On my way....
Heading down to K.Falls again, once again I'm taking nothing but trains from my house to my parents' house, so of course I'm stuck at Union Station in Portland for about three forevers, since the WES train stops running just before 9am, and my train south doesn't get here until 2:25, IF it's running on-schedule.
Which, because it's Amtrak, it never is. Ah well. At least this time I managed to get onto somebody's unsecured wifi. Last time I was here there was an unsecured signal, but it was a really crappy strength. Dunno what they changed, but I'm grateful!
I got a one-way ticket this time, because my goal in going down this time, is to help my parents make some serious progress on their goddamn house. They've been building the dratted thing pretty much since I moved out on my own, 7 years ago, and it's STILL not done.
So, given that Patrick and I managed to remodel our house in just a couple of years, with a great deal of the progress being made on it in the last year, we think that if I go down there and just stay for a couple weeks I'll be able to make some progress. Because my parents keep talking about how they're so unhappy living in K.Falls, but they "can't afford" to live further north in Oregon, and they keep spouting off some craziness about moving to North Carolina or somesuch.
I grew up never knowing my grandparents, because my dad doesn't get along with his family, and my mom just moved away from hers because her mom was crazy and her dad drove her crazy. My maternal grandmother passed away a few years ago. I talked to her on the phone all of... four times, I think? My maternal grandfather lives in Central California. I haven't talked to him since I moved out on my own. He's sent a few xmas cards, always in response to my sending him one first. Last year I didn't send out xmas cards... and I didn't get one from him. When I was a little girl I remember writing to my "Poppa" and calling him, begging him to come up and visit me. He always had one excuse or another. My paternal grandfather died of emphysema when I was 4 or 5. I had met him once in my life up to that point, and I was too little to even remember it. For years I thought I'd never met him, until I learned from Dad that yes, I had met him when I was very little. My paternal grandmother has never wanted to get to know me, because mom and I are dad's "second" family, and since I'm not actually his daughter by blood, I apparently wasn't good enough for her, or something.
I refuse to have my children have a similar situation as I had, growing up. I will always be envious of Patrick, for his close relationship with his grandmother. So we need to get my parents up here, so that the children that we'll hopefully be having in the next year will always have the change to interact with BOTH sets of grandparents.
So I'm going down to k.falls for a couple weeks to help them make progress on their house, so that they can refinance it out of the horribly-high-interest "construction loan" they've been stuck in for the last 5-odd years, and maybe even sell it, like they keep saying they want to do, If they can find the right buyer for their house, they'd have the money to be able to get a house up in the Portland area. Or even within 3 hours of portland would work for me. I'm sick of them being a day-long commute away from me, and we're stuck in Portland for the forseeable future, due to Patrick's job.
His family isn't going anywhere, they're gonna be in their current locations for a long time yet. So I just need to drag my parents up here, and things will be better. I'm tired of my mom and I both not having a decent family-type support network nearby, we both need that.
In a couple weeks Patrick is gonna take vacation time *gasp!* and come down to visit me and my parents, and then he and I will come home together. I'm gonna miss him, this will be the longest we've been apart since we moved back in together!
I'll also find out if finally, this is the month we finally have success on the baby-making front while I'm down at my parents' house. If it is, I just hope I can manage to supress my glee over the news until I can tell Patrick, he'd be frustrated if he finds out AFTER my mom. ^_^
holy CRAP the wi-fi on this netbook eats the battery. I'm gonna end my stream-of-thought ramblings here, and go pirate some electricity from one of the myriad of irritatingly-placed power outlets around here. Toodles~
Which, because it's Amtrak, it never is. Ah well. At least this time I managed to get onto somebody's unsecured wifi. Last time I was here there was an unsecured signal, but it was a really crappy strength. Dunno what they changed, but I'm grateful!
I got a one-way ticket this time, because my goal in going down this time, is to help my parents make some serious progress on their goddamn house. They've been building the dratted thing pretty much since I moved out on my own, 7 years ago, and it's STILL not done.
So, given that Patrick and I managed to remodel our house in just a couple of years, with a great deal of the progress being made on it in the last year, we think that if I go down there and just stay for a couple weeks I'll be able to make some progress. Because my parents keep talking about how they're so unhappy living in K.Falls, but they "can't afford" to live further north in Oregon, and they keep spouting off some craziness about moving to North Carolina or somesuch.
I grew up never knowing my grandparents, because my dad doesn't get along with his family, and my mom just moved away from hers because her mom was crazy and her dad drove her crazy. My maternal grandmother passed away a few years ago. I talked to her on the phone all of... four times, I think? My maternal grandfather lives in Central California. I haven't talked to him since I moved out on my own. He's sent a few xmas cards, always in response to my sending him one first. Last year I didn't send out xmas cards... and I didn't get one from him. When I was a little girl I remember writing to my "Poppa" and calling him, begging him to come up and visit me. He always had one excuse or another. My paternal grandfather died of emphysema when I was 4 or 5. I had met him once in my life up to that point, and I was too little to even remember it. For years I thought I'd never met him, until I learned from Dad that yes, I had met him when I was very little. My paternal grandmother has never wanted to get to know me, because mom and I are dad's "second" family, and since I'm not actually his daughter by blood, I apparently wasn't good enough for her, or something.
I refuse to have my children have a similar situation as I had, growing up. I will always be envious of Patrick, for his close relationship with his grandmother. So we need to get my parents up here, so that the children that we'll hopefully be having in the next year will always have the change to interact with BOTH sets of grandparents.
So I'm going down to k.falls for a couple weeks to help them make progress on their house, so that they can refinance it out of the horribly-high-interest "construction loan" they've been stuck in for the last 5-odd years, and maybe even sell it, like they keep saying they want to do, If they can find the right buyer for their house, they'd have the money to be able to get a house up in the Portland area. Or even within 3 hours of portland would work for me. I'm sick of them being a day-long commute away from me, and we're stuck in Portland for the forseeable future, due to Patrick's job.
His family isn't going anywhere, they're gonna be in their current locations for a long time yet. So I just need to drag my parents up here, and things will be better. I'm tired of my mom and I both not having a decent family-type support network nearby, we both need that.
In a couple weeks Patrick is gonna take vacation time *gasp!* and come down to visit me and my parents, and then he and I will come home together. I'm gonna miss him, this will be the longest we've been apart since we moved back in together!
I'll also find out if finally, this is the month we finally have success on the baby-making front while I'm down at my parents' house. If it is, I just hope I can manage to supress my glee over the news until I can tell Patrick, he'd be frustrated if he finds out AFTER my mom. ^_^
holy CRAP the wi-fi on this netbook eats the battery. I'm gonna end my stream-of-thought ramblings here, and go pirate some electricity from one of the myriad of irritatingly-placed power outlets around here. Toodles~