Baby steps

So I got a call from the work peeps saying that my credentials have been cleared *high five* which means I have a job BUT I still do not have a start date.  I am 2 weeks after my original start date :( That is two weeks later than I hoped without a paycheck!
Good news for us is that we will be moving into our condo tomorrow!  We found a fully furnished 2 bedroom condo in a nice part of town.  One thing we did not realize is that due to it being higher in elevation, it is usually 7 degree cooler than the valley which is going to come in handy pretty soon!  It looks like we will be in the 90s within the week and probably climbing! Also....I will be able to lay by the pool while waiting for a start date!
We cannot wait to have our own space and be out of this extended stay hotel.  Even though we have a small kitchenette, we still have been going out more than we should to eat.  I think the main reason is because we just need to get the hell out of this room!  
Joe and I do well in small spaces. Hell, we were living in a studio apartment for 8 months with no problems. The problem we are having now is that neither one of us does good in a holding pattern where we have no control over things and we are just waiting on other people.

Since starting this update this morning plenty of things happened and are lining up!  Will finish later...

Got an update about my job, there is only one person to do security appointments and she was out all this week...so, fingers crossed for at least a Tuesday start date.
Condo....getting cleaned for us as I type and we can move in as early as this evening!
Truck/camper build: I know I haven't given much updates on that but we got an update on part of the build this morning and Joe is happy with the quote and the plan for the build so that is moving forward!

One thing I have learned, and Joe and I do well together, is not to get caught up in things we don't have any control over.  We are not bystanders in our lives but we are also not going to get overly emotional about things.  I realize that the energy we put out is what we get back so if we were pissed about all these delays, complaining about every little thing, I will put money on the table that our lives would be worse off right now.  We've acknowledged the upsets, felt the irritations and anger about things falling through but then we let it go and move forward to what we can do.  Sometimes it takes longer than we'd like but things work out as they should and it's all good :)

One of our many jaunts to The Strip to kill time and get some walking in....we have to stop for refreshments of course :)

New job....eventually

new backyard, Red Rock

Life is crazy and if you don't fight where it wants to take you, it's not AS stressful.  A lot of BIG changes since last post.  I am now a LCSW as of February.  It happened quicker than what I projected because yours truly is not a math wiz and I was counting hours separately vs combined.  So TA DA here we are!  With that happening about the same time a lot of changes were happening in my work section.  My bad ass supervisor was scheduled to PCS in July and then our director got a job at the VA in Vegas and would be leaving around the same time.  Our awesome team was breaking up, which unfortunately happens and it happens more often in military type settings.  

Joe and I decided to enjoy one more summer in Alaska and then move out before winter.  Knowing how long government jobs will take to get hired onto, I decided to start job hunting and applying to government jobs (doesn't matter what state I'm licensed in).  I had already planned on flying Tux down to Vegas to be adopted by my brother due to all the traveling Joe and I were planning on taking.

A month or so prior to the Tux drop off trip, I get a call back from a contract company about a job at Nellis AFB, NV.  First off, Joe and I wanted to move to Vegas when we left Florida so we were focusing on the Vegas area due to other benefits that line up with our future goals.

This contract company moved fast!  I talked with the Capt I'd be working for and everything was lining up and they wanted me for the position but they needed me sooner than later.  So we discussed it and figured "why not".  When I dropped off Tux I told Chris and Anna we'd be neighbors and I'll cat sit whenever they need :). I got back to work, worked a week, out processed and we hit the road!

Our road trip to Vegas

All of our stuff fit in this trailer AND we had plenty of room for other stuff....*psst* we think we have too much stuff!

We saw so much beauty and animals this time, spent a couple of days with fam in Utah, and then onto Vegas.  We found a furnished condo to move in on 1 June and I had a start date of 20 May so we have been in an extended stay.  We got settled, did some touristy stuff, and them bam....got hit with some speed bumps.

Major speed bump....Nellis AFB is giving some push back on credentialing me as a provider, even though I'm an LCSW.  My start date is now up in the air, hell the job that I moved down here for is up in the air!  I was told by the contract company that there is a 50% chance of me NOT having a job. I do not gamble!!!!  If this does NOT go through I probably will NEVER work with a contract company again.  I understand that it is not the contract company that is causing problems but they need to have some better checks and balances to avoid having someone move across the U.S. for a job.  I should hear something this week about where we stand with this job.

