Brokedown Palace/Condo, Brokedown Laura

Where, oh where to begin???? Let's just hit ya with the big one: I had a breakdown last night. The big kind. With tears. And sucking-in breathing. And splotchy face. And next-day swollen, alien eyes. Not pretty.

Let's set the stage...

Monday night, I decided to go to trivia with Megan's crowd. It was a great idea. I had a really good time, answered the fashion question (Last week I answered the history one- that's right folks, history! Thanks, Coach Jones!) and just chilled. At Megan's before we left, I got an email from Childcare Solution about a job opening. I pondered, even asked Megan, "Should I take this and make some money or should I leave a day completely free to get ready for DC? Odds are my air conditioner is broken because our house is hottish...I'll just take it." Megan tried to talk me out of it at first, but we both realized I'm finished with things at Lockeland. Anything undone at this point in time will easily be remedied in the two days without students.

So...

While at trivia, where you are NOT allowed to even show your cell phone (you could be cheating to get the answers) I was expecting a call from Yuri from Chicago. She called- from a payphone, but since I was on vibrate and did not want to get my highly competitive team disqualified or docked points, I ran out. Well, I missed her. But I called the number right back in hopes that she was not using a phone card; she wasn't. We talked for about 45 minutes. Here I am, on the sidewalk across from the Green Hills Kroger, jabbering away in Spanish. Toward the end, she converted to English, so that was good. I absolutely despise speaking Spanish in the States and in front of people, but I did it and am so excited to meet her Sunday! She's precious!

Okay, so also that morning, I had found out that my temporary housing for Yuri for the first month while we continue looking had fallen through. Keep that on the back burner.

Get back to my house, bound and determined that the air conditioner will have fixed itself. (Channelling CW) It hadn't, but wasn't miserable, so I was holding out hope.


