A letter of thanks to my friends and lover (AKA The Nurses)

Disclaimer: nurses are just the most omnipresent healers in my life at the moment.  Don’t think I’m discounting the doctors, med techs, support staff, house managers, and LVNs/LPNs/CNAs out there – it’s just that none of my friends have had the time to graduate from medical school quite yet (except for my papa, who’s still the top Dr. V in my life no matter how many cool docs KS meets on the job).

So I’ve been dating a nurse for over a year now.  I’ve watched him go through clinicals, ATIs/NCLEX, long-term care administration, sifting through hospital bureaucracy to apply for jobs, and finally finding the ER opportunity he’s been waiting a year to find.  This also means I also have about 220% more friends who are/are becoming nurses now as well, and I just have one thing to say: these are some of the greatest people to know.

And not just from a liability perspective.

I had the chance last week to visit the ER where KS spends these infamous 12-hour shifts of his* and it served to solidify yet again that I in no world, in no way, in no conceivable fashion could ever do this job.  Things that become second nature to you wonderful people who work in direct patient care scare the ever loving shit out of us mortals.  You stick needles in arms, necks, and legs, tubes into any conceivable orifice, you administer narcotics that could knock out a herd of blue whales, you yell things like “Code Blue” and “stat” all while keeping people alive and your cool.

*WTF who works these kind of hours?? My god, I’m ready to strangle a chipmunk after a couple of tens…

You work in sometimes underfunded hospitals with the same “frequent flyers” cycling through week after week in a healthcare landscape that changes every day.  You save people from some of the darkest moments in their lives, from overdose to car accidents and water retention to bar fights.  And even though it’s not quite just like Grey’s Anatomy, you still find time to make massively inappropriate jokes once in a while and wear pajamas to work.

Thanks for making life saving your every day goal, and do me a favor and be gentle with my catheter if you ever see me on the job.

In other news

• Our hearts and stomachs are going out to our wonderful friend Ali and Evan at Little Red Bike Cafe in our former homestead.  We won’t bore you with all the lovey-dovey here, but suffice it to say that we are so grateful to have visited them as much as we did before leaving for ol’ SA.  As KS puts it, we damn well knew a good thing when we had it.  They’re going through a big transition with the cafe, so take every chance you can to visit them in the next few weeks.  And ask for the secret Aardvark for us, would you?
• In another twist of the PDX2SA soap opera, one of KS’s former University of Portland classmates (yep, another amazing nurse!) moved down here right after us to join the Blue (Air Force).  We like to think we’re taking a page from the Kim Karalekas book of moving to Texas: quietly lure other Oregonians down south and hang out with them as if geography has no importance whatsoever.
• T-man comes home from the other white continent in 20 days, so read up on his vomit-inducing account of the deep fried adventure that is Scotland before his return.
• In honor of Memorial Day and the fact that I’m lucky enough to work at an organization that puts military members first, take a look at the trailer for Restrepo:

Click to watch the trailer.

First Day Jitters?

DISCLAIMER: Keep in mind this blog was written about a month ago, I just never quite got around to finishing it. FAIL.

This week I had my first day reporting for orientation at work. For those who don’t know I’ll be working in the Emergency Department of a small hospital south of San Antonio. Its a Level IV Trauma Center, but still sees a lot of gnarly stuff due to it being the only hospital around in a six county area.

The drive down was beautiful! Its wildflower season down here in Texas and the median is a blanket of brilliant blues, fire engine reds, and lemon yellows. The only problem on this day was the intense downpour of rain. I mean I’m a native Oregonian, the capital of rain, and its been a LONG time since I’ve seen rain like this. The only difference is that the roads and dirt haven’t seen rain like this either. Meaning huge pools of standing water on the freeway! I was able to avoid hydroplaning the 45 minutes to the hospital. When I got to the hospital there wasn’t anywhere close to the entrance and I don’t carry an umbrella for religious reasons, so it was going to be an all-out sprint to the entrance. When I made it inside I definitely had squeaky wet shoes (professional, right?)

The first day was all about going over the mundane but important things such as:

• How to use a fire extinguisher
• Getting the Employee Handbook
• Signing about a 1/2 ream of paper of acknowledgments (ie. Yes, I read your sloppy Powerpoint printout that looks like it has been recopied about 50 times)
• Watching safety videos that were created on VHS at a community college

This was all fine and dandy and then I got to meet with the Infection Control nurse who wanted to know the exact dates of all my last vaccinations (do you know when your last Tdap was?) So I gave her a bunch of blank stares and told her that I would bring the paperwork the next time I worked.

