Tuesday, January 9, 2007

A phone call from the luggage people at US Air woke me up at 7:30. I thought I must've set the alarm clock on my cell phone and that's why it was ringing. Fortunately, they called back after I "turned off" the alarm (a.k.a., hung up on them). I called Enterprise at 8:00 to check on my car. They transferred me to another office and that office told me that cars were coming in and they didn't have anything right away. I told them my plans to go shopping for warm clothes, so they offered to take me where I wanted to go while we waited. First stop Target, then I checked out A. C. Moore Arts and Crafts across the parking lot. Still no car, so they picked me up and issued me a temporary car. I went to Dress Barn (my favorite store but no plus sizes at this store), then DSW shoes (I had a coupon but didn't find anything I needed), then Catherine's (I found 4 things that were on sale and when I checked out, they were 30% off of the sale price: a sweater dress, a sweater and skirt outfit, and 2 pairs of pants for $104 including tax. Not bad!). Next was Macy's but no luck there. Then I had a late lunch at Weathervane, a local seafood restaurant. No lobster but the baked stuffed haddock was quite yummy. I next made a stop at AAA then to the airport to pick up my delayed suitcase. At 2:30, I was back at Enterprise and they had a car. It was his fourth choice of the cars coming in but I just didn't think I could wait until 3:00-ish for a PT Cruiser, a Dodge Vibe or whatever the third choice was. So I took a brand new Nissan Sentra that gets 40+ miles to the gallon and got on the road.

There was no snow in Portland but as I got closer to Farmington there was some old snow on the side of the roads and in the fields. I easily found the house. The dogsitter was in the house as promised. I met Cassie and Benny as well as the dogsitters dog, Laquita. The dogsitter gave me a tour of the house. It's fabulous: hardwood floors, big windows, beautiful wooden archways and door jams, staircase with wooden banister (and a knob like "It's a Wonderful Life" except this one doesn’t come off in your hand), and on and on. My room is the "front room" on the second floor. It's pentagonal!! There are two windows on the side of the house and a big window on the front of the house. My roommate has an antique dresser in there with 4 drawers and tonight we're going to move a single bed in there from another room. I unloaded the car (and hauled all that stuff up the stairs . . . I think I'll get more exercise living in this house) and put a few things in the dresser.

Sure enough, she got home and we moved the bed in there. I'm all settled in! (It's pretty easy to do when you only have 2 suitcases worth of stuff and a few Target bags. Tomorrow, it's off to WalMart! Then there will be more settling in.)