Exhausted, Overwhelmed, and still pretty Psyched. . .
Things just never seem to calm down in my life. Part of it is because I'm a go-go kind of girl, but the other part is just the reality of the major transitions I've been going through.
That is as far as I got when I sat down to write this entry over a week ago. The pace has been rapid since I arrived here in Anchorage. First it was finalizing things with my house. . . financing, changing utilities into my name, forwarding mail, getting the phone, etc. Then, shopping for work clothes. Shopping is not my favorite thing to do, but its not the worst thing in the world either. I like shopping for others more than myself. But, clothes shopping, at the enormous size that I have become (30 lbs. heavier than what I once thought was my heaviest weight), is less than a pleasant experience.
Next hurdle was getting through orientation week at work, while taking care of my little 13 year-old friend, Devin, who was here staying with me. He is wonderful and I love him like he's my nephew, but he is also a lot of work. Just keeping him fed, busy, and entertained was a task. He is not particularly independent. But, I did put him to work around the house. Although he needed a fair amount of direction, he was incredibly helpful. He helped me rip up all of the gross green carpet upstairs, which was great because I definitely couldn't have done it on my own. Then, while I was at work, he worked on pulling up tack strips and staples. He pulled up even more carpet. He stripped wallpaper. He cleaned and he started the demo job on the wall in the kitchen. He was a great help and he got a decent paycheck at the end of the week.
On Wednesday night my dad arrived from Phoenix and on Friday Devin's dad, Andy got back to Anchorage. The four of us, along with Erik and Mike, started work on pulling out my old chainlink fence and replacing it with my new cedar fence on Saturday morning. We worked 10-12 hours both days and got almost all of it complete. Mike salvaged some lovely flowers from my overgrown garden before digging the rest of it up. He took them back to his house to be planted. The bobcat that we rented to dig the post holes was going to rip it up anyway and, I decided that I wanted to start a new, smaller garden next year in raised beds instead. This weekend was a lot of work and the fence definitely could not have happened without Andy and Erik. They were amazing and worked their asses off. And, all out of the goodness of their heart. No paycheck required. I am so so so lucky to have friends like this. Wow. Dad, Mike, Devin, and I all worked hard too, but none of us were the driving force that got that fence built. Thanks for everything everyone! Andy and Devin live in Nome and went home on Monday afternoon. They will be back on Thursday night though and we'll finish up the fence, hopefully within a day. My dad will still be here until Sunday night.
There have been plenty of moments that the only thing I could manage to do was cry or scream so I've allowed myself those moments, but then moved on. Its hard living in a construction zone though, so getting some more things settled in the house will be good. Oh, and I should mention that somewhere in the past two weeks I've also been working on getting bids from various contractors/handymen to do a variety of small projects on the house. The biggest of them happened today. Painting. I've been working on finding a color and picking a painter, as well as on building an arctic entryway. All of which has been happening this past week too. Today, though, I left my house with it white and I arrived home with it orange. It still has trim work to be completed, but its close. Its a bit shocking at first, but I do really like it and I know that when the trim is done, it will look even better.
Work has been good, but slow. The clinic is very nice and the overall facility that I'm in is really beautiful actually. But, it is also a rather sterile setting. It feels very medical and much more formal than what I am used to. Things also feel like they are moving pretty slow, so I'm feeling pretty anxious to get started doing some real work. I do have a nice sized office, but unfortunately there is no window. It does need to be cozied up a little bit, but that will come in time. So far, I have felt pretty good with the people and there are several that I'm looking forward to getting to know better in time. Its also nice to be somewhere where everyone doesn't know my life story and my personal medical story. It feels ludicrous to write that in this public blog, but its true and this blog is not being read by my co-workers. It just feels nice to be looked at for me. . . just me. . . and not with any tainted/sympathetic view due to my breast cancer experience.
I'm so tired and must stop writing right now. . . Pictures to follow soon.
Peace and Love.
That is as far as I got when I sat down to write this entry over a week ago. The pace has been rapid since I arrived here in Anchorage. First it was finalizing things with my house. . . financing, changing utilities into my name, forwarding mail, getting the phone, etc. Then, shopping for work clothes. Shopping is not my favorite thing to do, but its not the worst thing in the world either. I like shopping for others more than myself. But, clothes shopping, at the enormous size that I have become (30 lbs. heavier than what I once thought was my heaviest weight), is less than a pleasant experience.
Next hurdle was getting through orientation week at work, while taking care of my little 13 year-old friend, Devin, who was here staying with me. He is wonderful and I love him like he's my nephew, but he is also a lot of work. Just keeping him fed, busy, and entertained was a task. He is not particularly independent. But, I did put him to work around the house. Although he needed a fair amount of direction, he was incredibly helpful. He helped me rip up all of the gross green carpet upstairs, which was great because I definitely couldn't have done it on my own. Then, while I was at work, he worked on pulling up tack strips and staples. He pulled up even more carpet. He stripped wallpaper. He cleaned and he started the demo job on the wall in the kitchen. He was a great help and he got a decent paycheck at the end of the week.
On Wednesday night my dad arrived from Phoenix and on Friday Devin's dad, Andy got back to Anchorage. The four of us, along with Erik and Mike, started work on pulling out my old chainlink fence and replacing it with my new cedar fence on Saturday morning. We worked 10-12 hours both days and got almost all of it complete. Mike salvaged some lovely flowers from my overgrown garden before digging the rest of it up. He took them back to his house to be planted. The bobcat that we rented to dig the post holes was going to rip it up anyway and, I decided that I wanted to start a new, smaller garden next year in raised beds instead. This weekend was a lot of work and the fence definitely could not have happened without Andy and Erik. They were amazing and worked their asses off. And, all out of the goodness of their heart. No paycheck required. I am so so so lucky to have friends like this. Wow. Dad, Mike, Devin, and I all worked hard too, but none of us were the driving force that got that fence built. Thanks for everything everyone! Andy and Devin live in Nome and went home on Monday afternoon. They will be back on Thursday night though and we'll finish up the fence, hopefully within a day. My dad will still be here until Sunday night.
There have been plenty of moments that the only thing I could manage to do was cry or scream so I've allowed myself those moments, but then moved on. Its hard living in a construction zone though, so getting some more things settled in the house will be good. Oh, and I should mention that somewhere in the past two weeks I've also been working on getting bids from various contractors/handymen to do a variety of small projects on the house. The biggest of them happened today. Painting. I've been working on finding a color and picking a painter, as well as on building an arctic entryway. All of which has been happening this past week too. Today, though, I left my house with it white and I arrived home with it orange. It still has trim work to be completed, but its close. Its a bit shocking at first, but I do really like it and I know that when the trim is done, it will look even better.
Work has been good, but slow. The clinic is very nice and the overall facility that I'm in is really beautiful actually. But, it is also a rather sterile setting. It feels very medical and much more formal than what I am used to. Things also feel like they are moving pretty slow, so I'm feeling pretty anxious to get started doing some real work. I do have a nice sized office, but unfortunately there is no window. It does need to be cozied up a little bit, but that will come in time. So far, I have felt pretty good with the people and there are several that I'm looking forward to getting to know better in time. Its also nice to be somewhere where everyone doesn't know my life story and my personal medical story. It feels ludicrous to write that in this public blog, but its true and this blog is not being read by my co-workers. It just feels nice to be looked at for me. . . just me. . . and not with any tainted/sympathetic view due to my breast cancer experience.
I'm so tired and must stop writing right now. . . Pictures to follow soon.
Peace and Love.
posted by Sasha at
11:35 PM
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4 Comments
