I'm glad they did it though. Who knows? Maybe I should do it too? Maybe actually free falling down to Earth and having a chute open will put things into perspective for me. At least here you have a chute. Well, it will have to wait. Sounds like time and money I don't have at the moment.
Last week Valerie and I left the house at 4:30am Monday with her friend, Madelyn, so that we could make it up to Albany, OR by 1:00pm to meet her new roommate and get the keys to the apartment. So, yes, a long day of driving, but I definitely scheduled time for breakfast at the Black Bear Diner in Medford. Look at these happy girls!
Valerie's new roommate, Jorden, is super sweet. She will also be a first year student at LBCC and on the livestock judging team. She is very into aesthetics and has picked out "red" as the accent color for their kitchen. Valerie and I decided that we'd go with a nice contrasting "white" for Valerie's dishes. (Never try to match reds!)
Here are Valerie and Jorden in their new Living Room. Below are some photos of the empty apartment. It's a two-bedroom/two bathroom ground floor unit right across the street from the college. They can walk to school if they want.
Above is the living room looking back at the front door and down the hall.
Here is a living room view looking toward the kitchen and out the front windows. Jorden brought some lamps.
Ah, the kitchen! It's got a dishwasher and a microwave. Electric stove/oven. The dishwasher is loud. Definitely don't run that thing if trying to have a conversation with someone or watch a show.
Valerie chose to take the parking space and Jorden is taking the master bedroom with en suite. That said, here is the main bathroom that Valerie will be using. Lots of cupboard space.
A washer and dryer in the unit?! Lucky girls!! No laundromat for you.
Here is Valerie's room. Her window looks out on a nice patch of green shrubs, trees and wild berries growing along a little creek. So, it's nice and private. This is the floor I slept on for the next couple of nights. (new carpet).
Since Valerie won't be bringing the piano with her, Michael sent her keyboard up with headphones. Good thing about the headphones. I understand no musical instruments allowed in the apartment complex. One must practice in a practice room at the college out of consideration for the other tenants.
I took Valerie, Jorden and Madelyn out to lunch and then shopping at Target to get some bare necessities. Ice cube tray? Check. Trash and recycling? Check. Broom and Dustpan? Glassware? Cookie sheet? Frying pans? Plunger and scrubber? Towels? Check, check, check, check ... Cha-ching $!
When we got home, Madelyn helped Valerie set up her bathroom. She has navy blue towels and bath mat. Her shower curtain has fish on it. At first we thought they were sea lions. My eye sight is not great. But, anyhow, blue is the theme for Valerie's bathroom. I'm not saying every room has to have a theme ...
Jorden and her dad left that evening to drive three hours home to Central Point, OR (close to Medford). Jorden will be moving back up in early to mid-September. Valerie will be moving back up Labor Day weekend.
That night, the girls and I cruised out looking for dinner. We found Wilhelms! We decided it was too sketchy to dine in. But, not too sketchy for a photo op.
After dinner we purchased a deck of cards, poker chips and a cribbage board at the local Bi-Lo. We came back home and played a little Black Jack and Cribbage on the living room floor while washing new dishes and towels before crashing out on the new carpet.
The next day Valerie went over to LBCC for orientation and to sign up for classes. She will be taking math, english and chemistry. She will also be auditing the livestock judging class. She can't take it for credit the first quarter because she is going to a national event in Kansas City in October to compete with her high school team. There are rules that say you cannot be in a collegiate class and compete on the high school level. There you have it.
After a morning at the college, I drove the girls about 90 mins up to Portland to visit IKEA and look for a small kitchen table and chairs and bath caddy. Madelyn had some Swedish Meetballs while we were there. I had the soup. What a scene.
Valerie did manage to find a great table. I warned her she was going to have to assemble it herself. How hard could that be? Spoken like someone who has never assembled anything from IKEA. I laughed and laughed.
Nope. That didn't work. So, the girls got the table together but spent hours on the chairs. (I read a book and giggled. No help here). They finally got it right. We played cards at the table later that night after eating dinner on the floor. They were a little optimistic about the amount of time it was going to take to assemble the kit.
The next day we drove home and made time for lunch at my favorite restaurant in Ashland, The Sesame. They are right on the river across from the park. They are a little spendy but soooooo good. Also, we skipped breakfast and felt like we deserved a nice lunch. Yes, we also sipped from the stinky lithium infused spring right there at Lithia Park. And then we cruised back up over the mountain pass and down into California. Good-bye trees and cool weather. Hello hot, dusty heat.
My garden was waiting for me when I got home. It's hard to believe there are veggies in among these flowers, but I assure you there are. Do you need zucchini or cucumbers? Please, come on over. Peppers and melons coming soon with eggplant. Tomatoes, chard and basil are here for the taking too.
And now I will leave you with a photo from the past. A friend dug this up from likely 1987. But you probably could have guessed that by the hair. This was my friend Todd and I getting ready to go out dancing. I couldn't get my hair big enough. I swear there is an entire can of Aquanet in there.
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