Until then, I am getting all my paperwork ready to submit for a Nevada license.  There are a good amount of LCSW jobs in the area but I need that NV license so here we go, and of course all of that cost a stupid amount of money :(

We've had some smaller speed bumps that have popped up which make the big one even more frustrating.  This morning we found out that our condo, which we were hoping to move in on 31 May, won't be open for us to move in until 1 June so we need to find a place to sleep for one night now.  I am hoping I can just extend one night to where we are at currently.

Since we are staying in an extended stay I am utilizing the library for their wi-fi and printing services.  I went to one that was farther away the first time and I figured I'd go to the one closer today....interesting.  I am sitting at a table and there is a homeless lady next to me and she's been munching on chips, checking out cooking books, and having some low key conversations with herself.  Not bothering me at all. What IS bothering me is the elderly, decently dressed man at the next table over who appears to be staring at me and licking his lips on the regular basis.  HE is giving me more of the creeps than the homeless that are chilling in the library!  

I CANNOT wait to have my own space, a kitchen to cook in, my own printer, and a peaceful place to reset when needed. I need some sort of focus, routine, and get back to some more healthy ways.  Yes I can do all that living in a damn hotel but it will be a lot easier in our space.

Just keep swimming, Just keep swimming...

Welcome 2019

Wow! What a year?!  We are on our second winter in Alaska and it's not as "neat" as the first one.  Mainly because of the long days of darkness but we are back to gaining light so we are in the home stretch!
Since we've been in Alaska: I'm on my second job and Joe is on his third.  We are both enjoying these current jobs so hopefully no other work changes :). We sold all of our furniture and excess belongings and moved from a 2 bedroom condo to a furnished studio.  We lost our beautiful mountain views but we gained a fire pit, places to walk to, and more freedom from stuff!  We've had two visitors: Amanda and my Mom.  

We bought Stevie, an RV, and sold Stevie.  We did do some camping, some hiking, some more hiking, and recently snow shoeing.  We bought a camper, which is in Chicago, and we are looking for a truck for it as we speak....we are getting closer and closer to our traveling life.  

We aren't rushing it because it is our life but we are not going slow either!  We canceled a gym membership, I started a month to month program with Pure Barre and I'm actually staying with it (except for today, I canceled today).  Tux is Tux and is doing his thing but he did see a moose in our yard, he wasn't too sure about that!  Life is good and we keep plugging along without becoming complacent and routine.

 We rung in 2019 with a staycation downtown in The Hotel Captain Cook (it's literally a 10 drive for us now).  

It was nice and I drank too much and I'm slowly recovering.  Joe was back to work today and I'm back to work next week.  Today I have the place to myself to do laundry, clean dishes, blog, read...or absolutely nothing. productive it can go either way really!

It will be interesting to what 2019 brings to me and to us!

Holidays are always interesting to me.  I've never been big on them, maybe as a kid when we got those big stashes of gifts but... as my brother and I grew older those gifts diminished and it was more focused on things that were really important.  Mom would decorate but I remember the holidays becoming more and more low-key.  I'm good with that.  
As a 42y/o I have close to NO stress during the holidays.  I'm not running around shopping (which I hate in normal situations) and I'm not going into debt.  Joe and I don't exchange gifts. We spend time with each other having a good time.  People see us as slightly weird but it's our life and we're happy with it.  I've been with people who were really into the holidays, the stuff that t.v. specials are made of.  If that stuff makes people happy... go and do it, but don't judge me for not partaking, or looking at me with pity because my boyfriend didn't buy me anything!  We don't need anything and if we do, we buy it ourselves.  We do the same thing for Valentines Day and birthdays :). I have family and friends that don't understand and that is o.k., it's my life and it works for me and my partner in crime.

