Posts Tagged ‘ moving ’

My appropriately sappy Thanksgiving post

November 24, 2011
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My appropriately sappy Thanksgiving post

It’s been way too long since I enjoyed Thanksgiving. There was the year my ex’s mother decided to put bacon in everything then had just enough to drink to really enjoy hassling me for keeping kosher, the awkward year I spent with people who were trying to stay friends with us both after the divorce, and the year I spent drinking alone at home because it was better than the alternatives. Things rounded the corner last year. I was close enough to my best friend Anne to spend the day with her family. Nearly thirty of us filled her house.…

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Judge me by the friends I keep. They’re awesome.

November 7, 2011
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Judge me by the friends I keep. They’re awesome.

I’m a very lucky woman. Anne, my sister from another mister, not only kept me company but also kept me sane on my move. A small but significant portion of my worldly goods still lived in a Springfield, Illinois storage unit. She met the movers there and supervised them loading my things into their panel van, then rode to St. Louis with them. She brought snacks and kept me company while total strangers packed all my worldly goods into a 24 foot panel van. When the painfully slow movers finally went back to Springfield, she hopped in the truck for…

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New to Austin: Week 1 – wherein an 870 mile drive ends in me nearly plummeting to my death

November 6, 2011
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Highway Overpass at Dusk Austin, Texas, USA

“Worst case scenario you can sell the whole thing for scrap metal,” said Anne. We stood on the side of an unfamiliar highway, rocked by the force of cars speeding past at 75 miles an hour, staring at the wreck of a car dolly. It dutifully towed my Toyota 870 miles from St. Louis to Austin without a single issue. Minutes earlier, the movers who unloaded all my worldly goods into an apartment hitched the car dolly back to the truck and sent me on my way. I naively obeyed my GPS when it said to drive my 24 foot…

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We’ll always have the City Museum

September 20, 2011
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The view from my living room

Dear St. Louis, I’m sorry, baby, but I’m leaving you for another city. We got into this relationship too fast and for all the wrong reasons. I was on the rebound from Chicago. In comparison, you seemed so stable, so down to earth, so much less likely to stab me fourteen times in my sleep and blame it on the voices inside your camera. That seemed sexy – or at least safe. I didn’t really know you, though. I’ve tried to adapt, sugar, but I’m not your kind of girl. I didn’t go to your high school. I’m a flaming…

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A parade of potential rooomates, part 4

December 9, 2010
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I’m genuinely amazed how many men confused a roommate ad with a very special form of prostitution where whores pay YOU! I ignored the countless emails from men who let me know that for a mere $700 a month I could do their cooking, clean up after them, and sex them up night. This one snuck past my defenses. He was up in Highland Park, a very wealthy suburb, and said that even though he could afford his own place he really preferred living with other people. Ideally, he wanted to help out a student or young professional who needed…

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A parade of potential roommates, part 3

December 8, 2010
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$600 all utilities included plus internet and laundry. I want to keep my girls in their childhood home. They’re good girls. I can’t afford my mortgage on my own so I need a roommate. I don’t need you to be my girls mom but I do want to show them a good example of the kind of woman to grow up to be. I want a female roommate who is respectful but has an independent spirit. Be laid back. Don’t be offended by four letter words but don’t use them in front of kids. I don’t need you to babysit.…

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A parade of potential roommates, part 2

November 19, 2010
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I thought of Evanston as a wealthy surburb. My first experiences there were around the gorgeous campus of Northwestern University and I’d heard plenty of people scoff about the kind of money needed to live there. I decided that while living in schmancy town might mean more expensive rent that would come with a nicer standard of living. That was a compromise I could live with. Plus, Evanston is still just barely on the Chicago train system. It looked like a city where I could drive up north for work but park my car at night and ride the train…

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A parade of potential roommates, part 1

November 17, 2010
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Tis the season for people who have never met me in person to criticize me for not giving Chicago enough of a chance. Rather than get into a flame war on Facebook I’m going to address it here at plenty of length and be done with it. There is a Chicago where you park your car and ride the train to work. After a few weeks, you realize the only time you get in your car is to move it for street cleaning or snow days. You don’t need it, because your neighborhood bar is two blocks away (there are…

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