Preliminary results and analysis

So I will be returning briefly to the land of the Golden Sun. I thought it would be a good time now for a dump of my analysis of Ohio.

We have had more than our fair share of run-ins with the police officers. There is a speed trap very near our house where the speed limit changes from 45 to 25. There is no school or other reason for the slowdown. As far as I can determine it is purely designed to provide revenue to the city. So obviously the officers here don't have enough to do. I'm not fond of that way of using the police but I understand that's how it's done here.

We are having a somewhat difficult time adjusting to the weather. Even for the portions of the summer we were here it was raining pretty regularly, and although it did not get terribly humid it was a noticeable difference occasionally. Now it has cooled down and is getting cold enough where riding my bike is a unsavory prospect in the morning. Which has cut down on my exercise, I'll have to find other outlets.

We are having some trouble assimilating into the local groups. It seems a majority of the cause for this is they have a different method of being together. While I am used to seeing my close friends at least once a week, if not more. Apparently the going structure here is to see each other once a month, or fewer, and to compensate you just have many more friends. Of course that means the quality of your friends gets lower because you can not be picky and still have a social calendar. It seems a terrible way to do it, but I'm having trouble transitioning people onto a more frequent social schedule. So to me it feels like we have a number of acquaintances but not really any friends. Even the couple who invited us out here rarely have time for us. How can you be close friends with someone if you seem them only once a month. Just imagine all the things that have happened to you in a month.

The work structure is unfortunately much more freeform than I am used to. I'm left long stretches of time where the marching orders are "fix up that product". The realize that I have no idea how the product is supposed to work, and we don't really have a client so we don't have a bug list or anything. But I'm supposed to tinker with it and make it better. It's very undirected, I don't think I thrive in that situation.

I've started up a video game campaign with some of our friends from back in California and it's mixed with a smattering of people here. We're playing Runes of Magic which really isn't an amazing game, I mean the production quality and quest system are far superior in World of Warcraft (or so I'm told), but it is free and allows us a fun thing to do together.

We've been included in a table top game of Serenity. We've played one actual game (that's what happens when you can only see each other once a month if that). It's interesting I look forward to seeing how well they can roleplay, but for now I'm mostly just having a lot of antics on my own. They don't seem to play off me very well. But perhaps it was just the newness.

In some ways the area is very similar to California and I find myself forgetting that I'm not there anymore. But there are distinct differences.

1) No bike lanes, bikes are expected to stay on the sidewalk, I was yelled at no less than 3 times about how I should get my ass off the road.
2) Crappy road maintenance people. I actually saw road maintenance people wave on cars coming from the left and from the right at the same time nearly causing a crash. Also they tried to pave both sides of the street at the same time rather than just doing one then the other. Also they often don't place cones far enough out, and don't put signs indicating a lane is closed. So you find yourself going fifty and nearly hitting the cones that just appear in front of you.
3) The curbs ramps (that are used to get wheelchairs up on the sidewalk) are exceptionally poorly done, none of them meet the street and I'm not sure how wheelchaired individuals actually get onto the sidewalk.
4) Cicadas are loud. And apparently every 7 years a special brand of them comes out and scares the crap out of everyone (thank goodness it wasn't this year).
5) Most cars have some kind of crash marks. Apparently this has something to do with driving on snow, but also because they are pretty atrocious drivers, I've seen some of the crashes and they look totally avoidable.
6) The school system might be good, but I can't tell (Kailee's not very talkative about it) I do know that they give her a lot of homework that I have to help her with. I thought I was done with homework.

I'm sure I'll think of more things but you get the drift. Definitely different, not enough that I'm getting too much culture shock but enough that I'm having difficulty assimilating. The kids are pretty happy since a lot of our acquaintances here have children.

I'm still generally undecided about the place, and that's not the way I thought I'd be after 4 months. Only 6 left to decide if I want to live here.

Processing, Processing, Processing...

So our stuff arrived. We've spent most evenings this week unpacking and setting up stuff. We've still got a ways to go, it takes a move to realize how much crap you're lugging around in your life. But it's slowly shaping into our regular household dimensions.

Mostly what I've found here is things are very similar to California. Sometimes you get the 'humidity' which is a word for when the air feels wet but it's not actually raining. Doesn't seem to be too big of a bother and I've rarely had it happen for more than a couple hours at a time.

