A whole lot of nothing

Dear Friends - sorry for the lack of posts. I've been up to my eyeballs in errands to get ready for the move. 19 days to go! I had to run to the banks, DMV and FedEx. Speaking of FedEx, it cost my $300.00 to send two large suitcases to Oklahoma. B is traveling home tomorrow to visit his family and we decided that it would be best that I send him two of my suitcases that he can take back to Dusseldorf. I thought that would have solved my problem with dragging various bags on my trip, but I was wrong, as I have two more suitcases that I will be taking with me. I feel like Elizabeth Taylor with all the stuff that I have to take with me, without the entourage, hat boxes, people fawning all over me, etc. Thankfully I'm flying First Class so I can point to a porter and tell him, "Be careful with that! That's my priceless mink!".

The heatwave has finally broken here so now it's a balmy 90 degrees...I promise to write more entries.

It's Too Damn Hot (with apologies to Ann Miller)

Ok, so I thought it couldnt get any hotter down here but the mercury climbed to 104 degrees today and is supposed to be that way through next week. This bites. My sister doesnt have a pool so the only tanning I'll get is being outside running errands. I cant wait for this weekend as I will be meeting up with my old friends who used to work with me at The University of Phoenix, or as we lovingly called it the University of Phonics then doing a little shopping at the outlet mall near Palm Springs. I feel like a lady of leisure, but living in a one horse town, whose idea of fine dining is going to the Red Robin attached to the Galleria (my sister calls the mall the Shooting Galleria), though I am surprised that they have an H&M. Not much to write about today. It's just to hot. More later...

Hot Child in the City

Well, I'm now officially in Southern California and it's H-O-T down here!!!! On average it's hovering around 95 degrees. The move went very well. We (me, my sister, her husband and his cousin), packed up last Friday and were done in 2 hours, checked into the lovely Doubletree Hotel in Burlingame, where we were immediately caught in a whirpool of attendees hovering at a registration desk for an airline meeting. As I was checking in at the real registration desk, I couldnt help but look at the poor soul who was managing the registration desk for this meeting and overhearing some of the questions, the attendees were asking, e.g., when is breakfast, where is the meeting room, what time does the meeting start tomorrow, etc. etc, and I wanted to go up to them and say, open your fucking reg packet and look at the agenda included which your meeting planner has already told you includes that information!!! Ass hats.

On Saturday, I took the group on the grand tour of SF which they seemed to enjoy, we kept an early day as we got up at 5 AM on Sunday to drive the truck and car down to SoCal. I naturally took the car. I dont think any of you can see me driving a 26 ft long truck on the 5 freeway. BJ and the Bear I am not. We got to my sister's house at 2, unloaded the truck, returned it and it was DONE. I have been sleeping in late for the past couple of days and playing with the dog. Other than that, there is NOTHING to do here. Mainly because the heat is so intense that all I want to do is sit still and not move for fear of breaking out in a sweat.

Jolly Ranchers

I'm done packing. My sister, her husband and his cousin arrive tomorrow morning, we pick up the truck and start loading. It's my last night sleeping in my apartment. I will miss this place. We leave for Southern California on Sunday in the AM and hopefully arrive in the afternoon for unloading and storage. I'm tired. I did a few last minute errands today and got a haircut. My stylist told me a funny story (one that I'm not going to get into here to respect her privacy), but did you know that in jail (or prison), inmates are not allowed to have Jolly Ranchers because you can turn them into shanks? All you need to do is pour hot water on them until they get malleable and you can stretch them out into long points; let it dry and voila, you have a weapon, a la Prison Break. I learn new things everyday. My time here is done...tonight my friend Mark is holding a little nice farewell dinner in the city.

Friends, starting tomorrow, I will not have internet access till I get to SoCal, so if you want to get a hold of me, call me on my cell - which will be active for another month. BTW, My friend Dana just got engaged. Her boyfriend proposed to her in Paris under the Eiffel Tower...congratulations Dana...$200.00?!?

