Get me outta here!!

So far this morning, I have

1. Woken up at 7:45 to Francisco, the maintenance guy, busting into our room. No one told him the room was occupied, so he came right in... not his fault, but I will say that Charley scared the crap out of him...
2. Gotten a phone call from the front desk by the manager, who wanted to know why we weren't staying in room 235. Room 235 is our internet room for now. We weren't supposed to move all of our stuff to it, according to Kimberly.
3. Recieved another phone call from someone at the front desk, needing another description of what was going on. I'm so annoyed with this place right now. At least I have a room to go to to blog about it for now... I know I won't have internet for the next two days because we'll have to move out of this room tonight (235) and then we're going to get the HECK out of here on Wednesday. The movers are scheduled to show up between 8 and 10 with all of our stuff Wednesday morning. Hooray!! Get me out of this stupid place!!!

That's about it for now. I slept too much again this morning. I have a bunch to do, so I need to get a move on. We're almost out of here! I wonder what else will happen before we leave... all I know is that this place needs a serious lesson in communication.

I'll write back soon- next time I'll probably be writing from OUR NEW HOUSE! Thank you LORD!!!!!!

-Ash

Testing...

Have I mentioned that I'm ready to get the heck out of this hotel? Here's what's happened in the last 24 hours...

• Took Charley to the new PetsMart by our house. Good times had by most (Casey may not have had as much fun, since he had to be the one who was dragged around by Charley.) We met a lot of people and dogs, though, and got to take a tour of the Banfield clinic and the Pet Hotel. Cool stuff!
• When we got back to the hotel, we started moving. If you need an update, we were told we'd have to move to the 2nd floor because next week there was going to be renovation on the first floor. We made several trips with all of our stuff, and of course we went from room 106 to room 230, so it was on the opposite wing of the building as well.
• Get to the new room- everything is working okay, and we're unpacking a bit. Casey realizes that the internet isn't working.
• Casey spends hours on the phone with tech support, trying to figure out what is going on with the computers. He moves one of the computers back down to room 106, and the internet works fine. He spends more time on the phone with tech support, but they finally say there's nothing they can do to help.
• Today, we didn't do a whole lot. Casey wasn't feeling so great this morning when we went to breakfast, so we cut that short and came back home. We napped for a few hours, and he felt better. (I felt okay, I just thought I'd nap while he did.) :)
• I go downstairs to start a few loads of laundry, and see the lady at the front desk named Kim. She asked me how the internet stuff went last night. I told her about Casey's issues, and she started investigating other rooms we could use on the 2nd floor for the internet. Then she mentioned that she's really not happy with the rest of the staff at the hotel, because they didn't pass the word on to us yesterday that we actually didn't have to switch rooms after all, because the renovations have been pushed back a week. So, Casey wasted an unknown amount of hours trying to get the internet fixed, when he could have used that time to make corrections to his dissertation. Not only that, but we wasted time moving to the new room.
  
• Kim found us a room across the hall from our room on the 2nd floor and we're in here 'working' (Casey is, obviously I'm blogging away)... so we technically have two rooms right now. Kim took off the charges for our internet connections for our entire stay because it's been such a pain.
  

I am soooooooooooooooo ready to close on the house and get the heck out of this hotel!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhh! I'll write more tomorrow, assuming I can get a decent internet connection. :-P

On a brighter note, we close on the house on Tuesday and my parents come in that night! It should be a much better week. On a random note, I think I'm addicted to House. (The TV show, not our real house. Yet.)

-Ashley

Falling and Fences

I think I am probably pretty funny to watch from a distance. I just took Charley out to go to the bathroom, and he started pulling me down a hill and I fell on my ass. When I stood up to dust myself off, there was a big black beetle just inside my button-up shirt, so I freaked out and tried to slap it away, but it ended up going farther into my shirt. I'm pretty sure that this 30 second period of my life would have been funny for someone else to witness. Just thought I would share, so you can laugh at/with me, too. :)

Casey's here now and we're going to go to lunch and then to take pictures of the back of the house again for the fence people. I think building the fence could be an interesting situation between the Home Owner's Association, the Village of Plainfield, the fence building company, and any other people in between that seem to need copies of the survey of our house, various permits, and other random applications. It's starting to get slightly ridiculous, but at least we are trying to cover all of the bases so we don't make any mistakes. That wouldn't be a good way to start our new life in Plainfield!

