Getting there

This week I finally hit some kind of status quo. I haven't had any areas where I've gotten so annoyed that I ran to a Mart and bought the answer to the issue. I've learned that towels and some cooking utensils are good, at least one chair and one table are necessary, and pillows might be nice but I can sleep ok without one. I'm pretty sure I could still get everything in my Jeep if I had to, and this thought is a difficult one to get past. I'm so used to needing to move about that I find settling in is a slow process. I do now have a local Credit Union, prompted by the fact that my first paychecks were paper ones and I just don't want to jump through the hoops to deposit check via my phone. I will at some point, just not now.

I am sobered by how little relatively I'm bringing home from this good job. Relative to my work outside the US which I didn't have to pay taxes on. I'm almost afraid to add up my bills, even though I thought I was being conservative while I was signing up for the apartment and internet and such. I will be going over all of that. I am close enough to work to bike it, but I don't own a bike right now. Pondering the idea of getting a bike vs. just driving the Jeep is one of the next issues, after looking at the bills.

I have been working on the sweater as knitting is cheaper than going to the casinos. I also enjoy it almost as much. Having found a way to make it a social thing as much as a couple of evenings a week if I so choose means it is filling that need as well. I am almost finished with the first sleeve, leaving one more sleeve and the collar to finish for it to be completely done. I have learned some more new procedures including magic loop knitting and the proper way to do a SSK. Exciting stuff, eh?

I am going through all of the things I brought out here as at the time I stuffed items into packs and bags and such. I'm still missing a couple of things, including a belt that I could swear I had at the hotel prior to moving here. If that is all that is lost I'll call it good. All of the things from Honduras arrived in MO on Monday and Mom supervised the unpacking and loading of it into the storage unit. She reports that everything looked fine. I wish I could transport about half of it to here in Phoenix, but that will happen in time. I'm still trying to decide where I want to settle more permanently, in this apartment or over in a slightly cheaper area or in an RV park or what. Money is an issue, and most major changes in residency are waiting on the house to sell.

I am trying to decide if I will drive out to Payson for the day and check out the state park over there. I weigh the money for gas vs. looking back later and wishing I had gotten out more. I most likely will go.

More holes get filled

A trip to Goodwill, which is amazingly close it turns out, and for $3 I have a real plate that I can use in the microwave and a set of metal eating utensils. I also went to Costco and got some food. I now have frozen chicken tenders and frozen vegetables and berries (without seeds...) and individual pizzas. Also some sliced cheese. I like cheese and mayonnaise sandwiches as much as the ones I put the roast beef slices on, so I'm good for lunches for awhile now. A cheese sandwich and a frozen burrito or pizza and I can make the 8 hour shifts I'm on now. I'll need more to make it through the 12 hour shifts I'll have when I get trained, but by then I hope to be actually cooking again.

In between those two places I drove over to Tortilla Flats. I did take a couple of pictures and hope to at least update my header picture this weekend. Maybe the background one as well. I am still not a desert rat and am more one of them there tourons who just drive by in their air conditioned car. I figure I'll drive around during the summer heat and get an idea of the layout around here and then actually get out and enjoy walking and hiking the area this fall and winter. It is pretty amazing country, but the lack of shade gives me pause when thinking of leaving the Jeep behind and walking down a trail.

Slowly things are coming together. I still need a few more cleaning items and some peanut butter. I forgot(!) to get some when I was at WalMart the other day and CostCo only has Skippy! Who'd a thunk. So, tomorrow probably means a trip to the Mart. Then no more spending money for awhile.

The Good, Bad, and not really Ugly

Life is good right now, for the most part. I am official at work, finally. I can announce with confidence that I have the new job with no asterisk declaring *as soon as gets filed. I have an apartment confirmed for the near future that will most likely be a viable option at the end of this 7 mo lease. I enjoy this area, what I have gotten out and seen so far.

