Geordi Hates W

As you can see, the packing is well on its way. I should have everything out into the garage by tomorrow so that I can clean. Wednesday a lady is coming over to inspect the place and decide if I get my deposit back. I think I should be able to get most of it, but I've had back luck in the past. 

I bought my first ever UNT sweatshirt. Hard to believe that after 6 years in this place that I never had one, but I do now! It is very mean green. 

So earlier this year Jessica and I had a toad that was living in the back yard. Geordi kept trying to attack it so we moved it to the front yard. We hadn't seen him in months and months, but now he has made a triumphant return. He's so cute!!

In other news, my dog is deathly afraid of George W. Bush... or at least his cardboard cut-out. I inherited this fine piece of decor from Dan Ord, probably because I was the only other Republican he knew at UNT :) I found it this week when cleaning out my closet and Geordi tried to run and hide whenever she saw him. I don't know if it's his economic or foreign policies that offend her, but she kept running under the bed and hiding. Today I took down my bed frame, so she had nowhere to go. 

Tomorrow I'm going to the Mac store to get my computer fixed- it keeps dying suddenly when it isn't plugged in but has a high battery charge. I'm also going to buy some other things I'll need for Basic and see my recruiter later. Keeping busy, time is flying by!! Only 6 more days of freedom left! 

Garage Sale

The garage sale was a success! I made exactly $200, purged many excess belongings, and met lots of very... interesting people. I had advertised the sale starting at 6:00am in the newspaper... so of course as I'm setting stuff out at 5:30am our first customer arrives. He was definitely a hardcore "saler." He left with all my Simpsons and Star Wars PEZ dispensers for 25 cents.  

We actually had a fairly steady stream of customers all morning until around 12:00pm. I never knew I had so many unique neighbors! It was funny how people would take the things that I considered to be some of the junkiest items, but I had some of my nicest clothes left at the end of the day. It started sprinkling briefly, but otherwise the weather was perfect. During one of the lulls Maura and I took pictures goofing off with some of the choice items. 

There were so many early professional garage sale people that most of the good stuff was gone by 7:30am. So I felt guilty the rest of the day when people would show up and look around and be like, "this is all you have?" 

Marco joined us later in the morning and got in on the fun. He also made off with my big bookshelf! By 1:00pm we hadn't had a customer in a while and I was nodding off hardcore, so Maura and I packed up and then went inside and passed out power nap style. 

By far the worst part of th

e day was when the front door cracked open and Geordi escaped. Maura was putting up signs down the road when she called me and said that Geordi was running around on 288! 

I tried to coax her back to me with food, but every time she saw me, she got this gleeful look on her face and would run as fast as she possibly could in the opposite direction. I had to watch in horror as she ran right in to traffic across 288. Luckily all the cars stopped or avoided her and were nice about it too. 

Finally she ran back into the apartment complexes near my house and when she stopped to sniff something I was able to snatch her up. I was not pleased, as you can see. 

The rest of the day was great. I got to hear Jamie Lipton play a fantastic recital and hang out with friends that I won't be seeing for a long time after this week!  Here is Jessica and Leah working hard on a puzzle. 

MEPS

Thursday I spent several hours in this place, the Denton Army Recruiting Station. Soooo much waiting around it's ridiculous, and it never ends up being for reasons that you can understand or make sense so that you sort of feel better. It is always for nothing, haha. Wasting time for wasting time's sake. 



They had this brochure in the Army office, and I thought it was funny because recently I had been discussing with somebody that if I end up eventually getting a tattoo, I might get a music note filled in with camo. So there is a preview I guess! I was thinking more of an 8th note though. Definitely no treble clef- I'm not British! 

Here I am in my MEPS hotel room. My roommate was nice, but liked to share... a lot. 

We woke up at 4am and were shuttled over to the MEPS building from the hotel. A lady from the Red Cross had set up this nice cookie and coffee table, which was VERY nice because they won't let you sleep while you are there. 