Ashley and I sweated through the night pun intended and the next morning, she decided to pack up Macy (her parents’ poodle that we’re keeping while they’re in Florida) and head to her parents’ house for her getting-ready-for-work scenario. I, on the other hand, decided just to babysit dirty. I was very dirty by this point. I’ll spare you the details. I babysat out in Franklin and we spent some time at the pool in the afternoon. I at least got rinsed off. I was happy with that by then. I leave babysitting at 5:30 in order to get back to Ashley’s parents’ house to prepare dinner for Emily and Stephen. Emily and Stephen are some of my favorite people (and I’m not just testing to see if they’re reading). Emily is the friend I have in Nashville that I’ve had the longest. We were roommates at Governor’s Scholars Program in Kentucky the summer of 1998. Wow. Ten years. Kinda just realized that. I remember thinking last year it would be ten years we’d known each other. So we’re good buddies. She went to Vandy while I was at Lipscomb but we managed to see each other an average I think of once a year in Nashville. Now that she and Stephen live here, we have monthly dinner dates. Ashley started coming along a little over a year ago and now two of Emily’s three sisters live here and they come, too!
Thankfully at home, strike that, the Smiths’ home, Ashley was following my cooking instructions via cell phone. The potatoes were baking the first go-round and the pork had just started cooking when I walked in. I got to it with the twice-baked conglomerate (?) that would be mixed with the actual potato part much later.
Basically, it all went off without a hitch and as usual, the Prathers and Mulloys were overly complimentary and I can’t even put into words how much I love our little get togethers. We have one more and I’m sad thinking about it. But that’s not the tears part.
So, they leave, but Emily has so graciously given me some of her mint plant. At some point last fall, we went to their house and sipped on mint tea while Emily prepared dinner. We loved it so much that we asked if we could have some mint. At 9:15 pm Tuesday night, I’m headed back to Yorkshire Circle to pack my yoga bag for the next day as well as get my pillows, clothes and shower stuff for our slumber party at the air-conditioned Smiths’. As I head north on 65, I call Megan (the other Spanish teacher and Yuri’s mentor while I’m gone) and vent about life. Air, living out of my car, my messy house, my unpacked DC suitcase, etc. She asks me if I’m crying and I’m not, but I’m definitely not in a good mood. I stay on the phone with her as I’m “packing my bags” for the sleepover…
My house is still hot, so I have to get over the hopes of magical a/c. Add to that I’m on my phone and the heat from my phone’s overuse at this point is making me hotter. It was bad. I go out back to plant my mint in full sun. Well, my light for my backyard is a motion-sensor light. After I turned it on and got my shovel and walked the three steps to the future home of mint, the light went out. So I try again. Nope. I’m too scared of the snake that happens to show itself in my backyard occasionally to try this in the dark. So I get the bright idea of the front garden. My right garden is gorgeous: petunias, hostas, lilies, etc. It’s nice. The left side is unloved. There is one coral bell plant that Amanda brought me from her mom’s house in Glasgow I think that I love, but its flowers are thin so from the walkway you can’t really see it. Other than that, my hostas came back more like pansies this year and there’s nothing else. This seems like a decent place for some mint. My front porch light, big shocker, does not shed light on this side of my garden. By now it’s approaching 10 pm and I am super-annoyed. I just stick the shovel in the dirt in the dark and hope for the best. Note: it’s not perfect, but it’s in the ground and no choral bells were injured in the process. Thank goodness for two days of storms to acclimate it to the garden because I for one have not been home enough to deal with it.
So there’s Tuesday. Enter the ride home. I’m still on the phone with Megan walking out of my house, hot, tired, and muddy-handed. I’m beyond perturbed at this point and have only what matters in life: yoga clothes and pillows. That’s right; no toothbrush, shower stuff, pjs, or anything that I had truly gone home for. I don’t care at this point. I want out of the house and I don’t want to have to pay thousands of dollars to be comfortable in it the next time I return.
On 65 southbound, I call Ashley and we chat for a few and then I vent and whine and then I get silent. Ashley, having heard this (not often, but) enough, knew I was crying and tried to help. There’s no help to be given. I have no home for Yuri, I have no air in my home, I have thousands of things in my car (it literally looked like a homeless person’s home), I have very few free minutes before take-off to DC for a week where I need to be prepared to prepare Yuri for life in her homeless Nashville. AHHHHH!!!!!! DO you feel me at least a little? I’m a procrastinator by nature. I’m fairly certain my whole clan is. I know Andy is and I think PK is. Anyhow, I’m used to things boiling down to the last minute. But I’m also used to that being because I haven’t done my part until then. I have been looking for houses for her since MAY. And I most certainly did not ask to have my air break down.