That's all... for now.

-Ash

Productivity!!

So yesterday started out as a pretty lazy day. I actually slept later than I would like to document, but it was mainly because my stomach was not being nice to me. Charley and I lounged around most of the morning. After that, I somehow got the urge to start looking into the College of DuPage online again as I had done a bit in the past week. I stumbled upon the Human Resources page, and decided to check out what jobs might be available. I found one I was interested in, and started the application process. Basically in the past 18 hours, I have:

• Updated my resume (which was covered in cobwebs since I haven't used it in four years...)
• Typed up a cover letter to the HR department at the College of DuPage
• Contacted new references and asked for reference letters
• Submitted my online application, and e-mailed my resume & cover letter
• Taken the typing and MS Word tests for the College of DuPage online (and scored in the 88th percentile! Happy day!)

I actually woke up around 6:30 when Casey got up, and have been awake ever since. It's a miracle. I guess laying around for two weeks in the hotel has finally made me antsy enough to actually be productive and start looking for employment! Oh, and I had a nice cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee this morning (there are more DD stores here than there are McDonald's, I'm pretty sure...) which probably lead to my productivity as well. Good times, good times.

On another note, I am SO glad the new season of The Office started last night. It did not disappoint. I'm sad that I don't have as many people to talk to about it, though... Casey's not a big fan. I will say that he did attempt to watch parts of it with me last night, so that's a step in the right direction. If I had someone to talk with about it, I would definitely talk about the fact that Jim and Pam FINALLY got engaged! And the situation with Angela/Dwight/Andy is pretty hilarious. Michael's a dumbass for many reasons, but when he ripped up the Counting Crows tickets, I wanted to reach through the TV screen and rip off his head. Not to mention the fact that I actually like the fact that Michael and the new girl haven't hooked up yet... we all know it's going to happen eventually, but it's good that the show is not predictable enough to make it happen when we most expect it. They are both so awkward and perfect for each other. Yay season premieres!

Speaking of premiers, I am sad that they killed of Dr. Pratt on ER. I understand that it's the last season for the show, but they don't have to start killing people right away. I shed a tear or two at the end... maybe not as much as I did when Dr. Green died a looooong time ago, but still... the writers really have a way of playing with your emotions when they kill off a character. Booo!!! I guess that's good writing. I would probably cry either way, who am I kidding??

I'm starting to feel pretty tired, so I think I may take a nap. Casey thought he might be able to get out of work early today, so I think we're going to meet up for lunch at some point soon, and then he's going to work on making corrections to his dissertation. We have to pack up all of our stuff today in order to move upstairs tomorrow... the hotel is starting renovations next week so we can't stay on the first floor anymore. It's kind of a pain in the @$$, but that's okay. If only the house could have been ready a day or two earlier! Whatever... at least we won't have too much time to unpack before we move out again; maybe this will make things a little easier.

CB is driving me nuts the past few days by whining a lot. Right now he's laying on the bed, staring out the window which faces the main door to the hotel... needless to say, he's fairly entertained right now. We'll see how long that lasts! We're going to take him to the PetsMart near our house tomorrow- it's the Grand Opening, and there will be a lot going on over there. It'll be a good chance for him to get to know the store that he'll go to most often. Best of all, it's right down Rt. 59 which is basically right down the street from our house! I CAN'T WAIT TO MOOOOVE!!!!!!!!!!

