Curated By Shelley

So, after a full day of travel yesterday I made it to Harrisburg safe and sound. I'm a little peaved at United Airlines because when I went online Sunday to check in and arrange my seats it asked if I wanted to upgrade to first class for $130. I'm thinking $130 is a cheap upgrade to first class when you are traveling cross country so I jumped on it. Then AFTER the transaction was complete it showed me the upgrade only applied to the 2nd portion of my trip - the 1 hour 45 minute flight from Chicago to Harrisburg - and NOT the 3 hour 45 minute flight from Seattle to Chicago. I was ticked. Although it was nice to spend even the 1 hour 45 minutes in first class - but I probably wouldn't have spent the $130 if I knew it only applied to that leg of the trip. I was worried about getting my car because my co-worker told me he'd park it on the top level of the garage and leave the key sitting on top of the rear drivers side door. Would I remember what color it was? What ...

Well...I've been without a home of my own for a little over a week now. Super special thanks to Ann for letting me crash at her place for the first 5 days of my homelessness. I left the Bay Area Monday evening and made my way to Portland for a couple of days. Wednesday night we drove from Portland to Seattle so I've been at Michelle's since then. We had a LONG day at work thursday followed by a long dinner - which probably wouldn't have been so bad except I got this KILLER cold (Ann and Tony-I hope you don't have it too because its no fun!). Anyway, we took today off work and spent the day hooking up Michelle's new iMac and accesssories. And I'm really excited because I now now that its really easy to just buy the airport extreme and get my work laptop and the tivo's on a secure wireless network! YEAH! Its so much easier than what I did before! Talked to my mortgage guy today and he told me not to worry about a thing...they have everything ...

YEAHHHHHHH!!!!!! And perhaps more importantly...so does my mortgage company! And the movers are scheduled to deliver my stuff Feb 7-9. YEAH!!!!!!!!!! Also, thanks to everyone who came out last night. It was great to see everyone and I'll miss you all so much!

So...somehow they movers actually got everything packed yesterday. I made it to Ann's place around 8:15pm last night. Was back at my place by 9am this morning to do some more cleaning up. The guys showed up around 10:30am and my stuff was all loaded onto the truck and we were done with all the paperwork by 4:30pm. I can't believe I won't see my stuff again for so long! Good news is the realtor told me the builder picked up the contracts on Tuesday and she's supposed to be able to pick up the signed contracts tomorrow. And then it will REALLY be official! And the moving company called and gave me a delivery range of Feb 7-9 for my stuff! Yeah! Hopefully they hit the 7th because if not I'm buying an air matress and sleeping on the floor!

That would be the view from my desk right now.... Well the movers have been here packing for about 2 hours now...and the one guy is still here in my office with me....I knew I had a lot of stuff..but damn seeing it all in boxes I don't know how I had it all fitting in this room. And the dude in the kitchen's barely gotten 2 cabinets done! I think maybe it will take 2 days to pack me afterall......we'll see!

So the movers come TOMORROW to start packing me...and my apartment is no where NEAR ready!!!! I'm still doing laundry, trying to get rid of stuff I don't want, and have to match up all my collectibles with all their boxes (but not pack them as the movers have to do that themselves), and cleaning. And all three cell phones have been ringing like mad (yes I said three - I have the Harrisburg work phone in my possession now in addition to my California work phone and my person work phone. PLUS the office line is still working thru Sunday. One of the movers stopped by today to look at what space (or lack thereof) there is for a truck to get back here....he checked out my apartment too and had a total look of panic on his face at all my stuff (and its present completely disorganized state). On the good side - he did seem to think they'd finish the packing tomorrow and could load on Thursday (instead of two days of packing as we had scheduled). And I STILL have not con...

Glad press and seal So I'm getting ready for the movers to come and pack up my place. Even though they do all the work...they'll literally pack your garbage in the garbage can if you're not organized so I've been doing little things like puttng random loose stuff in drawers into ziploc bags. I was looking around for more things to bag up when I spotted my jewelery box. It occured to me that the LAST time I moved...all my jewelery got ALL jumbled up inside the box making a big freakin mess! So today...after going through my jewelery box and getting rid of all the crap I don't want. I organized it and then used press and seal to seal off each and every drawer so that on this move all the items will stay in their appropriate place! Yeah press and seal!