We tried out Josh's LARP thing. I played an NPC, which meant I played as goblins, orcs, tazeloids (giant frog people), skeletons, skeleton tazloids... etc. Their combat system is not quite what I was hoping for. You can't hit someone in the head (which is usually the best target when they're defended by a shield). And there needs to be a one foot buffer between you. Which mostly means my SCA sword fighting knowledge is of less use than I'd hoped it would be. But generally it's a fun little game, and more of my interest will likely lie in the storytelling aspects. I'm going to try to bring a little bit of SLO LARP-crafting experience into the fray and see how they like it.

I'm still just getting to know Josh's friends, he has a lot of them to meet. Around 30 of them get together every Monday night for a potluck dinner. (They all fit in Josh's house, that's how big his house is). Generally I'm finding they have less of the high intellect conversations we had and more of the gaming and sex related discussions. So of course I'm happy with the subjects mostly :). I think I'll have to update you later with how things progress as for now we're mostly on the outside and just being integrated into the group dynamics.

We went last night to the SCA fighter practice. First impression is: it's very big. There were around 20 fighters (I'm used to more like 5). There were a lot of children running around for Kailee and Sarra to play with. My next impression was that they fight completely differently. Talking to someone on the sidelines apparently they say they fight 'an A-frame' and they call our fighting style 'old castle'. From what I see 'A-frame' is basically a boxers stance, both sword and shield up front, and then they try to generate power from... somewhere. It looks to me like they're much more relaxed in their combats, and they don't seem to throw combos at all, and most of them fight with a round sheild (but nobody throws leg shots). Maybe there's more to their fighting style than meets my eye, but I'll have to get my kit together to try it out.

Around here we can't go to Costco because it's too far away. So instead we go to Sam's club, which is apparently Walmart's version of the Costco. It turns out that they have almost the exact same layout and very similar food items. So we will likely be eating very similarly to in California. Truthfully as our house gets more set up and we get normal food on our table I forget sometimes that I'm not in California. Although I do miss friends that would come over to our house, rather than us dragging the girls all about.

Chiming In

So, mostly I've let Jason take over the documenting of our progress (as it would have been pretty silly to have two posts, saying the same things) but I thought that I would chime in here.

So, first off, the trip did go as well as he intimated. By about 9 at night (the time that we were stopping on most evenings) the girls were cranky and ready to go to bed - and there was a bit of a scuffle on who would sleep where - but they were all-in-all very well behaved. The one extreme low-point for me, personally, was Mississippi.

Those who know me can attest that I absolutely hate it when my plans are messed up. OCD much? Yes, I know. But it really rubs me the wrong way - especially when someone waits until the last possible second before changing the plans. This is exactly what happened to land us in Mississippi. Our original plan had been to stop in Memphis, TN and have dinner with Jason's family there. When we were a couple hours out, Jason called his Mom to set things up. Through a course of phone calls it went from all of us meeting in Memphis (which was on our way) to us driving into Mississippi to visit at her home. Now, most of you reading this probably think "Oh, that wouldn't be that big of a deal" and you're right - it shouldn't be, but I have never tried to pretend that I'm not crazy and last minute, out-of-our way stops on the second-to-last day of our trip (when I was already cranky and rumpled from being in the car for so long) wasn't exactly going to make my happy-list. But, meh, that's my own hangup and I know it.

So we went. We visited. It was as nice as could be expected when we were all tired and more than a little cranky from being in the car so long (me especially, see above). Then my MiL wanted to show the girls her garden. Sounds great! She had lit a citronella candle and had a fire smoking to drive away mosquitoes and other bugs and things. I think "great, because I have always had trouble with getting eaten by any bugs in the vicinity". We go outside. I stay pretty close to the fire and candle. This should have meant that I was safe, right?

Wrong. Very wrong. I have over 10 mosquito bites to attest differently and one which appears to be a spider bite on my ankle. I thought it was a mosquito bite until it turned into an angry red circle a little bigger than a quarter and made that leg muscle all weak for a couple days. It's better now (the weakness, at least, as the redness remains) and doesn't have any striations nor is the skin less firm in that area, so I think I'm in the clear. Still, less than fun for me (especially the next day when I was trying to not scratch my skin off).

