"What was so hard about that?"

Today I found the Nashua Mall. Easy peasy. Someone should point out the differnce between Nashua Drive and Nashua Street to google maps. Anyway, the concept of a "mall" here differs from my Southwestern concept of "mall."

I anticipated a large indoor collection of stores, much like the Pheasant Lane Mall (you know, like Simon malls), but instead I found a cluster of seperate outdoor buildings bordered by a huge parking lot. Totally cool, but not what I was expecting.

I loved the closeness of all the great stores, especially the baby stores. Tyoma is officially a toddler, but Babies R’Us still has cool clothes and toys. I treated him to a cool educational toy to compensate for the batch of toys abandoned at the last minute in New Mexico. I should have picked him up some little gloves while I was at LL Bean, but I felt tired.

After the mall trip, I detoured to Lincoln Park for a little outing. I met another mother, my age (yay!) with a little boy Tyoma’s age. Tyoma was a good head taller than her son, James, and T seemed like a sumo wrestler compared to J's petite frame, but the little guy had a killer grip. He grabbed Tyoma’s fingers and squeezed so hard that James’ knuckles turned white. Tyoma was more astonished than hurt, and James looked rather placid, as if his superior knowledge of other kids was worth the ten pounds Tyoma had on him. I really liked Amy, who gave me her contact info and a few recommendations for daycare. Cool.

Two Hour Tour

I spent two hours this morning looking for the "Nashua Mall," only to find that google maps had it all wrong.

My trip looked super-easy from internet. Left here, right there, 101a this, Main Street that and viola! The reality was far grimmer. It took me an hour to realize that 101a magically manifests itself as a number of streets, many of which are not clearly labeled and a few of which take convoluted and unexpected turns. Once I finally found the “Canal Street” branch of 101a, I drove by “Nashua” drive (twice) before turning around and pulling into a shabby parking lot that was indicated as belonging to the mall. The lot looked more like a lot adjacent to the border crossing at Juarez than a lot to a classy East Coast mall.

Lampposts on every row bore intimidating "PRIVATE PARKING: ALL OTHERS WILL BE TOWED AT OWNERS EXPENSE" signs. Perplexed, I drove up and down the parking lot looking for “MALL PARKING FOR CLUELESS MIDDLE AGED WOMEN, HAVE A NICE DAY! ” signs. Finally, I located a sign declaring “BAE PERSONEL PARKING ONLY.” I left in disgust.

Disoriented, I naturally took off in wrong direction, winding up in Some Strange Town. Hmmph. During the trip, Tyoma’s complaints reached an aggravating crescendo despite the snacks I gave him. I should have been suspicious when he became suddenly very quiet, but I was too relieved to care. Unsurprisingly, he fell into a deep black sleep, which lasted just long enough to guarantee that he would skip today’s nap.

After arriving home, feeding baby and consulting the internet, I realized that the directions that google gave me were whack. Why it sent me to a parking lot off Nashua drive I’ll never know. (E.T.A. Nashua Mall is off of Nashua Street, not Nashua Drive; google maps confused the two addresses). 

After frazzled nerves were mended on both sides of our generations, Tyoma and I took off to find the Pheasant Lane Mall. Big signs abounded. Despite a wrong turn or two, we made it in a half an hour (mapquest says 21 minutes). We celebrated by gorging on Chick Fil-a sandwiches and waffle fries. My bright-eyed baby was clearly impressed by the merry-go-rounds, slides, play yards, miniature train station and row after row of colorful kiosks featuring breakable items. We passed by a bigheaded, slightly creepy Easter Bunny who waved at us. Tyoma looked at me with astonishment, as if to say “You’re freaking, kidding me, right?!”  

I came home feeling very satisfied, as if I had just handed in a killer composition to a sniffy professor who did not appreciate my genius. Heh.

Still Recovering

Still recovering from the flu that zapped mom, though not as tired as yesterday. Picked up monster vacuum from Sears, laundry and did some cooking. Moongate water aggravation--they turned off our water!!! I'm pretty unhappy since no water means that our pool pump could die. Engaged in some fist shaking at Moongate water, asking who's responsible, finally called my realtor who gave me the name of owner of company. The  blithe girl at Moongate Water actually followed up. Turns out leak was out in street not at our place. Duh. She should have told me this Monday!

Isty Bitsy Flu Bug

I'm going to die if I read this once more!!! Six times today! My day started out swell with dual shopping trips to Sears and Market Basket in the snow. Tyoma protested me putting his hood up by stiffening up like a board. Why bother with the hood when the end result is still a face full of snow?

Aww, well. After I stuffed my astonished snow covered child in his carseat, I was overcome by fatigue. I still had to drive home and haul him up two flights of stairs. Sigh. During the tiny one's nap, I watched Feast. It was a surprisingly good movie for a lowbudget horror/comedy. It was very gory at the beginning, and with an upset stomach, my tummy lurched a few times, but I soldiered through. It was damn funny. Unexpected! BTW, Henry Rollins, you sexy beast, thank you for owning your grey hair and for being a convincing actor. :) Super campy!

New Car!

It's pretty much a given that we need to get a new car, but with everything going on, I just didn't have the energy to lug the little guy around town while E looked for the newest member of the family.  He was so happy when I said, "Go on with out me, just give me a call before you buy anything."

He came home at lunch with a blue Camry, eyes aglow. I trotted down with squirmer, asked E how he liked it and trying to hide his jubilance, he said, "It's really nice."  I didn't want to keep him in suspense, so I said, "Cool. Let's get it!"

He was so happy and excited!  He drove back, made a down payment and scheduled car pick up for tomorrow. Unbelievable! We pick our brand new car up tomorrow. Smokey Joe has a sibling. Yay!

