Happy Trails To You...

Day three of driving done.  We're hanging out in Billings, MT tonight.  Futty had another great day, she crawled into the litterbox (Booda Dome for the win!), turned around, meowed and laid down.  She seems to have gotten into the traveling groove.  Our drive today was MUCH more pleasant.  We got off the interstate and drove along US-212.  It was beautiful--sorry I don't have pictures.  I stupidly packed my camera in the back of the truck. 

We pulled up to our hotel (The Dude Rancher Lodge...haha, not quite as rustic as it sounds), and saw a tour bus parked out front for Dale Watson.  It meant nothing to me either.  But Dan got really excited because apparently Dale played at Dan's brother Jay's wedding.  No encounters so far, but we may get creepy and try to hunt him down to say hi.  

Today's Superlatives: 

Most Exotic License Plate: Arizona (not terribly exotic, but there wasn't much traffic on US-212), or North Carolina, considering how far away that is.  I also saw another Saskatchewan today...those folks get around. 

Most Disgusting Roadkill: Half an antelope with a vulture eating it.  Seriously.  Real vulture.  Gross

Most Interesting Car/Driver: All of the strange farming equipment we passed by. 

Stupidest Billboard Ad: "Broadus, the Wavingest City in Montana" complete with a picture of a cowboy waving.  

Most Offensive Sight: Nothing terrible today, although I drove past the battleground for the Battle of Little Bighorn....and tasted a Custer's Last Stout beer tonight...so that's kind of a whole mess of oppression in one spot.  

Tomorrow we're headed to Missoula, it'll be another short trek (5 hours).  Then we gear up for the long stretch to our new home!  We're hoping we can get into the apartment late on Friday night (we're technically not supposed to move in until Saturday).  We shall see! 

Oregon Trail (You Know it Was Bound to Happen)

We're on the road.  We left around noon on Monday after loading the truck.  Thanks to Annie and Grant it was a very speedy process.  We all went out for one last meal at Perez and then (after another tearful goodbye) loaded into the cars.  

The drive is going well so far.  We stopped in Minnesota last night and are currently just outside of Rapid City, South Dakota for the night.  Futty Cat is doing remarkably well, thanks to her awesome "Booda Dome" cat litter box.  She really enjoys hanging out in there while we're driving.  So far it's working well.  She seems to enjoy exploring the new hotel rooms.  She's currently lounging by the window, checking out the hills of South Dakota. 

I've developed a game to keep us entertained throughout the drive.  I'm not sure Futty enjoys playing with me, but I'm entertained by it.  And I think Dan is putting up with it, haha.  I call it "Superlatives" so, today's "Superlatives" are:

Most Exotic License Plate: Saskatchewan      

Most Disgusting Roadkill: The half of a coyote I saw...not sure where the other half went

Most Interesting Car/Driver: The truck I saw towing a trailer filled with life-size plastic horses

Stupidest Billboard Ad: "You Should Corn-Sider Stopping by the Mitchell Corn Palace" (which we did NOT do, FYI...once in a lifetime is plenty for me...that place reeks!).  

Strangest Town Name: Luverne (it's not really that strange, I just laughed for some reason)

Most Offensive Sight: Wooden cutouts of Native Americans "attacking settlers" in 1880 Town...seriously, I gasped out loud.  

I'm sure the list will grow as the game evolves, but that was today's round.  

Déjà vu

Well, here we are.  Less than 24 hours until we pick up our rental truck and say goodbye to Chicago for the last time. 

My parents graciously came to Chicago this weekend and tirelessly helped us prepare the apartment for our move out. Our landlady has a 17 point "addendum" to the lease which stipulates, in painful detail, all of the charges to our security deposit if we don't follow the instructions to a tee.  We cleaned out behind the stove and refrigerator, filled in (and painted) nail holes, and bleached the living daylights out of the shower (not to mention lost a few brain cells in the process, man...bleach is strong!).  And don't forget, we packed and reorganized every earthly possession.  

And then they left and I relived those terrifying moments my freshman year of college when they drove away and I realized, standing there in the parking lot, how utterly alone I was.  I wanted to force myself to be independent and adventurous and I had no clue how to accomplish that.  I was thrilled at the prospect of living "in the city" (psh, Palos Heights) and living an exciting life on my own.  Now, ten years later, I like to consider myself a fully independent adult.  I've lived on my own for the past ten years and am still in one piece.  I've had a stable job, I've purchased cars and furniture (albeit from Ikea, but it still counts),  I'm freakin' married!  Come on!  Yet my heart aches just as much as it did that day.  I know I'll see them soon, but it won't be nearly as easy.  I won't be there for the birth of my newest nephew and it kills me.  I won't be able to meet my mom in Michigan City and go shopping.  I won't be able to go out for coffee with my dad when he drives through town.  I won't be able to be there for every one of my niece's birthdays and they're already growing so fast.  I won't be able to go out for breakfast with my grandparents and chat about life.  I won't be able to call my mom, in tears because I'm sick and be surprised when she shows up on my doorstep three hours later with chicken soup.  Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to move to Portland and I'm excited about starting a new phase of life with my wonderful husband.  But for now,  I'm just gonna sit on the sofa and bawl like a baby and realize that inside, I'm still a terrified 18 year old who has no clue what she's getting herself into.            

