"When the roads are clear"

Five Things I Like About Living in Ferndale:

• New Commute = Old Commute / 3. Parking garage to driveway with zero traffic is 15 minutes. Used to be about 40 minutes. Even with traffic around rush hour it's about a 25 minute drive max. In the old days, with traffic, I'd have a lengthy 50 minutes to pump up the volume on Billie Jean.
• Record Stores. I haven't been to them yet, but even having an independent music store as an option is great. I never found any in Novi. Now I've got two one mile from my house selling new and used CDs and LPs.
• Things to Do. With dowtown Ferndale 2 minutes away, downtown Royal Oak 5 minutes away, and downtown Detroit 15 minutes away we've got a plethora of entertainment options. Coming soon: Rilo Kiley to the Royal Oak Music Theatre.
• My Room. Seems really cozy, and I really like sleeping in it. You'll know why when you see it. The king size bed takes up about 75% of the room (and that includes height).
• Space. We've got a huge mess, and don't have to trip over anything because of all that extra room.

That's a list at 1:30 a.m. Perhaps I'll be more thorough sometime in the future. Or perhaps I'll make a list of 5 reasons you shouldn't by a house once things start to break.

"Then I'd know how to"

How to move into a house and meet neighbors:

• Step 1 -- Have good friends who are willing to help you move even though a) they have to drive several hours to do so, b) it takes up their entire weekend and c) moving sucks...
• Step 2 -- Make sure those friends know they are greatly appreciated through hospitality, primarily through offering them a cold glass of water or at least a bottle of water.
• Step 3 -- Procure furniture from your boss in a 30 minute time-frame. If the 30 minutes extends to 75 minutes, pay your friend who is waiting in your empty, dismantled to help you move five dollars because he bet you it would take at least 60 minutes.
• Step 4 -- Rather than spend hours trying to pack your whole apartment into one u-haul, pile the furniture in, being sure to Tetrisize the table chairs and take to house. Return later for the boxes.
• Step 4.5 -- Let your friend drive the u-haul. He's better at it than you are.
• Step 5 -- When the load, unload, eat lunch, return to apartment process takes two hours rather than four, keep your five dollars, because you bet double-or-nothing it wouldn't take four hours.
• Step 6 -- Stop for water breaks, while your friends load and unload two boxes at a time.
• Step 7 -- Tie your dog up in the yard so that the neighbor girls can ask dozens of times if they can pet the puppy. Note: They will continue to ask, and may ride their bikes around down their street and up your street to get to the other side of the fence all in hopes of ultimately petting your dog.
• Step 8 -- Let your friends pick dinner. They've got good taste in food. Let'm pick lunch too. They know what'll hit the spot in the middle of the move.
• Step 9 -- Watch Ferris Bueller's Day Off until midnight.
• Step 10 -- Answer the doorbell when it rings around midnight. When Billy asks for the seller of the house you just moved to, tell him she moved to Arizona. When he begins the next sentence with "Most neighbors usually would ask for sugar..." and ends it with "do you have $15 I could borrow" shut the door and finish Ferris Bueller.
• Step 11 -- If you do not shut the door and instead give Billy $15, take his watch as collateral. If you don't, you will not see Billy again and his promises of getting you into all the good bars (including gay bars) and bringing down steaks to eat with you or taking you for a ride in his cool car will not actually happen.
• Step 12 -- Be relieved that Billy will not be coming back for his watch. Write the $20 -- yes if you give $15, he'll push for $20 -- off as a moving expense.
• Step 13 -- Watch your friends play "Pirates" the next day for several hours. Resting after a hectic Saturday that left you with a new home and a wallet 20 bucks short of a full load.

Thanks to team Philbe (or is it team Wilip) for all their help. Without them, we'd still be trying to get our King Size bed up our Twin Size stair well.

"There are faces in the houses where we used to live"

Moon river, wider than a mile
It feels strange to be in someone else's house.

I'm crossing you in style some day
The house is empty, dirty, remnants of Marie left behind.

Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker
Sad to see old records left on the shelf.

Wherever you're goin', I'm goin' your way
A bed left naked in a room where children once slept.

Two drifters, off to see the world
This is our house now, and by inheritance our records, our bed, our Richard Simmons' "Sweatin to the Oldies" video.

There's such a lot of world to see
Memories spanning four decades will slowly be forgotten.

We're after the same rainbow's end,
Pushed to the side, swept out with the trash, buried in the dark corners of the basement.

Waitin' 'round the bend
New memories with new faces will take their place.

My huckleberry friend,
A new adventure begins...

moon river, and me
With a dance.

