Guns 'n Roses

California, here I am... right back where I wasn't from... [sing along...]

I should have started writing this earlier today. I would have been much more witty, except when I was taking a nap. [Note, I am losing my grammar instincts. More witty? Wittier?] I don't even know where to begin - too many days have gone by. I'm not sure I should stay away so long...gets to be overwhelming thinking about what to write. Because you want to hear every last detail, right?

Here's a photo that shows it all worked out in the end.


OK, the last days of my house I worked long and hard to get stuff out of my soon to be not mine house and get my car packed and spend a few moments with my closest friend. I was almost frantic about having enough time to get stuff out, and two angels appeared. One I may already have written about - the guy who showed up and took almost everything out of my shed I wanted/needed gone. Assorted nails, pieces of tubing, scraps of plywood...you name it. He is renovating a property and owns another and seemed to have a use for almost anything. I think the only thing he refused was a rake. The other angel appeared Wednesday morning, an hour before the walk through. I had done a curb alert on craigslist
and much stuff was gone, but when she appeared to take the rest of the boxes (amazingly enough #1) she took other things that I didn't have time to bring to Goodwill (plates, stereo that I had gotten off the sidewalk, etc.). The rest I just threw away. Which, considering everything, was a small amount. I freecycled my butt off and tried to get rid of stuff in a responsible way, and was fairly successful.

Wednesday at 1:00 was my closing. It was nice to meet the buyer - never have done that before. Nice guy and not a pedophile I think. That evening I had to drive to B's house so I could leave my packed car there and she could drive me home so I could spend the last night at 'home' and not upset Billy. I started losing it. I had to say goodbye to her husband, who is also a close friend, and I started bawling. But B and I went to dinner and had a nice time, and I went back and stayed up until 1:30 AM finishing packing/cleaning.

Got up at 4:45 am to really finish everything, and B showed up at 6:00. Thankfully she was there early, as I did not really have enough time to finish everything. I did get Billy into his new cage, and put him outside to get some fresh air before going on a plane. Did some stuff and hear B say - um, Billy escaped. Crap! I hadn't latched the opening well in my haste. Thankfully he's been out and he feels safe at the back door, and I was smart and went inside to get him rather than go around back.

Driving to the airport I started crying thinking about leaving and saying goodbye, but I sucked it up. B dropped me off with Billy and my 75 pound bag (!!!) and parked and came inside with my other things. Thank heaven for her, really. All was going well and they were very nice (American Airlines) until TSA people said ' you have to him out of the cage so we can put it through x-ray'. I said no, he'll escape. They said, well, then, he's not getting on the plane. I told them to put him through the machine and they said no, we can't do that. By now I'm sobbing hysterically because I'm so afraid he'll run away and they weren't bending, and the TSA supervisor even intimated that I didn't know how to take care of my cat so I started yelling at him and sobbing at the same time. B just remained calm and told them why I was freaked out and helped find a solution - they set up some bins around the cage so it was like he was in a room when I took him out - sobbing the whole time.

So - lesson learned which was not on any website - be prepared to take your pet out of its cage at the airport. I kept repeating 'but noone ever told me! it's not anywhere on the website!'. Didn't matter.

In any event, made it on the plane and was ok for about a half hour, and the head games began. In the course of the entire trip I had every single possible type of headache imaginable, including one that felt like a cap designed to inflict pain, and ended with a migraine. I had to change planes in Los Angeles, and I was a zombie in the airport going from one gate to the other. At one point towards the end of the trip I felt the waves of nausea that signal vomiting and I just rode the wave and kept it down. I would have taken a migraine pill but I forgot to replenish my wallet!

In SF, M met me (so nice to see him) and Billy arrived safely in the terminal (meow). M brought me home (!), I walked in the door, and promptly vomited in the toilet. I have such awesome vomit control! I slept the afternoon away, and was ok enough to go out and get food (soup).

The next day was POD unpacking day. Thankfully we had already decided to hire day laborers and did that - three of them.(boxspring did not fit up the stairs) They were great, and even though my only job was to tell them where to put stuff once they had gotten it upstairs, at the end of the three hours I was exhausted. I took a short nap when lunch was being picked up, and after lunch I slept for another couple hours. Then dinner! M by that time was starting to collapse but managed to walk back home.

M had flown across the country with D, a friend from work. D is great - a young computer geek who likes adventure and is recently divorced and has a great sense of humor. I was kidding him - he looks like a young version of the PC guy on the Mac commercials, and he is a diehard Mac fan. He may have convinced M that we need to get a smartphone - which is great. He was constantly pulling out his iphone and showing off what he could do. In any event, Saturday was our 'rest' day, and D was the guest, so he got to decide that we would fly to Sonoma and get the airial view of SF. It was all very surreal and felt wonderful.

But then M really collapsed and has been sick since then - barely getting out of bed. I'm not surprised, but will be worried if it lasts much longer. I sit here and the fireworks are just going off. We were going to go watch them, but he's in bed and I'm typing this... Oh well. Next year maybe...

When I brought D to the airport this morning, it started sinking in that I am here not on vacation, but to live. It's a bit freaky. I think of the things I threw away that I want now, and laugh at the fact that we brought a microwave but have one already in the kitchen. There's unpacking to be done. I read the newspaper and the weather map of the area shows the fault lines. The apartment is light filled and wonderful, but we may have a slanted view of it because neighbors are away for the holidays. Billy is doing fine, despite all my earlier worries.

So, guns n roses, because it feels like the promised land but has been kinda hell getting here. Hopefully moving forward all will be well. And happy belated 4th to everyone!

It's reassuring that this was the song in my head after dropping D off this am and coming back home to M: