Done With Atlantic! (Really!)

Posted on by Jordan

Heather and I made our last trip to the house in Atlantic today, to final-clean the place before turning in the keys.

I will miss parts of living there. The being in a house was a nice change from apartment living. Being able to open a few windows and actually have cross-ventilation is remarkable. We didn’t hear neighbors at all. We had a front porch, with a swing, overlooking a little yard with a huge tree. We could walk all around town any time of day or night and not be even a little worried about safety. We could walk anywhere in town. I loved getting to see farming going on every day, especially harvest. I suppose it is possible I have an overly rosy memory of a lot of that, but I really enjoyed getting to be involved with harvest as a kid.

It reminded me a lot of growing up in Curtis, when I would see people at the grocery store and they knew each other and were just talking. It was kind of sad to know we were never going to have enough time outside of our drive to actually become part of the community. We were living with one foot in Des Moines, and one foot in Omaha… Leaving not much to put down in Atlantic.

On the other hand, there are certainly things I will not miss. Driving 120 miles a day chief among them. Having to hand-wash all our dishes got old rather fast. Living in a place with water pressure so low it wasn’t possible to do any two things with water at the same time had it’s drawbacks. Having to keep our trash for a week in the closet because we didn’t have a garage or a dumpster didn’t end up being as big of a problem as I expected, but still wasn’t ideal. Somehow that house managed to always be freezing cold, even when the thermostat said it shouldn’t be.

And finally, the daily thorn in my side, the thing that annoyed me so much it made me wonder if bathing daily was worth it:

Atlantic_shower

A 360 degree shower curtain! It looked… sketchy to begin with. After the house started getting cold I discovered that the hot air, inside the envelope, rising out of the shower caused the walls to suck in, meaning you couldn’t shower without having plastic clinging to at least one side of you at all times. I know I sound like I am whining, but it really got old after a while.

Somehow we managed to survive though, so I guess it can’t have been so bad 🙂

-Jordan

Move In, Day Five

Posted on by Jordan

As I write this, the last load of move-backlogged laundry is in the drier, and Heather and I almost have our bedroom closet stocked with work clothes instead of whatever happened to be at the top of the box that got dropped in the room Saturday.

As anyone who was involved with any part of our moving may remember, we have a lot of clothes… and when I say “we” I in this case mean Heather. Although, I do find that a XXL sweatshirt of mine takes up a lot more room than most of the things Heather has… anyway, our new place has maybe one third the closet space we had in Omaha. A lot more room, just not as much storage. We are going to have to get creative, and I fear buy a few items to make our new home feel as tidy as things were back in Omaha.

No mate what it takes to finish getting moved into the new place, the reduction in drive time is amazing! Getting two (plus) hours put into your day makes life so much better! I know I had an easy commute before this all started, but having gone without that extra time for a few months makes me really enjoy my evenings. Granted, most of my evening time has been spent unpacking, but this is only the third work day I have lived in Des Moines. I am sure I will come to take it for granted, but it certainly makes having moved feel good.

… and that load of laundry I mentioned just buzzed, better go attend to it 🙂

-Jordan

Live From Des Moines

Posted on by Jordan

Heather and I have finally managed to move all of our stuff into the new place in Des Moines. 48 hours after we picked up the keys, the majority of our stuff is unpacked and in it’s proper place!

We couldn’t have done it without the help of a few great people! Heather’s parents came bright and early Saturday morning, and recruited her cousin Blake and one of his friends. My friend Corey made the drive from Omaha as well. With an abundance of help, and the fact that Heather and I pushed hard Friday night to get everything into boxes, loading the truck went really fast.

On the unload side, a few guys from my new company came buy and helped unload. They were a huge help!

Having so many people on hand to help with the move made things go really fast. Were returning the truck by 3:30pm on Saturday, leaving us with a good chunk of the day to start unpacking.

I think we are really going to like this place, and I can’t wait to throw up a few new pictures of everything, but I wan’t to take the “after” pictures and we need to wrap up a little bit more of the unpacking 🙂

-Jordan

Move Complete!

Posted on by Jordan

Just a quick note, Heather and I got moved into a little house in Atlantic IA.

We don’t have internet hooked up to the house yet, so I probably won’t be getting a full-length post about the move up for a few more days.

The short story, the combined efforts of our parents, my siblings,  some amazingly helpful friends, and a cousin  made the move as painless as I think a move can be.

-Jordan

Iowa!

Posted on by Jordan

I am still like a month behind in the updates plan, but we have some rather big news!

Jobs are generally not talked about here, but Heather was promoted and transferred to Des Moines!

We didn’t get much warning, so life has been pretty hectic over the past week, and looks to continue for the duration of this week.

Our basic plan is to move to a small town roughly half way between Des Moines and Iowa, and both Heather and I will have to drive quite a ways to work.

