Friday, June 29, 2007

landed gentry

well, it's done. we're homeowners. i just finished half a tree's worth of paperwork and have the keys on my key chain.

i had always imagined that i would feel a supreme moment of elation, but it's actually a bit anti-climactic. a lot of that deflation may have to do with the fact that i'm more tired than a hooker on buy-a-blowjob-get-a-rimjob weekend. which is to say, i can barely think.

last night, my flight left 90 minutes late because of weather in dc. then we sat on the runway for an hour because they closed the dc airport for all arrivals. then we were finally cleared for take off, and started maneuvering down the runway, but it started raining, and they actually closed the atlanta airport for all departures. no joke.

after another hour, the block was lifted, and the captains tells us to prepare for takeoff, put up seat trays, turn off electronics, etc. now, i'm the first to admit to being a chronic delayer in doing this--i usually start the shutdown process when they say all electronics must be off. sometimes the flight attendants give me a bit of hassle about it, but it's not too big a deal. on this flight, the captain has said prepare for take off no less than three times, so i'm a bit dubious and don't close my laptop immediately.

a flight attendant comes by and yells at me to turn off my laptop. i don't mean this figuratively. she is literally yelling. she continues chastising me, citing that my tray table needs to be raised, and furthermore, that i'm delaying the entire plane, and in fact putting the safety of the other passengers at risk. and she is yelling. at this point, passengers about three rows up and back are staring. i just smile and listen, and then put my stuff away. no sense in getting into a confrontation, but really, it was a bit unnecessary. my seat mate is aghast, but we laugh a bit afterwards.

two minutes later, we're airborne. the same flight attendant gets on the phone and announces that she appreciates everyone's patience, "especially those passengers who complied with our requests to turn off their electronics." wow. a public shaming. a first for me. i could give a flying fuck, but airline people are not good people to mess with, especially when you have brown skin. plus, all flights to dc still have US marshals on them. so i get in at one. i'm too wound up to sleep when i get to the chief's place and have to read harry potter (since the last one comes out next month, i'm rereading the most recent novel) until two.

this morning at the final home inspection, we actually found that the seller hadn't really fixed one of things we agreed that they would fix, and furthermore, that there was new water damage in the basement. i took a pretty aggressive stance and negotiated our way into a fairly advantageous position (or least, it seems that way today).

so, i'm sitting in front of barnes and noble in downtown bethesda. the chief and chief chick are on their way to pick me up. we're going to grab some pizza and beers and have the first meal in the house. this would really be so much better if dr. wintermute was here. but she couldn't get away from the loony bin, so i had her grant me power of attorney and now we're done. she's getting on a plane as i type.

the movers are set to arrive monday.

dr. w lands at 10. tomorrow we paint. it's really the right thing to do before the furniture arrives, but it's also the absolute last thing i want to do.

here's to being landed gentry.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

moving day

i can't believe it's here, and everything has worked out.

tomorrow is moving day. my last in atl.

four days ago, dr. w took matters in her own hands, tracking down the movers (the hr dept at dr. w's future employer refused to give her the info while they awaited some paperwork!), explaining the situation to them, and convincing them to go ahead and schedule our move.

this afternoon, the surveyor came to see our apt to make sure we had the right size truck. surveying the apartment full of 54 packed and sealed boxes (which we have itemized in a master inventory spreadsheet, thanks to dr. w), he (in all earnestness) asked, "didn't you know that we can do the packing for you?"

i could only smile in return.

at 8:30 am tomorrow, they will be here to pick up our stuff. at 1:00, i have my move out inspection.

at 5:00, i drop off my car at the howards', where it will sit for two weeks. at 7, i fly to dc and stay with the chief and chief chick. friday morning is the final inspection on our new digs, and settlement is at 3. by 5, it will be ours!

i moved cash into the account from where i'm drawing the cashier's check for the down payment. it's a daunting task, even though we've been planning for it for half a year.

july is going to be a hell of a month. dr. w meets me in dc friday night. we paint all weekend, then our stuff arrives monday. tues i fly to soflo for our last month there. the next week, i head for a week out west in oregon with customers in mid july, then a quick trip to atlanta for mle's baby shower and to get my car and drive it to my parents' garage in ohio. fly to missouri for a couple of days of meetings, then back to soflo for a week, then two days in atlanta, and then the annual enemy of my enemy is my friend gathering in austin, tx. then out to lake tahoe for my company's annual management retreat for a week. then cross country to soflo, and the next day we drive to dc.

life on the go.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

my bro rocking in mexico

my bro's other band had a gig in mexico over the weekend. here's a decent montag video clip, courtesy youtube. nice covers of 'what i got' and a 'crazy' at the end.