More later,

Ash

PS: Yes Jenny, the waffles were made of real Belgians... have you heard from Olivier lately?? I'm just sayin'... lol.... ;)

Housekeeping

Wednesdays are our days for Housekeeping here at the Extended Stay Hotel. The cleaning lady surprised me last week at around 10:00 am, so today I thought I'd be safe, wake up at 8:30 am, and have plenty of time to shower and get out. Today, she knocked on the door at 9:15 am (which would have been fine had I not hit snooze a few times after 8:30... oops...). So I asked if she could come back in 30 minutes and she agreed. I got dressed without showering (ew!) and get Charley ready to leave. We ran to Starbucks to get some breakfast, went to the ATM, and then to the Post Office. I got back around 10:30, thinking that would have been plenty of time for her to clean. Nothing has been touched. I realize now that I'm screwing up her schedule by being here. The bad part is, she's scared of Charley, so I have to be sure to take him with me where ever I decide to go while she cleans. Normally that would not be a bad thing, but we already ran our errands for the morning on this side of town. I'm not sure when she's coming now, or what I'm going to do with the kid when she comes back. I would take him for a walk, but it's been raining off and on and it looks like that will continue at least until this afternoon.
Dilemma #2 is that I have a meeting today at 2 with our Realtor and the company that is going to build our fence, so I would like to be in the shower ASAP to get ready for that. I can't take Charley with me to the meeting. I don't want to be pushy with the staff here and say that she needs to do it sooner rather than later, but I'm not sure how else to handle the situation. With any luck, maybe she'll show up in the next few minutes, Charley and I can take a walk, and it won't rain. We'll see.
On a brighter note, we will be in our house in a week. This is assuming everything has gone through with the loan officer, etc. Casey told me yesterday that she has not been the easiest person to get in touch with, and she hasn't followed up the way she was supposed to. Luckily, everyone else we're working with has been very helpful, so hopefully that will all work out. [I am really trying not to end sentences with a preposition, but sometimes it's really difficult. Growing up with a father who was an English major makes me aware of things I shouldn't say, but somewhere down the line I forgot the rule about ending sentences with a preposition and I'm not sure how to stop. I just did it twice.] Please just laugh at me and don't think about how ridiculous I sound.
So even though my 'accident' the other day wasn't that big a deal, I'm still nervous to drive. Maybe it's because the GPS is being a POS. I don't know. I think it's also because I have no idea where I'm going around here. I know that will get better with time, so I'm sure it'll all work out- it's just frustrating right now. I miss Columbia. At least there I knew where things were. Okay, I say that, realizing that I would have probably killed to have a GPS when I first got there, because I had no idea where anything was at that point. It feels like things should be easier to find here, though. It's the Midwest. It's not like SC where you could never see the street names because they hid them on the side of the road in a bush somewhere. At least here they post them up by the traffic light. And the Midwest works on more of a grid system. Thank goodness! Not to be a jerk or anything, I'm just glad to get back to a system that makes a little more sense. I remember getting lost numerous times in Columbia because I'd take a street and then suddenly it'd turn into another street name without warning, and I'd be in another town or something. It really wasn't that difficult. I say that, knowing that I'm terrible with directions and get lost a little more frequently than I'd like to admit. Going to Jenny Amos' graduation party, I got so lost that I literally ended up almost 45 minute away from where I needed to be. But again, I will blame that on the fact that the street sign I was looking for was definitely in a tree at the time, and it was nice that when I finally got to the party, other people said the same thing. It's still embarrassing to be late, though!!
I guess that's about all for now... I'm still waiting on the cleaning lady to get here. I guess until then, I'll hang out in the room with Charley and kill time by reading or something. I'll probably write again later after I get back from the meeting at our house this afternoon.

