No Photos, Please

I'm alive!  It's been one hell of a month.  I'm going to just skip ahead to the weekend, let y'all know how the move went, and just go forward from there.  How's that?

Thursday night, Eric and I met up at the leasing office to do our walk through and sign the lease.  We were cutting it quite short, getting there a half an hour before it closed for the night.  The manager of the community stayed long after they closed to make sure we had time to go over everything properly.  He was so friendly and helpful, especially considering it was the end of the day for him.  He even gave us one of our keys so we could start moving in early!  Eric and I talked about doing something nice for him and the agent that "sold" us the apartment.  Ideas?  Starbucks gift certificates won't work since they don't like coffee.  :(

So moving day came early, and to make it brief, here's a summary of all of the things that went wrong (please keep in mind that our apartment is on the fourth floor):

• The elevator broke while we were unloading the truck filled with stuff from Eric's house
• Eric's super-nice dining room table fell out of the back of my SUV while they were trying to drive it slowly up the parking deck, scratching it all to hell and nearly killing Eric in the process
• Aadil twisted his ankle
• The glass of a painting that is very dear to Eric broke into a million billion pieces
• A thunderstorm rolled in right as we were loading the truck at my house
• Said thunderstorm caused a power outage to our apartment complex, causing the gates to remain shut, and locking us out
• Once we were able to get in to the complex the elevator, which had since been fixed, was inoperable due to said poweroutage
• The thunderstorm caused the rain to fall sideways, onto the balcony, where Eric had put the painting, who's glass was now broken, allowing rain to fall onto the actual canvass
• At one point, I looked down from the balcony to see Eric and a friend stacking several pieces of furniture on top of each other to carry up the stairs; I said "I really hope they don't drop all of that" and literally 5 seconds later, my nightstand was in several pieces
• Did I mention Eric had an essay due in his online course, which requires internet to send, which we did not have due to the power outage?
• Upon returning the truck, finding a hotspot and turning in his essay, Eric came back to the apartment and promptly locked his keys in his car - with the lights still on
• To top off the night, the backpack he was carrying broke as soon as he stepped inside
• And bonus crazy: a large tree branch fell in my (old) backyard, onto the roof of the shed, and causing the tree itself to weaken and threaten the safety of the house during the next storm.

That's all of the things I can think of.  On a positive note, both Comcast, and the guy delivering our washer and dryer, came before the elevator broke and the power went out; we had excellent customer service from  Comcast (shocking); even though the power was out for over 3 hours, Publix stayed open due to their generators powering the registers, and we were able to buy candles and (more) beer; miraculously, the painting doesn't seem to have run or been permanently damaged; AND, J-dog got a clean bill of health, a bath and furmination, and I got a reasonable quote to remove his pesky dew claws - he's ripped them out twice. :( 

So the move did not go as I had planned or expected.  I was hoping to have everything in the apartment by 2:00 p.m., and I think we finished unloading around 8:00.  I was hoping to have unpacked the kitchen and cooked everyone a huge pasta dinner as thanks, and we ended up ordering more pizza.  But I have to say, Eric and I are so incredibly blessed to have the friends and family that we do, who persevered through injury, rain, and power outages to help us.  So thank you Aadil, Nate, Patrick, and Aleksander.  I'm shocked you all stuck around for as long as you did.  And thanks also to Kristy, for coming over afterwards and bringing your sparkling personality to brighten the mood, like you so often do.

ETA:

I think all of mine and Eric's luck must have been redistributed, and I'm okay with that.

Popping In

Firstly, I want to apologize for the blog being such a downer recently.  I just needed to process all of what was going on, but everything is so much better now.  Kristy is actually moving into the same neighborhood as me and Eric, which is REALLY exciting.

Nothing else has really changed, but after chewing on the facts for a few days, I'm strangely at peace with everything.  My friend, Kim, gave me some really great advice, which put a lot of this into perspective.

I'm trying to figure out how to keep running over the next week without a gym in the INTENSE Georgia heat.  I suppose I could should wake up early and do it before work, but if you know me, you know that's a real stretch.  I'm sure Tim Gunn would tell me to "Make it work."  That I shall, Tim.  That I shall.

