We drove from Butte, Montana to Seattle and arrived late last night. I’m sitting in my in-law’s living right now with and my mother in law, watching Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel, waiting for UPS to show up with all our computer equipment from Connecticut. Once it gets here, it’s off to Best Buy to purchase a Comcast starter kit, and then full steam ahead on settling in here for life on the Westside. Andi and I are going with our friend Mike to see Mirrormask tomorrow night, somewhere downtown I imagine. Saturday there’s a big family party planned of some sort as a welcome back for us.
We’re already starting to nose around classified ads on Craiggs List and in the Seattle PI, looking for apartments. We’re thinking (in order of preference), 1. Ballard, 2. Capital Hill, 3. West Seattle. Ballard, I think, I would prefer the most, or West Seattle, if it’s close (or vaguely close) to the water and Elliot Bay. Up next, though, after the Internets are up and running at the inlaws is to pick out a good self storage place. ABF says that our stuff will arrive as planned on either Monday or Tuesday, so we’ll likely be loading it’s contents into storage on Wednesday next week. After that… Andi’s job hunt, and looking for our own permanent lodging. Adjusting to life out here. I’m feeling pretty tired and out of sorts, still, after the pure chaos of the two weeks before we left (packing, Furio’s death, you name it) and the past weeks’ driving.
We’re going to move the mattress in the spare bedroom on the first floor up into the finished attic, so everyone in the house has a bit more privacy (both our in-laws, and us). The spare bedroom will then serve as a sort of ad-hoc office for me, while we’re here for a while. Mojo is up there now, with her food and litter. Andi’s parents have a cat of their own, a crotchety old indoor-outdoor girl named Gabrielle who is wildly territorial. Mojo, from previous experience, does not play well with other girl kitties. So, we keep them separated, but my mother in law wanted to let Mojo down from the attic for a bit to explore the house (Gabrielle was outside). So far, our little girl seems to be adjusted fairly OK, but cries a bit when we’re not with her, especially since she’s alone without Furio. We slept downstairs last night, but will be upstairs from now on. It’ll be a bit easier on her, then. Plus, we’re going to setup Andi’s own PC upstairs, so that I’ll have less distractions in the office while working. It’ll be good for Mojo, that way, as well.
Sitting here, in this house, is a bit odd. I’ve never had a good family life before. My parents, as parenting skills go, were monsters. I’m still, along with people who knew me through that, amazed that I’m not utterly fucked up from it. I have no idea why I’m not. But this… this is just surreal, and I feel like I won the lottery. Sitting around the dinner table with Andi and her parents last night, sitting around the table this morning with Andi and her mom, just chatting over coffee… yeah. I’m feeling like the luckiest guy in the world right about now.
About the rest of the drive, yesterday: what else can I say about the Rockies, and then driving through the Cascade Mountains? Brilliant. Utterly, singularly brilliant. We are going back. I haven’t seen even 1/10000th of what I want to see out in that country. Also, new cool amazing thing: the Columbia River Gorge is just unearthly in it’s beauty. Once we get into proper shape, again at long last, I have every intention I think of hiking that amazing place.
It’s also apparently monsoon season here in Western Washington, but it’s just a bit gray outside and pleasantly cool–not too unpleasant, at all. If this is what it’s like most of the time through autumn and winter, I can definitely get used to it.
