Sunday, January 24, 2010

Week one

Monday: Depart Boston for Kansas. Scheduled three-hour direct flight to Kansas City turns into 16-hour odyssey, involving delayed takeoff, diversion to Tulsa, four hours on the tarmac before deplaning, securing rental car, getting some food (at 4 pm), and driving another four hours back to KC. Arrive at hotel 9:30 pm, eat some room service, collapse.

Tuesday: Miss B and I sleep late while DP heads off early for new job orientation. Around midday, check out, pack car. Stop off in town where we are interested in living; drive around, look at house prospect, get lunch at cafe on main street. All looks good. Head off to meet DP's new boss, get an escorted tour around new location and welcome to our new temporary accommodation.

Tuesday, 4:30 pm: Discover new temporary accommodation has no oven, no pans, and no washer/dryer. Start exploring other accommodation options. Go out for dinner--Thai food (my choice, since, have I mentioned, today also my birthday?)! After dinner, go to Borders; DP and Miss B buy me two new cookbooks.

Wednesday: Go to visit potential second temporary accommodation. Discover it is a full apartment (including oven, reasonably stocked kitchen, and washer/dryer), yet cheaper than first temporary location. Book a spot. Locate nearest Toyota dealership and go to look at cars. Commit to buying new Prius within 15 minutes of arrival.

Thursday: Check out of old accommodation and into new accommodation; finally unpack. Go grocery shopping. (Fresh cilantro: check. Yes!) Make first home-cooked dinner in a week (spaghetti carbonara).

Friday: Visit promising preschool; upon arrival, Miss B whips off coat and starts playing with the pre-K class. (Take this as a good sign.) On the way back to Toyota dealership, pick up car insurance information (along with real estate broker recommendations and other useful local info from very friendly agent). Back at Toyota, fill in approximately 400 forms, pick up car and manage to drive it home (via the grocery store) without anything horrible happening. Go home and collapse, then revive and make bread.

Saturday: Return rental car. Go to view top house prospect (six thumbs up!). Take a jaunt to Atchison, KS for lunch and a visit to the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum. Dinner with DP's bosses and their wives. Make more bread to bring along.

Sunday: Nothing scheduled--phew! Have time for Sunday morning pancakes, plus some exploring and some relaxing. Plus preparing for Week Two, hoping return to semblance of normal life continues....

3 comments:

  1. Wow, what a week, Lemon! I started to read it, then went to get a cup of tea to fortify myself, then came back and finished it. :)

    So glad to hear everything is going well though, and the new apartment sounds great! I hope all the bosses' wives were very impressed with your homemade bread!

    You're much better at this relocation thing than the rest of us, I think I'd still be at the airport, sucking my thumb.. :)

    Cheers, Celia

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  2. Thanks! Yes, it was so insane that I felt I had to document it for posterity, also in the hope that maybe I wouldn't have to do it again if I did. :)

    The bosses' wives were duly impressed, even after I told them that bread is one of the few things you *can* easily make in a kitchen with few groceries and less equipment. I don't think they believed me....I guess only another bread baker would get it!

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  3. I keep checking in to see if you've survived week 2...hope it's all going well! :)

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