"Start running the banner down"

Thanks to Andrea, Rogers and Wilbe who did finally update their blogs recently proving that whining about no one updating does work...a little bit.

So yesterday I saw Josh and Keri for what will probably be the last time in several months as they are headed off to Boston on July 30. They through a going-away party yesterday, cooked out, played games, sat in a circle swaying back and forth to Augustana's Boston. It was a good time. A very good time. I'm going to miss those two.

Rogers and I are also leaving to chart new territory. That is we are leaving Novi to move to Ferndale. The house is ours on Tuesday.

Rosenbergs - Detroit
Deardorff - L.A.
Parliament - Northern Michigan
Campbells - Boston

While we were the first to head out among friends, we also stayed the closest and visit frequently. I've never been to Boston...

"Oh my, oh my"

Yesterday was my one-year anniversary of working at Mercer. It's been a good year. A busy year. So that's the work situation.

Our house has been fairly dismantled in preparation for the move. So that's moving.

I've really got not much to say. I'm looking forward to seeing many friends including N. Parliament on Saturday evening.

We've got new neighbors that seem really nice, but we're moving in two weeks so that doesn't help.

I see that no one wants to update their Blog despite my recent pleadings. Although Rogers did update hers including pictures of our house. Hooray.

"Late night, come home"

Saturday brought little rest for the weary. Rogers began work at 2, so I tried to help around the house a bit before getting to my work. After that, I ended up with another full day's worth of work, ech.

If you have never watched the show Arrested Development do yourself a huge favor and go buy Season 1 at Target for about $20. You'll be entertained...well for about 8 hours, but you'll laugh fondly when recalling the jokes for years. After indulging, you'll no doubt want to splurge for Seasons 2 and 3. While I was very sad to see the show get canceled, it is nice to have 50 some odd episodes of a nearly flawless show. It never went downhill -- actually it never went much of anywhere. Many of the jokes from Episode 1 carry through the entire series. Which is why, anyone unfamiliar with the show who begins watching a random episode will no doubt not get or notice most of the jokes and will instead be bored and confused as to why people (like me) like and recommend the show.

Well there you have it.

"More importantly evolving"

Work has been rough recently. With 43 billable hours so far in July -- for comparison I had just over 100 in June -- I am wearing down. Like a Pantera concert, it's been aggressive as one of my coworkers would put it.

That being said, this Friday night has been good to relax and not work (at least after 7) and look forward to sleeping in tomorrow. The rest of the weekend is going to be pretty busy. Hopefully, it will calm down by next Saturday so I can make it down and relax on Saturday night.

Poor Rogers has been working her keester off getting us ready to move. Packing and cleaning like there's no tomorrow. Two weeks from tomorrow we'll be loading that truck with the help of a couple of generous friends (it looks like) and moving to Fabulous Ferndale home of Marvin Rosenberg Income Tax (located just a mile from our home). God bless that woman for keeping our house in order. She's a champ!

Watched a movie called Isolation it should have been called Attack of the Irish Cow Fetuses (Yes it sounds awesome, but it's no Cabin Fever despite an earily similar summary on the back of the box.)

"Not one speck will remain"

Lisa - May 9
Phil - July 4 (less than 40 min. ago)
Shannon - April 30
Wilbe - May 31
Parliament - May 15
Jason - 2005
Andrea - April 7
Deardorff - June 27

These are the blogs I check every few days and this is when they were last updated. Aside from Phil and Nate D. (find his very entertaining L.A. adventure blog by clicking here), my amigos aren't too great about updating. And thus, I have no idea if they are happy, sad, had a good day, week...ok more like month, or not.

On this Independence day, celebrate your freedoms to voice whatever you like and independent all over your keyboard until words are on your blogs. I did it and look how much fun you're having!

Happy 4th of July! See you at the Campbell's next weekend. (And no, I was not making a reference to vomit, I meant the house.)

"Proof through the night"

Flying into Indianapolis tonight at 10:30 p.m. tiny bursts of red...white...sometimes green exploded below. Some off in the distance, perhaps a mile or two away. Others close enough I could hit those watching below, if I were to throw a baseball out the plane's emergency exit door. Those, nestled into their loved ones arms, or swaying gently on their porch swing, or running wildly about the yard waving their sparklers.

It was haunting in that it made me think of soldiers flying into a warzone where the tiny explosions in the distance represent destruction and death. God bless those men and women. They are heroes to me.

-----------------

Yes, I am in Indianapolis -- for work. I'll be here less than 24 hours before jetting back to Michigan after a busy Monday. Work is a killer right now. Ah, for the days when I longed to begin working for pay 40 to 50 hours a week (rather than for education 60+ hours a week). I was so naive.

Love,

Andrew