-Ash

Weekend update

So much has happened since I wrote last, and it's only Tuesday.
Friday, Casey and I drove to Kansas to surprise Grandma & Grandpa Shrimplin for their 50th wedding anniversary. I couldn't write about it for fear that someone would let the secret slip. The drive to Kansas was MUCH shorter than the drive from SC to KS, but there was a lot less to see... there was not much curvature to the road and it was slightly boring at times. Casey and I kept each other awake by listening to loud music and drinking a lot of caffeine. We got to Topeka around 11:30 p.m. and Charley Brown got to play with the big dogs for awhile. I think we all slept pretty well that night.
Saturday, we ended up having an early lunch with Lindsey and Sara at The Classic Bean. It was so great to see them!! Casey and I had a lot of fun catching up, and Casey got to tell them all about his new job, etc. After that, we headed out to Lake Shawnee to surprise Grandma & Grandpa Shrimplin. They were definitely surprised! We had fun seeing the family again, and playing with the little cousins. I took more pictures than I thought I did- over 200. You can check them out at this link.
After the party, we went back to Keith & De's place and made Smores. Lindsey came out for an hour or so and we got to chat some more. Aaron Brumley made it out, too, so it was nice to catch up with him as well. It was a late night, but it was definitely worth getting to hang out with old friends again. :)
Sunday we woke up and got ready for church. Keith made us some awesome Belgian waffles for breakfast! We made it to 2nd service and got to see quite a few people we hadn't seen in a long time. After that, we went to my parent's house so Charley could meet Yuki, their Shiba Inu. She was not very happy to see him! Charley didn't know the difference and he kept trying to get in her face and play, but she was not happy at all, and came at him with teeth! The meeting was short. She's a very pretty dog, and she's not bad at all around people, but other dogs must make her feel threatened. No worries though- Charley got to visit with 'grandma & grandpa' while Yuki stayed outside. It was nice to hang out with my parents again. Mom made chili so we scarfed that down... it was delicious, as usual! Shortly afterward, we had to head out of town. We left around 2, and made it back to the hotel around 10:30. It was nice to get home a little earlier and get to sleep. Well, I say that... the dog slept on my feet again, so I didn't sleep very well, but Casey seemed to. :)
Yesterday, I decided to get around and go run some errands. I decided that even though I was going to PetsMart to get food for Charley, I would leave him at home. It's a good thing I did. As I was waiting for the guy in front of me to turn right into the shopping center, I accidently looked down and didn't know I'd taken my foot off the brake slightly, and I bumped the back of his car. He got out and said, "You need to watch where you're going!!" which pretty much instantly brought me to tears. We pulled into the parking lot to assess the damage. Luckily, there really wasn't any, but he called the police anyway to get a record of the event. While we were waiting for the cop to get there, I found out that the guy's daughter's name was Ashley Brooke, too. He told me I "couldn't be a bad kid" because of it... haha. Anyway, long story short, he was fine, and when the cop came, he basically laughed at the guy for calling him. He wiped off part of the guy's bumper and said he really didn't see any damage. He also said that if it appeared to be under $500 in damage, the drivers are expected to exchange information and just take care of it themselves. I was much more calm after the cop assessed everything. I just felt like an idiot. It just goes to show that you can honestly take your eyes off the road for a SECOND and something can happen. I'm just glad I didn't hurt the guy or damage anything. (Sigh).
After that, I tried to find the nearest Walmart using the GPS. The thing sent me all over the place without finding a real Walmart. The first time it sent me to a parking lot. Then I went to a shopping center where you'd think a Walmart would be, but it was only Sam's Club. Finally, I found a real Walmart. In all, the errands I needed to make that shouldn't have taken longer than maybe 2 hours ended up taking 4. I was very glad to get back to the hotel and take a nap to try and forget what had happened. I was pretty frazzled by the end of it. Needless to say, I'm not really in a hurry to go anywhere today. I'm doing 3 loads of laundry at the moment, and I think I'll read my book for a bit. Other than that, I'm going to do a bit more searching online about going back to school to see my options. I think I'll stay here today, at least until Casey gets home.
That's all from me... and I'm sure it's plenty. :)