I am feeling disconcerted at not having a lot of my stuff here. Stuff, as in individual items, and a lot, as in the apartment is echo-ingly empty. I don't have things packed away to make room for the things I'm actually using. I have room. I miss my stuff. I find my camp chair to be uncomfortable. I could sit on the floor with pillows! Oh, I don't have any pillows, either. Even on the air mattress I call my bed. When I start to think about what I 'need' to go out and get the list gets long and I don't know where that line is where I shouldn't spend so much money on stuff that I will eventually (soon?) not need because I'll have my 'real' stuff here. At some point I realize that I can probably go spend money on some more peanut butter and even a gallon of bottled water without guilt, but it is a slippery slope. I use my plastic dish as a platform to microwave a salmon burger (don't recommend them, btw), and wonder if I'll melt it into a horrid mess. It didn't. However, the fact that my choices are the plastic plate or a stainless saucepan when it comes to cooking utensils gives me pause. If you saw just how MUCH kitchen paraphernalia I own that is somewhere adrift in Missouri (I hope) you would realize why this is a confusing moment for me.

The upshot is I'm starting to feel the familiar depression starting to form clouds on my horizon. I know I need to start eating better. I need to get some kind of center going where I feel at home. This is all messing with my proclaimed desire to head towards minimalism. Hey, I'm supposed to be having wonderful gushes of lightness and freedom in my nearly empty apartment with it's empty kitchen cabinets. I hate to run out and fill the space until I give this experiment more time. But, it's getting cloudy around here, emotionally.

Settling In

Once again they needed something for the background check that came in late yesterday. Hopefully next week I can finally do something at work. Laying low and staying out of trouble when I don't have anything to do is not one of my strong points. If I could log into a computer and start studying something, anything, I would be happy, but I can't really touch a computer while I'm there.

On the home front I'm getting a bit more organized. Still very little furniture. I did buy a small folding table to put the printer and cable modem on. I'll do more shopping around this weekend. I'm only buying things that I reach for out of habit and get truly annoyed when I don't have whatever it is. Kleenex in the bathroom, wastebasket, something to keep the various underwears corralled. Something that was second tier (second shopping trip when I moved in) was hangers. These are things I don't pack usually, and always need when I get where I'm going. On short trips I use inflatable hangers, and wonder why everyone doesn't think they are as awesome and I think they are. However, I ended up buying 4 packs of 18 before it was all said and done. I do have a few empty, but not many. I do have a walk in closet here.

Lots of projects bubbling in the back of my mind. Lots I want to get out and see. Any suggestions for the immediate area of Phoenix that I should do/not do/check out/avoid are welcome (Thanks DD for your suggestion!).

Moved In

A week to the day after I got to Phoenix I moved into my new apartment. I had been slated to get a studio apartment that would be available near the end of the month of May. However, the person decided not to trade up to the 1 bedroom apartment after all, so the studio was no longer available. The 1 bedroom that he didn't want was available immediately, though, so I moved in on Saturday. It is a second story apartment, and I was a tired and sore mess by Saturday night. I have more than enough room now.

What I don't have is all the little things one needs when moving into an empty apartment. You know, the things that are in storage or on the long trip to MO from Honduras. Not here in Phoenix. I am learning my own hierarchy of needs that doesn't quite mirror Maslow's (do I have the right person there?). My first trip out was for toilet paper and a shower curtain. I have one towel as I did remember that was something that I needed immediately on another move, and I read Hitchhikers Guide (again, was that the series that said always have a towel? I remember the concepts, not always the source...) Next was some dish detergent. I got my camp chair and small camp table from the storage unit, and also my few plastic dishes I got in Nashville the week I stayed in my vacant house. I didn't bring the air mattress or pump with me for some reason, so also had to replace them. I have internet in the apartment (a girl has to have her priorities) and so now have most bases covered temporarily. I would like something to put the folding clothes in other than being piled on the floor, an iron and ironing board, various kitchen things, but I don't want to spend much more money right now. WalMart has an inflatable couch that I think I'll get since I need to keep furniture small enough I can carry it up/down the stairs. A table will have to wait.

