tomorrow and lasts though the week. I'd love to drive up there one day next week (not on the weekend - it'll be a madhouse) to see the tulips but don't know if we'll get there this year. If not, there's next year to look forward to.
Originally, we planned to visit here while I looked for a job in the Holland-Grand Rapids area - I love it there and still consider Michigan my home state (born there and lived there till I was 13, then for about three years as an adult) - but we've found that it's so nice being near my sisters, seeing them every day and doing things with them - that we've decided to stay here for the foreseeable future.
Wow, I sure do use an inordinate amount of parentheses!
I'm going to have to see if either of my sisters will let me load my digital camera software onto their computer - it's not a great camera, but it works, and it's so pretty here that I want to keep taking pictures and showing them off to everyone.