-Ashley

It's been a busy day already! Casey and I are taking a road trip this weekend, so I've been getting things ready for that. We're taking my car, and I didn't want to take it in the condition I got it in because it looked like the delivery drivers had taken it mudding or something... so Charley and I took it to one of the automatic car washes. That scared the crap out of him! He couldn't figure out what all the brushes and things were doing around him. There were so many strange noises- his poor little ears were shoved back against his head the whole time. He's better now- he's taking a nap on the bed. I'm also doing laundry, and the last time I went to put the clothes in the dryer, I heard Charley scratching on the door all the way from the lobby. He's really freaking out, and I'm sure the road trip isn't going to help matters. He will get to play with other dogs this weekend, though, so that will be good for him. I'm sure he'll get plenty of attention. :)

I need to pack to get ready to leave. Casey's coming home early from work (hopefully around 3 or 3:30) so we can get on the road. I probably won't have access to the internet much this weekend, but I'll definitely update on Monday. I'm sure I'll have plenty to write!

-Ash

Road Trip with Charley Brown

Charley and I just got back from a 2.5 hour road trip. We checked out one (of the many) Petsmart stores and made some new friends there. A lady named Kathy helped us out quite a bit and mentioned a few places to go or Google to find the nearest dog park. We also went to a place called Doggie Deli and I got Charley some beef jerky. He's spoiled, I know. This day was dedicated to him, though- I just wanted to get him out so he might not be as clingy in the hotel. We'll see if that worked...

We drove over to the new house- it was a long drive, unfortunately... but I think there'll be plenty to do around our area once we move. I feel like we're a long way from the hotel, but in reality, we won't really have a need to be on this side of town after we move. Casey's commute to work will probably be the only thing bringing him this way. Anyway, I definitely took a picture of the SOLD sign in our yard! :-D I can't wait until October 1st!!! Charley and I drove around our new neighborhood and saw a bunch of little kids. I think it's going to be really good for him. He is listening better now than he ever has, which is reassuring. I think he'll be great around the kids... I just have to make sure he knows not to get too excited and lick them in the face. Knowing Charley, that'll probably be the first thing he does. Oh well! At least he's a friendly kid.

That's all for now. Casey called me a bit ago and said that he didn't get lunch because he was in a meeting at the time. I felt bad because I had just stopped to get Burger King right before he called. It wasn't much of a lunch, though. I told the kid that I didn't want pickles or onions, and that's all they gave me! I ended up eating meat and bread. Woo hoo. I'll probably be hungry by the time Casey gets home, but I hope he doesn't want the leftover pasta we've had since Sunday. I'm a bit pasta'd out at the moment.

I'll write more later!

-Ash

Good morning!!

We've got mail! I called the Columbia post office and finally got everything settled with our forwarding address. For some reason, it would not allow me to change our address to a PO Box online, but they had me fill out the paper form and said it would not be a problem. They also agreed to forward all the mail they'd been saving to our PO Box today. (Sigh of relief).

As soon as all of that got figured out, Charley heard a horn and started barking. Turns out, the horn was from the 18-wheeler that had arrived with my car!!! I officially have a vehicle again!! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay! So I just ate some breakfast, and I'm planning to get around here and take Charley to the Doggie Deli which is not far from the hotel (but not really in walking distance- for me, at least). I know it won't be the same as Three Dog Bakery (we miss you guys a BUNCH!) but it'll have to do for now. I just want to drive around today and explore. With the new GPS!! Yay!!!

That's really about it for now. At this rate, though, I'll surely have more to write later. I just had to share the good news! :-D

-Ash

Entry #2...

You know I'm bored when you get more than one entry in one day.

I just tried instant coffee for the first time. The first and last time, in fact. It is disgusting. It has this strange after-taste that reminds me of the sulfur smell on the 4th of July. I even put in a ton of half & half and sugar, but that definitely didn't help. Ugh.

That's really about it. I'm watching TV, something I haven't done a lot of until I've been stuck in this hotel room. Ellen just interviewed the author of a book I'm reading called New Moon. It's the second book in the "Twilight Series" about vampires. I'm fairly addicted and I'll need the 3rd book soon as I've blazed through the first half in the past 3 days. I've always had a thing for vampires, so this is an easy read for me. (I also think it's geared toward a younger audience, but since it's about vampires, I'm willing to overlook that fact.)