Since being here we did have the mishap with the jumprope which left me feeling very vulnerable and exposed. We still don't have our furniture for another four days - which includes all our dishes and pots and pans so we still can't cook and eat real food. Our internet is up and working and when the guy comes on Saturday I'm going to tell him to activate the cable outlet in our bedroom that way we have one item attached to each outlet. I have the girls watching Netflix Instant stuff from Nickelodeon to make up for the fact that we have no televisions, which seems to be helping in the stir-craziness that they are experiencing due to the fact that there's pretty much 0 toys here right now. I'm thinking about taking them out this afternoon to go find the little playground here in our complex, but we'll see how quiet time goes.

Tonight we need to go out to eat and then shop for some more don't-need-pans-or-dishes type foods to carry us until the movers bring out things on Monday. There's a place here called the Steak 'n' Shake that was good when we went before. They have burgers but they're more like a diner than a fast food place - kinda like an In & Out (they even have "Frisco Sauce" which is thousand island dressing!). I'm trying to convince myself to give it time, even with the first week being horrible, and that it will get better. I didn't realize how much it would help me to get some furniture in here. Last night I went ahead and put up curtains in the living room and Jason and I together assembled a coffee table and bookshelf from Ikea. It is a balm to me for reasons I don't entirely understand that we have actual real furniture in our house instead of just camp chairs and folding tables. It has made it easier for me to weather this first week and look forward to the time when I really do feel settled.

So that's all that I have to say about that - I may chime in again in a week or so to let you know how things go once we've gotten our furniture and gotten settled in for real. In the meantime, enjoy the play-by-play brought to you from my wonderful husband who is able to keep his head and be a rock for me right now when I really needed one. Insert enough ooey-gooey, lovey-dovey-ness here to make you feel sick and turn your monitor off. *grin*

Adjustment Cycle

Things have been a little rocky in starting the adjustment to Ohio life. Mostly Kelly has born the brunt of trouble. She was accosted by one of Josh's friends who proceeded on an hour long diatribe about how she should 'get a job, for the sake of her marriage'. I'm not quite sure how he thinks that line of reasoning would fly while he sat in Diana's house... but I think it just has to do with his particular divorce situation.

After that some strange man smoking a cigarette stole up to our porch and took my daughter's jumprope. We know it was a man with a cigarette because that's what our daughter told us after we'd calmed her down from her hysteria, she had seen him out the window as she was going to sleep, by the time we figured out the problem it was too late to catch the thief. I'm still not quite sure what kind of ass just takes a child's jumprope, but I'm beginning to think it was a mistake because after Kelly put up a note about the jumprope and I had called the office, the rope appeared on our door while we were returning from getting dessert. Still it left Kelly and my daughter a bit traumatized and an general not a good introduction to the local populace.

Also our stuff isn't here. The mover who had initially said that the stuff would be here on the 7th (which was two days after we got here). Had changed his estimate when he got to our house to the 9th. That was frustrating but there was little we could do, since that was THE DAY of the move. Excitingly, the mover called yesterday to inform us that our stuff won't arrive until Monday the 13th. Yes a full week after the original quote, and his response to my angry query is: 'well that's within the spread of time I was allotted, so sorry there's nothing I can do.' I would suggest avoiding Belfor Moving as a rather slip-shod operation. I'll post more once I find out what condition my stuff is in.

Finally yesterday Kelly had a radio show slot to fill so she started broadcasting and halfway through her show the internet cut out. She called the cable office and tried to get their troubleshooting but all they could say was 'the modem is offline, are you sure it's plugged in'. So she missed the rest of her radio show, but after I got home from work I fiddled with the modem and found that the splitter the cable guy had used to plug in both the modem and the cable box to the same coax was causing the interference. Plugging in just the modem solved the problem and we are back on the internet. But until I had fixed it Kelly was frustrated because the 'technician' that they wanted to send to fix the internet problem wouldn't have been able to be there until Saturday. Half a week with the internet down is pretty unacceptable.

All in all a bit of a rocky start to our time here. But hopefully after we get our stuff we'll have smooth sailing.