I had a minor panic moment when they announced that we wouldn't be allowed to process if we were wearing open toed shoes. Of course all I brought were flip flops. I'm sure I knew this rule at some point, but I completely forgot today. Luckily the Air Force people keep a box of old tennis shoes and new socks for such occasions. The guy was really nice but made fun of me because my huge feet actually fit really well in the men's shoes. :) 

So after many hours of waiting I did my weigh in, got my contract in order, had fingerprints done, and officially swore in and joined the Army!! It was pretty exciting. The biggest news is that I got my official ship date for Basic Training. I will be leaving on June 16th for Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. 

#1. That is really soon!!! A week from Monday!

#2 Everyone kept telling me I would likely get Ft. Jackson, SC so I am surprised to go to the Wood. 

So that's the news for today. My big garage sale is tomorrow morning, so I will be up early haggling and relaxing. My friend Maura is driving up from College Station to hang out and help with things, so I'm really excited about that! Hope everyone has a great weekend. 

MEPS

I have to go to the recruiter at 4pm today so that I can check into the awesome MEPS hotel. There I will twiddle my thumbs and watch TV all night. Up at 4am and then off to MEPS to officially sign my contract & swear in! It will be interesting coming up with ways to entertain myself through all of the waiting around. Updates later! 

Fishing

Look at the beautiful flowers that my wonderful brother Don and sister-in-law Nancy sent to me!  They are so sweet! I've gotten to that point in my packing where there are just little odds and ends, and none of them all fit together in one box, and I just wander around the house not accomplishing much, pushing things from one pile into another. 

Oh well. I think I will be able to look at the rest of packing with a clear head once I have my awesome GARAGE SALE!! 

That's right. Saturday, June 7th, get pumped for the Garage Sale of the Century.  I am getting rid of a ton of stuff. Here is a litte preview picture. I am selling lots of clothes, some furniture items, random stuff. The best part is that I'll be hanging around all day, maybe even sipping a brewski- so if you are in Denton and bored, come keep me company! 

Geordi had an exciting day. She got to go the vet to get microchipped. She is going to be living with my parents while I am in Basic and getting settled in MD. She has the propensity to bolt when she gets the chance, so hopefully the microchip will be a good backup that we never have to use!

So two things I saw on my walks with Geordi today reminded me that I really would love to go fishing. It is perfect weather, oh how nice it would be! Maybe Dad will take me out on the boat while I am in Willis before I leave... 

Keepin' it going

Today I had lots to do. In the midst of running errands up at UNT I realized that I might have walked into the Eagle Student Service Center for the last time... and waiting in those long lines to pay for an overdue parking ticket FOR THE LAST TIME!!! 

I went to see my recruiter and will officially be joining the US Army on Friday... after I hurry up and wait all day at MEPS. The highlight of my recruiter visit was definitely receiving my first ever ARMY T-SHIRT!!! 



 

In other news, my tomatoes are doing splendidly. Too bad I won't be around to eat any of them. 

Murr came over and helped me do some more packing tonight. Then he got in a wrestling match with Geordi, who sorely needed the attention. 

She looks pretty vicious huh? But she's a cuddly softy... most of the time. :) 

Here is her scooting under the bed, which is where she hides all the loot that she steals from the living room when I'm not looking. Earlier I caught her with a giant roll of masking tape in her mouth, headed straight for the bed! 

Packing

Today was mostly spent packing my stuff. Geordi is so confused by everything that has been going on. She has been spending lots of time laying in her crate, which she normally never does.

I keep getting these giant piles of boxes thinking, "yeah, that should be plenty!" Yeah right. I finally scored some last night. The first guy fell through but I found another gas station to help me out. The the honorable Miss Jamie Lipton let me raid her garage which had lots of good boxes. 

So I'm having a garage sale next weekend, and I'm getting rid of a ton of stuff. More on that later, but get excited! 

I have so much stuff to take care of tomorrow- all the phone calls and arrangements I couldn't make over the weekend. I'm also supposed to go see my recruiter, and hopefully he will have some info for me. I started memorizing Army ranks, but there are lots of long creeds and things I need to get going on too. 

More tomorrow! Bye for now!