We made good time - somehow J. got behind me a bit - so I ended up at Atlantis before him. I waited in the car because it was loaded with stuff and even though it was mid-day, I didn't want to risk a break in.
I have Sirius radio in my car - a 'treat' when they offered a deeply reduced monthly charge to add it. I've always sort of shrugged my shoulders about satellite radio - J. had it when he was commuting because that passed the time and gave him a very broad variety - but now, mostly around town, it seems silly to pay. I do, however, have to admit that I'm enjoying it. I listen to a few stations and love them - especially when I hear songs from my younger days - isn't amazing how songs can take your right back?
I was sitting in my car and Lifehouse's 'Hanging by a Moment' came on - only the title was truncated on the display to 'Hanging by a Mom'. Lifehouse is a group the boys and I both loved in their younger years. And right then, J. and H. pulled in - and I was rocking out to the song in my car, knowing this would be a life memory. "I'm falling even more in love with YOU!" (pointing to J. and then adding 'and you, too, H.'), and said to H. 'and it says "Hanging by a Mom" which seems oddly right somehow, you know'? All smiles and laughs and giggles. I headed to the casino host office, checked in and got our keys and then we headed straight for Carson City.
When you're heading south from Reno, it always seems like it should be already 'in Carson City' long before it is - it's about 25 minutes or so. I'd been telling J. 'and when we go to storage, I'm going to head back to Atlantis and you and H. can go see the house'. (H. had said to me earlier in the day that he'd really like to come to the casino with me instead of the house - but I said 'we'll see'). It's just that I want to GET to Atlantis and my happy place ASAP.
I don't know why, but as we were approaching the last curve in the road and the next exit was our house's exit, I called J. and said 'let's go to the house NOW - do the house before and then head to storage'. He agreed.
Again, I somehow arrived to the approaching street a wee bit sooner than J. and was blocked by a huge truck offloading trusses and lumber. I did a 3-point turn and turned around - calling J. to say that we couldn't get through to the house. He was coming towards me - and he got to the same truck - and by then, I was now past him, looking back at our lot - and THERE WAS A BULLDOZER! ON OUR LOT! I yelled into the phone 'J., there's a bulldozer and it's on our lot and it's MOVING!!'.
The truck guys came over and told J. 'it's OK - just drive on the sidewalk to get around us' - so he told me that and we did. And there it was! Actual work being done on our site. It was so exciting! And I think the excavation crew got a big kick out of how excited we were - I was so glad we stopped because if we'd gone to storage first, we'd have missed them for sure. It was sprinkling and they wouldn't work much longer - so we got there just in the nick of time. Super excited!!
Next to storage, two more car loads full of stuff and we even brought a big shelf unit that we'd broken down from the garage. J. (bless his heart) stayed to put it together and H. and I headed to the casino.
It was a lovely weekend. H. didn't need to work on Sunday but he decided to head home with J. on Saturday morning - and while I missed them both, I was sort of glad for the time alone. I had a lovely weekend - no big wins but played a long time on not too much money - brought quite a bit home so I live to play another day.
As you can see, we are officially approaching mid-June. Lots to report. Condensed version.
Open house party was loads of fun. It's strange and un-nerving to hear the sweet, kind things people say about you. I told my friend C. 'it's like your eulogy, only you're in the room and very much alive'. It was a lovely afternoon and the gifts were amazing. A beautiful 'throw' that has my name and years of service on it - beach themed. A $500 Disney gift card and some beautiful framed Disney 'patent' drawings - what Disney submitted to the patent office for various rides and features in the park. And a really pretty Pooh painting - personalized. (I need to note that the very expensive, incredibly generous gifts came from two friends who work for an architect firm - I've known and worked with them a long time and they spoiled me rotten). It was lovely.
Cabinet hosted a breakfast in my honor - lots of amazing food and treats and it sure made the morning go by quickly - it was lovely.
My team surprised me with a lunch and card, beautiful flowers. Another lovely day.
And just this past Friday, the entire Admin team surprised me with dinner - J. was in on the surprise and it was lovely. And their incredibly generous gift was Atlantis Gift Cards and a box of super nice golf balls for J. - I'm going to have a spa day (or two or three) and J. will play golf! So nice of them - truly kind -
I have seven days remaining and am seriously considering taking a couple days off - Friday and Monday. We have two Board meetings for budget - this Thursday and then next Tuesday. And my last work day will be next Wednesday. The days go by a bit more slowly at the moment and while there's still plenty to do, it is a slower pace and I'm more than ready to be done. I've got a list of things I need to get to - and if I get them all squared away, I think I will use some time to be off for a long weekend.
Budget got done - even with the weekend in Reno AND another lost weekend when our finance system was down completely due to electrical repairs that had to be made at the County office. It still got done and it's going to be fine.
I'm ready to let it go - all of it.
I think we're leaning towards listing the house in mid-July - which means we have 4 weeks to get a massive amount of stuff done.
(My eye is twitching as I type the sentence above). I'm tired. It's been a long day -
More soon -
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