Arrival and Implantation

Internets are mine again! So we arrived in Ohio on Day 5, we crashed Josh's family reunion (or at least the tail end of it for him) then joined him and his wife and two kids at his house. His house is enormous. The basement is as large as a 3 bedroom apartment and includes two rooms that could be used for just that purpose. We stayed in one of the rooms there, while our daughters stayed in the other. Unfortunately because it was the 4th of July the office for our apartment complex was closed :(.

The next day (Sunday) we got into our new apartment. It's very nice, just about the size of our apartment in California (but half the price). We spent some time getting our meager belongings transferred into the house and then headed down to the Ikea. In the process of moving we left a lot of belongings including our coffee table and most of the bookshelves (they were decaying and we didn't figure they'd make the trip). So we picked up new ones at Ikea, rather nicely priced and they seem very sturdy. I'm going to wait to construct them until my power tools arrive with the rest of our stuff on the 9th.

It was about this time we learned the price for the girls being so well behaved on the trip up. Because of all the variability in their bed times and the changes for us they have been terrors as we try to put them to bed. The fact that they don't have their own beds yet probably contributes to the problem. But everybody eventually made it to sleep, which was important for me as I had work in the morning.

Monday morning rolled around and it was time for my first day of work. Yes, for those of you keeping score at home. I got off on Friday the 26th. Spent a week packing/driving and then had Sunday to go shopping, and went to work on Monday. Yes I am that crazy. But money is important to keep flowing. So bright and early I headed to my new office. Turns out the government requires a lot of documentation. So I'll be reading a lot of that and trying to get a handle enough to be useful to the team as quickly as possible.

Then Monday night was dinner at Josh and Diana's. Turns out around 30 people (kids are people too) gather around their table and potluck their way into hanging out together... Every Monday night. That's a lot of work, cleanup and cooking and preparation. And I thought I had my work cut out for me when I had everyone over for gaming. But they all fit in Josh's house, and the 8-10 kids run screaming and tearing around the house. I tried to help with the setup and the cleanup, but I'm sure the dishes load is terrifying in the morning.

So far Ohio seems pretty much just the same as Santa Rosa. The weather's a little schizo. The town area we live in is more posh, with two huge parks and lots of trees and a very quaint community. All of the diners and things have different names, and the supermarket is Kroger not Safeway. But generally there's not much in the way of culture shock yet. I'll keep you posted, as it's time for me to prepare for more tomorrow.

Day 5

Hail from Jackson, TN. According to my compatriot in Ohio we've made damn good time. We stopped on the last of the two stops we had planned, a visit with my Mom. We took a slight detour to her home in Byhalia, MS. Kind of an out of the way place, though it used to be even more out of the way (as in down two miles of gravel road, instead of a paved one). Also it appears some new highway systems make the trip from Memphis to her home less arduous. We picked up some Dominos and headed down. The house is still pretty far out in the boonies, and it doesn't seem to have born up well over time. In contrast to the house next to it (which used to be just as rural and now sports a nice lawn and pretty fence) it has become more dishevled. Trash filled the front area and a burning something was placed at the front of the house. I think this is in no small part due to my mother's new husband. From what she tells me of his previous housing this is a very similar look. I didn't dislike him as much as I could have, he stayed generally unobtrusive and I gather he was on some of his best behavior for our visit (by my mother's words). They were all friendly enough and we feasted on pizza and chocolate ice cream (that my mom had purchased as a birthday-like celebration for Kailee). Then we drove a couple of hours more into Jackson and stopped at a Days Inn.

Mississippi has some of the terrible things I remembered from my childhood. Horrible swarms of mosquitos and a humid stench that I never could get used to. I'm hoping Ohio doesn't have the stench to go with it's humidity, it didn't seem like Oklahoma did so I'm hopeful. Though Kelly was ogling the houses, especially the brick colonial style that we don't really see in California.

Tomorrow we will arrive in Dayton. On the 4th of July so unfortunately my good friend will be out of the area until the evening. Here's hoping that the office at our apartments is open.

Day 4

We're in Oklahoma City. After all that hard driving the first two days we were ahead of schedule. Our initial plan had us stopping in Weatherford, but we got there so early we pushed on. We arrived in Oklahoma City early enough to take advantage of the pool, we all go to stretch out and unwind a bit. Though the timezone changes are really disconcerting.

