Before the Blog: Capital PrideFest

Well, dinner with Shrike's family went well. Her sister had already told their grandparents that Whozat is visiting for the summer, so we guess she'll just like it so much she decides to stay! Shrike's mom still made small talk with Whozat about her job search, but we don't think her grandparents heard any of that.

We went to DC yesterday for the Capital Pride Festival and it was great! As Whozat commented on the way home, "That was probably more queers than I've seen in my entire life - even if you count all the ones that I didn't even know were queer!"

That's probably true - they were predicting around 200,000 people to attend the street fair, and it didn't look like the intermittent rain kept anyone away.

This was our first Pridefest, but it certainly won't be our last. We're definitely making plans to attend the BlueState Pridefest that's coming up. No new news on Whozat's job search, we'll keep you posted on that as things develop.

Before the Blog: Meeting the Grandparents

Well, we've now been in BlueState for almost two weeks and we're starting to get somewhat settled into our new apartment.

We still haven't unpacked much, but since it's temporary, Whozat is thinking of every box unpacked as just another one to repack in a few weeks!

Whozat's job search is progressing, she should hear back in a couple of weeks from an interview she had for a software trainer position and the web editor position should be interviewing about that time.

She's decided that since she was dreading the possibility of the high school she interviewed with last week offering her a job and since she was relieved when they didn't, that she should take it as a clue that she's done with teaching, so she's not pursuing any of the other teaching positions she's heard about.

She has signed up with a temp agency, in hopes of getting a little work between now and finding something permanent, but nothing has come of that yet. The agency also offers some pretty advanced computer training about an hour away, so if nothing comes of the other jobs, she's planning to look into that.

We have plans for dinner this evening with Shrike's family to celebrate her grandfather's birthday, which was this week. Whozat is a little nervous about meeting Shrike's grandparents, because they know absolutely *nothing*.

We assume that they know Shrike had a roommate when she was living in Texas, but as far as we know, they have no idea that her "roommate" has moved to BlueState. We're hoping Shrike's mom has at least mentioned this to them, but Whozat's thinking they still may wonder what the hell she's doing at a family function.

Shrike's sister suggested telling them for now that Whozat is just here for the summer (believable, since she's a teacher) but Whozat isn't too keen on that, since she figures the only good topic for "small talk" with Shrike's parents will be her job search! It should certainly prove to be interesting.

Before the Blog: Welcome to BlueState!

We made it! After three days and 1500 miles of driving - we're in our new apartment in BlueState.

The apartment is, well, it's temporary, is what it is.

We'll just be here until we know where Whozat will be working, then we'll find something a little (a lot!) nicer.

Speaking of the job hunt, Whozat has an interview tomorrow for a high school teaching job in the town where Shrike's parents live and she sent out a resume today for a web editor job.

She's given them the URL of this page as an example of her web skills, based on the theory that if anything they read here stops them from hiring her, it's not a place she'd be comfortable working anyway. She's a little nervous about it, so let's all keep our fingers crossed on that!

Other than that, we've been pretty busy trying to get moved in here, and we still have a long way to go with that. And speaking of, it looks like it's time to go unpack something, so watch this spot for more information!

Before the Blog: Ready to Roll

Hey folks! This will be the last update for a few days. Whozat will be loading up the moving truck tomorrow afternoon, so she's got to pack up the computer tonite.

After several false leads and near misses, she's finally got a crew together to get the stuff onto the truck. So tomorrow will be a busy, busy day for her.

As soon as school is out, (it's the last day of school so that will be a "gaggle-fuck" (as Shrike says) in and of itself!) she'll be delivering her car to the dealership that's buying it and getting her money for that, then picking up the truck (across the street from the car dealership, as luck would have it!) and coming home to meet the guys and start loading. She's hoping to get that done in 3 hours or so - keep your fingers crossed for that!

Then on Friday, she gets off work at noon, then has to make a trip to the credit union to make a billion different deposits, transfers and withdrawals and then home to get the house into "move-out" condition. Lots of sweeping, mopping and vacuuming scheduled for Friday!

That evening is her nephew's 8th grade graduation and then dinner w/her sister's family and then home to wait for Shrike!

YIPPEE! We should be together in 52 hours!

Saturday morning we'll load up the last few things, stop by Whozat's parents for a quick visit (and to dump off a few things she's leaving there that she forgot to take yesterday, of course) and then drop off the rental car Shrike's driving in from Houston and we'll be on our way!

We should arrive in BlueState sometime Monday and we *think* we know where we'll be living when we get there. Shrike is supposed to be getting things settled today on a tiny little month-to-month apt where we can stay until we know where Whozat will be working.

We should be back online as soon as we can unpack the computer and hook it up, since Shrike already has an account up there, so we'll be sure to post an update then!

Before the Blog: Moving Plans

ONE WEEK TO GO!!!

By this time next week, Shrike should have arrived and we should be well on our way to getting "reacquainted" ;-)

Whozat is busy-busy-busy with packing and planning. Shrike is doing her best to locate us a place we can both live til we're settled job-wise, without her having an hour commute to work everyday (as it would be from M & C's place.) We have a few options on how to work it out, but nothing is solid yet.

