Left Behind

The last time I bought a house, it was pristine the day I moved in. The guy I bought it from, Larry, called me a few times in the days before he moved out to see if I wanted to keep anything he was thinking of leaving behind. I didn't want his cooties despite his excellent taste in paint colors so I politely declined and moved into a junk-free house.

This house, however, has lots of prizes left behind. It is like one big treasure hunt - you never know what will greet you when you open up a closet door. I made a few giant donations to Goodwill when moving out of the old house, and I'm collecting lots more for a new humongous donation courtesy of the new house.

Here's a random sampling of what Will and I have found:

Half empty bag of cotton balls - why thanks for sharing these nifty soft things, I've never seen them before!

Cleaning supplies - ironic because I don't think they actually got used before we moved in. I kept the Mrs. Meyers cleaner & the laundry detergent and tossed the rest of the mostly used bottles.

Assorted kitchen stuff - my parents came up to help us on Sunday and I gave my dad the task of taking down the multiple paper towel dispensers and magnetic knife racks in the kitchen. Really, who needs paper towels in two different spots? In the same kitchen?

Super sweet lamp - this nifty little ditty was attached to the wall above my desk in the office. It had a pee-yellow metal lamp shade with a Norwegian type flower pattern on it. I couldn't concentrate on a conference call it was so distracting. 

Iron - perhaps original to the house, circa 1960. My dad thinks I should take it to an antique shop, my mom and I disagree.

Light bulbs - not in light fixtures, mind you. Just laying around the house, in the back of closet shelves, in the laundry room, on the kitchen counter top.

Coat racks - I love coats a little too much, but even I don't need more space than the coat closet allows.

Spiders - seriously wondering if the previous folks bred spiders for research and had an unfortunate escape episode. I'm normally a capture-the-spider-in-a-glass-and-release-it-outside girl, but I have to admit I've become jaded and I squished one last night.

Canadian coins - eh?

And that, my friends, is my assessment of the great moving adventure week 1. 

Inching Toward Moving On

At what point do I start the break-up process with my now-under-contract-townhouse? Or did I already start it the minute I signed the paperwork to put it up for sale?

I love this house. I have since the minute I walked in the door while house hunting and saw two Birds of Paradise flowers on the dining room table beneath the orange pendant light. It was totally over my budget and my realtor was only showing me the house because he wanted to set me up with the seller. It was love at first sight with the house, not so much with the guy.

This is the last house my old-man cat lived in. This is the house where Will proposed to me. This is the house where I got really sick, and then got healthy again (and again). I still call the guest bathroom "Carrie's bathroom" after my roommate and dear friend who lived here with me for the first three years. Somewhere in this house is the ring that my mom gave me with the green stone that I'm super bummed I misplaced (okay, lost). Will and I have put a lot of work into this house - we've rebuilt the decks, redone the bathrooms, painted and painted again, replaced crunchy dead evergreen bushes with a xeriscaped garden, and so much more. 

I want to move (believe me, I wouldn't go through all the headache of house hunting for nothing). I want new and bigger projects to tackle with Will. I want potential to make a house a home without an HOA dictating how that can be done and what colors can be used to do it. I want a garden with room for more than a pot of tomatoes. And the new (potential) house is perfect for all of these wants. 

But I'm still wandering around the current house, thinking about all of the things that I'm going to miss. That will go away, right? 

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

For the last handful of years, Will and I have been putting spare change in old jelly jars. Once one fills up, we start on another. We've jokingly been calling this our "down payment for a house fund." I finally combined all of the jelly jar change into a purple Crown Royal bag (I don't know where that came from or why I have it, but it was hefty and could handle the massive pile we'd acquired). 

I trundled off to Safeway this afternoon with my Crown Royal bag full of change to get it counted. And would you believe that we had $92.58 in change*? Plus a few battered and beaten coins that the machine rejected. Clearly not a down payment on the house, but not a bad total either. We'll put it into the ol' savings account for new house fun.

But that's not even the biggest change around here. Our house has gone through some pretty drastic updates over the last two weeks. Since last Saturday, we've been sprucing, painting, yard selling, installing, cleaning, packing, moving & unmoving stuff, all to get the house looking nice for potential buyers. More than a few times Will and I have exclaimed, "Why didn't we do this years ago?" We're pretty pleased with how things have turned out. I'm especially in love with the laundry closet. Serious love. I want to marry it.

I was hoping to post some before and after shots tonight... but I don't have the after photos just yet. I guess that gives me an excuse for another post soon!

*That's before the coin counter took their 8.9% cut. Grrr....

Lost in Translation

On Saturday morning, I had a voicemail message from my mom:

"Hi Anne, it's me.  I can't believe they named the baby Costco!  Give me a call when you get a chance.  Bye!"

Some dear friends, Marc & Perrin, had a baby boy late last week.  They didn't share the baby's name ahead of time, just like their last pregnancy with Malia.  I think we were all pretty sure that this baby wouldn't end up with a name like Joe or Bob.  If the mom's name is Perrin, it doesn't really work well to go everyday with the rest of the family.

