Dear Friends,
As I sit here watching the Penguins work on a major penalty kill without their two best players and now another ejected, I thought I would write to you and let you know how I am doing rather than unpacking, which is what I should be doing. Or paying bills maybe. One thing's for sure: I definitely I should not be watching hockey and messing around on the computer. But, it's been a whopper of a week, and I'm not really sure my body or my brain are capable of much else.
I have met a lot of nice people here in Pittsburgh. Among them are the two men who came to clean my carpet after Cheyenne knocked over a half gallon of cocoa rose paint, then stepped in it and ran (scared by my freaked out yelling), the three movers who moved in all my stuff in a wet snow at the same time the carpet cleaners were working, the two son-in-laws of my Fantastic Realtor who came over to do so honey-do's for me because there was so much stuff to bring in the movers couldn't set it all properly, the nice man with Comcast who worked most of the day trying to get my cable and Internet working after I was told at one point yesterday I wouldn't have service until Sunday (Super Bowl Sunday - Steelers Super Bowl Sunday...), the plumber who had to show me how to turn on my water heater and, most recently, the locksmith who spent an hour drilling into the garage door lock after I locked myself out of the house tonight. Nice to know I live in such a secure house. Or did anyway. Currently, I am without a garage door lock (but it would be a challenge to break into the garage, so I'm not all that worried).
Of course, the demographics of people here are like they are any where else. Most are decent, some are downright saintly, some are evil, and some are nosy and stand-offish. That last refers to you Mr. Across the Street Neighbor. Got an eyeful of me standing out in the cold and wet while the saintly locksmith labored to get me back in my house? Hope you have had an awesome time watching my toils and troubles over this past week because I don't plan on continuing to such a show.
As some of you know, while I have been up here scrambling to react to all the situations I have mired myself in, I lost yet another dog yesterday. Greg put Tawny down after she had a seizure. We had been working to get her relief for a while now for what seemed to be a bulging disc that would have required expensive surgery that we couldn't afford because of the cost of the move. As I flush money away on carpet cleaners, locksmiths and the new stuff here and there that any new home requires, I can't help but think my burning desire to be here now has a body count.
I am bruised pretty much all over the place, my hands are like sand paper, dried out by weather and unwrapping reams and reams of paper around what is way more stuff than this little house can easily accommodate, there is cocoa rose paint around my cuticles that I can't seem to wash out no matter what I do, and every nail I have is shattered. I noticed today I have a jagged, angry cut on my arm. I have no idea how it got there, I am so numb to everything but my exhaustion. With my luck, this game will go to overtime and keep me up even later. (It did actually - it ended in a shoot out, but by then I was snoring away loudly on the couch.)
There is no doubt this has been a rough week on my psyche, not just my hands, so for those of you who questioned the wisdom of this move, now is the time to say "I told you so." But, I'm not ready yet to throw in the Terrible Towel. This morning, six deer greeted Cheyenne and I in the back yard. I take that as a hopeful sign. Besides, it's 20 degrees warmer here than Texas right now!
I'll keep you updated on how it's going - in between contractors coming over to save me from whatever mess I've got myself into that is.
Love,
Cheryl
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Hang in there. Moves are always tough, even under the very best of circumstances (when I moved to Texas, my employers paid for the move, my apartment while my house was being made ready and gave me a car to drive - it still sucked, the movers lost stuff, the apartment was small and cramped, my little blind pug was anxious 'cuz she couldn't get the layout memorized right away, I got poison ivy for the first time in my life, I almost got stung by a scorpion, and I had no friends or family here). You'll be fine. You will start to learn about all the groovy stuff in your new city, the best place to have coffee, the local library, the best cheeseburger, where the funky little shops are, the place that runs old movies, the best place to go for a walk or a bike ride, the community center with the yoga classes...just keep the vision of how you want things to be and know that in a year from now, you will be settled in and enjoying your Steelerhood.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I never really understood how a towel could be terrible. It's a towel. I mean the most you can say about a towel is - it's rectangular.