Another New Year thing that I keep chuckling about is the resolutions.  I've tried to do resolutions in the past, I've even blogged about it.  Needless to say, like most people they eventually fall to the way side or I totally forget what I "promised" myself.  I see tons of post about reset groups for health.  It's great to be held accountable and to have a plan to get healthy,  I need that but I've begun to learn that all that motivation needs to come from ME.  I can ignore people on my email or text reminders but I can't get away from me, how I feel and how I look.  
I started Pure Barre a few months ago and I've been maintaining at least 3 sessions a week.  I've been trying to do 4 but life stuff keeps happening :P. It's a good workout for me and I feel better when I do it but I also acknowledge that I need my time when I can get it.  It's that balance thing.  I don't want to add stress to my life because I canceled a session or didn't make my quota.  I'll go when I go and get the most out of it, appreciating that time I give to myself by strengthening my body and mind.  
We put so much pressure on ourselves and there is no need.  I want to excel and do well in my job and stay healthy but instead of pressure I can motivate myself in a non judgey, not critical way that encourages growth and movement.  It's hard, as a society we are programed to be more harsh :(
I need to get busy with my day, I feel that is what needs to happen now on my day of solitude.  So I'm cutting this blog of ramblings short and moving on to the next thing that strikes my fancy.

Ack.... it's been a month!

Can't believe it's been a month since I blogged and we are on our eighth month in Alaska!  We've been doing so much it seems so much longer.

Still alive, busy, and happy!

We are both on our second jobs.  We bought Stevie.  We had our first visitor last month and my Mom will be visiting in August.  We survived a winter and are gearing up for another winter.  Joe was told by someone at a store "winter is coming"!  We have actively been downsizing to get ready for future endeavors.   In August we will keep up the downsizing and in September we will be in full PURGE mode.  

We signed a lease for a studio place we found on AirB&B. We are going from a two bedroom apartment condo to one big living area with bathroom!  Oh, and there is NO T.V. in the studio. Are we crazy?!  Nah....our goal is to be living out of a van or truck camper and this will be a good transition step for us. Oh... the AirB&B is furnished so by 1 Oct all of our furniture will be sold/donated/or trashed!  We were able to meet are AirB&B "landlord" and see the property, or as he said do a "site visit".  The place is on his property and the studio is an addition to his house which is also small.  Nice yard and a fire pit that will come in handy in the winter months.  It's in an established neighborhood so it seemed quiet and chill.  We will be walking distance to some decent trails and closer to all the things to do and see in downtown.  No more visitors though LOL  If we get guest they are on their own for accommodations! 

Joe and I are still narrowing down are rig for traveling but we have a good direction. All the blogs/pics/and groups that are out there of people doing what we are planning on doing are awesome to learn from. 

Like I mentioned we had a visitor this last month.  My friend from Utah came up for a week long visit the beginning of July.  We were busy but not too busy :)  We checked out the Highland Games, I took her to Alyeska, the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center where we saw some bears, took in Seward, and relaxed!

Amanda and I

Highland games.... Love the shag!

Alaska!

Silly in Seward!

Unfortunately since my last post we have not taken Stevie out.  We hope to change that in August and take a little vacation out and show my Mom as much of Alaska while she is here.

Trusty Stevie

Made it to Alaska!

We made it to our hotel in Haines Junction and settled in.  It is a small village and the hotel was suspect.  It was old, as most things are on the Alcan, but it was comfortable and had hot water for a decent shower so I"m good :P. We walked over to a restaurant for some grub and a beer.  While there a local lady started to chat us up, she "works for the Chief".  I was curious to ask what work she did but for some reason didn't, she was a chatter anyway.  I told Joe about wanting to ask her that and he was like he wondered too but didn't ask because she was already somewhat full of herself.  Liked to talk and had limited listening capabilities.  

People like to give us advice about this move, which is appreciated, but they hardly listen to what we already know and how we feel about things.  Once this becomes apparent we let them talk and then we go about our day.  

Our hotel did face a beautiful snow capped mountain range!  Amazing beauty in this area!

We got up and the coffee shop across the street actually served espresso drinks! Praise be! this is the first morning that Tux is making it apparent he's over this traveling business and hid under the bed when we were getting ready and packing up the car.  Poor guy but he's a trooper and it wasn't a big production to get him in his carrier so that's a blessing.