My Totally Insane Day Before the Big Airplane Trip

 Just thinking about today makes my fingers jam up! Here’s a quick and easy chronology of my day:

I called Hertz at 7:00 a.m. to confirm car rental for the airport trip. Hertz goofed up my reservation, resulting in telephone crankiness. Nicole at Hertz sweetly squared everything away, nevertheless.

At 8:00 am, I dashed off to pick up rental car with Tyoma in tow. Hilton parking lot was JAMMED full of cars. I found the last space in the lot. Turns out, the Western Pecan Growers Association was having its annual meeting this morning. Jolly farmers in plaid shirts were everywhere.

The rental car, a monstrous Ford Expedition, partially blocked traffic in the lot since I parked illegally behind B.T. to install the car seat. Tyoma squalled as I fiddled with the seat, simultaneously freaked out by pecan growers in big deisel trucks inching around the Expedition and the strangeness of the super huge rental car’s interior.

We got home after 9:00 to find that the cleaning crew from Merry Maids consisted not of the three girls I was promised, but by one stressed out twenty-two year old named “Memorie.” I immediately quipped, “I bet everyone remembers your name.” Instantly I felt like an ass, so I quickly added, “Sorry, you must hear that a thousand times.” We had a little laugh (she probably hears that a lot, too). Having a new person in the house pushed Tyoma over the edge. He was inconsolable for the next twenty minutes.

The next few hours bounced between comforting Tyoma, packing up stuff and calling Mom, who had gotten ill. To compound matters, Dad had been selected for jury duty this morning, so he was not able to help Mom out as expected. Around one, Mom was still feeling sick so we cancelled her trip. It will work out better for her to come at another time anyway, without the insane rush.

At 1:30 the carpet cleaners came and Tyoma officially declared his nap skipped with lusty, heart-wrenching wails. Memorie was still cleaning house. To spare everyone the agonized shrieks of my son, I hauled Tyoma off to the post office where I mailed three final boxes of book to NH.

I was the mother with “that uncontrollable child” in line. I ran another errand or two and arrived home in time to write the carpet guy a check and to wave farewell to Memorie—she had been at our place for almost six hours (with ample tip in hand).

Ten minutes later, I realized that Memorie had not finished cleaning all of the household’s cabinets. I felt so sorry for her, but darn it, Merry Maids charged me an arm and a leg for the cleaning and they needed to complete the job or give me money. Another cranky phone call instantly made me $100 richer. All I had to do was drop off a check for the price adjustment before 5:00 (30 minutes from phone call). On the bright side, Tyoma is now less freaked by the Expedition.

At 6:15 I realized that I seriously underestimated luggage capacity, especially with Mom not coming. My carry on items were so overloaded that I had to leave one of his new travel toys behind and pack another in the checked luggage. Curses! Fortunately his cool magnetic gear thingy fit fine! Other toys and clothing items from the checked luggage were left behind, too—everything was way too heavy!!!

Near 7:00, I remembered that I was going to freeze my butt off sleeping on an air mattress in the sunroom. I had to relocate my bed since the carpets were still wet and smelly from the earlier cleaning. I frantically called Ewbliette and asked her to rescue me. She brought a blanket and a fluffy animal print comforter. Heh. Too bad my suitcases were so full, I’ve always liked that comforter….

It was so good to see her and say goodbye (sob!). It was even better that she helped me pack the last two suitcases and weigh everything (twice!). After she left, I seemed to find innumerable tiny things to occupy myself with until 10, when I passed out.

Our New Home!!!

Long story short, we picked out our new home! It's in Merrimcack, not too far from the turnpike and in a lovely neighborhood! Yay! It was one of our two top choices and we were able to get it for a wonderful price. The downside is, of course, some ugliness installed by the former owners. The kitchen is painted bright mustard yellow with a grotesque wallpaper border featuring plump, psychotic figures in chef's hats. This clashes outrageously with the pickled oak cabinets and forest green countertops. Brr!



But hey, painting is easy! And new, muted countertops to match? Hmmm...maybe a Christmas present for the house next year! It'll be loverly! The rest of the home is very lovely and very neutral, excepting for the family room adjacent to the kitchen, which is inexplicably mint green:



Whoa!I had seen this property on the internet in Las Cruces and ruled it out completely since the downstairs looked so funky. I'll post some more pics later! Yay!

Our Apartment!

Tah-dah! First the main room:

Tyoma's room:

The kitchen:

Our room:

Sorry if the shots are crooked, my photoshop is back in 'Cruces! We're on the third floor, which means a hike up the stairs to haul suitcases and groceries. The night we got in, I thought we would perish. After nine hours of travel and little sleep, bumping three hundred pounds of luggage up two flights of stairs was murder.

"What! There's no elevator?!" I gasped at the well groomed receptionist. Heh. To her credit she replied with an offer of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. Eh, life is full of trade offs. Tennisfiend singlehandedly manhandled the crib and changing table up the stairs to my complete astonishment. Watching him teeter and grunt sent a chill down my spine. Visions of his tragic death, bent and mangled at the bottom of the stairs, crushed by the festive "Sleigh Crib" box were hard to shake off even after we assembled the entire nursery. Brrrr. I wonder how Mom will manage the stairs. Heck, I wonder how I will manage the stairs carrying a squirmy 18 month old!? As if generations were felled by flights of stairs. Heh.

He looks like he knows that we are going to New Hamphire and leaving him behind!

Last Wheelbarrow Ride in Las Cruces

*sniff* It's hard saying goodbye. Tennisfiend will be leaving in two weeks for New Hampshire. For-ever. Goodbye first home!