Of Gardening and Moving On

This weekend held a last-minute change of plans. Lauren was going to come up here, but after a dental appointment, her doc put her on antibiotics and Darvocet, a high-grade painkiller in the "don't drive or operate heavy machinery" class, so I went down to Maryville instead, which actually worked out ... it was a lot warmer down there, and we got to do some garden prep work (mostly weed whacking and burning of leaf/twig/roughage from last year's garden), some cooking, and a lot of cuddling.

And now it's this week, which will (due to some good news), bring my career at my current workplace to a close a week earlier than planned. In the good news, I was picked up by another company in town on a six month contract to hire position, so it will give me time to pay down debt and prepare for moving down to Maryville.

In a strange sense, it feels odd leaving a place I've worked at for six years, suffered at, perfected my tech writing skills at, given nearly insurmountable obstacles. It's been incredibly stressful, but also rewarding. And now it's time to move on.

It must be the cold weather or something...

I was driving home from Des Moines last night, and my thoughts were running in the same direction as Richard's, even to the "I can still smell him on my skin". I always thought that being able to smell someone after parting from them was one of those cheesy conceits of romance novels -- or else the guy was a gorilla with truly bad hygeine (which I assure you Richard is NOT).

Pheromones are real, because I can identify Richard's scent without being able to describe what he smells LIKE, other than "Richardness". For those who can't identify with this, find a little bit of that precious substance known as ambergris (or the somewhat-close substitute, "ambergris fragrance oil", carried by Frontier Cooperative Herbs). Uncap this and smell. The substance does not so much have a distinct smell as a elusive velvety sensation that evokes memory. The bare hint of indole which provides the musky note to the scent of fresh lilacs and jasmine gives a similar sensation.

Thawing Out

Lauren was up this weekend, as you probably guessed from the previous post. It was chilly enough that we mainly stayed in, apart from an emergency trip to the repair shop for a new car battery (the old one died under the -16 degree weather yesterday), and a trip down to the Home and Garden Show on Saturday down at the local events center, where we got to check out the latest in home trends, smell wonderful flowers, and try out one vendor's sauna.

Goodness knows, I can't remember when I considered temps in the low 20s reasonably warm, but there it is.

Sigh ... she's only been gone for over an hour, and I already miss Lauren. A lot. Yeah, it sounds cheesy, but I was taking off my sweater, and realized that it held her scent from cuddling earlier. Maybe I'm getting sentimental ... romantic ... whatever.

It's funny ... she just called to let me know she'd arrived safely back in Maryville, and she told me she was feeling some of the same things, too.

I already knew it was love, but it's nice to be reminded of it ;-)

It's fraggin' COLD out!

In Maryville, it's probably about 15 degrees, but here in Des Moines, it's 1.4 degrees out. That is 1.4, as in almost zero. And it's getting colder. I think it's time for hibernation...

Advice

Hi everyone,

I spent this weekend through Valentine's Day with Lauren in Maryville and really enjoyed myself ... I spent Monday checking into the local job situation and turning in applications for one or two jobs on campus. I also spent a bit of Tuesday doing housework ... dishes, raking the lawn, etc. And having a wonderful, romantic dinner Tuesday night after I surprised her at work earlier in the day to bring her lunch and a rose.

We're doing contingency planning right now, because of a recent development: on Monday, a placement agency called me and said that a local financial services company wanted to interview me for an opening.

I did the interview this afternoon, and they seemed impressed enough with me to bring me back in for a followup next week. It's a six-month contract to hire position, which means I could be moving six months from now if they don't take me on, or sooner (i.e., later in March, as we're now planning), if they don't hire me.

Being a Quaker, Lauren sometimes has cases where, in order to determine the right course of action, she submits a situation to a "clearness" committee, composed of fellow Quakers, who help determine what the best action (or no action) should be done. I envy her right now ... it seems all I've got right now are "possibilities", and none of them, unfortunately, seem to be collapsing from probability waves into useful options.

Getting better all the time

Well, the weekend with Richard went much better than I thought -- I needn't have worried:

1) He appeared to love my cats, who loved him THIIIISSS MUCH!
2) We think we can, with minor compromises, get his household and my household put together. But we're definitely going Winter palette in the living room to go with his Chinese wall hangings, while the bedroom is going to be home to the botanical prints and the Summer palette. (Time to find an appropriate wallpaper border for the living room)
3) He's really good at pitching in to organize and help clean -- we moved furniture, put some things (wine crates) in storage, and graphed the living room layout.
4) He prefers my mattresses to his (I know how to pick quality mattresses -- I AM a consumer economist after all) so the antique bed stays. (Yay! I dreaded putting that into storage!)
5) His allergies didn't act up.