As of this posting we have a verbal agreement with the landlord, meaning we have a place to live found. Our goal is to move this coming Saturday, but there are still a few details to hammer out.

j_packing

In the meantime, our apartment looks like a disaster, no decorations on the walls, and huge piles of stuff everywhere. We started packing yesterday, and  made a good dent in what needs packed. Heather and I take somewhat different approaches to a lot of things, and working together to move has been interesting. In the end good, but interesting 🙂

-Jordan

My Trip To An Alternate Universe

Posted on by Jordan

I finally got around to notifying the DMV that I have a new address today. There is a location somewhat close to my workplace, so I went over my lunch hour, hoping to get a new drivers license without having to wait too long in line.

my first clue that something was horribly, horribly wrong was when I walked in and there was no line. I was literally stunned, I just stood there thinking maybe something was wrong and they were closed. A very friendly woman behind the counter asked what I needed to do. This was the second sign something was not right, because it clearly was the Douglass County Treasury / DMV office, but my first staff interaction wasn’t getting growled at for failing to comprehend a form, or for being in line for the wrong (unmarked) desk.

The lady behind the counter was both friendly and helpful, and the other people working in the back all seemed to share her demeanor. It was kind of strange to say the least. I even made a mistake filling out the form and they didn’t mind at all. I did get a little greif for being 85lbs lighter and having about 80% less hair than what my old license represented me as, but that was all rather good natured kidding.

At no time during this visit was I able to see any clear signs of a dimensional rift, but I think it is clear that I was in one. The entire transaction, from first walking up to the desk, to having my new drivers license (complete with updated voter registration and vehicle registration address updates) took under 10 minutes.

I suppose the downside is that the Nebraska government in our universe has no record of all this, but hopefully the ID I was issued will suffice for all the things a person needs a state-issued ID for.

-Jordan

Moving Complete!

Posted on by Jordan

I should amend what I said Friday about not having that much stuff. It turns out I don’t have that much furniture. I actually have a lot more stuff than I realized. By about 1:00 in the afternoon on Saturday, virtually the entire floor of “our” (formerly Heather’s, sort of mine now) apartment was covered with boxes, bags or piles. It really reminds me why I hate moving in the first place.

I discovered that Goodwill serves a useful purpose. The “helping a worthy cause” factor helps outweigh the delima when you need to get rid of something you clearly don’t need, but somehow feel you might need someday. I still found it distressingly hard to cut down on the amount of stuff I own.

It also turns out that it can be somewhat stressful to have your spouse-to-be really wanting to donate something that you are having a hard time parting with… Heather and I managed to negotiate through some minefields throughout moving and then the process of merging my belongings into the apartment. I wonder if you eventually start seeing stuff as “ours”… I suppose it depends on the object in question.

all in all it was a really good move, and surprisingly Heather and I managed to have almost everything packed away into sane places to store things by the end of the day Saturday.

I should give a special thanks to my roommate Brandon, and my sister-in-law-to-be Kelsey for helping out with the move! It was a lot of stuff to carry, and a lot of stairs to cover. As luck would have it the moving date came just two days after the ONLY time this year my knee has been sore after playing Frisbee. Having a few extra people helping reduced the number of stairs I had to climb, making things much less painful for me.

hopefully Heather and I won’t be moving down from the apartment for quite a while.

-Jordan

Moving Day Is Here! ( Give Or Take 12 Hours)

Posted on by Jordan

The day to move over to the apartment Heather lives in is basically here! Its exciting, but sad because as soon as I get moved, Heather will head to Blair.

I got a birthday card in the mail at Heather’s, from my grandparents. It was nice to get the card, and really drove home the idea that I was moving last night when Heather showed it to me. I still haven’t tackled updating all my contact information for different accounts that need changed in order to continue to get statements etc. I can’t say as I am looking forward to that.

Moving tomorrow shouldn’t be too bad, as I don’t have that much stuff to move… Or thats what I have been telling myself for weeks now, ask me again in a few days, I may have changed my story. I have cheated a little by moving about 50 pounds of books and a few other items over during the week. The plan was to move probably twice that much stuff before now, but its still a head start.

Also, I turn 27 tomorrow, should be a fun day 🙂

-Jordan

And It Just Gets Worse

Posted on by Jordan

I suppose I should take the hint and stop complaining about weather on the blog. I said it was cold yesterday, and now today is not only colder, but driving to work required scraping my windows!

Scraping ice isn’t a chore I really mind that much, but doing it today was depressing. Its not even November yet, I didn’t want to start doing this every day quite yet. Then again, Saturday was nice enough I didn’t even need a coat, so I shouldn’t act like its going to be bitterly cold until March. The weather will swing the other way a few times I am sure.

I might have my projector sold, but it will be a few days until I know for sure. Selling off a few things I own, and cutting ourselves down to just one round of rent and utilities for the remaining time until the wedding is going to do wonders for our goal of paying off all our debt ASAP. Dave Ramsey would be proud I am sure 🙂

Only three more days until I move, and I am maybe 15% packed… you would think I could have used some of that time last week when Heather was gone to get that take care of, but I really didn’t accomplish much on that front. Moving is more fun if you wait till the last minute anyway, right?

-Jordan

(Doing these rambling multi-topic posts is messing up my nice clean plan for categories and tags, you would think the editor would crack down on that)

Changes

Posted on by Jordan

Well…

I listed my projector for sale today. I don’t know how interested people will be in a slightly used projector, but I can say I don’t feel bad about selling it. It’s kind of exciting, one more step towards setting up a new household with my wife.

In other news, I drove past the local branch office of my bank today. They had a big moving truck backed up to the doors, movers all over, and all I could see were piles of boxes in the windows. It seems like that’s a bad sign, given the bank industry heath of late. Even if that branch is now closed, it works out well because I am moving in a week, so I didn’t really loose my local branch 🙂

-Jordan