When we were done she said that she just looked at the radar and there was a patch of dry weather that was moving North to San Antonio, so the drive home shouldn’t be too bad. I walk out to my car and what do I realize? Oh yes, I had left my keys in the car because I was so worried about getting inside without being soaked.

Alright, disaster management time. Any doors unlocked? Negative. Any spare keys hidden around the car? Negative. Call the girlfriend, she’ll know what to do. Well with only one car between us I’m kinda SOL. Alright, let’s try the local locksmith. Oh wait she’s out of town for the day? Damn. Doesn’t Kristin have AAA? Let’s try them. Oh yes, AAA follows the driver NOT the car. But, they can add me for the yearly fee of $69 plus a $40 processing fee. No thanks ma’am, I want to find my own solution out of spite. Finally I get a call back from a locksmith who says he’ll be there in 20 minutes. 20 minutes turns into 45, but he finally shows up. I have honestly never been happier to see this:

We have free candy!

Two Jolly Mexicans hop out and one makes light conversation with me while the other proceeds to insert a BP cuff into the door and in roughly 2 minutes has the door open. Talk about feeling like you drive a car that’s difficult to steal. I hop into the car and expect to have her start right up. DAMN IT, SERIOUSLY I LEFT THE LIGHTS ON TOO? Dead battery. Fortunately the lovely, thoughtful Kristin has Jumper cables in the car (thanks Dr. V!) We get the car jumped and they follow me to the nearest Valero gas station. Talk about a sketchy situation being followed by a pedophile van so that I can pull some money out of the ATM.

I try to hand the guys $100 for being so helpful, but they’ll only take $80 as the driver says it just makes him happy to help someone out in need. Such a little jolly twosome they are. I thank them profusely and hit the road.

Lesson learned. Don’t worry about making sure you have the radio headunit and GPS out of the car, make sure you have your damn keys!

This is the Alamo. Please do remember it.

The Oregon Trail is much shorter here. Y'know, cause everything else is bigger.

UPDATES

So we’ve both been working full time for over 2 weeks now, and it feels fantasmic.  I’m learning the always applicable art of auto insurance and KS has been earning his stripes as a night shift nurse.  We both feel extremely lucky and fortunate to be gainfully employed in jobs we can say we still love even at the end of 4 12-hour shifts.

RP has settled in pretty well.  He pants (ha, just like his NAME) a lot and drinks extra bowls of water on the regular, but there are dog parks like they’re sent from heaven and one of us is usually home to spend time with him during the day/night.

We miss our Oregon friends and family quite a lot, and I’ll be the first to admit that I sometimes sit around listening to NPR, drinking organic coffee and imagining rain falling outside.  But we have some wonderful biffles close by in Austin, and we try to get up to visit those lovelies whenever possible.  Also the weather…let’s be honest: it’s pretty kickass.

THE ALAMO (yeah, you’re going to want to click that link)

Yup, we went there.

And the thing about it isn’t that it’s small (which is what everyone says and is entirely true), it’s that it’s SMACK DAB in the middle of the city!  We were walking past a row of oddity museums (Ripley’s, a wax museum, the Tomb Rider) on one side, and a bevy of snow cone dealers on the other, and all of a sudden, KS points and says, “There it is!” And I wouldn’t even have believed him if I hadn’t thought, “Wow, that looks like all the picture on every credit union, car dealership, and piece of currency in this city.”  (Oh yes, Texas has it’s own form of currency.  The Texas dollar is worth 3 euros, 10,000 yen, and a few pesos thrown in.  Good luck with that whole failing economy thing, rest of America.)

I thought the Alamo was pretty cool.  Having history right in the middle of a major metropolitan city is cool (albeit a bit surprising, as I’ve already noted).  We saw a history of the Bowie knife, a list of people who survived (I confirmed that Davy Crockett was not among them), and got an overall education of what the war was all about.  No, I’m not going to tell you, because really I’m still just a little confused.  Go learn it for yourself.

We also wandered around downtown to the River Walk (el Paseo del Rio) and to the Tower of the Americas, which is basically a smaller space needle complete with a rotating restaurant and overpriced tickets.

