Alien Spouse

Questions and Answers.

We went back to the NCDMV today to re-submit my (totally fine and not at all expired) immigration papers, and that seemed to go smoothly.  Of course, it seemed to go smoothly last time as well, but the examiner this time was aware that it had already been messed up once so he got a colleague to come and double-check his work before submitting it.  He also apologised for the inconvenience and thanked me for my patience; I said it was just one of those things, so it didn't seem worth getting het up about, but, if it made better material for teasing the other guy, that he should say I totally flipped out about it.

I have to say I wasn't best pleased about having my photo taken again today, because I didn't bother to put any make-up on this morning.  So the photo is bound to be even worse than the last one. Oh well, these things are not meant to be flattering are they?

On the way back we stopped to get some Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.  It always takes me slightly longer to make a decision than Doc C so he ordered his first, then the lady behind the counter turned to me and asked "And you?  What are you having?" To which Doc C chirpily replied "It's a girl!" to her evident confusion, because she couldn't actually see my bump over the counter and meant what doughnut did I want.  Hilarity ensued, and I don't think I stopped giggling to myself for the next hour.

Doc C is on a hair-trigger as far as questions about the baby go, clearly!

Happy Little Cat.

In other news, Nancy is very happy with this warm weather.  Very very happy.

State of Annoyance.

I seriously feel like the state of North Carolina is messing with me. 

First of all my old town sent me a letter calling me for jury duty practically on the day I move to a different county, and it's for the 13th of August (so, in case you haven't been keeping track, just at the point where my waters could break any minute). Oh, AND, in any case, I'm a resident alien, which is not an American citizen, so why I'm being called for jury duty I do not know. Ugh.

Anyway...

The court's letter had a series of tick boxes for reasons that you could be excused without needing to actually go to the court house and explain yourself to the judge.  Not being a citizen wasn't one of them, so I went with what seemed like the easy option; not being a resident of the county.  As proof of this they require a driver's licence, which I don't have, so last Monday we went to the NC Department of Motor Vehicles to get a State ID for me.  To do this I queued, I smiled nicely at NCDMV employees, I provided the relevant paperworks and proofs, I signed things, I paid $10 and then I posed for what is bound to be a really unflattering photo.

Today I got a letter from the NCDMV saying there was a problem, and that to resolve the issue I needed to supply non-expired immigration paperwork.  My Permanent Resident Card doesn't expire until 2019, so I was slightly perplexed by this request as you may imagine.

So I called the number on the NCDMV's letter to ask what they meant, and that number didn't work.  Of course.  So I called the main number, navigated the automated torture system and, after being kept on hold for half an hour and being bounced around between three different NCDMV employees, I was eventually told that my details had been entered in the wrong place in the computer - So I have to go back and resubmit them!  It's their mistake, I didn't do anything wrong, all of my paperwork is in perfect order but I have to go back to their office and start the process from scratch. The really frustrating part is that the NCDMV can see that the right  forms were submitted by me, but they can't correct the mistake they made without me going back to their office. Ugh.

Which wouldn't be so problematic if I didn't need to get back to the court by the 6th with a solid reason why I can't sit on the jury, so we really needed the State ID to be ready this week.  Ugh.

At this point I called the court clerk's office and explained the situation.  There was bemused silence, and then the woman at the other end of the phone line said "Well, just fill out the form and return it".  OK, but the tick boxes don't cover two of the three reasons I'm asking to be excused because of, and the third reason I don't have the required proof for.  Silence.  Should I just write a letter and attach it to the form?  Yeah... Do that, yeah.

So I did, my letter says:

Please excuse Jennifer from Jury Duty, because a) she doesn't live in your county, b) she is, like, SO pregnant and c) she is NOT a citizen and is therefore not allowed to bloody well serve on a jury you muppets!  UGH!

Ok, I paraphrase slightly but you get the idea.  Hopefully that will take care of the jury duty, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

As for the State ID, at this point I'd be inclined to say bugger it because I don't really need it, but I paid $10 in cold hard cash for the thing (that was another thing - the NCDMV don't take cards, only cash or cheques but they don't tell you that until you go to pay.  At which point you are directed a couple of miles up the roud to the nearest bank!); and, ok, it does get a little tedious explaining the permanent resident card every time I want to buy a beer.

Still. Ugh NC, UGH!

An Afternoon in the Arboretum.

