Week 2 has come and gone. For the most part we are settled. Our clothes are in the closets and there is food in fridge (boom). There has been a wide variety of experiences, from the awesome to the not so awesome, here is the rundown.
The Good:
The weather is friggin' ridiculous awesome, it has been 70 nearly everyday, no rain. The kids have gone to a park everyday, I can walk the dogs (which I have been doing everyday), and we have been walking everywhere. I even walked the 2.8 miles to work one day (since my car has yet to arrive). Work is finally getting interesting, after getting through those first few days of trying to look busy while trying to not melt down from boredom. The kids are in school, and they love their school. They only go from 8 - 2 (short day), and they get 2 recess periods. Slackers! As one would expect they are the minority in their class, it's funny to go from a community that is 90% Caucasian to another that is 20%. It speaks to the awesomeness of the kids that they don't even seem to notice this.
Generally, the place is starting to feel like home (at least not like a hotel), and we have mastered the drive to work and to the store.
The Bad:
My car is still in transit (it will take it a MONTH to get here by the time it arrives), and being a one car family blows. It's hard to get into my normal routine because I don't have my ride. I actually broke down and rented a car yesterday, so I could move as needed. I rented a Toyota Yaris. It's like a toy. It would easily fit in the back of the van with the seats folded down, it only has one windshield wiper on the front, and the two hamsters running on that wheel they call an engine is laughable. However, it was so nice to drive home after work without having to pack up the kids and fight the battle about getting out of car. The twins now think every time you get in the car, you are going for a long drive, and they expect you to take them on a stroller ride when you get out.
The twins have completely taken over this house, and we are losing the battle with them. In the old house everything was gated off, so we could literally drop them into their play space and not worry about the rest of the house. This place probably doesn't have the square footage of our old living room so the twins roam the house like nomads. They walk to the kitchen, dump our all the drawers then move to the living room (like house locusts).
I am pretty sure most of neighbors hate my dogs, and they are going to have to learn to curse at me in English or I am going to have to learn some Japanese curses.
Cyndi and I are uncontrollably drawn to looking at rental prices, the problem is we are in this corporate unit until July (free of charge), so we keep seeing these awesome houses for rent further inland and we think how awesome they would be (more space, yard, sidewalk) but then we come back to the reality that we are here until the kids are done with school. Free is free! And I am not passing up on the free!
Prices are bad, but not nearly as bad as everyone told us they would be. Yes, you pay a couple bucks more for those groceries and yes it adds up, but its not the be all end all. And most importantly we know we have to modify our lifestyle to accommodate (I will not be paying for the full TV package). And you guys will be glad to know we have figured out the "grocery bags" thing. We still don't know how to recycle (suck on that hippies)! Once we start paying rent and we are paying double my mortgage for a house half the size, this will move to the "sucks" portion of this blog.
The Mother Friggin' Terrible:
We have been riddled with germs since we climbed into the car to drive west. Each of us had had a stomach bug, and nasty cold with congestion, and we woke last night to an exorcism. We can't seem to catch a health break. 5 of the 6 of us are mostly healthy, so maybe next week we will finally get our Cali legs under us so we can do some exploring. Cyndi and I have a corporate party to attend to tonight that we will probably have to cancel if kiddo number one doesn't show some improvement in the next hour.
With all of the illness, we have yet to be able to explore our surroundings. I still have not been downtown, although I am hopeful for tonight's party, and we have not started our neighborhood shopping. Everyone we meet provides their two cents and it certainly seems like we are "East Inland Bay" people. This will mean a long commute for Daddy, but should result in a reasonably priced rental house with a yard and a sidewalk (see above).
So... Week 2 is in the bag. If you are keeping score at home that is 2% of our "minimal" California stay (2 years). I am looking forward to Week 3, getting to do some actual work, getting to see the Bay, and watching our white blood cells finally start to dominate.
Thanks for reading, will chat soon. I promise I will get funnier, I know that is why you stop by.
- Eric
Glad to see you are settling in. ��
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