The Torch of Friendship is a symbol of Mexico and America working together in harmony. After that whole Alamo thing, anyway.

Yep, pretty much the space needle.

An overhead view of the fountains by the Tower.

It was even prom night. Girls were navigating this terrain in heels!

This water wall made us feel right at home.

Para ti, senorita KK.

KS bonded with the natives.

Jobs and the People Who Love Them

Just a quick update on the jobs front…AKA we both have one!

Also, a huge giant internet hug and THANK YOU to all of you wonderful people who have helped us along the way so far (e.g. attending our going away party, skyping with us, leaving comments on the blog and FB, keeping the faith, etc).

Also also, I have giant mutant mosquito bites from the giant mutant bugs that live down here.  So it begins.

Benign Observations of a New World

Seriously, Texas: you are so awesome in so many ways.  We’ve had an excellent first week getting settled into our little apartment and prepping KS for his first week of women’s work–I mean–ER nursing.  So far so good: he’s made it to work on time both days and only had 2 unsuccessful IV attempts.  Apparently veins are made of jello in Tejas.  He’ll have a detailed update for our nursing friends come later this week.

While KS has been off stamping out pestilence and warding off disease (shout out to Dr. V), The Pants and I have been on the poop spot and new job hunts, respectively.  And update on this scene will come when we have definitive news, as I don’t think the general public has much interest for my opinion of how much the email auto-responders like my credentials.

So instead, here are a few observations we’ve made about Texas and San Antonio thus far.  Keep in mind that San Antonio has 1.3 million people.  Think about that for a second–one period point period three period MILLION people.  That’s a lot of peeps to feed, entertain, transport, and keep from generally rioting, which means there are plenty of things to do and see.

• FOOD:  The obvious first highlight for us has been the food (or comida as we’ve grown to call it).  Highlights so far have included (links are to the Yelp pages where I have invariably provided a review.  What?  I have no job yet!):

Henry’s Puffy Tacos: They fry the MFing shells till their crispy and, yes, puffy.

And beans "charro" style, which means they have too much eyeliner on and like to shimmy a lot.

Taco Cabana: The cheapest, fastest, 24-hour enchilada platters and queso around.  We thought it was good, but apparently we’re gringos.  SURPRISE.

Salsa bars. They are everywhere.

Chacho’s: There are various tiers of Mexican food around these parts (I’m using my own numbering system–patent pending).  Tier 3 is the TC (see above) at which a true Mexicano would eat only when drunk out of his mind and with a gun to his head.  Tier 1 contains the taquerias that look like crack dens but contain rotund grandmas in the back making tortillas by hand and make ingredients like lengua (tongue) and tripe (cow stomach lining) delicious and edible.  Chacho’s is decidedly in Tier 2 for me: a step up from the TC, but not as authentic as it gets.

We ended up getting queso too, let's be honest.

The Malt House: $3 double hamburger basket that came back to bite me in the intestines later.  But with burgers, mexican food, and fried chicken under one cafeteria-style roof, it’s hard to complain about a little indigestion.

• ENTERTAINMENT: It’s Fiesta week!  This is literally a week-long party where fun stuff is going on every night.

Check out the always wonderful KK’s summary of the festivities for the deets.  WARNING: here be genuine line dancing.  And KS kicking my ass at the Cha Cha Slide.

• THE ROADS: Drivers here are many, as there is literally no way of getting anywhere without taking a car.  You could try to bike, but you’d get struck by a vehicle (most likely a truck).  You could take the bus, but you’d probably kill yourself while waiting the agonizingly long time for your ride.  The freeways are also many, as are the lanes.  You know that Mulholland Drive ride at Disney’s California Adventure where your car takes turns at exactly 90 degrees and leaves your stomach in the chevron while continuing on to the next dip in the track?  That’s what the lane changes are like here.  Whipping across 3-4 lanes just to get on to the freeway.  Drivers are overall tolerable, I think.  They actually want to get places, which is refreshing.  However, they can be flat out wusses in the strangest situations, like during a stop at a yield sign to merge onto an access road.  That’s how you get a bent bumper in Texas.

And there's that too.

• LIQUOR: They have it at Costco.  That’s all.

Overall assessment: going to a new place is one of the greatest decisions we’ve made.  We’re totally outside our comfort zones in careers, social life, and driving elements, but we’re totally up for the challenge and learning.  And the booze…did we mention the booze?

