Archive for October, 2009
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Thursday, October 29th, 2009
No I did not fall off the face of the earth. I am being held hostage. By teenagers. Hungry. Emotional. Hormonal. Teenagers.
As you know, there are a variety of reasons why I made the move to Vashon (instead of somewhere else in Seattle) but the biggest factor was moving closer to Paige’s school and friends. It got to the point where Paige was on the island every single weekend and it seemed like I never got to see her. Ever.
So I moved to an island and things are a bit topsy turvy around these parts. But in a good way. Sorta. My old schedule has been thrown under the bus and I haven’t gotten into a good rhythm yet. Plus, Paige has been around a lot these days – she hasn’t spent the night at anyone else’s house all month. In fact, she actually hasn’t been anywhere all month. SHE IS AT HOME ALL OF THE TIME.
Don’t get me wrong, I love our new family dynamic. But it also means that I am constantly in Mommy mode. And it is exhausting. As much as I missed having Paige around when we lived in Seattle – I did appreciate that from time to time I could come home wasted and anticipate a hangover while Paige was at a sleepover. Not that I did that all of the time, but it’s always a good thing to have in your pocket when you are contemplating that third or sixth beer.
Plus, it hasn’t been just her around here. In the last few weeks, every single one of her girlfriends has spent the night at our house. Or been over for dinner. Or for study dates. Or for no reason at all. Herds of them. I half expect that a teenager will pop up from behind the couch at any given moment shouting, “I’M HUNGRY! FEED ME!”
Here’s an example of the volume of food that’s running through our house on the weekend – 9 kids over for dinner and 4 girls spending the night:
4 large pizzas
18 cans of soda
2 quarts of juice
2 jumbo bags of potato chips
1 gallon of ice cream
1 – 12 inch round birthday cake
1 dozen chocolate cupcakes
1 dozen blueberry muffins
1 pound of bacon
Yeah, it was a birthday party but they really do eat this much on other nights.
So lately, when I come home it’s like I am punching in for the 2nd shift – kitchen duty. When it was just Paige and I, I could give her a fruit roll up and some Goldfish crackers and pass that off as dinner. But heaven help us if we don’t have a balanced meal when we have company over! God forbid that there are any outside witnesses to those eight o’clock dinners over the sink! We eat home cooked meals every night of the week now.
I know. I know. I shouldn’t worry about it. It’s just that it’s early in the game and I don’t know anyone here and I definitely don’t want to be known as that single mother whose got a frozen pizza in the oven as she sips on bourbon and cokes while watching The Real Housewives (Bethenny is engaged!) on Bravo. This is a small island, after all. (Okay, maybe I don’t watch TRH, but the other two are true.)
But enough is enough. I am determined to get back to writing and blogging on a regular basis (really! I promise!) and back to the old exercise routine. And the dieting. And sending my kid off to other people’s houses.
But for now, in this moment in time, we are living the life that we always wished for and things are exactly how they should to be.
Tags: finding happiness, paige, vashon
Posted in Daily | 13 Comments »
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
I am writing this post from the water taxi and in about 10 minutes I think I am going to hurl. While the car ferry barrels through the sound with nary a bump during the transit, the water taxi is like a bucking bronco with a mean streak that is determined to throw you off. Every time we hit a ripple in the current it gets me one step closer to me losing my breakfast. God forbid we get caught in the wake of a barge.
So after missing the 7:20 ferry for the umpteenth time (today is another one of those days), it has officially dawned on me that I have moved to an island. An ISLAND I tell you. Not some tropical destination that elicits thoughts of pina coladas. Not some getaway with a name like Turks and Caicos or St. Croix. I have moved to an island of the U.K. variety. Drizzly. Foggy. Pastoral. Except we dont have anything like London. We have a grocery store and movie theater that plays one movie at a time. (I think the movie that’s playing right now is on Pay Per View … or maybe even DVD!)
In order to adjust to this new culture, I have been trying to learn the venacular around here so I don’t stick out like a sore thumb. Like I alluded to yesterday, “Becks” is really Vashon Market and going “over town” does not mean going to Vashon town central, it means going to Seattle. You know, OVER TOWN.
The other day I went to the grocery store at 9:45 and it was closed. I haven’t been to a grocery store that “closes” in over 12 years. There’s really no where I can get a late night pint of Haagen Daz on the island. At least not after 9:30. But I don’t really need to do that anyway … so it’s a good thing.