So I'm sitting on the floor in the Philadelphia airport because surprise surprise...ALL flights out are delayed. I was supposed to fly Philly to Chicago and then to Oakland...but by the time my Philly flight gets to Chicago the Chicago to Oakland flight will be long gone. And my mom says weather is really bad in Chicago anyway...luckily there's also a direct flight scheduled (not sure why I wasn't on it in the first place since it ends up getting me to Oakland about the same time. So far its showing on time..but since every other flight leaving this airport is delayed I"m not holding my breath. At least since its direct I'll hopefully get home tonight..even if its late...instead of getting stranded at another airport (at least chicago I could have stayed at my moms for the night!). So this morning we re-did the contract at the realtors. No confirmation of acceptance yet but the agent for the builder didn't think it would be a problem since I'm payi...

So, my realtor called tonight and as we suspected the builder wants to redo the contract on his paperwork. So...we'll do that Friday morning (unless they can do it tomorrow or Thursday night sometime after 5pm). I'd asked for closing cost assistance on my original contract and they're only willing to do that if I go through THEIR mortgage folks..so that probably won't happen but its all good! Talked to my mortgage guy today and told him what my uncle's mortgage lady told me today she'd do for me - so he worked some numbers and beat her by .2% on the 80% loan and 1% on the 20% loan. Plus he's waiving most of their fees. SO...I relocked in that deal and they are sending me more paperwork on that tomorrow. And that's today's home purchase update!

So my realtor emailed this evening with news that we have no news yet on my contract since the builder had to go to a funeral today. Hopefully I'll hear tomorrow! Will let you know!

Well...I spend about 6 hours yesterday looking at places with my realtor...and I just LOVED the first place so much nothing compared. This morning the realtor and I filled out the contract and we should hear more Monday since thats the first day the builder will have to review the contract. The agent a the model said he likes to use his OWN contracts so we might need to re-write it...but still its perfect! We went ahead and reserved it today so they're not able to show it to anyone else for a week while we deal with paperwork. I LOVE that its new construction. Just the cleaning up needs to be done inside (paint some trim, fix some spots on the wall and paint) and then its all ready for me to move in! Its 2 bedroom (both huge with bathrooms)laundry upstairs along with three linen closets, vaulted ceilings in the master, and tons of windows. The downstairs has a powder - the door to the garage and then a HUGE open family room, kitchen and eat in area. Its all just perfect! I...

OMG I'm sleepy! Traveled to Pennsylvania yesterday. Left Oakland at 10:55am made it to Philly at 10:15pm. Spent another hour finding my baggage and the rental car. Then drove to a town named Concordsville, PA because it was the cheapest hotel room I can find that 1) was kind of on my way to Harrisburg an 2) didn't frighten me. Got to the hotel exhausted...but somehow because of the time change (3 hours!) I wasn't able to fall asleep until after 2:30am local time. Now its 8:40am local time - I've been up for 30 minutes and I'm still having a hard time keeping my eyes open. I forgot how difficult the 3 hour time change can be! Wish me luck househunting today!

I'm blogging from my new iMac G5!!! Yeah! Good think I only got the 17in because I don't think the 20in would have fit under my hutch in my desk!!!!

So I'm trying to get my stuff all cleaned up (ie get rid of shit) and organized (ie not piled up and crammed into closets to fall out on you when the door opens) before my movers come. I figure if I take the steps now - not only will unpacking in my new place be easier - but if I'm really hard core about it - my new place might actually start out - and more importantly STAY organized. So, while everyone in all of Walnut Creek and the surrounding communties were are Target yesterday buying plastic boxes for putting away their Christmas (YES I said Christmas not HOLIDAY) decorations I was looking for more smaller boxes to organize my hall closet (which contains a hodge podge of coats, crafing supplies, cleaning supplies, toiletries, and general misc stuff). I did pick up 3 19L boxes while I was there yesterday - not knowning for sure how much crap would be kept and need to go into a box. Well...today...I realized...ALOT more stuff than what I bought boxes for. Now mind you - I...