This afternoon we decided to go to the North Carolina Arboretum which us about twenty minutes drive from our flat.

It is amazing.  If you ever come to visit Asheville I would highly recommend spending a few hours here, for one thing the only charge is $8 for parking a car so it is a veritable bargain.

We started off in the exhibition center which is currently hosting an exhibit called "Wicked Plants" which was just like Halloween in July - So, clearly, it charmed the hell out of me, and convinced me that every plant I saw after that was going to seriously maim me.  Fun!  The exhibit was set out as a haunted house, with family portraits of the anthropomorphised plants and different rooms illustrating the various ways that plants could take a person down.  It was just so well done, and had so many clever details; it made me quite jealous, because I realised that I would love to have a job as a designer of exhibits like this!  How does one go about doing that?

The arboretum itself is spread over 434 acres, and 65 of those acres are arranged as gardens and hiking trails - So we definitely only saw a fraction of what there is to be seen.  Doc C was particularly charmed by the bonsai garden, which was just stunning.

After a noce lunch in the education center's cafe, we strolled around the Stream Garden and the Quilt Garden before heading home.

We both had a lovely afternoon, and discussed buying an annual membership because it is so close to our new home and it is so very lovely.  I can't wait to take Eva there for an afternoon, and my Mum can almost certainly expect to be taken there when she come to visit.  Bring your walking shoes, Mum!

Sleeps.

On Thursday I was tired and ratty all day (pity Doc C who was stuck in the car with me for most of it, as we had a few things to sort out back at our old town), because madam had kept me awake all night with her wriggling around - which is great, because it means she's healthy and awake, but it felt like she didn't stop moving for the whole night and most of the day.  That got, quite frankly, a little wearing and I assume that this is merely Eva's way of initiating me into the sleepless nightmare that will be her first few months of life...

So it was nice to get a whole ten hours of sleep last night!  I felt so much better this morning, and I got a whole bunch of stuff done around the apartment to prove it!

It's a shame you can't stock pile sleep, isn't it?  Because then my teenage years would really have been of some serious value going into this whole parenthood lark.

In One Calendar Month.

Eva is due to be born on the 26th of August, so in one calendar month from now.  Which is most peculiar.

As the due date gets nearer, my bump gets bigger and the whole thing gets so much realer, I've been having lots of those kind of thoughts.  For example I un-packaged a new toothbrush on Tuesday night ("un-wrapped" sounds wrong in relation to a toothbrush, because they are in those weird individual pseudo-box containers), and, as I began brushing my teeth with it, the thought occured to me "I will have a baby before I get a new toothbrush".

Naturally I shared this thought with Doc C after I'd got into bed, and he was suitably awed by the concept.  Dude. Whoah.

Eva's Heart-Beat in Asheville.

Fine.  "Downton Abbey" is streaming on Netflix.  I'll watch it, otherwise I'll never be able to understand every other reference on half the blogs I read.

Still too hot here, but we got a bunch of stuff done today.  We had an appointment with my new Ob Gyn where we heard Eva's heart-beat and discussed the swelling of my feet (totes normal for this stage of the prgnancy AND the current heat etc etc).  I also completed the on-line pre-admission for the delivery in ONE MONTH'S TIME. OHMYGOD.

Too Damn Hot.

It is far too hot to blog at the moment.  My brain won't work.

Mostly I'm waddling from one room in the flat to another as the day progresses and the sun moves around the building, I'm constantly hoping to find some difference in temperature, but I think it's mostly psychological.  I have developed a deep attachment for the ceiling fan in the bedroom, and actually just lay beneath it and napped for about five hours yesterday.

Both cats think this weather is heavenly, and are spending most of their time sunbathing on the balcony.  They are weird.

Sixth Day in the Flat.

More unpacking - But we only have two full boxes and a box three quarters full of coat hangers.  Coat hangers are one of the most mysterious of objects, there are never enough to keep all of my clothes organised and yet, when we came to move house, we had about eleven billion of the bloody things.

We also visited our storage unit, dismantled the sofa and hired a small van to bring it back to the flat. In the four constituent pieces we could easily carry it up the stairs and set it up.  It is GLORIOUS to have a proper sofa again, instead of just sitting on the sofa cushions.  I also don't think I'd actually be able to sit on floor cushions for more than a couple more weeks.

