After a very long summer vacation, we are now in Northern Virginia. Summer vacation discussions and photos will be forthcoming at some point (or never), but suffice it to say we had a GREAT time. Jimmy has never taken 6 weeks of home leave between assignments, and he did get a little twitchy by the end, but I could do a 6-week vacation just about every other month. We spent some time out west in the Grand Tetons for an amazing conference that was the most inspiring thing I've ever participated in, we toured Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks with our dear friends, we spent a week with Jimmy's family in the NC mountains and a week with my family and dear friends at the beach in SC, and we enjoyed being home for the final couple weeks. I do love a good, relaxing vacation.
And then it ended.
We flew up to DC last Wednesday so Jimmy could start work on Thursday. We believe in hitting the ground running like that.
Our arrival was as smooth as butter. Planes were on time and landed early, our luggage came out nearly the moment we got to the baggage carousel, we got a taxi big enough to take us and our 6 enormous suitcases and 4 carry-ons, and because we'd already paid for our temporary corporate apartment by credit card, check-in was completely painless.
I like "signs" and this smooth transition was a good sign of things to come, given my extreme dread of moving back to DC. I love this area, but living in this area for us = high rent, little space, short commute for Jimmy OR lower rent (but still high compared to anything I know), a tiny bit more space and a longer commute for Jimmy. It's pretty much a lose/lose situation.
But the signs were good and that made me happy.
Jimmy started work on Thursday morning, and Mac and I started the business of trying to live. Our 600 pounds of air freight were delivered at 8:15 as promised and our untagged car arrived at 10am as promised. After the Christmas frenzy of getting our stuff, we went to register for school. As some of you know, we planned our entire rental location around Mac going to the Key School, which is the bilingual public school in North Arlington. We set off with all our required documents and quickly got him registered. It was the easiest thing in the world. It was so easy that we treated ourselves to a nice stroll in the neighborhood and lunch out. I was feeling so energetic that I took our car (untagged which caused me enormous angst the entire time I was on the road) to get the emissions and inspection test. There was no line (more good signs!) so my car was taken right in and passed the inspection. We have to go back for the emissions test - apparently the car computer blanks out when they disconnect the battery for shipping. I have to drive 100-200 miles to get enough data stored on the computer for them to do the emissions test. But the nice man told me that I could still get a temporary registration even without an emissions test. And I got back to our apartment without being pulled over. MORE good signs.
Friday found us at the DMV, which is really the equivalent of hell on earth. We arrived at 8:15 at an office that opened at 8am. There were at least 65 people ahead of us. Did they camp out as though they were getting concert tickets? We waited in the line just to get up to the counter where you tell the woman what you need and she checks your documents to see if you have what you need to get the documents you're there for. Well guess what? We didn't have Jimmy's license or a copy thereof, which we needed to title the car. He had signed the document but that wasn't good enough. At this point, we'd waited 45 minutes just to be told we didn't have what we needed. I nearly cried. The lady said he could fax a copy of his license. Easy enough, right? I called him every 10 minutes with no answer. I called his office assistant with no answer. I sent emails with no answer. I was losing faith because our number in line was getting closer and closer. Finally he answered the phone and knowing that it was me, said "I'll call you back in 5 minutes." As you might imagine, 5 minutes came and went. And I got madder and madder. Here I am doing all the not-fun stuff that's required to exist in a new place and he can't bother to call me back as promised? Lucky for him he called me back as the lady was finishing up my new license because otherwise, he'd have been right back at that DMV on Saturday morning. Thankfully, with his faxed license, we got titled, registered (until the end of September by which time I need the emissions test done) and I got a license.
Mac and treated ourselves to a trip to the National Zoo to celebrate our uber-efficiency. It was a cool morning in DC and the animals were roaming. We saw a red panda, a giant panda, two families of otters, seals, sea lions PLUS we saw two orangutans cross the "crosswalk" they have set up. In all my visits to the National Zoo, I have never seen the orangutans on the crosswalk. It was really amazing.
So many good signs.
And then we came home to a voice mail from the Key School and the good signage screeched to a halt....
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