How much do I love my family?

As I mentioned in the last post, I am moving in November. I figured that since everyone in my family has made a major relocation in the past six weeks why the heck can't I? Peer pressure is a beezotch. I have to do what everyone else is doing as long as it isn't smoking cigarettes or doing drugs - Nancy Reagan & Punky Brewster told me not to do those things.


I might not be moving more than 1,500 miles (more like 5) but a move still requires packing up all of your crap and hauling it to a new location. Most people hate doing this but during grad school I had the privilege of doing it many times. I was a migrant gypsy of sorts. I like change and have been in the same place for 2 years - time for a change.

I get the keys to my new casa on November 15th and have two weeks to move. I thought I had most of it under control until my little brother rolled through town this weekend (with 2 U-Haul trucks) and dropped off (almost) all of my belongings from Texas. I now have enough stuff for two apartments - see I pretty much moved to Utah with what could fit in my little Mazda and acquired everything else when I got here. My brother didn't want to throw anything away so they brought it all (even down to my banking statements from when I was 15). I started going through everything and essentially it looks like I am missing a few key items.

What you ask? What would be an example of such a thing? You said that your brother packed up and brought everything. How could you be missing anything?

Well, I'm glad you asked. (please do not take the next few sentences as being ungrateful, I love my brother for packing up this stuff and driving it across the country, obviously we didn't quite unload everything).

-I have a table top but no legs (they were actually saw horses for legs but nonetheless, I have a table with no legs)
-I have 100's of CD jewel cases but no actual CD's
-I have frames but not the pictures that were in them (I'm missing my diploma's - no biggie, just $40,000+ worth of degrees MIA)
-I have a box full of my undergrad work that can keep the box of my grad work company (does anyone have a shredder I can borrow?)
-I have a box of stuff from England - spent months in counseling to forget that portion of my life and here it is, (re)delivered right to my door.
-I have a handful of art pads but my brushes, pens, pencils, and other art supplies are missing

Essentially, I have a garage piled with incomplete belongings that I will have to move across town in addition to all of my other stuff. I hope that once the other trucks are unloaded in Idaho (with my parents stuff) the remainder of my things will be located. Like I said before, I am grateful that I have my stuff back, I just wish I had their counterparts to make them worth having/keeping. I can't really have a garage sale with half-assed products (or can I?)

One unexpected bonus: my yearbooks have been found and have proved to be very entertaining. The mid-ninties were an interesting time to be in high school. The grunge era was only kind to Kurt Cobain (and look where it got him).

Hasta.

Where to begin - how about nowhere?

I need to get on the ball with this blog, I know. I have a variation of the same excuses each time I upload my monthly tales. So as this falls of deaf ears, I'm sorry. I will try to do better (let the vicious cycle of procrastination, an overwhelming amount of topics, and an aversion to sitting at a keyboard while not at work repeat once again).

Sorry!

October continued in my need to vacation, and vacation I did. I want to thank www.delta.com for sending their last minute fare alerts. This go-around it got my butt in a seat headed for LA. I knew that I couldn't get away during fall break but I could disappear the week before so I used guilt to find two of the worlds greatest travel companeros and we we in the Magic Kingdom of Disney by Saturday morning. The beauty of this spontaneous trip was that we had little planning and still had a great time. My friends even downloaded a program to map out our days in the park - in three days we stood in line for only about 2-3 hours (total!). By the time we got our photo with Mickey that first morning it was destined to be a great trip - it makes all the difference when the people you travel with are simpatico. I left my camera in my bag for all three days but I have a few pictures that I captured with my phone...hope they satiate your appetite for pictures.

Oh Mickey - you're so fine, you're so fine...

The highlight was definitely having the Haunted Mansion decked out for the Nightmare Before Christmas

In case you wondered where candy corn came from. It grows in stalks and in trees. Duh!

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. I got soaked and spent the next two hours with a severe case of swotch.

California Adventure was fun but not as cool as California in general. Especially when we (I) lost my ticket and had to halt the fast-passes.

Changing gears, work is work and that's all I'm going to say. It has me exhausted and up to my eyeballs in foreign affairs. I'm living the dream of "don't ask, don't tell" so please don't bother asking me what I do. Truth is, I don't even have a strong grasp on it these days and it's different everyday. One thing I can tell you is that we are decorating for Halloween at the college and I expect it will be a crazy week of butcher paper, masking tape, and people trying to figure out what we are doing. The front office has decided to go with a "Birds" theme - like the horror movie. It's cool but we did a major chunk of it while the bosses were out on Friday - can't wait to hear the reactions (and curse words) as they see it for the first time. Not sure if my boss will go for it but at least it was a nice distraction from the work we have been doing (yet again, nothing I can really talk about but if you read the paper you can figure it out on your own).

Here is a taste of what we have been doing to the front office at work. I am the master of making trees and birds now - who knew I had it in me to be so creative?

My big news for the month is that I will be moving out in the next few weeks. The time has come and it's time to live without roommates. I have mixed emotions on the topic of flying solo, mostly I'm sad that I won't be living with Scott anymore. Scott is one of the world's nicest guys and I don't want to leave him high and dry. I have a few housing options in the city but need to make a decision this week on where I will end up by mid-November. At least that will serve as a teaser to check back on where in the world "Matthew SanDiego" is.

I will make sure to post pictures of he Halloween party and my costume. You might need to check the following link to get up to speed on who I will be: www.drhorrible.com (I won't tell you what character I am planning to be just yet - it's a surprise)

Until next time...feel free to place bets on when I will update this again. I have a feeling that JoLynn and Katie have a running wager on it. Let me know who wins.