I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've ever had the luxury of moving house, and then not having to go straight back to work the next day.  It is such a luxury being able to unpack and get all of the rooms organised properly, without it being in the evenings after working all day.  I can recommend it. Of course Doc C and I couldn't figure out if today was Tuesday or Wednesday, but that's a small price to pay for a living room that's tidy already and being able to find things when I want them without going through 3 suitcases and a stack of boxes first.

Finally Edith had a face off with our neighbourhood enormous squirrel.  The squirrel was clinging to the vine that climbs the front of the building and chittering at Edith who was sitting on the balcony staring at it.  We intervened before it escalated, much to Edith's evident disgust.

The Bella of Cars.

A quick summary: Last week we moved to a new flat in a new city, where we are expecting to have a baby in about 6 or 7 weeks time.  Naturally this is the perfect time to also buy a new (used) car.

So we did.

We traded in the red Mini and got a black Honda Fit.  It's nice!  It's not a Mini (which we must have said at least 50 times today - we were, after all, at a Mini dealership, surrounded by Minis and everyone in the building was wearing a t-shirt proclaiming their love of Minis), but it's nice!

Of course my good opinion was immediately secured when we went for our test drive, because when I opened the car door it smelled like a really nice packet of orange almond cookies.  We now own a car that smells delicious.  Beat that!

Three Days After the Move.

It is SO nice to have the internet up and running again, even if it is the old school cable version until we pick up our own wireless router (It's a bit mean of Charter to not tell you they are retracting wireless, if only because it means the poor engineer on the job has to explain why he's taking your old wireless router away with him. I could tell our guy was sick of having that conversation.)

Anyway, we are here in Asheville now and just getting the flat organised.  It feels like for every box I unpack there are another three lurking behind it, but we are making some progress I'm sure.  Hey at least we've got the kettle out, so we can have tea!

Both cats seem to have settled in already, it helps a lot that the apartment is surrounded by trees so they have plenty of birds to stare at longingly.  We've also let them out onto the balcony, because there really isn't any way they can get off it (apart from old-fashioned jumping, which I'm not totally convinced they wouldn't be stupid enough to try).  This is a huge success with both cats, and I'm 90% sure they don't even remember the old house now.  They do only have teeny tiny cat brains after all.

As for the humans, we seem to be settling in quite well too. I think this could be a pretty good place to live... Once I get rid of all of these damn boxes...

The Eternal Move - Packing, Donating and Cleaning.

The process of moving is starting to drag now, and we don't even load up the van until Friday.  Ugh. I have packed what feels like dozens of boxes, and this is always the point in a move when minimalism starts to look like both an extremely attractive lifestyle and an impossible dream. Today we donated several large pieces of furniture to a local charity, so the house does look considerably more empty which is encouraging.  The charity sent three guys in a van who cheerfully removed our armchair, ottoman, computer desk,desk chair, futon, bedroom dresser and the two hideous maroon lamps that  I've been openly scheming to be rid of for years now.  Finally those things are gone! Yes!

Whilst the furniture was being removed the front door needed to be propped open, so I shoved the cats in their carriers for a little while.  Edith doesn't really mind and just likes to be placed somewhere with a good view of what is happening; Nancy was, of course, inconsolable.  It was quarter of an hour of Miss Nancy Wake-Cat's most soulful operatic meows, with occaisional breaks to head-butt the carrier's gate or scrabble around looking for a weak spot in the carrier itself.  Fortunately she is a cat of little brain, and within twenty minutes of being released she was lolling around on the floor displaying her belly, having clearly forgotten all about the recent horrible trauma and generally looking pretty happy with life.  I will absolutely hate having to sit in a car with her for two hours on Friday, because she will wail all the way but with any luck the same thing will happen when we get to the new place and she will magically forget her distress as her curiosity in the new place takes over.  I hope.  One of the few things that I rescued from the large donation of clothes we made a few weeks ago was a shapeless pink sweater that Nancy particularly loves sleeping on, so hopefully having that to hand will help her chill out a bit.  That and some food, because Nancy is a greedy little thing.

As well as packing, I've also been trying to clean as we go and to this end we purchased Mr Clean's Nagic Erasers.  These things are amazing yet terrifying, because they clean pretty much anything (except hard water marks on toilet bowls as I've just discovered) but no-one knows what they are made from.  Not that I want to know actually, because I suspect it's a spongey block of pure white evil and that just by using it I'm making some sort of pact with the devil.  That's why I don't use them regularly for cleaning the house, well that and I really hate how they feel, but they are such a useful short-cut that they are perfect for last minute cleaning before you move house.  I far prefer to live in house cleaned with baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice and lavendar-scented castile soap - But those cleaning methods require additional elbow grease and time, and so are not useful right now.