I think Casey's going to the health club tonight after work, so I have a bit of extra time before he gets home. I'm going get involved in the book and hopefully the time will pass quickly. It's strange to go from complete chaos to boredom in less than a week. It's also strange to know that I'm writing so much about being bored. That must be boring for you to read. I'll try to spice it up a bit soon, somehow. :)

-Ashley

Exploring Lisle

This morning we woke up with a start. Casey thought he'd hit snooze, but he turned off the alarm. It was almost 7:30, the time he wanted to leave so he could be at work for training! I ran around trying to get his clothes and things together while he was in the shower. He left about ten minutes later... it was quick, but not a great way to start the morning, I'm sure! Hopefully the rest of his day is going better than the beginning.

So I slept in again after that. I woke up once when Housekeeping came to the door, but I think Charley scared her away. I got a phone call a bit later that said today was our day for Housekeeping and that she'd be back in 15 minutes to clean the room. I got dressed quickly and decided to take Charley for a long walk. We went exploring around the hotel, and then ended up walking down the main street for a bit. There is literally nothing around here. It was a pretty day, though, so we explored a bit and I took some pictures. (I'll include them in this post if the slow internet connection will allow...)

Last night after Casey got home from work, we had to go to FedEx Kinko's to fax some things to the mortgage company. Walking in that place brought back a lot of memories, which was weird since I've never been in that store before. I guess it's the familiar scent of paper and toner, who knows. I don't remember faxes being so expensive, though. What a rip off! It was $1.49 for the first sheet, and $1 for every page after that. We had about 20 pages. Ouch!

After that, we ran to the Sprint store. I guess I forgot to mention that in our horrible drive here, I accidentally dropped Casey's phone on the cup holders near the gear shift, and the screen got a crack down the middle. That definitely didn't help the mood of our drive. So we had to take it to Sprint to see what they could do to fix it. Needless to say, they couldn't do much. Even though Casey has insurance on the phone, it apparently doesn't cover things like that. It looks like they'll have to overnight a new phone to him sometime this week. Hopefully that'll be the end of that!

I guess that's about all for now. Charley's napping on the bed, but I know if I get up to take a shower, he'll be right there next to me; he's been my little brown shadow this week. I can't wait to get the house so he can run around and play... I love the kid, but I feel like we're attached at the hip right now. Maybe we can take him to PetsMart again this week so he can calm down a bit. :)

Thanks for reading... more tomorrow, I'm sure. :)

-Ashley

PS: As I was uploading pictures, we got a letter under our door. They are apparently renovating the hotel, starting with the first floor. They want us to move to a room on the 2nd or 3rd floor on Sept. 29th... go figure! We move to the new house on October 1st! This could get interesting... stay tuned...