I only got a 7 month lease. I still plan on researching RVs, another reason I don't want to run out and get furniture. However, I'm 2.5 miles from work right now, and I'm not finding any RV parks in this area. A blogger I sometimes read gave some good advice once: if you get confused, slow down and stop spending money. So, for now I'm officially slowed down and not spending on much other than food. I also still hurt from moving, so the idea of being in one place for 7 months sounds really good to me right now.

Home Suite Hotel

I rolled out of Vegas a bit poorer. No issues getting down to Phoenix, except that I realized that what I thought was the south side was not even to the middle of Phoenix. My storage unit is 30 miles north of where I (will) work. Not a huge issue as I don't need to go there often and it is all freeway. Checked into my extended stay studio and got my dressy clothes all pressed for the first day of work. On Monday everything was going fine until the boss called me into his office to talk. Not an unusual thing to happen on a first day. Except it turns out that all that paperwork wasn't actually finished. The stuff that has to be done for me to actually start doing any work. So, I went back to the hotel and started making calls. I think now (Thursday!) I have finally finished submitting the additional forms and peeing in the cup and it is up to the 3rd party background check folks to figure out how to deal with my Honduras life. I keep saying that I had a clearance that I guarded and that they wouldn't have let me keep if I'd screwed up down there, but it doesn't compute in the civilian world.

I think I have found an affordable apartment that will be available about the time my reservation here at the hotel is up. I'll finalize that tomorrow. I have real food that I cook in the kitchen here. Well, it is frozen food, but closer than I've been able to do for a very long time. I bought a Magic Bullet mixer/blender and am making smoothies. Hint, don't get frozen berries that have pomegranates included for smoothies or you spit a lot of seeds. So far I really like it. Yes, I have been touring WalMart, IKEA, CostCo, etc. I also bought a printer/scanner as I have so many forms lately to print, fill out and scan back in to email. It is amazing to wander around those places after not having much of any selection for anything for so long in Honduras. I try to keep it under control, though, as I'm still in the situation of needing everything to fit in the Jeep.

The boss says he's not giving up on me, even though the background check is taking longer than we'd like. I know they won't find anything adverse as I managed to keep the clearance which is harder to get than what they are checking for now. So, I hang out and cook and eat and drive around the area to see what's here.

Vegas, Baby! Take 2

The trip west went without incident. I did end up getting Motel 6 rooms, first in NM as I was getting unsafe driving. Motel 6 is my Uncle's go to place. I was not impressed, especially since the internet I paid extra didn't work. I drove to Phoenix and got a storage unit to drop the things I don't need right away. I walked out of the first place I tried (U-Haul Storage) because they were asking for all kinds of information and requiring insurance. Not just offering it, but extorting the money to get the unit. So, I walked. I didn't like the vibe of the place. I called another place from the parking lot. They worked with me, and the unit was half of the price of the U-Haul place per month, so I have temporary storage for a couple of months. Second month was free, so I'll at least keep it that long.

I then drove to Kingman, AZ and got the second Motel 6 room of the trip. Still not impressed, and the paid-for internet didn't work here either. Drove into Las Vegas on Sunday, stopping at Hoover Dam to look around. I made it half way out the walking bridge along side the new highway bridge before my fear of heights got to me and I decided it just didn't take me long to look at a dam (take off on a very old joke that if you remember it you are older than I am... :)

I was at the Quad for 3 nights, and I'm now at the Luxor. Again, I appreciate both places giving me free rooms. I did gamble so financially it was probably a wash, but I'm having fun. The internet, that I again paid for, did not work at the Quad worth a hoot. Seeing a pattern here? At the Luxor it is included in my 'resort fee' that I may or may not have to pay depending on how much I gamble here. It is wired (uses a cable) instead of wireless AND IT WORKS!!!

Tomorrow morning I check out and head back to Phoenix where I check in to my home for the next 30 days and start unpacking for the first time since I left Honduras in February. I'm ready to settle down for a bit.