Friday, June 15, 2007

the final countdown

weekend starting. dr. w is on her way up to atl from soflo to help me pack up our apartment.

we still haven't heard from our movers. the deal is that her new job pays for the move, but we have to use their movers. well, fair enough. however, three months have gone by, with dr. w pleading with them to get the movers lined up since our lease is up at the end of june. we've got a decent plan b: rent a pod, hire local movers to get our stuff out of the apt and into the pod, and then have the pod company hold our pod in the warehouse until our dc movers can come pick it up and bring it to our new house. since i can cancel up until the day before they drop off the pod, i think i've got a decent plan. of course, much better would be if the hr folks at dr. w's new office actually did their job.

in the kind of sad irony category, i got my car fixed this week at my favorite mechanic is a woman this week, and learned that all of the mechanics there are guys.

long, tiring weekend ahead of us. however, we'll be seeing j-watt's debut performance in 'the dining room,' a community theater performance downtown. break a leg, j-watt.

Friday, June 08, 2007

lil' nobf

congrats to nobf and dr. nobf!

nobf and dr. nobf just welcomed their little one into the world three-and-a-half weeks early. lil nobf decided he wanted out and that was that. nobf described the delivery experience as "great," the first time i've actually ever heard the process described that way. i'm amped for them and loved that they picked a pretty unusual name (surprisingly, they are not actually calling him lil nobf). i'm not making this up, but nobf actually described one of the other names they were considering as 'star wars-ish.'

last time i was in boston i hung out with nobf, and she shared that she and dr. nobf were actively debating baby names, with a big source of debate being whether the baby would have a name that would obviously indicate his ethnicity / belief system. nobf actually used an hilarious phrase to provoke dr. nobf, asking him if he wanted his child to be able to "pass." that is one very, very loaded word for minorities. to nobf's dismay, he simply shrugged it off, either because he didn't catch the connotations or just didn't care.

this is actually something i've thought about for a long time, long before i was married, much less even thinking about having a family someday. even today, i kind of push off the decision, preferring to push dr. wintermute's buttons by advocating for sci fi names or that all of the kids should have my first name as their middle name (an actual family tradition in my household. the first time dr. w heard that one, we had been dating for about a year and she kind of flipped out. now it's something that our friends like to bring up to tease us. and by tease us, i mean they like to remind me that i'm never that far from being in the doghouse. some would arguably call that the perennial status of all husbands).

anyway, as a kid, i wanted a 'normal' name. being one of two indian kids in the entire school district will do that, much less growing up with a bunch of hicks in the corn fields of ohio. picture this:

me (awkward teenager, having barely summoned the courage to speak aloud to a chick): "hi, i'm wintermute."

chick: "what?"

me: "uhh, wintermute. win-ter-mute."

chick: "say that again? what kind of name is that?" often followed by: "where you from?" or "does your uncle/brother/dad run a motel/quickie mart/liquor stand?" or "the receptionist in at my dentist is indian--are you guys related?" the worst was someone summarily deciding that they would shorten my name for me. unauthorized nicknames are a no-no.

[apparently they hadn't met immigrants who held professional jobs before. not that there's anything wrong with those jobs. in fact, i have family members who work in those professions. but many indian people do other things, too.]

by middle school i had shortened my name to a single syllable. i actually liked having a nickname, much to my parents' chagrin. "we gave you a beautiful name. why don't you use it? are you ashamed of it?"

when i went to college, i summarily decided that i was going to be known by the same name to everyone. and just like that, it was no big deal. since every at emory actually grew up with indoor plumbing and without a rebel flag on their bumper, and many had actually met non-caucasians before, they didn't scrunch their face, they didn't think it was 'weird,' they didn't ask me where i was from. by the end of college, i was convinced that my kids would have unusual, clearly indian, but pronounceable names. since getting married, i'm now open to non-indian names. however, thankfully, both dr. w and i really like unusual names, or ones of non-obvious ethnicity (which makes sense, since our kids will probably appear to be of ambiguous ethnicity).

anyway, big up, nobf!

Sunday, June 03, 2007

welcome to the fam

dr. w's bro, j-town, popped the question saturday to his chick. they've been going out for barely six years, so we were all a bit surprised.

when i called to congratulate my new sister-in-law, i asked if her first reaction was:
  1. whoa. engagement? that's where this was headed?
  2. cubic zirconium really looks pretty realistic.
  3. really? so soon?
i offered to share my wedding spreadsheet. it's pretty sweet.

welcome to the fam.

Friday, June 01, 2007

raindrops keep falling on my head

momma cass is having a big bday party tonight in miami. the weather is crappy here, so i figured the grill-out might be off.

no fears. she rented a freaking tent.

i love when people are so on top of things that they have already already made plans and then made back up plans to those plans.

last week i threw out my back while packing the apt in atlanta. even with 800 mg of alieve a day, it's been painful. as in, it hurts to sneeze. as in, i yell out in agony.

today it's finally cleared up, so i'm looking forward to chilling out. it's the last week for the room mates. the catalog takes off for a month long rotation in orlando. when he returns, kiki takes off for a rotation in chicago. then dr. w and i leave for our new home in maryland.