Moving Out and Moving Up

Well, I am officially moved into my parents house and it's honestly shocking how much happier I feel already. To be in a house that feels like a real house (climate controlled, no snakes, ants, or barn cats inside, in house laundry, no access for my bosses or coworkers, etc) in town (I can get to a grocery store in just 2 minutes!) is such an underrated feeling. For the first time in months I got to do one of my favorite things in life which is to sit outside in the evening with a book and a beer and Luna and just peacefully fritter the night away. No trains blowing by. No cats for Luna to chase. No bosses lurking. Just birds chirping and leaves dripping from the recent rain. Of course there was the mild disturbance of my dad's dog, Peyton, clumsily running in and out of the house periodically. (This would be fine except he really isn't supposed to be inside by himself because he has been known to ruin things such as entire dishwashers.) (See Peyton below modeling my dad's brand new glasses.) Even with this minor inconvenience it was still bliss compared to before. It's crazy because you'd think living out in the middle of nowhere on a farm would be the epitome of peace, but somehow it was the opposite. 

Speaking of Peyton, my dad gets his knee replacement in a couple days now, which means Peyton has preemptively been put on anxiety medicine. He's being purposely overmedicated with two whole pills a day, which is a lot, as my sister said, especially for a dog that doesn't have anxiety. He also wears a thunder shirt most of the time now, which again is strange because he's not afraid of thunder. All of this is in hopes of preventing him from jumping on my dad's lap when he has a brand new knee cap settling in. My parents have even finally acquired the baby gate they've been talking about for months now, which I thought was a good idea. Keep Peyton upstairs or downstairs, wherever my dad isn't, or out of certain rooms. But of course that's not their plan. Instead, they're placing it on just one side of my dad's recliner....meaning approximately 2/3 of the chair is still accessible to a dog.... It's honestly been sort of hilarious to see how my parents think and behave in this new stage of life (eg, being old and living alone). My dad also has to go to Walmart today to get "candy and pop tarts for after the surgery." Apparently the doctors want him to have candy or gum when he wakes up, and he thinks for some reason Walmart will have his most favorite and ever elusive pop tart flavor: grape. I guess my mom will still be doing the regular grocery shopping, but my dad has his priorities. 

Despite me explaining that my dad is having a major surgery in the coming days, and the simple fact that I like living near civilization, my boss doesn't seem to be happy that I've moved out, even though I've been priming him for this news for weeks. He's been asking my coworkers when I'm not around what the "real story" is, and can't seem to let it go. But he's also been in a bad mood all week for some reason, finding reasons to complain or try to make us feel bad pretty much every day, even on days he's not there at all. (If you ask me, it's a pretty bad look for neither boss to show their face on one of the hottest and most miserable days we've had this year, and then text one of their employees (not me) at 8pm at night to complain about stuff,  passive aggressively inquire about the "long lunch" we took (it was 10 minutes extra), and be suspicious of the fact that someone voluntarily stayed an extra 90 minutes to finish the cultivation we were working on!!!) He behaves like this, and yet is worried about why I'm moving out and doesn't like when people don't like him. And all of this after we, for some reason (?), threw him and my other boss (married), a surprise anniversary party at lunch one day this week! Honestly I don't know why we did this because they don't like each other, I don't like them, and who throws their bosses an anniversary party even in the best of circumstances? It was about as weird as it sounds because as a group we don't have much to talk about. Although at the same time, it was still sort of nice to throw a little party, sit in the shade for a long lunch, and actually eat a vegetable (someone made a really delicious salad). 

Despite my bosses continuing to be absolute [expletive of your choice]s, things haven't been so bad lately. Like I said, moving has been a real boon (I only moved yesterday, but the anticipation provided an extremely necessary glimmer of hope over the last few weeks). Plus, my sister getting engaged has given this year a little more shape. Until October or November I'll always have something to look forward to and something to do, plan, make, buy, etc. I am also generally becoming more content with the fact that I am here right now. (Not to brag, but I haven't cried in weeks.) I'm realizing that I won't live here forever, and I will probably look back and be grateful for this year that I get to be so close to my parents and my very dear friends from college. I may even be grateful for this god forsaken job. Finally I am able to spend less time thinking about the past and dreaming about the future, and spend at least a little bit of time in the present. Let's hope it lasts! 

Bits and Pieces: 

• We attended the much anticipated wedding of my cousin last weekend in Atlanta, where we were very rudely thrown out of the reserved seating section that was, in fact, reserved for us. Practically everyone was already in their seats and had to watch us walk to the very back row, which honestly was pretty funny to me. 
• Another barn cat had kittens, so we'll have even more cats running around the farm for the summer 
• I cannot stop dreaming of fresh June strawberries!!! I had a little taste of someone's garden berries last week which put the conventional berries from the farmers market to shame, and ever since I just can't get them out of my head. If you can, eat some good strawberries this summer. 
• According to the USDA, I've eaten approximately 30 servings of Doritos in the last ~2 weeks, which I have no further comment on..............
• Oh also I have exactly 4 days left to figure out how to get insurance in Virginia and instead of working on that I finished writing this blog, so I hope that was the right choice :))))))) (it def wasn't)