Today Will Be Better

Remember yesterday when I said the weekend was stressful?  Child's play compared to what was coming.  I'll try to be brief, since this barely has to do with running or training.

1. Eric and I have yet to sign up for our utilities.
2. My computer's hard drive is dead.
3. Kristy's future roommate, who was supposed to move in on July 1, backed out yesterday, leaving both of us, as well as our landlord, completely screwed.

This first item I'm hoping to have fixed by tonight.  Eric and I tried several times this weekend to knock it out, but it just didn't happen.

The second item gave me a minor meltdown yesterday, but I thought it through and calmed myself down.  All of my important photos and music are stored on my external hard drive so I haven't lost that much.  I wanted to buy a new computer anyway, preferably a desktop with a large monitor.  This is just super inconvenient, but it is not the worst thing that could happen.

The third item is the worst thing that could happen (barring actual real life tragedy).  Because this guy backed out, Kristy now has to plan a quick move, which she hadn't budgeted for.  Because this guy backed out, I'm now responsible for an additional month of rent, which I hadn't budgeted for.  Because this guy backed out, our landlord now has to ready his house to show potential renters as soon as possible, which he hadn't budgeted for. 

In order to find some money to pay for the extra rent I've had to make some sacrifices.  I'm putting my gym membership on hold for a few months, because, well it's kind of an expensive gym.  BUT!  One of the amenities in my new apartment complex is a "state of the art" fitness facility.  It's pretty standard actually, but the equipment works.  I've also given up on kickball for the summer, and I'm trying to find some races that aren't north of $50.  Training-wise, I'm not sure what my next few weeks will look like, but I promise there will be some.  I'm not sure how often my updates will be posted either.  Please bare with me in this transitional time.

 
But let's end on a positive note, shall we?  My firm gave the support staff gift certificates to Buckhead Life Restaurants for meeting our goals last month.  Eric and I have been joking that we would be eating ramen for our anniversary, and now we'll actually be able to go out!  I'm very excited.

Short and Sweet Update

This weekend was not relaxing, let me tell you.  I'll try to do a proper update later, but I wanted to pop in and tell you all that my computer crashed last night (I've had it since 2007 and this is the first time, so no complaints).  That being said, I am computer-less for an amount of time that is TBD.  Eric, the wonderful man that he is, will be taking the poor broken wretch to the Apple store for me today to see if there's anything they can do.

Side note: How sweet is it of Eric to do that, so I don't have to take extra PTO time from work?  He is awesome, and I am a lucky lady.

I will try to update later tonight if I can borrow a computer.  Otherwise, please think happy technologically sound thoughts for poor Niska (yeah, I named my laptop after a villain in Firefly, what?  He's a badass.).

Progress 6.10.2011

Monday: Rest Done
Tuesday: Yoga Rest Done
Wednesday: Rest Done
Thursday: Easy 2 mi Run/Walk Rest Done
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Easy 3 mi Run/Walk
Sunday: 3 mi Run at 5k pace

Time for another update!  They say that the most important day of any training plan is your resting day.  Well, clearly I'm really good at that.  Apparently I've mastered the most difficult part of training for a long race.  I guess I should get started on the rest, huh?

In all seriousness, my week has been incredibly busy.  I have some stuff in the works that I can't really talk about just yet, but let's just say that hopefully my time not working out will have been worth it.  But, today is Friday!  I left my gym bag at home, but I'm thinking of taking J-dog for that 2 mi Run/Walk I was supposed to do yesterday.  I have to get him used to walking on a leash again, since that'll be imperative starting two weeks from today! 

 What's going on here?  He looks like a 40 lb dog.  I can tell you he's about twice that big.

He looks so sweet, right?  Lies.

Holy crap, I'm moving two weeks from today.  Two weeks, y'all.  That's, like, not that far away.

In other news that may or may not excite you, I've got a big photography project coming up in the next month.  If any of you have any experience in the publishing world, please shoot me an email at atlantamiles@gmail.com.