Week Number 1 (JPB)

Today is the one week mark of when we made it to Walnut Creek. It is also the day that marks getting a home phone and home interwebs. Therefore, I am blogging from the comfort of one of my free leather chairs (Craigslist special: you move 'em, you can have 'em. Get mad and drop some f-bombs driving around to find the place that has 'em. Then scratch the back of your truck with 'em, and drive through town with the tail gate down and one little piece of cotton (coton) rope holding 'em. Then scratch the back of your truck with 'em (reprise). Then scratch your hard wood floor with 'em. Then go to Target to get cleaner for 'em. Then clean 'em. Then blog in 'em. Yes, THAT craigslist).

Where was I? I was writing something. Right! A Blog entry. So like I was saying. We've been here a week. So far it's been like a MasterCard commercial:

Table on side of the road on garbage night: $0.00
2 Leather chairs from craigslist: $0.00 (minus damages)
Wedding ring from guy on side of the road: $7.00 (plus about half an hour of chatting about the 'economy' with the guy)
Seeing guy at pier drinking large can of beer from paper bag that he set down next to an empty prescription bottle: $0.00
Using MasterCard to buy a bunch of other stuff that you didn't know you ever needed, but suddenly realized (realised) you couldn't live without: Well... I'm not sure how much, but it's a lot.

So maybe it's not like the mastercard commercials, cause I never said 'priceless.' I could have said it for the the things that didn't cost anything, but that's in the past now. We'll just say the whole situation was priceless. There. Happy?

So this is the part of the move where one goes on the rant about how moving is expensive. "Oh yeah! We need a knife. Oh yeah! We need hooks to hang paintings. Oh yeah! We need dish cloths." And so on. We even moved half bags of flour (several varieties) Half bottles of vinegar. Herbs, spices. A scanner we threw away ("E-wasted" as they said at the Thrift Store) when we got here. Everything. We hardly tossed anything so as to avoid the economic sting of arriving at our new digs. Oh well. There's no good way to prepare for that sort of thing. Plus it's kinda fun, and a good way to explore town with lots of errand running. On top of all that spending I'm pretty sure once Marlene starts her job, which should correspond nicely with my Canadian tax refund getting here there shall be a "Oh yeah! I (we) need a carbon fiber Bianchi (in celeste no doubt) with full Dura Ace drivetrain" moment.

Speaking of money. I have a job interview on Fridee that I'm not looking forward to. When the company has forms that are a pain in the tookis to fill out before you even show up, you know that there may be issues with working there. There's nothing that pisses me off more than dealing with forms and ingrained procedure. "well... I understand your problem, but we don't have a box to check that explains that, so I guess we can't accommodate your situation. " Grrr.... It's the problem with large companies. Everything has to follow what I call the "80% rule." They come up with scenarios and situations that work for 80% (or whatever number) of the people. Things cruise along nicely until you hit the few (20%) that don't fit your pre-defined, time saving situations and the whole thing is left in shambles. These forms weren't quite that bad, but it doesn't bode well for future forms, or future situations.

(If you like the 80% rule, ask me about the 100% rule. Ok, fine. Don't ask. 100% of Californians are on their phone 100% of the time, thus 100% of Californians suck at driving. You get extra points of suckdom if you do a "merge-o-text.")

On the bright side, there are 2 bike shops hiring. I could potentially work there during the summer rush (whilst looking for a "real job") and maybe pick up some more wrenching skills so I can take care of our bikes better. I have a feeling that working at a bike shop will be a whole lot more sweeping, putting price tags on stuff, and saying things like, "Yes. The shorts are supposed to be that tight." and "No, the bike with aerobars does not come with a kickstand." than it would be about fun stuff. Whole Foods bakery is also another prime choice cause it would be fun to learn how to make all the cool pastries. But alas, I think that would turn into me loading 50lbs bags of organic flour into giant hoppers all day. I think you have to work your way up to manning the frosting and sprinkles station. That's a lot more responsibility.

I mostly don't want to feel like a dead beat when Marlene goes to work and I am "unemployed" (as one of my bankers likes to say it). Nothing like walking out of the bank to the sound of your banker saying, "Good luck with the job hunt, Joel" Jeez lady, say it loud enough for everyone to hear. You're going to embarrass me in front of the people here who HAVE money. By the way, that's MASTER Joel.

Anyway. I think I was going to actually say something in this blog but in turned into vomit on the page. Welp. That's what you get for blogging at midnight. (We've been going to bed at 8:30 lately). If nothing else, this should keep Roger entertained for awhile. Time to go to bed (which was delivered yesterday. No more floor!)