Going through Texas I got the impression of slightly rolling green lands. Less flat than either Arizona or New Mexico but still without many trees. During our pass through it we saw two armadillo road kill and what might have been a coyote carcass. We were also stopped by a friendly law officer for going 79 on a freeway that has a speed limit of 70. Fortunately he saw that we were not terrorists just a poor family trying to make the best time to Ohio and gave us an official warning. This is something I've never heard of in California apparently in Texas they can warn you about your excessive speed. In California I think they just have to give you a ticket if they pull you over :(. So after a nice chat we were sent on our way... Whew!

Being cautious and figuring they wouldn't be as lenient on me if they caught me again I slowed to the speed limit for the rest of our travel through Texas... Still not too bad at 70 MPH.

Moving into Kansas we found real rolling hills and finally something we'd been missing: Trees. True the trees aren't as majestic as in Cali, but they were big and bushy and a welcome change of pace to the flat states we had been crossing. We also found that whenever we would talk (at fast food restaurants or gas stations) people would always stop and look at us... Guess we've entered places where our accent is exotic. We've also found that we don't know most of the chains around here. Rather than AM/PM they seem to have Loves, and I attended my first Taco Bell/KFC chain store. I guess they prefer chicken to pizza in this part of the states. We also stopped at a real Dairy Queen where the meals all came with ice creams, just my kind of place :).

Next stop is Memphis to visit with mother. I'll keep you all posted.

Day 3

The trek continues at a blistering pace above 75. Turns out California just sucks at speed limits. We tore through Arizona with abandon. Stopping only to see the Grand Canyon... Turns out it's just a big hole with a (comparatively) small river running through it. The girls were less than impressed, but thought it was very pretty. I was similarly unimpressed, but I see it as a nice thing to write off on the checklist of things I've done, 'See Grand Canyon... Check'. We continued along after the Grand Canyon detour and passed through a thick thunderstorm. Nothing to fear from it, but it was pretty. The impression I got of Arizona was: Flat. All the shrubbery was low to the ground and there was just a desolate flatness to the place.

We moved on to New Mexico which it turns out is chock full of 'authentic indian' stop-offs. It seems like every two miles we were beckoned to purchase 'authentic indian' beads or woven bags each shop had it's fair share of garishly painted tee-pees and what I'm sure were 'authentic indians'.

New Mexico is very pretty though the eroded stone hills look very lovely in its striation. Finally we crested a hill taking us to AAAAALLLBAQUERQUE. Our final destination for this day, Albaquerque is enormous I'm sure SF would look that big if you could see it all together, but I haven't even from Vista Point off the Golden Gate. Descending into the valley area of Albaquerque it was night made day. Generally from what I've seen trying to locate the nearest Holiday Inn (and failing, our GPS took us to two different locations neither seemed to have the supposed Holiday Inn we were searching for) I found that the streets were very narrow and the speed limits atrociously limiting. We went through an entertainment district including past a nudie bar where apparently 'couples are always free', how titilating. But we had no babysitters, or desire to trade money for the pretense of attraction so we passed on and eventually roosted at a Days Inn. Just three more days and we will have made it. Wish us luck.

Day 2

So the story continues... After a leisurely relaxing time at the Rose Garden Inn we frantically raced around SLO with errands. We lightened our load further by mailing more things to ourselves. We had bagels for breakfast and dropped off a super hero crimefighting kit for scarlet (we forgot to give them one on Monday night). Then we picked up a new way to transport our food goods and headed off again (this time we left around 1PM... getting better!).

Travel was generally off to a slow start as the 46 is a one lane highway and a Monday afternoon is the perfect time for tons of truckers (and one sad man going 55 :( ). Along the path a huge dust storm spun up... to my inexperienced eyes it looked like a small twister. Not knowing how to handle such a beast that was going to cross the highway just as I was I stopped to let it pass by... heedless of it the trucks barreled on through (so I guess it's not a problem, and likely very common). But boy did it freak me out.

