Are we there yet?

Ok, out of 2 dogs, 6 cats, one bird and one mouse, we have the two dogs, one indoor/outdoor cat, and the 3 cats that are coming with us left in the house. It's not only starting to look empty, but also feel empty.

I keep trying to contact this place where I would like the 2 dogs and cat to go, but they aren't in any hurry to get back to me. I guess tomorrow I'll need to say that there are several thousand dollars at stake here, that they could receive IF THEY WOULD JUST RETURN MY FRIGGING PHONE CALLS!!!!

I'm going to hell for getting all these animals and promising to keep them until their deaths do us part, and now parceling them out.

The other real estate agent wants to know if we are out of the house yet, or when we will be. (try the day of closing genius)

My driveway is lined with furniture I'm trying to give away. My house now very closely resembles one that might have old cars up on blocks in their yard. Thank God for the SOLD sign out front.

Did you know the Goodwill won't take ironing boards, flourescent lights and humidifiers? What's the world coming to when the Goodwill refuses your donation? I mean these were all things in good condition. Honest to God, you drive up and they start picking through your donations.... Nope, can't take this, nope, no Christmas stuff, nope can't take an ironing board.. Nope, we don't take we take clothes that go on below the waist on Mondays when there's a full moon. Sheesh.

I don't have a clue as to how everything is going to be done on time.

Bad checks are being written daily, I may not be allowed to come back to this country, or at least not without a visit to jail first.

Both front and back yards needs mowing.

My legs need shaving.

On the good side, we managed to find two new Buddy Christ figures to bring with us to Italy and put on the dash of our scooters. (do scooters have a dash?)

Oh yes, and I also bought a new toothbrush.

And last but not least, I just picked up 3 months of Paxil to keep me sane. (Paid for with a bad check of course.)

Ok then, I'm going to bed now.

1 million + 1 things to do, and 4 days to do it in. AAUUGGHH

Good lord, crazy isn't even the word for what is happening here. The funny thing is, I staying pretty calm about it. As long as I have my friends trailer, as a last resort I can throw everything in it and drap it to the dump. Does it really matter?

My son is settling in to the apartment, and I am even getting phone calls from him about things like "Do I really take the garbage out and put it in the dumpster?" (He doesn't want to look stupid.) You can tell he doesn't remember ever living in an apartment, which in my book is a good thing.
He's also taking me up on my offer of doing his laundry, though for some reason he expects it all to be done an hour later. *L*

The million + 1 things to be done? Well I am slowly making a dent in them I think.
The big thing was the Dr and dentist appointments before I no longer have insurance.
I've gotten refills for six months, so that is great. I also got two cavities filled and another done tomorrow. I'm guessing they will want payment then, hmmm.... I'm hoping they will take a post dated check til the end of the week.

The house and garage *HUGE sigh* are still just plain scary. I did make a big dent in things when I put some of the bigger items out on a free board online. Most went within 5 minutes, unbelievable. What was fun about the whole process was I got to take my now wireless laptop out to the garage and post things as I got to them. I'm telling you, wireless is the best thing since sliced bread. (showing my age there).

Anyway, I'm not quite panicking yet, but probably will after tomorrow, which is going to end up being a waste as far as clearing things out. I need to see about placing the two dogs and one cat in a shelter, not really a shelter, I mean the place has doggy condos for God's sake. BUT the catch is how much moolah they are going to want from me to be able to place them there, Money makes the world go round, and I am more and happy to give a generous donation, but I just can't do it every year, unfortunately.

Well, I'm off, someone is coming to pick up our artificial xmas tree, which is in great shape, though even I was suprised that someone snagged it right away when I postsed : "May have cat hair on it". *LOL* You can get rid of just about anything if you put a FREE sign on it! :-)

What a sense of accomplishment

My second to last day at work, boy, what a good time to surf. I got so much stuff done today... for the trip that is.

I finally broke down and joined AAA (no, not the alchoholic one silly) so that I would get some breaks on hotel and car rental. Smart move that was. I had so much fun booking a hotel for the two nights here before we leave for Chicago that I also booked Chicago and, oh yeah, a little side trip down to 6 Flags in Illinois. Now this is the way to live.

I also took a chance and booked a car for 10 days, maybe it was 14. I didn't want to rent one for any longer because I have no clue what will be happening after the 4th of June. We will be coming back to Minnesota, but who knows, we may be able to go down to Florida right away or stay here a couple of days. Right now I can't plan that far in advance... YEAH, Now THAT'S fun to say also.