Ho-Hum in the Hotel

Man this hotel is boring. I slept a lot today. I hate to admit that, but it's my own fault. Charley slept on my side of the bed last night, and proceeded to have puppy dreams and kick me a lot. At one point I kicked him out of bed, but he ended up hopping right back up a bit later and laying on my legs. When I woke up earlier, they were completely numb. So, I took a nap earlier today to make up for the sleep I lost last night.
Charley and I have gotten to explore outside a few times today. The weather is beautiful- it's probably about 72 degrees right now, and I don't think there is a cloud in the sky. What a vast improvement from the past few days! There aren't many things to see around the hotel, but we checked out a field in the back (apparently it's some sort of dog run). Charley sniffed everything. We're close to a highway, so he jumped every time he heard an 18 wheeler go by. I thought that opening the curtains in our room would help him so he could see people coming in and out of the building. Instead, he's been whining and pacing around whenever he sees someone outside. He's probably waiting for Casey to get home, or he's just looking for some additional attention. Casey and I took him to PetsMart last night after Case got home from work. You'd think he'd never seen people or other dogs before! He was super excited. We got him some treats (including some Greenies so his breath will improve a bit... we hope!). There's nothing like the smell of dog breath in the morning! Hopefully he'll calm down a little bit. I'm sure things will improve when my car is here and I can take him out to parks, etc. I can't wait!
Casey seemed to really enjoy his first day of work yesterday. It's exciting for me to see him so enthusiastic about the project he's going to start on soon. The more he talked about it, the more I thought that any boss would be lucky to have him. I know I'm biased, but he's got such a strong desire to improve on things that may not be his strong suit, and make a difference on whatever he's doing- if I were an employer, I would definitely consider myself lucky if he was working for me. I look forward to hearing more about it today when he gets home.
We are getting the mortgage and insurance stuff figured out today. It sounds like things with the house are still on schedule to close on the 30th! I'm too excited- but it's hard to think about when I'm cooped up in this hotel room. It's only TUESDAY! Two more weeks... let's see if I make it without going crazy. :) It will help a LOT when I get the car back!
Casey has decided to join a local health club, so last night we went to check it out. This place is AMAZING! It made Strom Thurmond Wellness Center look tiny. It's got more weightlifting equipment than I've ever seen! We had a man name Justin take us around and show us everything. They've got the biggest rock-climbing wall in the Midwest, from what I understand. They have a gigantic pool, as well as a huge gym, and just about everything else you'd see in a place like that. They also have a spa and salon, which you don't normally see at fitness centers. I liked it a lot, but if you know me, you know my willpower doesn't really stick around long enough to continue a workout schedule. We will pay month-to-month, though, so if I decide that I can handle it, I'll get a membership, too. There is apparently another branch of this place that will be close to our new house, so I'll check out the classes over there and see what I can find.
Speaking of classes, I started looking into going back to school next semester. It's making my stomach do flips. I have had the desire to go back to school soon, but when I look at the classes and everything, it makes me nervous. I feel more motivated now than I ever have, but it still freaks me out a bit that I haven't been in a classroom in about 5 years now. I just don't want to lose the motivation like I have before (which is why I changed majors FOUR times!) Oh well... I'll let the idea sink in- I have time to check things out before I need to apply.
I guess that's about all for now. Casey should be home in the next 45 minutes, thank goodness! I'm getting antsy.
Thanks for reading... more later, of course.