Another difference that I noticed about island living are the things that they consider of raffle prizes. Wait. I’ve lost you, haven’t I? It’s just that over the past couple of days I have had the opportunity to enter a couple of raffles for – not a LCD television, not an ipod, not a laptop. The first raffle was for a cider press. You know, so I can crush my own apples (preferably ones that I have grown myself) and make apple cider. I love it so much. Raffle # 2 was for a GENERATOR. A generator! I am laughing as I write this. It bowls me over each time I say it.
OH MY GOD. I LIVE IN A PLACE WHERE A GENERATOR SEEMS NECESSARY. Worthy as a prize even!
Because of the move, I have barely checked email but I have to tell you, I took a peek the other day and saw an old email with the subject: BARN DANCE THIS SATURDAY. I cannot even tell you how equally mortified and thrilled that there are still barn dances. On MY island even.
I was actually sorry that I didnt see the email sooner – the dance was last Saturday. I would have loved nothing more than to show you what a barn dance on Vashon was all about. Apparently there was a real live professional square dance caller. Square dance! Forget the tango. Bring on the do si do!
And the live band? Poultry in Motion. I kid you not. I have not stopped telling people that I live on an island where they rock to a band called Poultry in Motion. This reeks of AWESOMENESS, does it not? At first I couldn’t believe these things were true. Isn’t this stuff reserved for episodes of Hee-Haw or better yet – The Barbara Mandrell Show? I secretly live in fear that any minute folks will break out into a song and dance or comedy skit that involves bales of hay and puppets playing banjoes. I have realized that I am so screwed because nothing is worse than an Asian singing country songs.
At this point I can’t tell if these novelities of island living will turn into annoyances. Right now I am bowled over by these little glimpses of small town living. Perhaps it’s because I feel like I am on vacation. That this isn’t for real. And much like someone who is one vacation, my fear is that at some point I’ll tire of the novelty and will be itching to get home.
But I am home.
And I think I am kinda getting used to it because part of me really wants that generator.
Posted in Daily | 17 Comments »
Monday, October 12th, 2009
From time to time I go to this real estate website called RedFin to check out what’s on the market. In addition to seeing which of your neighbors put their house on the market, you can also look at up to 12 months worth of sales in any given neighborhood in the Seattle area. I used to get a rush of excitement when I would find that the exact same house as mine sold for $60k more than what I paid for it. Cha-ching!
However, back in early August I went to Redfin to assess if I could pull the equity out of my house. Sadly, due to the economic downturn, my house had depreciated – big time. These days my house would sell for around $60k less than what I paid for it. Completely depressing.
Out of curiosity, I decided to look up real estate (for sale) listings on Vashon Island. Obviously, I was in no position to buy another home – but misery loves company and I thought I’d feel a bit better if I knew the market had bottomed elsewhere too. When I took a look-see at what was for sale, I noticed that smack dab in the middle of the island was a 2 bedroom bungalow listed for under $300,000 (under $300k would have been unthinkable a couple of years ago).
I was so charmed by the house that I showed the listing to Paige. She called it the “perfect house” for us. I agreed and thought nothing more about it.
Fast forward to the mid-September-
I must have looked at a half dozen rentals on Vashon. I wasn’t exactly in love with any of the homes that I saw, but I was willing to settle. I could always move in a year, right? At the end of a long Saturday, I decided to apply for an uninspired 3 bedroom house near the high school and beach. The landlady was completely nice and it was by far, the best rental that I had seen that weekend.
When I was filling out the application, I decided to check out the online rental listings one more time. Something was nagging at me to keep looking. Don’t settle. But a quick glance at the classifieds told me that there wasn’t anything new. I kept filling out the application.
The next day, I still had this feeling that I needed to keep looking. I reviewed the rental listings again. Nothing.
Feeling quite defeated, I decided to look at the real estate for sale classifieds for reasons even I can’t explain. About a third of the way down was a listing for a 2 bedroom house FOR RENT - it had somehow been mistakenly listed in the WRONG category. When I clicked to look at the picture I realized that IT WAS THE SAME HOUSE THAT PAIGE AND I SAID WAS “PERFECT” FOR US.
I am completely serious.
The owners decided to rent the house because they couldn’t find a buyer. Don’t ask me why it was listed in the wrong category. Or why I even felt compelled to look at that category in the first place. But here we are, in our “perfect” house. And I couldn’t feel luckier.
PS. The house has been around since the 1920′s and used to belong to the Johnson family. It’s still known as the Johnson’s House – even though plenty of other people have lived there. It’s kind of like the Vashon Market, which people still call Beck’s, because that’s what it used to be called. The islanders don’t like change.
Posted in Daily | 10 Comments »
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