Whozat is working on lining up a crew of "strapping young men" to load the truck on Thursday. She's hoping to be able to just stand around and give directions and not have to exert herself too much! Especially since we'll both be among the crew of not-so-strapping not-so-young dykes who'll be stuck unloading it in BlueState a few days later!

No real news on the job front - Whozat's got some leads on some teaching positions, but she's really hoping for something else to pop up.

Oh, by the way, Whozat's mom's surgery went fine, she's back home, as of a few hours ago, and is doing well. She's still in a lot of pain, especially after all the exertion getting involved in getting home and getting settled, but she says the physical therapy is a bit easier each time and she's looking forward to a few weeks down the road when she's fully recovered and getting around much better than before the surgery.

Before the Blog: The Secret Sock Stash

Well, Whozat's been a packing fool the last week! Got a lot done last weekend and even more this weekend. Looks like she's right on schedule.

Here's a funny thing - the kitties have a thing about socks - they love to steal them (MamaCat will steal them from the drawer if it's open even a crack - Whozat has come home and found a trail of socks from the bedroom to the front door!) and they love to "kill" them - especially in the middle of the night!

As she was cleaning out and packing the office closet, Whozat found their secret stash of socks - in the back corner, behind some boxes were about 8 socks that they've evidently stolen and hidden there!

Either that or that's where they go when they disappear from the dryer!

Possible good news on the job front - Whozat has a couple of calls to return tomorrow from potential employers who left messages for her on Friday - Yippee!

She's taking a sick day tomorrow to run errands and make tons of phone calls. Also, her mom's have surgery tomorrow (having both knees replaced) so she'd like to be around for that.

Shrike is enjoying her new job and getting to spend lots of time w/her family. She's also been visiting our friends M & C a bit - she's gone up to their place a couple of Fridays to watch Xena with them.

Whozat thinks it's totally unfair that she had to watch this weeks episode (Ides of March) alone and Shrike didn't! Well, that's about all our news - more later!

Before the Blog: Packing Up

18 days to go....Shrike seems to be settling in to her new job - bummer that she has to be there at 6:30 am, though!

Whozat is hanging in there, counting the days.

She started packing this weekend - got a lot done in the way of books and fru-fru-look-pretty stuff that won't get used in the next few weeks anyway.

Tomorrow is Whozat's birthday. She celebrated it, her sister's birthday (which is Thursday) and Mother's Day with her family yesterday. Her big gift was a computer upgrade and a scanner from her parents. Here's a picture of her engagement ring!

Wedding Journal: Ring-a-Ding-Done

Good news! I now have my rings!

After all the mess with them earlier, I didn't expect them to be in today, but after lurking around the mall outside the store for the woman to get back from picking up things at the jeweler's - I finally got them! And they both fit!

Of course, I had to try on the band with the engagement ring a few times - just to see how it looks - but not in the car!

Before the Blog: Happy Birthday, Shrike!

First, let's start with a belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Shrike, who turned the BIG 3-0 yesterday!

This message from Whozat, who's days at the BIG 3-0 are seriously numbered!)

Well, still working on the plan for Shrike to fly down and drive to BlueState with Whozat. Whozat's mom called a couple of days ago and offered to kick in $100 if it would help Shrike to fly all the way to Texas, so they could make the whole trip together - Would it ever!

Shrike talked to her new boss yesterday and got the OK to be off Memorial Day *and* to leave work a couple of hours early the Friday before. So, the latest plan is for her to fly to BigCityAbout2HoursFromWhozat on Friday evening May 28, and both of us to head for BlueState Saturday morning.

Since she's off Monday, we can do the trip in 3 days if we need to. We're hoping Whozat's brother, who lives in BigCity..., can give Shrike a ride from the airport that night, so Whozat can work on getting the truck loaded and have that done when she gets there.

Whozat tried to go book the flight this afternoon, but when she got to the travel agency they were closed. She's going to try again tomorrow.

So, with the change in plans and the passing of time the Shrike-and-Whozat-Can't-Stand-Being-Apart Countdown now stands at 30 days.

More good news on the wedding plans journal page.

Wedding Journal: Shopping

Well, Shrike just left for BlueState, but you can read all about that elsewhere, so I'll save this space for better news.

We went out to the mall yesterday to pick up a few wedding things. We bought the toasting glasses - which are absolutely beautiful. We're waiting on the engraving, though, because we figure nothing will screw up the availability of the wedding date like engraving it on the glasses!

We went to the dollar store first, though, to pick up the bubbles for the reception. We've seen them packaged specifically for weddings several places, but they're like 24 for $6 and the $ store had packages of 6 for . . . a dollar.

So, of course, when we went to buy them they were out. Whozat went and asked the cashier about them and she was real damn helpful:

"Were they on the back wall?"

"Yes"

"Well, if they're not there, then we're out of them."

"Will you be getting some more in?"

"Who knows."

Gee thanks. Bitch.

We figured if they don't we're only going to spend about $5 more to buy them elsewhere - but it's the principal of the thing, you know? Oh well.

Before that, though, we went in this little boutique by the mall, just scouting out dresses. They didn't have anything we were interested in, and we couldn't have afforded anything there, anyway, but I knew that the owner is a lesbian so she wanted to at least take a look there.

So when Shrike asked if she had anything in white and she asked us "what kind of white are you looking for, what is this for?" What did we say?

NOTHING! We decided we're going to need a little more work on this if we can't even come out to another lesbian!