let's back up, k?

i meant to post all this stuff earlier, but got busy and now i've only been posting the recent lame events. but wanted to share some of the stress and hilarity of my trip getting here. i quit my job on november 30th. jeff left on december 2nd. the movers came on december 7th and the pets and i departed sunny california for freezing texas on december 9th.

when i quit my job (which sucked - the quitting, not the job -- i miss my merit family so much), i had visions of lying about the furniture on my ever-expanding back-side, sipping frappuchinos and watching e! all day long. that's all they were - visions. i packed for a week and stressed about the move 24/7. as a single woman (not that i'm single, but i was just one person doing all this singularly) i do not recommend flying 4 pets across the country all by your lonesome (did i mention that i did this all by myself - moving 4 pets and a whole lotta pounds of household goods halfway across the country, while jeff went to ferrari world and a guns 'n roses concert?).

my and the pets' flight left lax at 1:45pm on 12/9. plenty of time for me to pack up the animals, take a leisurely drive from the o.c. to lax and have a couple of relaxing cocktails at the admirals club. that too was a mere vision.

won't go into an extreme amount of detail, but i crammed the pets into their cages way too early on the day of departure, spent 2 and a half hours in traffic in l.a., arriving at lax 4 hours before takeoff- the pets crying the whole way there. made my way to the admirals club where i sat bawling for two hours. saw wallace langham there (he's 'hodges' on csi: las vegas). i sobbed in his general direction too. upon landing at dfw, i was picked up by the lovely and talented heidi and laura and whisked off to pick up the animals at american airlines cargo - which we couldn't immediately locate.  finally made it to the house in the land of gar (which is 'garland' for those of you folks who are not from texas) - pets and all safe and accounted for.

after arriving in dallas - went to christmas party. dropped iphone in toilet. hung a couple of doors - this little story will require its own special blog posting. hung out with tristan. replaced iphone. ate a bowl of bob. movers arrived. unpacking commenced. went to fabulous book club at wendy's and saw all my incredibly literate ladies - wendy, lisa, kim, kim, betsy, laura, heidi. got cable tv and internet connected (yea!). hung with audrey. slept. lost my tennis shoes. prepared slow cooker pot roast for dinner party with heidi, richard, tristan, laura, bill. packed for big adventure. got house in order. lost my watch. packed some more. celebrated multiple cult members' birthdays. got house/pet sitter settled in. left for uae.

jumping back into the present for a minute - i've learned how to count to ten in arabic. i deserve a gold star.

next post - 'the cult hangs a door'.

hugs,

tricia