How Things Can Change In A Year . . .

One year ago yesterday, Nana died at the age of 94 years, seven months, and seventeen days.  It’s still kind of hard to believe.  A year and a day ago, Mike and I heard about that, me getting woken up after three hours of sleep to hear about it, and me crying for the better part of who knows how may hours.  Hell, the better part of that entire day.  I talked to Dolly, Zeb made me laugh because he asked about the weather up here, Mike and I went to Redbank to go to Red Devil Games when it still existed, then we went down there again with Shannon and Colleen because Colleen called me and said they’d heard and wanted to cheer me up.

Boy, things can change in a year.  Yesterday, I was once again in Redbank, but this time with Rob at his neurologist appointment.  (Twenty buck copay thing for two pieces of paper saying for Rob to get an EEG and bloodwork done, and an appointment made for a follow-up before we leavefor Kansas.  Can we say rip-off?)  Rob and I also went to Sandy Hook to swim for awhile.  He’s really getting a lot better.  He told me months ago that he didn’t know how to swim.  And he’d gone through swimming lessons and stuff like that.  It just didn’t work.  So I told him give me a month this summer where we’re consistently going in water and I’d be able to teach him how.  Well, we haven’t gone in water consistently, but the times that we have, he’s definitely made progress.  And now, he’s a semi-competent swimmer.

In any case, we’re back from Kansas.  We left on the 12th and came back on the 17th, and I haven’t been online since around the tenth.  Rob and I just stayed up the entire nigt of the 11th-12th because we were getting driven to the airport at three-thirty in the morning, so there was virtually no point to sleeping.  I was a wreck.  My eyes were bothering me, I was practically falling over from exhaustion, especially by the end of it, and yet, Rob was pretty much fine.  I mean, no doubt he was exhausted as well, but he held up better than I did.  He actually lasted about thirty straight hours of awakeness, because he’d woken up at about noon on the 11th, and then didn’t fall asleep until around six the next day.

We flew into St. Louis because there was no direct flight to Wichita.  Then we had to wait at St. Louis for about three hours before the flight to Wichita came.  I fell asleep on Rob’s lap waiting for the second plane.  Yet before that, I still managed to kick his butt at Magic, a card game we both play.  I left my gum on the second plane on accident.  We got the rental car and drove straight through into Pratt, which is actually a really nice town.  It’s small, and everything that’s there is off of one highway, but in a way that’s nice.  It means everything’s close, within walking distance.  And the Wal-mart there has some really good pirces on bikes, and most of them have free assembly.  So that’s pretty awesome.

Anyway, I’m aead of myself.  We got to the hotel first and I collapsed on the bed and just wanted to die for a few hours.  (Not really die, just really, really deep sleep.)  But no, we got back up after a few minutes and went to the house.  My mom took a picture of me unlocking the door, and we stepped in, and . . .

It was absolutely gross.

The carpets were disgusting, the kitchen carpet, (don’t ask me why there was a carpet in the kitchen,) was actually sticky.  It felt like soda, oil, juice, and other unnameable things had been spilled there and then just left.  The kitchen cabinets and counters were covered in mouse pellets, (and I don’t mean food,) the windows were covered in cobwebs and spider webs, the light fixtures either didn’t have bulbs, had dead bulbs, or had working ones but all of them were covered in cobwebs as well.  The kitchen sink didn’t work, the bedroom door couldn’t be opened from the inside . . .

Yeah . . .

Well, we went back to the hotel and me and Rob crashed from around five, (six our time,) till about two-thirty in the morning.  Then from around 3 am to about seven in the morning.  We had breakfast and then made preperations to go back to the house and see what kind of cleaning we could do.

Dear God in Heaven . . .

We’re not done, not even after all the work we did.  Especially since Rob got sick and I got semi-sick and we left the house early one day and didn’t go the next.  I took care of Rob back at the hotel while fending off sickness myself, and my parents worked at the house.  I owe them for this.  I seriously do.  I’m gonna get them something really good for their anniversary this year.  I have no idea what, but I’ll find something.

The living room is fully painted, save for a little bit of detail work here and there, and Rob’s room is fully done.  They both look really good.  I really like how they turned out.  We cleaned up the kitchen and we have a working fridge, three out of four working burners, a new and working faucet, a working toilet, (oh, yeah, I forgot about the toilet.  There are interesting storis to tell there . . .) and a new doorknob on the one bedroom so now it can be opened from the inside.  Oh, and it came with one of those weird funky keys that are basically just a straight thing with sort of a flat end, and I told Rob, okay, close the door and lock it, let’s seee if this key works.  So I was on the other side trying to actually find where in the keyhole this thing has to go to open the lock.  I finally got it on the third or fourth try and opened it.  But that was the same kind of setup and key that Rob’s family had when Rob had that seizure in the shower and his dad wound up breaking down the door.  His mom couldn’t unlock it because she was freaking out and her hands were shaking and everything.  After I got the bedroom door opened, I said to Rob, "Okay, I see now why your dad broke down the door."

The ouse looks a lot better than it did when we first opened the door.  But it still needs a lot of work.  I only covered the major parts of the inside, I haven’t said anything about the backyard or along the side of the house . . .

But yeah, it’s where we’re gonna live.  It’ll be a good first house, I think.  And if we can continue fixing it up, and cleaning, then things shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

I’m definitely gonna miss the places in NewJersey.  Sycamore, Holmdel Park, Veteran’s, the outdoor rink at Union Beach, Union Beach itself, Sandy Hook, the Spy House . . .  But I’m not gonna miss anyone who lives here except for Ryan, Melanie, and Joey.  They’re the only real friends I have in this state.  (Not including Rob, of course, since he’s coming, too.)  I am glad Rob and I are going at the same time, though I wish he didn’t have to miss Thanksgiving and Christmas and the different birthdays with his family.  It’ll be nice, though, having him in the car with me.  Plus, we’ll get to stay at hotels and hopefully those hotels will have open pools, which means more swimming practice for him.  I seriously am proud of how well he’s doing where that’s concerned.

Anyway, that about covers

the past week or so.  I go back to work today at four and Rob’s probably gonna be here when I get back and we’ll finish watching Singin’ in the Rain.  Then, he’s got his orientation for Wal-Mart tomorrow morning at nine-thirty.  And he gets paid for that, too, so that’s awesome.  He’s starting at a higher rate there than at Staples and not only that, but after the probation period of thirty days, he gets a sixty cent raise!  Plus, he applied there because there’s a Wal-Mart out in Pratt, so he’ll be able to transfer, whcih means that employment-wise, he’ll be set once we get out there.  I figure what I’ll do is work on the house for the first week or two, with and without Rob’s help, (cuz I know he’ll be working,) and then after another good chunk of cleaning/painting/whatever-ing is done, I’ll look for a job, too.  If nothing else, I can do fast food again.  I mean, as long as it’s a paycheck, you know?  Hmm . . .  Maybe I could get a job at the roller rink that’s out there.  That’d be awesome.

Okay, I’m gonna go.