After much procrastination and anticipation, I’m finally making a post and adding recent pictures (sorry no pics of the apartment until we get a new camera) from our new home in Virginia. Everything has been going so well since we left L.A. (except the small matter of snow in Utah of course, oh and the fact that we still haven’t gotten our check for USAA for the burglary) but other than that things are going good. We left St. Louis on New Year’s Day and made it here in 12.5 hours, exactly half way between Colorado Springs and Fairfax. The ride wasn’t bad, unless you count the scares of TONS of cops in Ohio – Casey saw about a dozen in the first 7 miles of the state. The speed limit ridiculous – state’s need to follow the example of Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. Come now, people are going that speed anyway. Casey and I KNOW that we will eventually get a ticket here. Due to the lack of traffic and the flat roads we are inclined to go a steady speed of 80 (no tickets yet though).
We spent the first night at Rachel’s. An air mattress beats the hard floor. Fortunately, this time when moving the electricity, gas, and water were already turned on (high speed internet was turned in on Monday, HD cable on Wednesday). Justin came down Sunday afternoon to help us unpack and we got almost everything done while he was here (we were officially unpacked as of Wednesday night). Our place is actually a lot bigger than our last one, close to 200 sq.ft. larger. Guess we’ll need to buy some more stuff to fill the space. 😉 (We had outgrown our apartment in LA as soon as we moved in.) We’ve already started improving the place with small touches such as new knobs on the kitchen and bathroom cabinets – we haven’t painted because we haven’t settled on colors yet. Casey’s enjoying his job so far and is actually (gasp) learning stuff. Far cry from the babysitting and troubleshooting he did in LA.
Since God’s wrath has taken it’s toll on LA, our insurance claim has been pushed to the back burner (even though it should have been addressed by the time the torrential downpours took place) and the other claims have been processed. i’m ready to contact a supervisor and get something done ASAP (it’s been a month on Sunday) but Casey’s doesn’t want to muddy the waters and piss anyone off – I want our money so we can get on with our lives (since there’s no hope of getting anything back or ever hearing from LAPD EVER again.)
Rachel, Lexi, and I had dinner at the Silver Diner on Tuesday. It’s so nice that people are glad to have us here! Lexi is confused since Casey is traditionally a girl’s name and thinks I’m Casey. If we ask her if she wants to go with Casey she’s all for it but if we say Kelly she doesn’t understnad that *I* am Kelly, so whenever I’m talking to her and I say Casey she must think I’m speaking in the third person. 😉 We had a good visit and Rachel’s gonna have to come back because I *have* Mapquested the A.C. Moore store.
Wednesday I went to Ft. Belvoir to the commissary. Upon entering the gate I was informed that my decals had expired (they were ’04, this was the 5th day of ’05). I was scared that this would turn into an ordeal and I would need Casey to get anything done. I hesitatingly went to the visitor parking center or whatever it’s called and grabbed everything I could think of and was in and out within 5 minutes. Food here is actually CHEAPER than L.A. even at the commissary, I was able to replenish our groceries (including all the stuff we had to throw away such as condiments) AND get gas and alcohol for $300 – what a deal! I’m gonna be sad to give those perks up in September (we better have an extra freezer by then).
We ordered our tickets from here to LA for next month, since our tickets for Maui are direct from LA we’re gonna have to spend a few hours there (hopefully visiting the city will treat us better than living there). It’s getting down to it and we’re getting pretty excited about going over there and relaxing completely!
Today I *finally* got my financial aid and registration status in order. It’s not complete yet but after several phone calls and emails, I think we’re making progress and it should be completed by the deadline next Friday (or at least I hope so). We were grateful that our complex’s business center had a fax machine, until we realized it was for local faxes – what good does that do?! So I found a UPS Store and then found a Trader Joes! Two-buck Chuck is no longer $2 (or $1.99 to be exact) it’s now $3.29 Leroy (or so the cashier said), I guess the truckers want to get paid or something. No problem, still a bargain for the great cabs!
Tonight has just been spent relaxing, me organizing MP3z and pictures – and making Southwestern Chicken Pizza (see the California Pizza Kitchen website for more info) and Casey playing his game along with EVERY OTHER PERSON WE KNOW.
We don’t know what the weekend holds in store for us but I’m sure there’ll be plenty to do, without the hassle of traffic.