So Much For Downtime

[TD & Rick Springer about to eat Mike Cressy's face]

On the plus side, it was a super fun weekend. Full of family and friends and good food and drink (and maybe a bit more drink... and did I mention there was drink?). On the downside, it was really exhausting.

Friday evening, the kids both went to overnights and Raechelle went to a bachelorette party, leaving me free to enjoy dinner, pints (and a shot) and some really good live music at the Celtic Swell. Mark got off work in the kitchen and came to sit and have drinks with us. We sang along with the acoustic set, and our jaws hit the floor when this kid came out of nowhere, borrowed the acoustic guitar and belted out some Chicago blues folk fusion.

Saturday, we finished prepping for the engagement/housewarming party. We went on a safari to the wilds of Burien to stock up at the Grocery Outlet, and alternately cleaned and napped (recovering from our respective booze-ups the previous night). Party time came, and with it more than 50 people, all crammed into our little craftsman home. Many worlds collided, and reality as we know it was not destroyed. In fact, everybody got along. [Photos here]

[Kayleigh & Raechelle]

We didn't get to bed until 2AM, and then it was up at 10AM to get ready for our drive up to Bellingham for family Christmas Redux, due to actual Christmas being called on account of snow. It was great to see my grandmother doing so well, and great to see my immediate family together. Food was VERY yummy - thanks, Bob! [Photos here]

[neice Zadra, grandmother Dorothy and daughter Kayleigh]

By the time we were on the road back home, I was seriously hitting a wall. Raechelle had to keep me engaged in conversation to help me stay focused. We arrived home safely and tired, and immediately hit the pajamas and curled up on the sofa for tea and a movie. Then it was crash-time.

The kids are home from school for end-of-semester, and Raechelle is down with a stomach issue (not to mention more car problems). We have something on the calendar every day this week, but I am committed to getting some real work done and having a bit of downtime each and every day.

Weekend Update, Illustrated

After the psycho-emotional hell of the past week, it was nice to get back into the groove over the weekend. Unfortunately, we suck at remembering to take pictures, so we have to rely on my professional illustration capabilities to show you what happened. I can see Mike and Hans chuckling even now (yes, guys, it's a joke - my drawing abilities have not declined THAT much).

Saturday was beautiful and sunny (and not even that cold), so we decided to hang the exterior Christmas lights. I was set to climb up on the moist moss farm I like to call my roof, but Raechelle persuaded me that the lighter, better insured person was a better candidate. We got the front porch lit, and will add another long string to the front gutters and carport when we next get a clear day (har har!). Here is Rae on the roof, stringing lights, with a shining sun and fluffy clouds in the sky...


We finished just before Rae's friends Kim & Tim came over for dinner. Here we all are...


Rae made the most delicious vegetarian enchiladas, Mexican rice and black beans. There was beer. There was wine. The guys bonded. The girls bonded. Then all four of us played Apples to Apples until the wee hours of the early evening, before Kim-n-Tim had to return to their little Milo (who apparently was sick during their absence, or that was what I gathered from Tim's side of the phone conversation). Here is us playing Apples to Apples...


Sunday we watched the Hawks play better than they have all season and STILL lose to New England. We also were able to drop by my friend Sharon's holiday open house, where I had the most surreal experience, of which I will just give the basics:

Linda is a former neighbor on our street, and she still owns her home here, which she rents out. She knew Sam, her daughter used to go to the same bus stop as Tyler. The usual neighbor stuff. But she moved from the block in about 2001 or 2002, just before Sam was diagnosed. She had no idea Sam was dead. She had no idea Sam had even been sick.

And there she was, at Sharon's party. And when Raechelle had gone to get some refreshments from the kitchen, Linda came over and sat down and asked, "So, are you still together with Samantha?"

Ugh.

I've been at this for almost four years, and I STILL don't know how to handle a situation like that. The hard part is not the delivery of the news. It's easy enough to say, "Sam died in 2005 - cancer - came out of nowhere." The hard part is watching their eyes get wide and their hearts sink and the disbelief flash across their faces. And you kind of have to hold their hands and guide them through the surface grief they experience, knowing that an old friend and neighbor has died.