It was a very short drive to Tok, Alaska but it was good because it gave us a lot of down time.  We are both getting worn out and tired with the driving and packing.  Crossing the border was easy and they asked about any guns.... seriously people we have no guns!

We had a big lunch and lazed around a little bit before having a light dinner and going to bed.

The next morning, Tux hid again, poor guy.  But it was off to our new home.

Joe has been keeping in touch with the lady that owns the condo we are interested in and we gave her a heads up that we'd be there later that day and that we'd like to see the condo later that afternoon.

We have rented an AirBnB close to downtown Anchorage, 2 bedrooms and a kitchen for us to relax a bit.  We got settled in the AirBnB and then went to find some lunch and found the Gumbo House which worked well for us.  This whole weekend is overcast and rainy so it was nice to have some jambalaya to warm us up!  We were getting worried about not hearing back from Kelli, landlady, but decided to drive and check out the area.  

It's about 20 minutes from down town.  We were hoping for something closer but it's hard to find garages near downtown and that is one of 'would really like" to have.  It's just a little bit smaller than our apartment in Florida so we will have to do some wrangling with our stuff, more downsizing which we are cool with!  The area is quiet and it's on a lake.  No threw driving, which Joe likes.  We are on the top floor so no one walking above us and we think the one below us is an AirBnb.  We liked the drive by and still hadn't  heard from Kelli so we were getting bummed and then she got back to us with some times, late that night (after 8pm) and tomorrow! Ugh... Joe mentioned tomorrow due to wanting to see it during the daylight and she asked if we could see it "now" and we were like 10 minutes out so off we went.  She was suppose to meet us there but after 20 minutes of waiting we got a call.  She had someone walk into her office with no appointment but told us how to get in to the condo and let us look on our own (which I like to do).  

Walking around the place, the only "con" was figuring out where to put Tux's litter box! LOL. Like I said it hit on the things we were looking for: garage, space, price range, and close to my work.  With it being a condo we work directly with the landlady to get things fixed etc.  We don't have to worry about snow removal, that's covered already!  Oh and the place has a gas fireplace :). 

We are going to meet with her at noon today to do the paperwork so we can move in on Monday when we are due out of the AirBnB.  We haven't heard about our shipment from TMO, it is due to be here 25 September (Monday) but we'll buy some sleeping bags that we will need to get anyway :P

We really didn't want the stressor of trying to find a place while living in hotels etc.  We've been looking online for months and this one has been the best fit for all of our "wants".  I didn't find one closer to downtown but less square footage :( 

Animal sittings:

Buffalo: a big herd…. while typing of this entry!

Caribou: 9 alive and 1 carcass
Deer: 5

Dall Sheep: 1 mob

Rabbit: 1

Prairie Dog: 1

Tundra Swan: 6

Mid point to Alaska

We are staying a week in Salt Lake City, UT to relax a little bit before heading onward to Alaska which is about another 6 days.
We scored an awesome AirBnB in South Salt Lake for a couple of nights.  It was a two bedroom townhouse with a garage.  We could walk to a local brewery, which we walked to twice :P

Our first day there we met up with my friend and went to the 42nd Greek Festival.  I've gone to the festival a few times before when I lived in Utah and always enjoyed it!  Amazing food!  After getting our bellies full we walked over to the gateway and just sat and chatted for a while.

The next day was shopping!  We planned on doing some winter clothing shopping while in Utah before heading north and we did some good shopping!  We didn't get crazy but got some stuff and Joe started his winter clothing collection (he had nothing).  When we got home from that we both felt lethargic and took a quick cat nap before going for a walk.  We were just going to take a nice little walk in the residential area we were in but we ended up all the way at the U!  I mapped our walk when we got home and it was a little over 6 miles!  Good for us!

The following day we moved in with Marcia and David.  Our first night was full of good food and about 3 bottles of wine!  We had some heated conversations but it was healthy and the air was cleared of some misunderstandings.  We will be here for a few more nights before heading north.  
That brings us to the current day (I'm going to try and do this in a more current fashion).  We had a low key morning, we were not moving fast due to the late night and adult beverages.  We did a little shopping and sight seeing before making it back home for laziness and later....kick ass nachos!