-Ash

Our Journey to Illinois

And what a journey it was.
Last Tuesday was Casey's birthday, and the date of his dissertation defense. He passed with flying colors; he's officially Dr. Casey Hetrick! :) I'm so proud! Once that was over, the Hetrick family flew back to Topeka, and we went out with the Williams' group for drinks.
Early Wednesday morning, we woke up to wait for a company to come prepare our washer and dryer for packing. I think he showed up around 7:30 am. The movers were supposed to come around 8, but they didn't show up until around 1:00 pm. They packed all of our stuff up by about 6:45 pm. I didn't get to go out for drinks with the Amiridis group that night, but Jenny was kind enough to come hang out at our place while the movers were packing so I wasn't home alone with 3 guys I didn't know. It was nice to get to hang out with her and chat for a bit. :) I was so exhausted by the time the movers left, I vegged out the rest of the night.
Thursday, the movers came and started loading everything into the truck around 8:00 am. Another company also came to get my car. It was strange seeing it get towed away, not knowing when I'll see it again. They said they will deliver it anywhere from 2-11 days. Interesting time line, don't you think? :) The movers were finished loading the truck around noon (I think) and we headed to the Engineering building to say goodbyes. We went out Thursday evening to The Flying Saucer so we could say goodbye to friends. Charley Brown came with us, which proved to be pretty interesting... he got a lot of attention, and settled down a bit after the first hour. I think he enjoyed the girls in short skirts as much at the other boys seemed to. ;)
I think things started getting a bit crazy on Thursday evening. Gas prices jumped up to almost $4/gallon (and over that in some areas) thanks to Hurricane Ike. We also couldn't find a hotel that was dog-friendly, so we ended up spending the night at Jenny's place. It was super nice of her to let us crash there. If it weren't for the 3 dogs running around and Charley waking up every 2-3 hours during the night, I think we would have gotten a decent night's sleep. Jenny's roommate woke up super early to get ready for work, and her dog jumped on Casey and woke him up. Casey and I were both pretty grumpy that morning because we had to get everything ready to get on the road, and nothing seemed to go right. We had a few errands to run that morning, but they all ended up taking longer than expected. We got on the road (finally) around 1:00 pm. As we were driving down the highway, the tarp covering our luggage started to fly around, so we had to pull into a parking lot on one of the exits to fix it. We start driving again, and everything seems fine, until we stop for gas in Asheville. That's when we realized that Casey's wallet was missing. We figured out that he must have dropped it in the parking lot when we stopped to fix the tarp. We got a hold of Kevin, who agreed to go to the parking lot and look for the wallet, but without any luck. We decided to call and cancel credit cards, etc., while we were on the road. It also meant that Casey was driving without a license; his truck is difficult for me to drive for various reasons (I pretty much need a booster seat and 3-inch heels), so we were kind of stuck breaking the law. Everything was going okay until we were about an hour outside of Chicago- that's when it started raining ridiculously hard. It continued to rain very hard all the way to the hotel. It rained so hard, we weren't able to get our luggage out of the truck. We arrived here around 3:30 am on Saturday, and woke up about 3 hours later to try and get the luggage off the truck so we could shower and get fresh clothes. We lucked out because we'd spent extra time in Columbia wrapping boxes in the industrial strength leaf bags just in case they got wet... luckily only one bag had any water issues, and they were minor. That morning we slept in a bit, and then went to the post office to set up our PO box. Apparently the guy working there didn't know what was going on, so he told us to come back on Monday. We explored the area a bit that day, even though it was raining a LOT... apparently the remnants of Hurricane Ike were coming through the Midwest. There was flooding all over the place, and we had to turn around a few times to get where we needed to go. The highlight of our day was probably when we went to the area near our new place. I LOVE the area- there are tons of stores right down the street from us, including a Kohl's within a matter of blocks from our house! That's dangerous. :) Casey received an e-mail on Saturday from a man who owns a restaurant in the shopping center we stopped at to fix the tarp- he found Casey's wallet and is mailing it to us sometime this week! THANK YOU LORD! I am so glad there are honest people in the world!!!
Sunday we ended up going to Best Buy and getting a GPS (Garmin Nuvi 260w) which I LOVE! We also went to the grocery store and went clothes shopping for him for work. (We used the GPS to find Old Navy and Dominick's, the grocery store). We ended up eating at home last night- Casey made rotini pasta with turkey sausage, which was mighty tasty.
Today, Casey woke up around 6:45 am to get ready for his first day at work. I could tell he was a bit nervous, but I'm sure he did just fine. I look forward to hearing all about it when he gets home in the next hour or so. :) I slept quite a bit this morning and a little this afternoon... I think all of the chaos over the past few days is catching up with me. I've also tried to entertain the dog, but he's so anxious that I can't seem to find much that will keep his interest for an extended period of time. This is when I wish I had a car. I got a phone call about it earlier; apparently it won't be here until Thursday or Friday now, which sucks! I took a taxi to the post office this afternoon so I could set up our PO box. I'm still having issues trying to change our address, since we aren't allowed to use a business as our temporary address. I tried typing in our PO Box today, and that wouldn't work, either. Not really sure what to do, since we won't move into the new house until October 1st. Hmmm...
Anyway, that's my update for the past few days... it's been a bit crazy. Thankfully, things are going better now. I think I'm going to be a bit restless by the end of the week, so let's hope that my car gets here sooner than expected. I want to take the dog out and explore town a little bit (and use the GPS!!!). I'm sure I'll write a lot more this week since I'll have a lot of free time. :-P

Thanks for reading, and forgive the wordiness... the last few days have been quite a huge change from normal life. Hopefully the following entries will be a bit less random and a bit more interesting. :)

-Ash