I just felt so helpless. Looking back, it’s so stupid, but I just really couldn’t see a happy ending anywhere. I don’t like that feeling and plan on not having it again (although if I’m leaving for Mexico on August 26, I’m envisioning somewhere around the 20th)!
At the Smiths’, I had a great night’s rest. I rose promptly at 5:20 am to hit 6 o’clock yoga to steady my mind (and to feel like I could eat all I had eaten on Tuesday)! Yoga was amazing. I felt much better, I had a list of things to do for the day, starting with leave yoga to go to the UPS pick-up center to pick up the camera I ordered. I know many of you know that I already have two cameras. My Kodak that I’ve had for at least two years is amazing, but too big for my purse. This spring, I bought a small camera for my purse using gift cards I earned for doing a project at school. Well, this camera is TERRIBLE. It’s really awful. No picture has good enough quality to print larger than a wallet. True story. Just look on my uploaded pictures from February on. So I’m going to eBay that beauty.
I digress.
I pick up my camera and head back to the Hades-esque condo I call come. Thankfully, Ashley’s dad is always super-helpful when I comes to Laura’s crises in Nashville. Ashley was texting him when I bought my car so he could do research to see if I was paying too much (I wasn’t) as one example. He told her who they used for their heat/air problems. She gave me that number and I put it on my list of things to do.
Next on the agenda is pack for the day of babysitting. This family was the one I had had to ask Megan if I should take it. They’re a hard family to sit for, not because it’s challenging, but because they watch tv all day. There’s no creativity, no conversation, nothing. There are three tvs on in the house at all times. However, it was a 9-5 job, so I would make substantial money and I had finished stuff at school. So I did it. Since the two boys take care of themselves with tv as well as napping for over 3 hours, I took my laptop to work on things and my new camera to get it going and my planner to get the air people called, my flight (finally) booked, and such. Their house is in a cell black hole, so I called the company, and Ashley from the house phone. They told me it would be 3:00 easy before they made it there. I had left my key hidden, but I told Ashley and she said she’d meet them there. Megan had also offered to sit in our blazing (106.7 any Nashvillians feel me?) house and work on her homework for her Masters. I’m pretty sure if I’m doing homework in the summer, the last place I want to do it is someone else’s unairconditioned house in the heat of the day.
Ashley met them there at 11. By 12:45 she had to leave to let Macy (poodle) out at her parents’. The guy calls me on babysitting house phone to tell me he’ll be leaving but other guy is coming blah blah blah blah. All I’m thinking is time is ticking and hours are costing me more and more. He informs me they won’t know the price til later, but 150 for the call itself, plus hourly fee, plus $23 per liter or whatever and he thought it would hold ten. So we’re already at 400 bones and they’re still there. By 5 when I leave I have yet to hear from them. Fearful for my ever-depleting Mexico fund, I walk in and see the house is empty and there’s a work notice. “Leak in copper [something-or-other] caused by roofing nails plus 9L [Freon].” Nice. My house is cooling off as we speak, and the roofers (whole other story) who re-roofed my house on Monday, had caused the damage. Therefore, sir conditioning is not my problem. Money is not my problem. Babysitting money I made this week will not go to part of a service call. Life is good.
I attacked my list of things to do and got packed for DC save for toiletries and things I would need between Wednesday and Friday. I also got some laundry done as well as some tidying.
I’m still stressed, as Yuri is still homeless. However, things are better. For example, I am writing this as I babysit my new favorite family. I’m sad that I only met them last week because they’ve been in Nashville for two years and now I’m leaving for a year. Anyhow, it’s not everyday that you find a babysitting job where you really like the kids, really like the parents, and the feeling is mutual. They seem to be really neat people. And considering all the headache I’ve gone through this week, I’m limiting my post-DC babysitting gigs to them. There are four kids. 3 boys and a baby girl. I’m at home with the napping baby right now while Mom is at a movie with the boys.
Oh! And I just talked to Wright Travel and Debbie is going to take care of me. I’m basically set. Now all I have to do is be oriented, visit all family members possible, clean out Grandmother’s garage for car storage, pack and clean my house for Ashley2 to move in.
Thanks for reading. Hope your life is not stressing you out right now. Soon, in the 4.5 hour days of school season, my life won’t be either.
Love and hugs.
PS- think happy house thoughts. I need a place for Yuri and it just totally seems to not be happening!