The view from our apartment patio looks pretty rosy. Shoutout to Kim's mom for the coffee mugs!

For Your Learnin’

We just stumbled upon perhaps the coolest thing that ties together our life experience in Portland (Keep Portland Weird), Austin (the original, Keep Austin Weird), and SA – it’s called Keep San Antonio Lame (!!!)

"For Texans who know what irony is." via KSAL's Facebook page

Here’s a highlight we’ve found on their MySpace page that gives a little introduction to what we’ll be learning about the city real soon:

You Know You’re From San Antonio When…

You lost your virginity at Mission Drive-In. You know exactly how to get to the Ghost Tracks from anywhere in town. You think pro-choice means flour or corn tortillas. You’ve never been to the Alamo. You think a health drink is a margarita without salt. You think being able to read the Taco Cabana menu makes you bilingual. You used to live in a neighborhood you wouldn’t even drive through now. There has been a road crew on your street since before the Alamodome was built. You remember when Crossroads Mall used to be called Wonderland. You’ve been to Midget Mansion and the Fat Farm. You know all about the Dancing Diablo and the Donkey Lady bridge. You know that Wheatley and Brackenridge is the same school. You remember the Captain Gus show. Your subwoofer has twice the value of your car. You have three rodeo outfits but never have been on a horse. You are an expert with the brake pedal, but you have no idea what a blinker is. Your idea of culture is wearing a Hard Rock T-shirt. You think the last supper was at Mi Tierra. You do your grocery shopping at a flea market. You think local politicians are crooks, but you still do not vote. You have a ‘Selena Lives’ bumper sticker on your car. You care if San Antonio is in the national spotlight. A formal occasion is getting a glass with your longneck. You believe tacos, barbecue, tequila, and beer are the four basic food groups. You think wearing bows in your hair will get you a husband. Your white mother learned how to make tamales & menudo from your neighbors. You know the real definition of Fiesta is ‘stay home if at all possible.’ You have ordered Mexican food at a Chinese restaurant. You had breakfast tacos at Taco Cabana on Christmas morning. You remember the Joske’s Christmas display. You remember when JC Penney’s had a restaurant. You remember hamburgers from Whopper Burger. Your elementary school field trip was to the ButterKrust Bakery. You complain about how cold it is when the temperature dips below 70. (or when it misty rains) Your cholesterol is over 300. You had a birthday party at Kiddie Park. You own an album by, have seen or are even aware of any of the following bands: ‘Moxy’, ‘Legs Diamond’, ‘Trapeze’, ‘Garfield’ and especially ‘Ozz Knozz’ or ‘Heyoka.’ You know what people are talking about when they refer to the ‘hey-she-b.’ (the HEB RULES!) Your idea of a tropical vacation getaway is Port Aransas. You get defensive when your friends from Austin talk about the great show they saw last night. You party with your cousin more than twice a week. You call any convenience store ‘icehouse.’ You have only seen snow once in your life and it was twenty years ago. You think a flash-flood warning means ‘go drive through a low water crossing.’ You have had nightmares about the giant cowboy boots in front of North Star Mall. (these are in the blog header, BTW) You think the exit ramp is your own personal lauch pad. You get annoyed when tourists ask for ‘fa-jite-as.’ You could care less about the Rodeo but never miss the Cowboy Breakfast. You know the location of both the Hanging Tree and the Hollow Tree. You trick-or-treat in every neighborhood in town but your own. You don’t have to look at the menu when you order at Bill Miller. You know “Von Ormy no good.” You have never, ever called this city ‘San Antone.’

Also, we’ll be reading up on our Texas Ettiquette from Kinky Friedman and are VERY much looking forward to the Willie Nelson 4th of July concert with KK and Boolia/Bri-Bri in Austin.

Kinky and Willie for Presidents

Road Trippin’ to Our New Home

We have arrived!  In a flurry of fast food, increasing speed zones, increasingly crazy drivers, and over 2300 miles of towing a 1800-pound trailer with a Toyota Matrix, we are here in beautiful (read: rainy!) San Antonio.

Our Rig, complete with two bikes on the back and a trailer filled front to back (60% in front, of course).

We are absolutely thrilled to be here.  The road was long, boring/insanity-inducing at times, and full of billboards I’d only heard of previously on Ripley’s Believe It or Not.  All said and done though, it was a great ride and we saw some awesome stuff on the way.

