OUR NEW HOUSE

We finally moved to our new house in Raleigh, NC. Well, the house is actually not new at all, it being almost 30 years old. But it's new to us, so there you have it.

The first couple of days were pretty miserable, to put it mildly. We didn't get here until Saturday night and there's nothing worse than arriving to a new place at night. It is completely disorienting and demoralizing. Plus the weather was really bad - rainy and cold.

My brother, who was helping us move our meager belongings, and Chris brought all the boxes into the living room. I brought Xander in. He got so scared, poor thing, that he ran straight for one of the closets and refused to come out even when I was trying to coax him with his favorite treats. That was very much like the episode of the South Park in which Tom Cruise locks himself in the closet - very funny, but a bit sad too.

We had cold water and electricity, but no heat since our forced air system and water heater run on gas. We also had no phone service and no Internet. And did I mention we had no furniture at all? If this did not add to the misery of the whole thing, then I don't know what would've. Our realtor, Galina, stopped by with some home cooked food which we ate off of paper plates and with our hands (couldn't find any silverware).

It was really getting late and very cold. The best thing seemed to just go to bed. My brother rolled out his sleeping bag and made himself semi-comfortable in the corner of the kitchen. Chris and I huddled under a couple of blankets on a squeeky air mattress upstairs. All in all, we looked much like some bums at a bus station.

The next morning, after my brother left, we went shopping. Basically, we need pretty much everything for the house and it does feel like we're starting completely over. There were so many little everyday things that we had to buy, that we kept forgetting something or other.

But today is day 3 at our new house and things seem to be getting back to normal. Three major achievements were getting Internet connection, hot water and heating (read - showers and warm bedroom), and a new mattress. Yes, we're the proud owners of a brand new and a very comfortable Sealy and since we upgraded to queen sized one, there's plenty of room. It feels so good after months of sleeping on an old crappy mattress and especially after a couple of nights on a tiny air mattress.

Xander is back to normal and he runs around exploring all the rooms, jumping on counters, tearing toilet paper to shreds and being in general a pain in the neck, but still adorable. And that's all the news for now.