Last Post for Awhile

Well... we are about ready to pack up the computer so that we can load the computer cabinet into the truck. So, this is the last post for awhile. Just so that you all know where I am and what I am up to, here is my two week itinerary:

Today: We load the truck... for many more hours.

Wednesday: We continue to load the truck if necessary (and I run all of the errands I still need to run and hopefully do a little bit of saying goodbye to Richmond)

Thursday: I fly to New Orleans for the ATHE Conference. I will be there until Sunday evening. I am presenting a paper and hopefully learning lots of useful stuff at other people's presentations (and relax a little by the pool/in the French Quarter).

Reid and my parents will wait here at the house for the truck to be picked up (we are using ABF U-Pack, where we load the truck and then they will actually drive it to Colorado for us). Then all three of them, our two cats, our dog and their dog will descend upon my sister's home for the weekend in what has been termed by Sarah "The Doty-Neilsen Invasion of 2007."

Sunday: I fly back to Baltimore where someone will hopefully pick me up and take me back to my sister's house.

Monday: We get up early, and drive to Indianapolis where we will spend the night with my in-laws. One of the cars will be the quiet person car (my dad is also driving with us and two of us will be in that car). The other car will be the animal car (two cats and a dog... the dog occasionalyl gets car sick and the cats cry the whole time they are in the car... have pity on us!).

Tuesday: We drive from Indy to Olathe, KS and spend an evening with our friends, Jamie, Alex and their son James.

Wednesday: We drive until we are tired (stopping hopefully in Colorado).

Thursday: We get up and drive the rest of the way to Alamosa, arriving some time mid-morning. We meet our landlord and get to see the home we are renting for the first time! Then we show Dad around Alamosa.

Friday: Dad gets on a plane and flies back to the east coast to meet up with my mom. Our truck will hopefully arrive and we will begin the massive task of unloading the truck. Oh... and it's Reid and I's 5 year anniversary, spent amongst boxes no doubt!

Hopefully we will have the computer set up Saturday or Sunday of that week (August 4 or 5).
And then I will post many pictures of our adventures! I may be able to post at my sister's house next Sunday but I won't guarantee anything :)
Hope you are all well until then!

Move Update

So, our pets are officially freaked out by the idea of moving... last night while I was lying in bed reading all three of them were lying on the bed with me. This never happens! Reid was even able to snap a photo of this perhaps once in a lifetime moment!

(Neither of the cats are really possessed... they just appear that way in photos!)

Tater has taken to hiding under things.

And real box packing has taken place!

(This was once our dining room area... it is now book/box alley)

(Doesn't this look like an "Eye Spy" book gone bad? And just for your information, the punching dummy's name is Bob and yes, he creeps me out a little)

A Really Good Movie

Last evening Julie and I went to see a movie (girl time) and Reid and Michael went to see a movie (guy time). Reid and Michael saw "Transformers". Reid's comment was that the movie was "entertainingly horrible" and Mike was actually checking to see whether or not we had called during the movie.

Julie and I were much luckier. We saw the movie "Evening." I knew from the cast that I would most likely enjoy it (Meryl Streep, Claire Danes, Glenn Close, Vanessa Redgraves... the list goes on and on). But, I was a little apprehensive as it was written in part by the man who wrote "The Hours." Everyone in the world seemed to love "The Hours" and I did not.

I am so glad that I saw "Evening". It's a movie about the choices that we make in life. It's a story about women and the relationships that we have with one another as sisters, mothers, daughters and friends. I would strongly encourage all of the women who read this blog (yes all four of you!) to go see this movie. I will be buying it when it comes out on DVD because I want to see it again... It will make you glad to be a woman and thankful for the beautiful women that you have in your lives!

Crisis Averted!!

I went to the mall, for probably the last time in a long time since the closest mall to Alamosa is over two hours away. I didn't buy too much (teehee!) but just enjoyed the wandering in and out of stores. And Dad, it's true I can order many things over the internet, but shoes and bras are much easier to pick when you're standing in the store!

While I was away it was Reid's job to contact the apartment complex and make certain that it was alright with them that we park a 26' trailer in the parking lot for four days next week. Well... the first woman in the office to whom he spoke said that it wouldn't be allowed, that it would get towed and that the only place on the property that it could be parked was the maintenance yard, which is over a quarter of a mile from our apartment... So, Reid went to the maintenance supervisor and asked if that was indeed the case and if there was someplace at the yard where we could park the trailer. After explaining our situation (and telling him where we lived in the complex) he agreed with Reid that it probably wouldn't be a problem to park the trailer immediately in front of our apartment, since there is a long curb there where it would not be blocking traffic or taking up more than a car or two's space. Reid then went over to the office and the woman he talked to (who may or may not have been the first woman) agreed that it probably wouldn't be a problem but that the office manager, who could give the go ahead, was at lunch. So, he came home and we worried for a little bit. Then he went back over, explained it to yet another person (the manager) and she also agreed that she did not think it would be a problem. So, we are hoping that is the case!!! Lord knows we don't sell drugs out of our apartment, don't grow drugs in our apartment, and have not shot anyone since we have been here so I think the least they could let us do is park a stupid trailer out front for a couple of days!

