Sunday, March 23, 2008

The Road From Houston to Dallas...

Better late than never, here are the details about my move. It’s over for now and interesting enough that I’ve made more than one person laugh at the tale. No one that knows me very well is going to believe the pictures I took of my apartment and my car. My OCD and claustrophobia got quite the workout. So stay tuned for those.



The move was scheduled to take place on Friday before noon. My stepmom and my aunt came up on Tuesday evening and they rested up on Wednesday while I was at work. I took off work on Thursday so I could finish up the packing. With their help of course.

Unfortunately, I ran out of the plastic totes I was using to pack in and didn't make it to Family Dollar to buy more before they closed on Thursday night. I was too tired to brave Wal-Mart so I decided to get them the next morning. When we woke up on Friday, none of had a clue what an interesting day we were in for. We ate breakfast, I ran for totes, and then we got to work finishing up the packing.

Around 11 a.m., my stepmom and I went to U-Haul to pick up the trailer and of course had to wait in line. Never move at the end or beginning of the month unless you like waiting in lines. When we got all the paperwork done, we went outside too hook the trailer up to my stepmom’s pick-up truck. That's when the manager made the mistake of treating her like a girl.

Some of you might remember that despite being just over five feet tall, she used to drive an 18-wheeler with my Dad. So the idiot proceeds to talk down to her and even hollered at her to just stay in the truck while he took care of the set up. She showed remarkable calm and restraint. He kept acting like a chauvinist and she just kept smiling. Then she whipped out some electrical tape to secure what is called the pigtail. That's the loose end of the electrical wires that connect the truck to the trailer so the lights on it will work.

He looked at her in shock and asked how she knew to do that. She just smiled, told him she used to drive a big rig, and crawled back into the pick-up. We pulled away while as he stood there slack-jawed and stuttering. It was great!!!

We got back to my apartment and proceeded to wait for the movers. And wait. And wait. And wait. Through no fault of their own, the movers were several hours late. They finally rounded up a different crew to come out to me and I got three guys instead of the two that I hired. So it took less than 2 hours and we got to look at three very cute and muscled movers. :)

By the time we were loaded and moving it was after 4 so of course we hit traffic as we were leaving town. That really slowed us down and we still had to stop for dinner since we'd skipped lunch. Once we did that we hit the road and made the best time we could. Still we didn't make it to Dallas until just before midnight on Friday.

On Saturday, a friend of my brother’s came over and helped unload the truck, trailer, and my car. And believe me when I say, that is a LOT of stuff. Now without further ado, here are the promised pictures. Enjoy!




These are of my apartment while the final packing and loading of the truck was going on. I lived with more and more boxes for the month leading up to my move. I'm not sure how I managed to not go even crazier than I already am. Little did I know that what my OCD went through would be nothing compared to what my claustrophobia was about to be put through.





These are the truck & trailer. The backseat & the bed of the truck are also full of stuff. Although not all of it is mine. Some of it is the stuff I sent to my sister. :)


And these are where my claustrophobia thought we were living a nightmare. There was literally only room enough in the car for me to drive. And at that I had to make sure not to take any corners to quickly or the stuff in the passenger seat would try to jump into my lap.

Next post will be about my first week in Dallas. Now there's a story. Let's just say that some people think that hell might have froze over. Literally. :P

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Tagged Once Again...

At least this time it was by a good looking guy. Thanks, WriteProcrastinator!

The rules as I understand them are as follows…

1. You have to post the rules before you give your answers.


2. You must list one fact about yourself beginning with each letter of your middle name. (If you don't have a middle name, use your maiden name or your mother's maiden name).

3. At the end of your blog post, you need to tag one person (or blogger of another species) for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged.)


Much like WP, this is going to take all day with my middle name (Laverne) and I can't tag that many people. Right now I’m wishing my Mommy blogged so I could tag her for giving me that name. :P


L – Laverne was also my Grammy’s middle name. She told my Mommy that she did not want her to name me after her because she didn’t like the name Marion. She should have been more specific because my Mommy found this loop hole faster than a lawyer on a high dollar case.

A – Angel Baby is what my Grammy & my great grandmother called me. “Angel” is also the name of a very beautiful poem written by
Cleggy. Those haunting words are the reason we met.

V – Voncille is my Mommy’s middle name so I’m really not all that upset about Laverne. And if that name seems scary, you should see her first name.

E – Eleven. I was eleven when I was diagnosed as a hypoglycemic. It would be twelve more years before I’d be diagnosed as a diabetic.

R – Read. I read so much that my Mommy says there is a crease on the end of my nose because it’s always stuck in a book. To prove her point, I’ve been known to read about 3 books a week many, many times in my life.

N – No, I do NOT know where Shirley is. Nor do I care. You should know that you are not the first person to make that joke. Unfortunately, you won’t be the last.

E – Everybody have fun tonight. Everybody Wang Chung.



Okay, that last one really isn’t cheating. I LOVE that song and I have been known to say, “Let’s Wang Chung” before heading out with friends or co-workers. What?! I’m a child of the 80’s. Get over it. :P


Let the tagging commence….
So I’m tagging
Cleggy, Kwizgiver, Tammy, & Wendy. You love me and you know it, but I expect that all of you will grumble about doing it. Oh well. :P