Oh, Atlanta!

...to quote one of my faves, Alison Krauss, to whom I am currently listening in order to calm my nerves. I spent a year in Atlanta last Friday. It was crazy. On my list of things to do before DC was "pick-up Visa from Mexican Consulate in Atlanta" and it had been there for about a week and a half. I had been trying to plan a time I could go when I could stay overnight if the need arose. Well, I guess I had forgotten that planning because I decided I'd go Friday morning and be back Friday night to go to Lime, a new-ish restaurant near Vandy, with the teachers. I knew it would be a long day, but I was going to just get it done.
I got up at 6:30 in order to leave by 7. The website said the office was open from 8am-12:30pm Eastern time. Mind you, I had tried to call the consulate as well as email for weeks. No answer, only voicemail, and no response to emails; I was frustrated. Duh. I also read that you needed an appointment. How am I supposed to get an appointment exactly if no one will answer my calls?! So I got up in time to make it to the office around noon Altanta time. Of course as soon as I pull out it starts POURING. Not just raining, but POURING. So I have to go closer to the speed limit than I wanted for this trip. Not to mention I was driving 24 and going through Monteagle at one point which requires care on a sunny day. Long story short on the ride down there, I got nervous I would miss my time frame, but made it with an hour to spare. Thanks Bewley for the up-to-the-minute time guestimates.
I pull into the Consulate (note: the mapquest directions failed to include one the the necessary streets on the "To" directions. Luckily, I had checked the return directions and saw the error or I could've been all OVER some Atlanta ghetto. Though I'm sure if I've ever been to Atlanta with Mom, I'd already seen it!
:) Love you!
So I pull in and all spaces are reservada and I'm nervous about a ticket, but more nervous about not getting a Visa, so I just park. I know, I am such a rebel in my adulthood! HA!
I see many many Mexicans over to the right of the building, children running around, etc. But I go up to the front door that has a push-button thing to page someone from within. This woman comes out, I ask her what I need to do and she sends me around back to talk to a police officer. Awesome. Luckily, she told me to walk right up to him or I would've waited in line and there were literally hundreds of people waiting and little did I know they all had appointments, etc. So here I am, the American girl, passing everyone, walking right up to the Mexican man in security garb and he walks me right in. I felt terrible. But I suppose not terrible enough to not go! So I walk into this woman's office, tell her what i need and she starts flipping through all kinds of forms. My mind, of course is screaming at me "You needed an appointment! Your paperwork isn't in there because they knew you weren't coming!"
She found it.
We took my picture, my digital fingerprints, and she took my passport.
She comes back, tells me it'll be ready between 2 and 5. Right. So which one lady? I tell her I'm from Tennessee and how will I know which time? She has my cell and will call, but in my mind, I don't want to sit around Atlanta for five more hours waiting on a Visa when I've just sat in my car for 4 and will have to return to Nashville in Atlanta's Friday afternoon at 5pm traffic. No, gracias. So I tell her I'll just come back next week. At this point I can stop in the outlets in Calhoun (I need another Polo sweater, right? For those cool winter evenings int he Mexican desert!), and still make it back to Nashville to take a yoga class before meeting the girls for dinner. So I text/call several people with the plans and head on my way. I'm getting off the loop and onto 75N when Bewley calls suggesting I stay and bum around Atlanta til they call and if it's 5:00 I can stay with her best friend from college who just happens to live within walking distance of the Consulate. Trick is, I have to pick up Mom and Jack at the airport the next day and I had already seen signs for weekend construction... So I truck on. Then I have a change of heart. $100 more on gas next week is a frustrating thought, so I pull off the interstate, call Bewley and ask her to take care of that possibility. Done.
Now, enters my paranoid mind... I told the lady I would be back next week. Does that mean she won't call me? Does that mean I won't be a priority? So I jet back to the Consulate to tell her I'll be waiting for her call. Closed. Her office that is, but the officer listens to my story and responds, "Okay" as I hand him my name and phone number. I realize he hasn't understood me, so I re-tell, this time in Spanish. It was rough and listening to him speak so quickly and mumbly (I know it's not a word) made me very excited to get down there. I feel like I'll never sound like that and that it'll still be hard for me to understand them even after ten months, but I know that's just me being hypercritical of myself.
I left my number, headed to Perimeter Mall and popped into Old Navy. I figured I had 4 hours left to kill so I tried on everything I saw. Only one dress I liked and it was $20 and PERFECT for Lime, so I got it as I received the call from my lady at the Consulate. She has it ready (1:50pm) but unfortunately will be on lunch from 2-3 and the building will be closed and locked. I was really bummed because I could be gone in less than an hour if she could just wait 15 minutes. She couldn't, but she did tell me where they were eating lunch (not very well- she didn't know the name of the restaurant or the street, but I got there!!!). I met here there, she gave me my stuff after she manually fingerprinted me and I was on my way!
I called Bewley's friend and told her I would not need her Inn services that night but thanks so much for the offer and headed back North. I even made it in time to shower before donning my new dress to dinner- which was all Spanish or Hispanic themed! It was delish. Anyone in the Nashville area ready to drop a buck or two on some GREAT food, Lime is the place!
The weekend was good since Ashley, who in her part-time semesters was my voluntary Lockeland slave, came to school with me to help me cover my tables. I'll post pics soon. They make my room happy. Don't be fooled; I did little of the work. Ashley gets all the credit. MIL GRACIAS!
And I also had some great yoga classes to ease my mind. Which was good because now it is all distressed again looking for housing. As usual, there are several possibilities, yet no certainties. Cross your fingers! My deadline is...THIS FRIDAY!
Mom and I leave for DC this Friday at 6am for a few days of bebopping around the city before my orientation starts on Sunday. I'll actually meet Yuri then. I'll have lots of pictures and surely some stories from that trip.
Shout-out to Julia- this one was for you!
;)