NOTE: this post is long, folks.  We have an entire road trip and apartment arrival to get through, so pop some popcorn and grab a frosty cold one if you want to ingest this all at once.  Or just skim the pictures and watch the video at the end.

Our full route from near PDX to SA with stops in Reno, NV, Yucca Valley, CA, and Phoenix, AZ.

DAY ONE: Oregon snow to Reno light show

We set off from Salem, OR with used McDonald’s gift cards in hand (thank you, McSkillet burrito, for starting off all the gastrointestinal fun of the trip) and headed south to Eugene.  At this point, the trip just felt like a jaunt back to school for me, but I knew we were in the big time when we took a turn east and headed for Klamath Falls.  We weaved over the mountains with plenty of snow around, Mandy the Matrix revving her little engine like life depended on it.  These were (obviously) some of the most beautiful views of the trip because a) we were still in the NW and 2) we were still in the glow of road trip adventure-ness.

Beautiful lake...something. (Ed. note: O'Dell lake, here's looking at you Randy)

Riley's small-yet-comparatively-comfy spot in the backseat

Riley loved the snow. Or maybe just being out of the car.

We stopped in K-Falls where we had a greasy trucker lunch at Mollie’s upon recommendation from our good friend A-Davis.  Let me just say right now that we had a big ol’ bottle of Tums in the car and they came in very handy.  When we finally made it over the mountains, we crossed the California border, where we were cavity searched and Riley was forced to sell his kidney to bail us out of border jail.  Not really, but they did ask if I had any fresh produce in the car.  Eastern California is very different from Eastern Oregon, in that there is nothing scenic and so few small towns along the freeway, I thought my intestines just might burst out of my middle and do a potty dance on my dashboard.  Check the map of this leg of the journey and trust me: it was much worse than it looks.

We landed around 7:30 in Reno, which we now call mini-but-cooler-Vegas.  Our wonderful friend Alicia not only let us crash at her place but took us out with the Guatemalan sisters she works with to an excellent sports bar.  We enjoyed rounds of tall MGD’s/Bud Lights (they’re very different, mind you) and a delicious pizza with ranch sauce and a fat content higher than my blood pressure while we were navigating mountain passes.

DAY TWO: Border Patrol Adventure

The fun part of this day was going back across the California border after leaving Reno and hearing the patrol officers joke about getting a cavity search when we stopped at the border the day before.  I wish I could take credit for that earlier joke, but it’s really thanks to the California taxpayers.

We saw some awesome sunsets on the road. Night driving is...exciting.

Today also marked the second sketchiest gas station stop of the trip.  It was at sundown, right off the little highway we were on.  We were the only people there and the guy closing up the station didn’t look at us once.  The pump was rickety and barely worked and we thought we were going to be axe murdered in the middle of Eastern nowhere California.  In other words, we were extremely relieved when we reached the Super 8 in Yucca Valley, CA that night around 10:30.  The Pizza Hut down the street didn’t close until 11:00, so that was a big time score.  One pepperoni and olive pizza and two episodes of Family Guy later, we had a very restful night of hotel sleep.

DAY THREE: I can see Palm Springs from here!

Upon waking up, we realized it was approximately a billion degrees out and all we had packed for the three days of driving we had left were jeans.  So we took a walk over to the Wal-Mart and got some shorts and sunscreen.  MUCH better.

U-haul+Super 8 = winner

KS is a bit of a national park nerd.  We had stopped at Mono Lake the day before, and I even let him take the time to watch their award winning documentary Fire and Ice: The Story of Mono Lake while Riley and I sniffed and subsequently peed on all the native plant life.  But today was the big park day: Joshua Tree National Park.  It’s a windy and very scenic road that goes all the way through the park in about an hour (in a Matrix towing a trailer of course).  We took a detour to one of the scenic overlooks where we could see all of the Salton Sea and even clear to Palm Springs.

If we lived in Palm Springs, we could have seen our house from here.

My boys checking out the view

A Joshua Tree, in case you were wondering.

After our scenic adventure, we headed for the CA/AZ border and stopped at a little town called Blythe, CA.  If you ever go on a road trip that takes you close to the Arizona/California border, DO NOT stop in Blythe, CA.  It is an ugly city with an ugly McDonald’s and people who do know to wear shoes in public restrooms.  There’s no greater entertaining story here, we just need all of you to arm yourselves with knowledge and stay away.  It was with great joy that we left SE California behind us and hit Arizona.

