The First Party!

Chris and I have about three weeks to move into our new place.  And it would be really nice if we could get the sick kitty color repainted and at least a lot of a fence up before then.  Actually, sooner would be great because we don't want to live here anymore.  But we have until the 21st.

So!  We're having our first please-help-us-do-the-work-so-it-will-go-faster party, aka 

First Painting Etc. Party!

When:  This Saturday the 7th from 10am to... whenever.

What: Help us clean, paint primer on the sick kitty color, dive into the first steps of fence up putting... (Chris knows what is happening there... I don't), move some boxes in... Or just hang out so it will be easier for us to do these things!  Seriously, having someone around being supportive is much better than slogging through the tasks yourself.

What if I can't do those tasks?  

Oh, there will never be a time we want you to do something you can't or don't want to do.  If you want to come hang out, great.  If you want to DJ some music for us, great.  If you want to be in charge of putting out food that we buy for folks, great.  If you want to try to make friends with our dog, just be careful.  If you want to explore our land, great -and watch for rattlers.  Want to provide something else?  Just ask!

Why: I think I mentioned it's much easier to do the things if we have company.  Also, see our new home!  Also, find out where we live so when we get everything set up you can find it again to come over for dinner, Star Trek parties, or ... other parties.

Who: YOU! (Though of course this works a lot better if you live here...)

How: Bring your vehicle and let me or Chris know any food requests you have.  We'll have water (from our well!), and some other drinks.  We'll get food too depending on what people tell us about dietary restrictions or specific desires.  It may be highly snacky, like veggie platters and chips, but I'll try to get something fairly significant too that can be eaten.

Where: Get in contact with one of us for the address.  I just don't want it on the web.

Since last I posted, we've been trying to get stuff done amidst the other stuff that needs doing (like work, and packing, and going to the bathroom).  We really wanted to hire someone to clean, but we have not yet found someone who is likely to go out to where our house is nor have we had luck finding someone in town who cleans.  Oh, they exist.  I called the Post Office in town (it's literally the size of our apartment's living room) because my sister pointed out that small town post masters know everyone.  And Karen Connelly of the post office does know people who clean in town.  But of course she wouldn't give me their contact info!  I completely understood and respected this and she took my info.  But no one has called.  So... if we want to start doing the work we have to effing clean the house.  I'm a little bitter, but having you around will help soften the sting.

We've also been starting the various utilities.  I called the power company Friday to have them start the power.  The seller's note said all the utilities would be turned off Monday, so I started the power for Monday.  Chris went to the house Sunday to get some preliminary work done on the fence.  But there was no power.  

He was quite peeved.  In fact, he even said he was unhappy, which is huge.  Chris doesn't show emotions much, nor when I've asked, does he admit much to feeling them.  We've known each other since the end of 2006, and I can say he's grown emotionally since then.  For instance, he not only could tell me he felt unhappy, but also that he felt unhappy because nothing is settled.  We're in this in-between space where we haven't moved yet but it's imminent but not imminent enough to know it will be over soon.

We have a joke about this

So, the power should have been turned on in our name yesterday.  I also called the internet service Friday and it took them many minutes to tell me that they couldn't possibly set up an account for the new place until the service was disconnected for the existing account.  This made me well grumpy because is there anything much more pedantic than setting up utilities?

I called again today when I was about to get dinner simply because I'd forgotten to do it earlier.  Also, I slept most of the day.  Joe took 50 minutes to tell me how much he likes the area in which we bought and called it "God's country" multiple times.  And also to figure out that if we wanted overlap in the service it meant setting up two accounts (I tried to tell him this but he resisted information).  And also to try to sell me three different services.  And also to set up a passcode, and confirmation numbers, and to say the service for the seller hadn't been canceled yet, but apparently he was able to do it because the power had been turned off... and set security questions, and get me to sign a contract to hand over my first born (joke's on them; I'm not birthing anything).

You ever notice that there are no good security questions?  Joe said we had to choose either our childhood hero, our favorite restaurant, our favorite singer, or our favorite TV star.  Well, it turns out we like nothing.

I think the concept of having a personal hero died in the US a generation before me.  My generation and those since have mostly learned that notable white people of the past, whatever "good" they did, are also genocidal, exploitative, colonial McTurd Bottoms.  And until recently, most notable people of the world majority (poc), other than Frida Kahlo and Rev. King were not taught in school because racism, and therefore those of us who weren't taught about people like Mae Jemison, or who got the white version of Stonewall and never heard the name Marsha P Johnson, are still catching up.

As for favorite... have you had one favorite anything since you were a kid such that you'd immediately know what capital city or cringe-worthy 80s movie is your favorite?  Now, I do remember as a child how important it was to have a favorite color because when we were getting taught things like graphing in fourth grade we had to do things like take surveys of everyone's favorite M&M color so we could chart the results on a bar graph.

Do you remember when blue was tan and there was this big to-do about whether the new color should be blue, pink, or purple?

Oh, there was always some weirdo who couldn't settle on just one color and liked to say "the rainbow is my favorite!" or "I love red, blue and yellow, because they make ALL the colors" but those creative thinkers got squashed just like those kids who said they wanted to be artists when they grew up.

Anyway, the point is, they never ask you your favorite color which is the one favorite you could probably remember an answer for from your childhood. I finally got an appointment to set up the new internet for an extra charge of $100. Urgh. And now I must call the propane company and the garbage company and also see if the garbage company knows anything about where the grey garbage can is. We have the blue one. We seem to have two green ones. The grey is conspicuously absent.

"But..." you say, "I want to help do a thing but I am not available Saturday!"  If this is the case, we actually will need some assistance picking up the many tools, and primer, and a ladder, and fence posts, and some weird hammer drill thing Chris needs and dropping them off ahead of time.  Let us know if you want to get in on that exciting action.