Then there's the added elements to the story. My dad. The sewer flood. The fire. It's easy for me to talk about it now (in fact, I almost cringe when I have to tell it, because it's so incredibly unbelievable for most people).

So whenever that happens, it puts a really surreal spin on the day. Because I'm not sad. I'm not still actively grieving. I have a great home and two great kids and great friends and my health. And I can happily introduce my girlfriend Raechelle and tell these old friends how happy I am.

Then it was french bread pizza and Buffy, and everyone to bed. This week is jam-packed, and I really hope Raechelle and I can each find some "me" time during this insane schedule.

Moved.

The nice thing about helping friends move is that it obligates them to help you when it's your turn. Since the dawn of time, friends have helped friends move, paid in pizza and beer. And the cycle continues.

It was great to have Dan, Trish and Raff show up to help with Rae's move. The weather was 31 flavors of suck, pelting down rain. I made sure to have a coffee in advance, and I brought a box of donuts to keep the quick carbs and sugar readily available.

We picked up the truck and headed up to Ballard to find the most organized, orderly apartment ready to go. TBGE had labeled everything with the area of the house it was intended for, and had stacked everything by zone, most of it in her living room, ready to go. What's more, she had printed out a load-up chart for the truck and posted it by the front door so we would know what got loaded in which order. The sun broke and the clouds parted for exactly the time it took to load up.

We loaded the contents of Rae's apartment and storage area in 45 minutes and headed back to West Seattle. Raechelle stayed behind to vacuum and drop off her keys.

The kids helped us with the unloading, so we had a few more hands. It had rained on the way back, and I was thinking it was probably silly to expect any more good luck than the sunbreak we'd just had.

Then we pulled up to the house, and it stopped raining.

We got to unloading the truck, and finished just as Raechelle got there. Total time to move my girlfirend from Ballard to West Seattle: two hours flat.

Dan and Raff came with me to drop the drasser and file cabinet off with Shandalla. She wasn't home, but left us a six pack of Red Hook ESB. It was a fair trade. Actually, she's buying the dresser from Rae - the beer was for delivering it.

We stopped by Taco Del Mar on the way home, and fed our worthy crew. Our helpers left, and Rae and I started unpacking the bedroom stuff (since you have to sleep there, it's arguably the most important room to do first).

We could have worked late into the night unpacking, but fortunately we had the distraction of Jamie's cocktail party at Theo's, a chocolate factory up in the Fremont. We got gussied up and went early to help set up.

All gussied.

The catered food was unbelievable, and Rae and I ended up behind the bar so that Jamie could mingle. Came home at about 10:30 and crashed out.

Now we have a house to reorganize, some football this morning, and the Jason Mraz concert tonight. Look at us being busy!

BOO 2: Electric Boogaloo

As TBGE mentioned on her blog mere moments ago, Saturday was a lot of prep, a lot of cleaning, a lot of decorating, and a lot of fun! Special mad props go to Darlene for contributing to the bar and for set-up and tear-down. She's amazing (and Caleb gets a mention for the clean-up too).

Tyler was a ninja, but he shucked the costume after an hour or so, making the occasional appearance with Elvis. Kayleigh again donned her Willow costume, and was joined by Trish as Buffy. Dan came with a Bible, glasses and a neatly trimmed mustache, and a nametag that read "Hi-dely-ho, Neighborino!"

There was a nice mix of Raechelle's crowd and mine, and everyone got along splendidly. It was actually a really nice social experiment, and it seemed to work well. Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber were in attendance, as well as Grouche Marx.

We had cobwebs on the lights and pictures, we had spiders and bats everywhere... black lights, candles, strobes, colored light bulbs, a rock party playlist, ambient creepy sounds playing low on my "antique" radio, and silent horror films going on the projection screen (thanks to my projector getting repaired). Everyone had a great time, and at about 3AM the last of the guests trickled out. Pics are here.

The majority of Sunday was spent cuddled on the sofa, watching football and Buffy episodes, and doing light chores. It really was a nice, low-key day.

So, this week is mostly organization for me - prepping spaces for Rae's stuff, reserving the truck for the move, etc. Oddly enough, after last weekend (and my New Year upon me), I'm not stressing as much. We have an election night gathering at Dan & Trish's on Tuesday, but aside from that, I'm in move-in prep mode.