Living In a Cardboard Fort

You know how when you're a kid and your parents get some new appliance and let you play with the box?  Maybe that was just my parents, but seriously, I made a wicked mini-house out of a refrigerator box attached to a dishwasher box when I was like 10.  It had wallpaper, window treatments, picture frames, I'm pretty sure there was even a shelf or two.  

My life right now feels like the box fort, but I can't leave the fort and go to a normal sized house.  Our apartment is about 650 square feet, so there's very little "unused space" to begin with.  We have a total of about 10 square feet of floor space that is NOT covered with boxes or furniture we're trying to sell off.  

Seriously, I mean look at this!

  

And that photo was taken while sitting on the couch!  

Less than a week and the real test comes: can it all fit into the truck we rented?  

In other news, I had a job interview for a middle school Language Arts and Social Studies position at one of the Portland Public Schools today.  I'm really excited about the possibility of working at this particular school, it seems like a really good fit for me.  I think the interview went really well.  It was a phone interview (thankfully not a video chat, so no one else would have to be subjected to the horror of the box fort).  They said I'd hear about it tomorrow already, so cross your fingers!  

Last Weekend...The Goodbyes Begin

Our last weekend (well, the one not filled with packing/loading trucks/cleaning the apartment) in Chicago is over.  We chose to spend it in the best way we knew how.  Pitchfork Music Festival.  This is my fifth year going, and Dan's been three or four times himself.  It's always hot, sweaty, dusty and full of good music.  This year one of our favorite bands, Belle and Sebastian played.  Since we rode our bikes there,  I was not about to lug my heavy (good) camera with us.  So we'll settle for Google images. 

We were really excited about Belle & Sebastian and Toro y Moi.  Dan was excited about R. Kelly, and we both were simply intrigued to see Björk.  Belle and Sebastian definitely lived up to the expectations.  To see people skipping and dancing around, singing in the rain, it was heartwarming.  The rest, I don't think I'd say heartwarming (nasty R. Kelly), but they were pretty fun to see nonetheless.

Belle & Sebastian, love em.

Now it's back to packing and saying goodbye to tons of people.  We've got dinner plans nearly every night this week.  

Licensed!

The past few months I've been obsessively checking my teaching license status with Oregon state Teacher Standards and Practices Commission.  It's been one hoop after another that I've had to jump through.  The most annoying being the fingerprinting process (apparently Oregon is very picky about evenly distributed ink on fingerprints, psh).  Since the end of June it has said "We are not processing applications for this person at this time" when you search my name.  Paranoid, I decided to call today.  I explained my situation and after being put on hold for 5 minutes (WAY better than the four days of hold time I dealt with from Illinois last summer) the woman comes back to the phone and says, "I'll issue that today."  I was shocked.  A simple phone call!  I am now licensed to teach in the state of Oregon!  Whew!

Now...who wants to hire me?

Boxes Boxes Everywhere

Last weekend we spent an extended weekend in Grand Rapids, celebrating the wedding of these two lovebirds.  And hanging out with dear friends (and saying goodbye to some of them for the last time).  

We spent this current weekend enjoying some time with our dear friend Joe.  He's been studying at University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and has visited us a number of times.  We finally decided that it was time (before we move across the country) to visit him on his turf.  So, after watching a few soccer games in Chicago, and hanging out with Futty cat, we took Joe back to Champaign.  He gave us a lovely (albeit sweaty and hot) tour of the campus and we watched some soccer on HIS television, haha.  It was nice to see his spot and enjoy an impromptu road trip.  But now we're back.  And buried under boxes

  I'm typically a very "everything has it's place" kind of gal, so the minimal chaos that has begun is already grating on me.  Although, after three rejection emails from Portland Public Schools (one I was happy about since I inadvertently applied for a 2nd grade position, oops!) in one morning, I was desperate for something to do.  So...I started packing some more.  I'm already looking forward to August 3 when all of this junk will finally have a new home!  

              

Sadly, I was not able to capture Futty cat lounging on the boxes.  She's so helpful.  

Thank Yous and Aliens

This is our life as of late.  Nonstop Thank You note writing and alien fighting.  The Thank You notes are real, the aliens, virtual.  We've taken to setting up camp for a few hours a day at a coffee shop and busting out 20-30 cards.  Then venturing home and packing a few items here and there (or at least determining if certain items are worth the cross-country journey).  After feeling slightly accomplished we sit down at our own respective technologies.  While Dan fights aliens on his XBox, I obsessively check job opportunities (it's looking grim, people) in Portland and watch old episodes of Mad About You.  We make quite a pair, don't we?

Yesterday we chose a newer spot called RENO which offers Stumptown Coffee (from Portland).  We had a super sweet waitress, who, when she noticed what we were up to, offered us a chocolate and pistachio tart and two small glasses of champagne on the house!  Today we went to an old favorite, WormHole and later met up with my dear friend (and bridesmaid) Florencia for lunch and to say goodbye.  She's off to start her own adventure in San Francisco, at least we'll be on the same coast!    

Manifest Destiny

Although my humanist leanings hate the term "manifest destiny" for the inherent racism and sense of entitlement that went along with the original use of the term, the history teacher in me couldn't resist using it.  We are about to embark on our own journey, excited to see what's in store for us on the other side of the country. I hope to use this platform to share our adventures (and misadventures) with family we are leaving behind back in the midwest.

Here we go, from a romantic (yet apparently raucous) garden wedding in Chicago:

To an apartment (lease signed sight unseen, eek!) in Portland.  Our own Manifest Destiny.