Saturday, September 15, 2012

Alone Time and Our Move to Cali

When we found out Jeff got the job in California, we were both really excited. Jeff hasn't been very happy at his job here, he's felt stagnant and under-appreciated. Not that he was mistreated, I think he just isn't meant to be a desk guy... he always loved actually being out in the field, doing a lot of the work himself. And now that Jeff is a partner in the company he formed with his Dad, and is also able to work out in the field, I can tell already he's happier. He feels free, instead of chained to a desk. The dramatic pay increase didn't hurt either.

The part of California we are moving to is called Petaluma. It's about an hour north of San Francisco in the Bay Area. According to Jeff, who left last Saturday to start his new job, it's gorgeous, and the weather is fantastic. Petaluma is near the coast, this month the average temperatures have been in the mid 60's and low 70's. Blackberries grow wild on the side of the road there, there are rolling hills and lots of very impressive trees. This is the area where the farm to table movement started. I think I am going to like it a lot.

After Jeff left for California, I was surprised at myself. I thought I would get all mopey and weepy. After all, I am pregnant with his child, and I figured those untapped emotional waterfalls would let loose any moment after his departure. But they didn't. Don't get me wrong, I missed Jeff. I talked about him non stop to anyone I interacted with. I kind of do that anyway. He is my soul mate, my best friend, and we do almost everything together. I don't have many stories from the past 5 years that don't involve the man. But I never cried for him, mostly because I felt secure that I'd see him again in a week.

The day I dropped him off at the airport, I was distracted by a pool party with friends. I had a lot of fun in the pool, playing with my niece, talking to friends, and just hanging out. It was a good first day distraction. That night I was nervous, though. I wondered how I would fare sleeping alone in a big dark house by myself. I even contemplated letting Puppy sleep in my bed, but couldn't give up the security of a closed and locked bedroom door booby trapped with all sorts of things to alert me at the slightest attempt to enter my fortress of sleepdom. I spent the first night with the lamp on, facing the door, bat under my bed and ready for action.
Another reason Puppy wasn't allowed to sleep with me... scaredy cat

I spent the next two nights adjusting the lighting until I got it down to just a small light in the master bathroom. Yes, I am afraid of sleeping alone in the dark, mostly because I start seeing shadows that look like murderers. I may be mildly crazy.

Incidents Over the Past Week:

- Incident #1: The Sunday after Jeff left I had an interesting experience. I locked myself in the garage. It started out innocently enough... I opened the garage so our friend, Chris, could come and pick up a few pieces of furniture we were giving him. He and his step-dad took them away and I thought I'd closed the garage door. Then, 5 minutes later, I left the house to meet a friend to get manicures. I looked over and the garage door wasn't shut. So I got the remote and tried to shut it. It wasn't shutting. "So much for Jeff fixing it..." I grumbled to myself as I walked inside and manually shut it. I shoved the metal latch over so that no one could just manually open the garage door from the outside. I then walked to the door that leads back into the house, and realized my house key wouldn't unlock it. Oh crap. So I tried unbolting the big garage door to get out that way and couldn't get it unlatched. Double crap. I suddenly realized I had limited options. I had no husband to call for help. I was on my own. I had 2 choices. I could try to go through the door on the side of the garage, the one Jeff turned into an outhouse for Puppy... filled with litterbox goodness... or... My only other alternative was to blast my way through...
If you don't get this reference you need to watch Major Payne immediately
Our garage door has a dog door, one that I had sealed with a covering so Puppy couldn't get into the garage and eat crickets and barf on my carpet. I let out a scream "AHHHHHH!!!!!" And kicked the cover over and over "Bam!" "I saw what you did to my friends!!!" "Bam!" "Bam!" (OK seriously if you haven't seen Major Payne there is no way you will get this but trust me it's funny). I managed to kick the cover off, crawl through the dog door until my belly would no longer let me through, and unlock the door from the floor. I still made it to my manicure date with my friend Kelly, and I actually got there a little before her! Score! I survived!!!

- Incident #2: I was telling Jeff about how I was building security devices and booby trapping my bedroom door at night when he had the genius idea of instead of doing all that, I should just turn on the motion sensors along with the door alarms at night. I didn't like the idea, since I tend to have to get up and get water at night, or if I forgot I might set the alarm off. However, it did seem like a better security measure, so in the interest of self-preservation, I decided to do it. I set the alarm to motion sensors activated and ran up the stairs to sleep. Sadly, I'd forgotten my precious Iphone charger, and realized I had to go get it. What I didn't realize is that when you set the motion detectors on, the alarm is armed at "Away" instead of "Stay" so there is no warning, if it sees you move (as it saw me as I walked over to get my charger), it immediately starts screetching at the top of its lungs, sending a warm stream of fear down those with lessor bladder control than mine. I managed to stay dry but only barely. I had to sprint to turn the alarm off. My adrenaline pumped so hard, I spent the next hour trying to calm myself down, but even worse my poor baby was kicking around like crazy. She's a fighter, she was ready for action. I felt really bad about it though. I still re-set the thing for away, and sure enough the next morning I had a similar race to the key pad to turn the alarm off. It was awesome.


Overall, I had a lot of support from friends this week while Jeff was away. I got a lot of dinner invites and lunch date invites. I felt very loved. I also was well distracted because of this, which helped a lot. I also had clients and dealt with painters for a few days. I got a lot done without the distraction of a husband. I lined up a lot of things for our move, for finishing the house, and also for work. I found a few potential replacement trainers. I also started my boot camp at Forest North back up. I won't be able to do it for very long, but it was very important to me and to them that I come back if only for a few weeks to get them started and hopefully have them carry on without me. I am really going to miss my job.
My newly painted front door among many other things the painters did....

This week I also started testing out the new night and day contact lenses. I'm really hoping I can stay in these because the thought of waking up, totally blind, and trying to nurse and take care of a newborn infant is terrifying to me. The least I can do is make it a little easier on myself by being able to sleep in my contacts and actually see. So far, so good. I got them on Wednesday, and have not had any issues with them thus far.

So I made it through the week without Jeff. No one murdered me. I can't wait to see him. The next time he leaves, I'll have about 3-4 weeks without him, but that's all. After that I am leaving house sold or not. 


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