This is an awesome state flag, by the by.

We stayed with our wonderful friends Kayla and Jon, who made us authentic SW style tacos.  We slept with the patio door open and couldn’t drink the water.  Welcome to the Southern states!

DAY FOUR AND FIVE: Onward and let’s get the hell out of here

We don’t have many pictures from the last two days because let’s be honest: it was really freakin’ boring.  Scenic, mind you, but extremely boring.  We also advise avoiding Southern New Mexico at all costs. We covered over half the miles of our trip in these last two days in a burst of what we like to call “balls to the wall” motoring.

Overall, we have a few pieces of roadtrip advice:

• Bring audiobooks, reusable cups, a stocked cooler with drinks and extra water, fiber caplets, and an emergency stick of deodorant
• Use the unstoppable combination of Google Maps printouts, a GPS, and a smartphone to never be lost and only fight on occasion with your copilot
• The Super 8 is your friend if you’ve got a 4-legged friend – they accept pets, are cheap, and are in every imaginable city.  Lie to them if your dog is over 25 pounds.
• Only get gas at exits where you see a gas symbol on the sign.  Not following this instruction is a quick way to get yourself lost and perhaps shot.
• Bring shorts.
• Use teamwork.  Gas stops, hotel check-ins, lunch breaks – having a buddy is always better than going it along.  Remember this when you want to kill each other over skipping a rest stop.

And now the moment we’ve all been waiting for: our road trip in cinematic form.  Please excuse the Blair Witch-style camera work and profanity.  Also sorry about the Oregon crack.  We were tired and sweaty.

Cram Session

Its the night before the big day. The car is packed, Rileypants is perched atop the leather coach, and the Vander Clan house is quiet. There’s just one problem. . . . Its 12:17 and we’re still awake furiously catching up on all those last minute  correspondences we’ve been meaning to get to. Whether its the brilliant glow of 27″ iMac or the fear of being without internet for the next day, these tasks seem too important to let wait.

Here are a few things that have been on our minds…

1. Obviously, we have to give a HUGE ‘Tip of the Hat’ to our good friend T-MAN who was officially offered an internship with a production studio called 44 Blue, he rambled on some bullshit about how they give creative control to the interns, but we all know that’s just so you don’t take compromising pictures of stars with your camera phone.
2. We suddenly realized that a last day of 997 miles probably wasn’t going to do good things for our relationship, and then realizing that there is literally NOTHING around our half-way point of that leg. I mean, when the only roads on the screen are ‘Farm to Market Road 3078’ and ‘Ranch Road 2189’ one starts to realize just how desolate West Texas really is.
3. Leaving our families has to be one of the hardest things about this move. As my mother cried as we parted ways I felt the true breadth of the love she has for me. I have been so caught up in the economic, scheduling, and logistical challenges I’ve forgotten that trips home to see family are going to be much less frequent. KV and I have been amazed at how supportive, encouraging, and engaged they have been with the whole moving process, whether it is buying gift cards to Target or both families buying us coolers for the long car ride down. We definitely have the Chex Mix situation taken care of.

And now a video!

Finding the right digs

I have to admit, when we first decided to make the big leap down south, there was a rather…extensive laundry list of things to get done before we leave.  This included but is still not limited to:

• Rent a U-haul trailer (and get the hitch installed)
• Put some love and elbow grease into my little Matrix so she can make the 2600-mile trek
• Plan our 2600-mile route
• Sell the majority of our earthly belongings
• Buy stock in sunscreen
• Spend lots of time with everyone we love in Oregon (…in 3 weeks)

But perhaps the most important piece of the puzzle was finding a place to live in SA.  There’s apparently a norm in Tejas that when it comes to apartment shopping, we laypeople are not entirely qualified to find living quarters on our own.  We found a fabulous Property Locater named Laurette who helped us shop in the neighborhood we wanted.  Basically, she knows her way around a neighborhood or two and gets commissions from the apt complexes when she refers us to them.  Quasi-impartial, free to us, and very helpful.  Sign me up!

So in case you’re wondering, hur’s the SA:

And hur’s our apartment:

We’re going to be living at the Alta Roxbury, which makes KS tickled in all kinds of ways.  We get things like a pool, on site gym, an enclosed dog park, and a billiards room (for all the billiards we play) included in rent, which means we better find some floaties and a bowler hat for Rileypants.