And Marc & Perrin do indeed have a membership to Costco - I clearly remember that they got their membership before moving to Hawaii earlier in the decade.  But being the Boulderites they are, I'd assume they'd choose a local business name (McGuckin's has a nice ring to it) before a national chain if they decided to indeed name their progeny after consumerism.  

Fortunately for all involved (especially the baby) there was a horrible connection in the game of telephone announcing the baby's name.  I told my dad, who told my mom, who got it all wrong when she called me.  And baby Costco is actually baby Kosmo.

You Know What They Did to Jesus?

I went to a 33rd birthday party this weekend and even though I had a fabulous time, I felt old. It isn't the highest friend birthday party number I've been to (I have lots of friends that are older than 33). And well, lots of older relatives, so I've been to their birthday parties too.

But here's the thing. I remember when I was a teenager and my Uncle Mike turned 33. Why was it so memorable? Well, my mom called him up to wish him a happy birthday and then said, "You know what they did to Jesus when he was 33?" And my mom and my uncle laughed and laughed because they grew up Catholic and Jesus and nuns are pretty funny stuff to the Catholics (as far as I can tell). Guilt, on the other hand, they take very seriously.

My parents making fun of religion was pretty darn funny to me too. It was almost as funny as my dad bitching out the Broncos on Sunday afternoons with all kinds of good swears when they didn't do well. My dad is a pretty soft spoken guy, but he has no problem coming up with all kinds of "advice" for the Broncos when they screw up that is best delivered in a tone that can be heard by the neighbors... 4 blocks down the street.

So, I'm at this birthday party with my dear friends from college at an old college hangout. And the guys are drinking beer and the girls are not (most of them are preggers and alcohol = hard times for me these days). Okay, so Will wasn't drinking beer because he hates it and Colleen was because she is awesome. But had this been 10 years ago, we all would have been drinking. Except for Will - he is impervious to peer pressure.

It occurs to me mid-way through dinner that I should ask the birthday boy, Brian, if he knew what they did to Jesus when he was 33. But then I realize that this is a bad idea because a) Brian isn't Catholic; b) it is kinda depressing if you aren't Catholic; c) it might just be depressing in general unless you are my mom and uncle.

And then I felt old for being mature enough not to blurt out a depressing topic, but also because my college friends are now the same age as my uncle once was. I mean, whatever, he was 17 once too but I don't remember that. But 33 seemed OLD when I was a teenager. My hip and cool uncle was OLD at 33.

I still have a few years to get to 33. So maybe it isn't me that is old, it is the people I hang out with. Yeah, that's it. (Shuffles off to take Metamucil and curl up in bed at 7 pm.)

2008: A Review

In 2008 I:

1. Got a bad-ass scar from my first major surgery.
2. Went to 3 beautiful weddings.
3. Traveled 94 days between March - December, mostly for work.
4. Found hope in politics again.
5. Hosted my first Thanksgiving with my awesome husband.
6. Flew quietly over the Flatirons.
7. Went to Vegas for the first time.
8. Hung out on the roof of the Denver Aquarium with my brother.
9. Had some really good times with new and old friends.
10. Got to laugh every day with the greatest guy ever.

Things That Make Me Happy

Today has been one of those days. 

I cried at work. And since I work at home when I'm not working in other states, I get to deal with things like answering the door to let the cable guy in looking a (hot?) mess. Even mustering up what was hopefully a cheerful, "Hi! Thanks for coming to fix our cable, here's where we are having issues kthxbye!" didn't really hide the swollen red eyes and snotty nose. 

I do pride myself on being an optimist, seeing the glass as half full. So in the spirit of looking on the bright side of life, here's my list of things that made me really happy today:

1. Top Chef started! OMGOMGOMG - two chefs from Boulder are competing this season! I have to say that Boulder has become quite a culinary hot bed in the 6 years since I re-moved here. Frasca and The Kitchen get written up quite often. And now, chefs from Centro and Jax are in one of the best shows ever! I was already quite excited for the new season, and now I'm simply giddy to cheer on the home-town heroes!
2. Will! Due to the fact that Will works from home too, he could hear the conversation that made me cry through my ear piece. Not many people are lucky enough to have their husband give them a well needed hug during tough work conversations. Also, we had a good laugh coming up with a story about why a police car was heading into our neighborhood as we headed out for dinner tonight. We thought either our cat was busted for dealing catnip, or our elderly neighbors were busted for dealing pot. When we got back home, there wasn't evidence to confirm either scenario, though the cat was still home. So clearly he hadn't been hauled off to the clink. Also, we don't really think our elderly neighbors deal drugs. But if you knew them, you'd think it was a pretty funny idea too!
3. Noodles & Co! Nothing like a big plate of delicious carbs to make everything better. Okay, maybe not the healthiest response to stress, but at least I ate something other than mac and cheese.
4. My college roommate, Carrie's, new nephew! Haven't met Parker yet, but he sounds beautiful even though he was 11 days late. New babies put life into perspective and hearing about this new guy makes me happy.

So I'm going to wrap up my day, snuggle with my cat, and get a good night of sleep. Tomorrow doesn't have any mistakes in it yet, so wish me luck that I can keep it that way!