After we got to the 5 we raced along at greater than 75 (since that's the actual speed limit I felt inclined to go a bit faster). At that speed we ate up ground and drove a lot further than expected. We passed through Bakersfield, rather than stopping there as we might have. We had dinner in Needles at a Carl's Jr. populated by some of the most unprofessional and incompetent people I've seen working fast food (see how that's saying something). Apparently only two people could be found to work in that one horse town. The first worry came when the couple preceeding us left as we arrived. Next came the patron in the front of the line and the drive thru customer yelling across the counter to each other. With the cashier interjecting and showing that they all knew each other and each others personal lives intimately. I was finally able to order when the cashier confided in me that it was 'just her and the other girl, so it might take a while but we're doing the best we can'. After my order was taken the all proceeded to gab and discuss things, while I waited for our meal to arrive. After being treated to 'Number 44 your order is ready....... Just kidding' a couple of times. We were finally given our food. Only to find about 3/4 of the way through that Kelly's burger was not cooked in the center... at all. Disgusted and certain that any attempt at recompense would be met with 'well I'll have to call my manager' and any number of hours later we'd get coupons for a free meal or something equally inane... we left.

We continued on, I cannot stress how important it is to never stop in Needles. And 60 more miles gets us to Kingman, AZ. So here I sit... in a nice little Holiday Inn with free internet access.

Day 0 and 1

The trip got of to a bit of a rocky start. Let's start with a recap.

On Tuesday the movers called. Apparently they had a problem, they'd double booked Monday and wanted to know if we could instead have our stuff moved on Sunday. Reluctantly we agreed, and things were set in motion. Yours truly worked until Friday, that left me with only evenings to pack as well as get everything planned and see my friends some before I left. Needless to say that made things a little hard to get done.

So Friday saw me woefully unprepared for the weekend. On Friday we packed as swiftly as we could, while planning Kailee's party and getting travel plans solidified. Saturday began with Kailee's birthday party, this was set in an uncomfortably hot gazebo in a little park right next to Piner. This venue was chosen by my sister because it was out of the way and not used for much. I'm sure she hadn't planned that the amateur HAM radio hobbyists would descend on the park and use all of it's parking spaces and most of it's area. Relegating us to the aforementioned gazebo.

As before for Kailee's birthday I had designed a special adventure surrounding the theme of the party, super heroes. So our intrepid partygoers were given crimefighting kits that came with yo-yo, paddle ball, bubbles, coloring book, and board book. Or as they were described a hypno-spinner, explosion extender, soporific suds, crime-fighting journal and super hero manual. Not to mention a hand sown cape with mask and utility belt to match. So our adventurers fought Dr Evil's paper airplane robot army then broke into his hightech lab (through the expando-bubble wall) and defeated his minotaur (using super speed to wind magic strings retrieved by the flying super heroes around him, all while the super strong super heroes held him down. Then they defeated Dr. Evil with their soporific suds and attack water balls.

As you can imagine this was incredibly tiring, but then it was off to watch our daughter's Dance Performance. Then we finally returned back home to pack some more. Sunday arrived and with is the movers (at 8:30) in the morning. They weren't too frustrated that we weren't completely packed, since they had bumped us forward and allowed us to pack while they moved out everything. They were exceptionally efficient so we were rushed to get everything packed in time. With everything out of our house we took a bit of a rest, before I had to take my daughter to her final Dance Performance. Then I returned to clean my house up for the Last Day party. Thank you to those of you who helped (since, of course, I wasn't finished cleaning when our guests arrived). The party allowed me to see all the friends I was leaving behind one last time. and there were alot of them we went from 4 PM until I don't want to say how late. Many lovely faces showed up so I could hug the stuffing out of them.

So it was, with very little sleep I proceeded to pack up the car to begin the journey. Unfortunately in our rush to decide what to take with us it turns out we were a little too excessive in our plans of what to take. So after much sweaty moving of things down to the car I needed to take a number of them to the UPS store to be shipped to myself. Even still we were pretty cramped as we piled into the car and headed south. By the time we finished our errands around Petaluma we didn not end up leaving until 4 PM (noticing a theme here). So we scooted on down to SLO, but we couldn't travel on to Bakersfield as was the plan. We stopped there, and closed down IHOP with Marie, Emir and Scarlet. Sarra retrieved her stuffed puppy Nilla (even though she'd forgotten about her). We stayed in the Rose Garden inn and I slept a blissful 10 hours.

Preparation for Transplantation...

Plans have been laid. The groundwork is prepped, sustenance has been prepared. We have nearly completed the consolidation in preparation for transport. Our belongings will head on their merry way on June 29th. I will attempt to keep you updated as we mosey our way out to Ohio.