Mass chaos

Wow, it's really hard to wrap my head around everything that has to be done, and so much of it on a last minute basis.
The big thing right now is to get my son moved into his apartment. Well, my apartment actually, it's rented in my name, which right now scares the crap out of me. I know he is a pretty reasonable person, but he's made mention of someone living on the couch for a while, which is such a big no no. *sigh* but how am I going to stop him from thousands of miles away? Okay, I have to change the subject right now, or I'll have a stroke thinking about it.
The garage, I made a little (note the word little) progress on it yesterday, but nothing like I had hoped. (Can we say no help?) Although Nick helped me go through some boxes and I did get one load to the Goodwill. It's still so NOT close to being cleaned out.
Luckily I found out the van I had rented for one day was really rented for two, so that is great.
I'm still being a wuss on what to do about housing when we give up the house. If I don't watch it, we'll be on the street with three kennels of cats. Oh God! That would be a nightmare.

Apartments and garage sales

Ugh. What a day. My son Nick and I decided that we'd better get looking at apartments for him. We ended up checking out the one his friend Mike just moved into. Average as far as apartments go, about $100 more a month more than I wanted to spend, but I really liked one of the women who ran it. I could tell she would keep an eye out for him. Also she let me get away with putting the lease in my name and going out of the country. I guess that is a no-no in the world of apartment renting.

We ended up applying for an apartment. The lease will be in my name, which will also come in handy when I go to get my visa. Proof that I intend to come back here. Maybe that will sooth them a bit after they've found out that I quit my job. Nick's friend Mike will also get $300 because we said he referred us. woo-hoo!

Man, I could live another 6 months on what I am paying out back here while I'm in Italy. I had told Nick I'd cover the first 6 months of his rent and then he'd be on his own. I'm also giving him a lump sum of money, and paying the car payments and insurance for the next 6 months so that I have a car that is in good condition for him to drive, and also so that it will be waiting for me should we come back. I'm just wondering how the heck I am going to pry the steering wheel it away from him. I'm such a sucker for my kids.
Oh well. I'd rather have the piece of mind knowing that he is in a safe place with a decent car.

The garage sale dilemma(sp)
Garage sale or no garage sale. I've been going back and forth over this. I really REALLY hate garage sales, but it seemed to be a nice way to make some extra money. The only problem is, every time I go into the garage to start making some sort of order out of the amazing amount of CRAP in there, I get overwhelmed and go back into the house and sit and stare at the wall for an hour or two. It's just scary in there. Maybe if I had 5 or ten years to sort it out.

Well, Nick decided he would take over the garage, get everything sorted out and hold a garage sale every day next week. I tried not to laugh when he told me this. I was actually pretty impressed that it took him well over an hour working in the garage for him to give up and agree to taking loads to the Goodwill every day til the house closes. Did I mention it was scary in there?

Well, tomorrow is Mother's day. We'll be grilling and hanging out. This will be the last time we will all be together at my house having hamburgers on the grill. An end of an era. Very weird.

Diana's big adventure

Soooo. I gave my notice at work this week. That made it seem like a good time to get on the stick and start this blog.

Turning in my notice was much easier than I thought it would be. After I typed it up, I printed it out and signed it. Then I got up, put a copy on my boss' desk, one on his boss' desk and then went back and sat down in my cubicle. That was it. I just sat there waiting for the entire office building to crumble around me. Nothing happened. To be honest it was sort of anti-climactic. I kind of wanted them to both be their offices so they could read my letter of resignation and then start wailing and knashing their teeth, begging me not to go. Oh well. *sigh*

I did get good responses later, in fact my jaw almost hit the floor when one said that he thought I seemed to have my priorities straight (was he joking?) and the other sent me a nice email saying good luck and thanking me for my work. This was really nice as well as unexpected, but to be honest I still sorted of wanted them to be hanging onto my leg crying "NO!!" as I tried to drag myself out of their offices.

So now I'm able to start telling my coworkers that I'm leaving my job in two weeks. Selling my house, quitting my job, and going to Italy in about six weeks. Even though I've only had the chance to tell a few people at work, the reactions have been fun. First comes the disbelief: "No! Really? ........No!......... NO!..... WOW!.........REALLY?" and then I have tell the whole story about how this adventure started. I really dread telling the part about being inspired by the movie Under the Tuscan Sun. In fact I dread it so much I've considered changing my story to something about having long lost family in Italy that I plan to look up. Unforunately I suck at lying, so I'm stuck with the Tuscan Sun version.

After explaining how I got to this point, everyone goes on about how I am so brave, how they would love to do something like that but they just don't have the courage. Personally I think this is normal person code for: "Oh my God you are such an idiot don't you know that you are going to lose everything you'll come back here with nothing and wish like hell you were back in your tiny cube for the next 20 years all safe like the rest of us are!?"

Hmmmm.... Italy...... or safe in cubicle for 20 years?...... Italy... safe in cubicle for the next 20 years......Italy....cubicle....Italy...cubicle.... Ok, now tell me again... who is the crazy person here?