Down on the Farm

Ok, so it’s been, what, a month or so since my last post? So probably no one is reading it anymore, but I figure I can get some details of our move down on “paper” and direct people here if they ask about it.

Michael will tell you all the almost-calamities that happened with the closing, but I think I’ve done a good job of staying positive and focused, for the most part. We didn’t get the best mortgage rate, because the rates spiked upward just inside of our 30-day lock period. And we almost didn’t get the money wired to the lawyer’s office in time. But we did close on time… June 26.

The plan for me, during that week, was to fly to Connecticut, attend 3 job interviews, close on the house, run a bunch of errands (emissions, registration & new drivers license; open a bank account; get a library card). And then meet up with Sean, the eager guy who’s married to Michael’s niece, who we hired to rip out all the carpeting in the house.

Well, while driving to the closing, I get a phone call from some big insurance company, making me a job offer.  But I was really super interested in the small non-profit job, and it turns out they had e-mailed me to set up a second interview. Instead of running errands after the closing, I raced from Hartford to Mom’s house in Fairfield, did a quick-change into a suit, and dashed off to Westport. The interview went well, and I set up a third interview, by phone, with the company president for Monday.

The carpet-ripping-upping was slow-going for Sean. His friends weren’t able to come with him to help out, he didn’t have exactly the right tools, and there ended up being a billion and one tacks. Sometime around 1:30 a.m., Sean surrendered and went home. But when the wood floor finishers arrived the next morning, they had some handy devices to finish the job pretty quickly.

So…back to Chicago for the final few days of packing.

We managed to stay pretty well focused and organized, labeling boxes, keeping similar things together. We ate at Cousin’s Incredible Vitality one last time, went to Millennium Park for one final free concert (The Feelies, a great show, even for me, who doesn’t know their music that well).

Michael will find this hard to believe, but I really didn’t have any sense that I would miss Chicago. And now, I’m so busy, I’m not thinking about it at all. There are a few people I hope to see again — coworkers, some theatre folks, our friend & fellow Red Sox fan Russell.

Anyway… the move itself went very smoothly. The guys who loaded up our rental truck almost didn’t get everything in. And we did, in fact, have to leave the exercise bike behind. But the rest got tightly packed in the 26′ Penske. The weather held up for most of the trip. We stayed overnight in some Microtel in western PA. Drove through one bad rain storm, and then hit MASSIVE traffic in New York. The mile leading up to the George Washington bridge, and the entire way into Connecticut, until we got through Bridgeport, was stop and go. THREE hours. We actually had to make a pit stop in Greenwich, because we had no idea how much longer it would take to get to our new home.

This is the last time we move on the Thursday before a holiday weekend!

So now we’re pretty much all unpacked in the house. Michael has acclimated to his home office, although the kitchen still takes some getting used to. He keeps reaching for things and not knowing where they are. We have a lot of work ahead of us. Plumber and electrician are at the top of the list. Cosmetic stuff can wait. Our friend Rick is bringing over an extra bureau so I have someplace to stow my sweaters.

Oh, and I hope to borrow a lawnmower in the near future. It’s getting scary in the yard. I need to do some major weeding & pruning.

Meantime, I also started a job — the non-profit in Westport. Newman’s Own Foundation. It’s a small office, but we share

Buy my salad dressing! And marinara!

some of the space with Newman’s Own, Inc., which has a crazy big kitchen, as well as a billiard table. (I need to find out if it’s the same table that was used in The Hustler.)

First three days of work went well, although my boss is in crisis mode, working with an IT company to fix a load of issues that have come up with a recent migration to a new server.  But even with all the “fires” at work, I felt pretty comfortable there.

The commute isn’t too bad — the drive takes anywhere from 35 to 50 minutes, because, well, it’s I-95, and you never know what you’re gonna get. But I’ve also looked at taking the train (Metro North). It’s pretty inexpensive, and Michael could drive me to the New Haven train station, then once in Westport, there’s a bus that will drop me just a few blocks from where I work. We’ll see how it goes. It would definitely save on gas, wear-and-tear on the car, and would also allow Michael to use the car for errands during the week.

I guess that’s enough news for now… We’ll take some time to get settled in, get used to the new town, new job, etc. And maybe one or two new updates when the mood hits…