Moving

It's official. I moved out of my Colorado Springs home Tuesday morning and have taken up residence in my car. It's a cozy existence, to say the least. Actually, I am staying with several different friends here in the Springs before heading to Aspen to spend some time with Beth next week. Right now, I am sitting in Pike's Perk Coffee Shop in downtown Colorado Springs where the people watching is well worth the price of my mango smoothie. I think my favorite customer is "The Cackler" sitting to my right. She thinks everything is funny...everything. I am also intrigued by the fact that her lips cease to move long before the laughter stops coming out of her mouth. It's weird...and fascinating all at the same time.

The last few weeks have been quite eventful. My mom was in town for a few days, and then Beth came with her two daughters just after my mom returned to Houston. I don't have much photographic evidence of either of their stays, but suffice it to say that good times were had by all.

Sadly, one picture I did take was of the "Mother Load" pancake at The Pantry in Green Mountain Falls. My mom and I made an attempt at it while she was here, and then I took Beth and her girls for round two a few days later. I'm not sure what more to say about the Mother Load except that it is like manna from heaven....really BIG manna. Not even Paula Deen and her double burner griddle could produce this delectable wonderfulness.


The day after Beth left to go home, I headed up to Leadville with a few friends to hike Mount Massive. This is a blog post in and of itself. As soon as I get the pictures from Kari, I'll fill you in on this little adventure.

After all the fun of the fourth of July week, I started the long and tedious packing process. All was going well until I discovered on moving day that my "pod" was entirely too small for my belongings. Unfortunately, the items I could have left behind were packed in the BACK of the pod leaving me to choose from the "pack last" items in the front of the pod. This included my clothes, important files, and school books and supplies for my classroom...all things I might just need once I arrive in Houston.

I'm not kidding when I say that I considered selling my car and purchasing a mini van in an effort to find a solution to my problem. I also called PODS to assure them that their room estimate was off and that they should credit my account with the amount of money it would take to purchase a new mini van as well as a mani/pedi and a massage. They assured me that they would not meet my demands but would be willing to send over a second pod at full price. I assured them that I would not be paying for a second pod and that I would be blogging about them which meant that at least four other people would know of their shenanigans. They didn't budge. So, my latest plan is to pack all of my excess items in a soft side carrier on the top of my car... along with a some sort of bench so that Granny and Jethro will have a place to sit on the trip home. It should be a fun ride!

After the PODS fiasco, I stayed up late into the night to finish all of the last minute packing and cleaning. I think I finally laid down around 3:30am. I had planned to wake up at 6:30 and finish the final details which would have been plenty of time since the new tenants weren't due to arrive until noon. Instead, my doorbell rang at 6:17. Standing at my door was the new tenant, seemingly unaware that it wasn't noon quite yet. He informed me that his movers would were scheduled to arrive between eight and eleven, leaving me to wonder why we were having a conversation on my doorstep in the wee small hours of the morning. So, for the next few hours, the new tenants and their cat watched as I packed what remained of my life in Colorado. It was a special time...just how I had always envisioned it.