Meeting Amanda

I read an article in a magazine a billion years ago talking about the Amanda Complex - put it simply, the minute you start a major change that involves moving away, you meet the woman of your dreams (Amanda was her name in the article) and thus placed in a quandry that questions your motives for moving, or if the move is a good idea. Now, dear readers, I'm not stating that I'm changing my mind about the move. My variation of the Amanda Complex is I have discovered the some of the best out of the way restaurants in the San Mateo area and feel a little sad that I only discovered them now when I only have four days left before I move. Since I'm now a lady of leisure, I've had time to actually stop and go to some of these places I have always passed but thought, "I'll go there next weekend when I have more time.".

I'm always amazed by friends who have lived in the bay area their entire lives but have never gone to some of its iconic destinations e.g. Alcatraz, Coit Tower, Palace of the Legion of Honor etc. I suppose they feel that since they live here, there will always be a time to go. I myself, have lived here for eight years and not once have I gone to some of the these places thinking the same thing. Now there is no more time and I regret that. I hope to change that behavior once I'm in Germany. I'll try to stop and smell the roses, step into an out of the way store or restaurant and force B to do the same. He's much worse about such things than me. At least I dont wonder anymore about meeting my version of Amanda.

Speaking of B, he's in Vienna today, and will be in Lake Como for the rest of the week, attending one of those conferences that requires the services of a meeting planning company (attendees consists of the top 300 executives of his company). For those of you who don't know what I used to do, I was a meeting planner at my old job. Anyway, I asked him several questions about the meeting last night (where are you staying, what does the agenda look like, etc.) and his monosyllabic answers made me realize that he had no idea where his packet was, where he was supposed to go, his flight information...I had to stifle a laugh as I realized that attendees are the same no matter where they are - it's the meeting planners who have to worry for them. I told him to look for it and be prepared. That was always one of my pet peeves as a meeting planner, that the minute things were handled for them, attendees release self responsibility. I guess I don't have to worry about that anymore; now I'll be one of the attendee "spouses" who will drink too much, laugh too hard and ask ludicrous questions and make outrageous requests of the meeting planners and give the meeting planners something to talk about...NOT!

New Friends

The hard thing about moving is making a new life for yourself; getting used to a new environment, new way of doing things and of course, having to make new friends. After only 4 days, I have made a couple of new ones. This morning I got to spend time with Dan, Roseanne, Darlene and the rest of the Connors. I had a nice leisurely lunch and then spent the afternoon with Dorothy, Blanche, Rose and Sophia. I tried to meet up with Erica, but she's kind of bitchy so I had to beg off and instead spend a few moments with Maury and Jerry but it was too hard to spend any quality time as all the people near them were yelling, screaming and acting all crazy. These new friends might stay a while. It all depends if they continue to speak English or only German. On another note, the packing is going well. I'm almost done.

Too much...

I'm in the midst of packing my apartment and there's just way too much stuff. Im over it. I look around and wonder how in the hell did I manage to accumulate all this crap and why in the world did I keep a copy of House and Beautiful circa 1998? I've always been a bit of a magazine whore and I've kept copy upon copy of magazines that I think I'll use as a reference down the road. I had a stack of one particular magazine that reached to my shoulders...I kid you not. I tossed them all last week. If I had a cat, I would start resembling those hermits who live closed off to the world and have meals delivered by Meals on Wheels. I'm not missing work but I am missing the daily interactions I had with people and missing friends. B is still in Vienna on business and is going to London tomorrow. At least I think that's what I remember, I can't keep track of his schedule. I think once I'm on Dusseldorf, I'll have to make friends with his assistant, but she's a bit of a bulldog in not releasing information - excuse me, but does she not know who I am? Once I called her Eva Braun to B and he didnt think that was funny...I did...but hell I never said I was nice...sorry everyone with the stream of consciousness entry. I'll try to be more focused next time. I'm trying to get into a rythmn.