Continuing On...

I got back to Bakersfield from Oregon around 10 pm. I dropped Wil and Evan off at Dean's. Carli and Evan had been roommates for about two months or so and during our move they decided to move also. Mostly because Wil would now need a place to stay, so they were all going to move into a little two bedroom house downtown. Carli had moved to Dean's until they would be moving into the new place in one week. Evan would be staying at his mom's and Wil would be crashing at his girlfriend's parent's house. As I was backing out of the driveway after dropping the boys off Wil looked back and gave a little wave. I cried all the way to the hotel.

I never thought I'd be like that, in fact I always thought it was so hilarious when my mother-in-law visited us or vice versa and started tearing up as she or we left. Now I was doing the same thing.

I got to the hotel Bill was staying at and was immediately struck by the unique odor that the suite had. I'm not sure quite how to describe it but he said it was like "somebody died there". It wasn't too bad, I guess. Well, okay it was. There was fake wood peeling off of the cabinets and when I saw the two burner stove I asked Bill, "This is from nineteen-sixty-when?"

I was okay with it all but he couldn't take it and we moved out the next day. We went to my favorite hotel chain, the Residence Inns by Marriott. We got the government rate thanks to my husband and the room was a humongous improvement over the previous place.

That was one of the most stressful weeks for me. Bill had to go to court every day and I waited at the room. Monday was jury selection. Tuesday morning they selected the two alternates and the trial began in the afternoon. We had meetings with the attorney after hours to discuss strategies. I was a nervous wreck.

Since all my "good" clothes were packed away and in storage I had to go shopping for court appropriate wear. I had a $35 gift card from last year and used that to buy some nice pants. I ended up paying $8 for them. Then I went to TJ Maxx and got a cashmere sweater for $39 and some boot/shoes for $29. I was glad I didn't really spend too much money yet managed to get a nice ensemble.

I did get called in and sat outside the court room on Tuesday afternoon but never got called inside. In fact I was sitting there at 4:30 when all the jurors came filing out and I knew I would not be called that day!

As it worked out I went in Thursday morning and was the second on the stand. I felt like I didn't do all that great because when I'm nervous my brain has a tendency to shut down. But my husband said I did just fine and our attorney thought I did well too. I was just glad to get it over with.

I had called the kennel before leaving for court to have the dogs bathed. I picked them up after court and brought them to the hotel. I had to pay $112 for them to spend the one night with us but at least I wouldn't be travelling for 10 - 12 hours with stinky dogs.

The next morning I loaded everybody up, kissed my husband goodbye, picked up the cats at the kennel on the way out and was on I-5 by 8:30 am. I stopped every 2 to three hours to walk the dogs and/or get gas. The weather was clear and traffic was light. I got into Roseburg at just before 7 pm.

I let the dogs out into the back yard then fixed a litter box for the cats. Kneadermeier hadn't been able to wait quite that long and had peed in her carrier. Too late for her. Then I had to feed everybody. When the animals were all taken care of I had to fix my bedroom. The furniture was in there but nothing was made up.

I had to put the bed frame together, which wasn't hard. The bottom box mattress was easy. But then I had to wrestle the queen size Tempurpedic onto the top. Not easy to do by yourself. I almost gave up but finally managed to get it done, found some sheets, and made up the bed.

Finally it was time to see what was in the kitchen for myself. Crackers, cheese, and a bottle of wine. It didn't get much better than that.

I almost felt like I was... home.