I call to confirm the truck tomorrow and at that time am actually going to ask if they can wait and bring the truck on Tuesday (still picking up on Thursday) so that it's only here for two nights, instead of three. This would be especially good since Reid doesn't want to load the truck until Wednesday (since we don't live in the best neighborhood and it would really suck to have our stuff stolen before we even get started moving!).

So, long story short, we think we have a place to park the truck when it comes next week! :)

Reid's last day of work

It was Reid's last day with the county of Hanover today. The folks at his plant had a pitch-in cook-out this evening for his going away. I went up and took potato salad and brownies. It was all very good food! I know that he is looking forward to going to Colorado, but I also know that he really liked this job (the hours and the people he worked with).

And now it's on to some serious packing! Well... and tomorrow I'm going to go shopping for the things that are difficult to get in Alamosa (like the Bath & Body Works soap that I like, that is a two hour drive to get to... I'm stocking up)!

2 out of 3!

2 out of 3 is a 66.7%, which means that I'm passing! I have just completed work on my voice for performance syllabus (which turned out to not be as hard as I thought it would be to plan/write). That means that all I have left is Intermediate Acting II... hooray! And before I can finish that, I need to finish reading the three books I will be teaching out of for the class (and that means that Tater needs to stop being so sneaky and making me fall asleep every time I lay down with him to read... he's just such a good cuddler!).

I have packed up a few more things... slow and steady wins the race (that's what they say, until the truck shows up in a week and I panic and start throwing things into random boxes!).

The first of many....

The first nine boxes are packed!! And they are all theatre books that will be going to my office once we get there (I already asked and my office is lined on one wall with bookshelves. Hooray!). I also made an excel spreadsheet for myself of all of them so that I know what I have and when I get there I can put them up on the shelves in genre and author order (so that I can hopefully find a few things occassionally!). I did come up with about twelve books to give away :) But my list includes 334 books that I'm keeping, and I didn't include the ones that I am actually thinking about teaching out of and therefore did not put in the boxes! You can just never have enough books.

Tonight Reid is going to break down our dining room table (with my help I would assume). Then we're going to lean it against the wall so that we have a place to start staging boxes.... then the real packing (and shifting of stuff from one location to the next) can really begin!

1 Syllabus Done!

In case all of you wanted a play-by-play of my life... I have one of my syllabi done! It is for the introduction to public speaking class (which was the easiest of the syllabi since I have taught a similar class at VCU seven times now). All that I have to add to it is my contact information once I get there and know what it is.

And on an another up-note, I believe I have figured out what I'm going to be teaching in my voice class (hooray!). I just need to do a little bit more reading and typing and that syllabus will be ready to go as well... And then there will only be Intermediate Acting left... I can tell it's going to be my toughest nut to crack. But, that will have to be later this weekend 'cause Tater is tired of me sitting at the computer (and frankly so am I)!

Speech is Done!

Except for turning in grades (and typing up the grade sheet of one speech which went this evening) I am done with teaching at Virginia Commonwealth University. I enjoyed this class of 19 students but I'm ready to move on.

And so... the next week is boxes and books for me (as I continue, now in earnest, to work on my syllabi for Adams State). It's weird to be done with the school that I have spent the last three years invested in... but it's exciting to move on. I already feel like "my" students are in Colorado.

Another milestone!

I am officially done washing other people's dogs... forever! Hooray! Today was my last day at the Holiday Barn Pet Resort and it was, luckily, a light day with only six dogs. It was a little eery because they were all very well behaved, making it seem as if they knew that it was my last day.
Now all I have to do is get nineteen persuasive speeches graded, go to one more speech class and I will then be officially done with all of my jobs in Richmond! Hooray!

A Big Helper!

Yesterday was laundry day, which included stripping the bed, washing the sheets and blankets and then re-making the bed. This is Tater's contribution to the making of the bed!

Funny Guys

First of all, happy fourth of July everyone! Reid, Tater and I are headed to a barbeque this evening and will then have to see how Tater does with the fireworks.

But the point of this post is actually to draw your attention to a really funny duo of guys who I just ran across on the internet. I'm sure some of you have probably heard of them, but if not check out their website: http://joeyanddavid.com/index.html I am particularly happy that they are both originally from Munster, IN! Of particular favorite were the shorts entitled "14 Days in a Civic" and "Coke Zero." Enjoy!

Our weekend

We had a great weekend camping in Maryland with Sarah, Dan, Mike, Julie and three other lovely ladies with whom my sister works.

On Saturday, Mike, Julie, Reid and I went to Antietam National Battlefield. For those of you who don't know, the Battle of Antietam (also known as the battle of Sharpsburg) was the bloodiest day of the American Civil War. Over 20,000 men were killed or wounded. Walking the grounds was an emotional experience for me. It is very peaceful there. We all agreed that is how it should be. And I said a little prayer that the placed wracked by war now will be as peaceful in a hundred years.

(Tater found a good spot of shade while we read the sign above him... only trouble was getting him to come out!)

(This is the sunken road, also known as the Bloody Lane)

We also went to Harper's Ferry for lunch and terrific ice cream! Then we went back to camp where we were staying in a cabin that was built around a tree (hence a tree house!). We had a camp fire and ate lots of yummy s'mores and fruit pies! All around, a great trip!

(Reid and I hugging the tree in our tree house!)