And... I'm back in MA! It's been a very, very long what? 5 days? It seems like much longer because I've done so much! Let's go day by day...

Friday night: I got about 4 and a half hours of sleep, and Pensy conveniently sprawled himself across the middle of my bed so I couldn't even sleep as comfortably. But I didn't want to throw him off because I was a little sad... It was the last night I slept in my old bedroom, as the new house will be done by the next time I get out west. Kind of got sentimental and took old Corlath the stuffed lion to hug.

Very early Saturday morning (or very late Friday night): I woke up and rushed everyone out of the house to go to the airport. We made it, but I got through some of the luggage check-in line fast since an attendant was asking for people on my flight to go through first. Sad to say good-bye to Mum & Mer =(

The first leg of my journey I sat next to a young couple that previously lived in the Boston area. I ended up following them for awhile through the Chicago airport trying to get to the next gate. They make you walk about a mile and claim it's in the same terminal. But to make you feel better about it (and perhaps to disguise what they're doing), they've set up those moving walkways with crazy neon flashing tube lights overhead. And they play carnival music. We had a good laugh over that, as they weren't fooling us...(I finished One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Next the morning after I flew into Boston. Kesey mentions Hood River on the last page. I loved it.)

The second flight took off soon after I got on the plane (thank God, minimal waiting all around that day. Very smooth traveling.) The middle seat was empty so I was able to do my leg contortions. My luggage was one of the first things on the carousel, literally waited less than two minutes. I found a spot to wait by the pick-up area, & I had waited less than two minutes when I saw Andrew driving up. It was lovely to see him again =) It was also lovely that it was a sunny day -- after driving through rain in Oregon to get to the airport, and going through cloudy skies over Chicago.

SIDE NOTE: United airlines are wonderful with being on time but HORRIBLE with food. They make you PAY for a stupid sandwich and literally starve you with tiny ass bags of pretzels (they claim to have nuts in them, too, but I only found one half of one cashew in my bag. liars.)

After taking a look at the new apartment and moving some of my stuff in, we made a quick supermarket stop, & went back to Andrew's apartment. We had yummy pad thai (Andrew did it from scratch this time instead of using the sauce kits) and watched Kill Bill (which was really good as far as fight scenes and special effects). And I introduced Andrew to the wonders of Oregon candy: Cherry Mountain bars and Big Hunks (he didn't find them so wonderful though, I'm afraid).

Sunday: Moving day! We moved the rest of my stuff and some of Andrew's stuff into the new apartment. Same yellow walls in the kitchen that will be in my room (white ceiling, too). And odd green color of tile in the kitchen. But the room is great, we've inherited a dresser, night table, and queen size bed. We cleaned out the room and began setting up house. Emergency run to Target for a mattress pad & other necessary supplies. A very busy day... in the evening we took a walk to Anna's Taqueria for yummy burritos (it was about a five minute walk from our apartment... oh the wonders of living in the city!) In the evening we walked to Davis Square to get ice cream at JP Licks. Yum, Oatmeal Cookie... So many young people out and about, it's like being on a big college campus.

Monday: We took another load of Andrew's stuff over to the apartment, did our grocery shopping, and finished setting up our things. In the evening we had our first real meal in the apartment (I think it was a chicken and pasta with Andrew's pesto night). So we officially moved in! And I ran into Sarah from Eng. 280 at the grocery store, which was really crazy. I heard someone say my name and was totally confused for a minute and didn't think it was for me!

In the evening we took a walk towards Harvard Square to see what sort of stores and restaurants we're near. I was nervous for work the next morning.

Tuesday: I was the second or third person into work in the morning, so I had the tour of the place and then got settled in to looking at the site. All morning I read stuff on the site. Finally before lunch we had an assignments meeting so I picked out my first subjects to tackle. Started right in with "productive summers" for teens. Researched and wrote after lunch, left around 5:30, read some while I waited for Andrew, and then we were off. We made dinner and ate after a quick supermarket trip. It was good, too... Mum's recipe for porcupine meatballs (not made with actual porcupine, I might note). Dessert was our own pineapple/winter blend juice popsicles.

At some point I realized how glad I was that I didn't have any big responsibilities (ie, a kid). It would really suck to have a kid right now, I'm realizing how little time people have when they work full time...

Wednesday: Second day at work went smoothly, and I had a lovely lunch break with Andrew, eating out by the lake together (the rain cleared up for us, luckily). Finished with the productive summer topic, now I'm onto cliques and popularity. Wowee.

After lunch we had a going away party for one of the high school interns, great excuse to take a break and eat cake!

Andrew suddenly appeared with Mr. Johnson while I was working, as he learned that he will in fact be coming into the office tomorrow so I won't need to carpool with one of the other women that work at warm2kids. Then I sneaked into Andrew's office with the help of Cheryl (one of his co-workers). I read a bit and distracted him until it was time to go. But we didn't get to go straight home -- we had business at Kitchen Etc and Trader Joe's. Had an easy to prepare dinner (fried rice packet from Trader Joe's, walnut and dried apricot salad thanks to a bit of inspiration -- Mum you would have been proud).

So now, well, it's nearly 10 pm here and Andrew's still finishing up some work. Poor Andrew, pobrecito, trabajando todo el tiempo!

I guess I should go shower now, signing off from this internet connection Andrew figured out for me!