Car Seat : Mouse Tested!

Last week we ordered the car seat from Amazon, and we picked it up from the post office today!  Very exciting!  Neither cat has exhibited any interest in being a stunt-baby (in fact you might call their attitude to this idea "total aversion"), so we used Miss Mouse as a stand in for Eva.

She fits the new-born seat insert pretty well, doesn't she?  I imagine Eva might be a bit bigger, but not much really; so it's really weird to realise that she'll totally outgrow this seat before I'm even completely used to the idea that I have a daughter.

We chose this car seat because it clicks into a base in the car, so it's really easy to lift in and out, but also because there is a wheel base that goes with it so the car seat turns into a pram.  It doesn't hurt that it was actually one of the cheaper options we found, but we mostly were impressed by the reviews it got on Amazon and the ratings that Consumer Report awarded it.  We looked into this very thoroughly before committing to a choice as you can see, and actually I think it's going to work really well.  It seems to be well designed and sturdy, but it's still light enough for me to be able to carry it with one hand (you see this is where the cats would have come in handy as they are about the weight Eva will be when I'm lugging her around in the thing at first).

The car seat itself and the base for it both have an info-graphic on it to show the correct orientation of the seat, and that info-graphic is quite clearly of a Mini-Cooper. Doc C has been very much of the opinion that we HAD to change the car because getting a baby seat in and out of it would be too complicated.  I thought that this info-graphic might indicate that he was wrong about that, so we did practice setting up the base in the car and took turns putting the chair in and taking it out.  I'll admit it was not ideal, particularly because once the car seat was safely installed then you couldn't put the driver's seat back in place.  Hmmmm, Doc may have a point here.

A Very Warm Weekend.

I am very glad that we had plenty of time to pack for this move, because it is TOO HOT to pack more than one small box before stopping for a large glass of water and, possibly, a restorative two hour nap.  At least  I am not whining about it too much and I know this because Doc C has commented several times about how my tolearance for warm weather has improved over the years we have lived here.

This weekend was actually pretty good for heat avoidance.

Saturday we spent at Randy and Laura's for Jasmine's send off to Australia, which was lovely.  There was a cake with a map of Australia on it and everything!  Jasmine is going to be spending a semester in Oz, but her visa is for six months so she might stay a bit longer to explore under her own steam.  I am so excited for her, it is going to be a proper adventure whilst still helping her to get her undergraduate degree - Bonus!

On Sunday it was as hot as the surface of the sun.  I am sure of it.  It was desperately uncomfortable in the house, and we basically both ended up fitfully napping under the living room ceiling fan, until Doc C finally snapped and demanded we go to the cinema just to get some air-condtioning.  There was nothing we really desperately wanted to see, but "The Amazing Spiderman" will always be pertinent to our interests so we watched that.  Eva seemed to particularly enjoy it, and was extremely wriggly through out; for once she actually carried on bumping around after Doc put his hand on my tummy so he got to feel her moving too.

Box Addict.

Edith is definitely aware that something is going on, although I highly doubt she understands what. 

She is absolutely loving all of these cardboard boxes around the place.  We picked up some more boxes today, this time from our favourite beer and wine shop, and I arranged six of the boxes in a grid. Edith spent a while sniffing them all and then hopping from box to box.

The Gordon's box is still her favourite though.

Daleks and Goblin Sharks.

As we pack things we label the boxes, so we know whether it goes to our new apartment or to storage.

As you can see this box contains cakes stands (one white china and one red enamel)and daleks (my ceramic Dalek egg cups from M&S a few of Easters ago), and will be going to storage for the time being.  It is by far my favourite box label of the move so far, all of the other boxes say boring stuff like "House - Cook Books".

Also - The SyFy channel is currently screening "Malibu Shark Attack" and it upholds the fine traditions of all SyFy Original films being both full of semi-recognisable actors and some very clearly CGI Goblin Sharks.  I am LOVING this film to pieces.

Vodka, Vodka, Bacardi, Vodka.

Today Doc C booked us a moving van and started to round up some willing student manual labour via Facebook.  We are officially moving on Friday the 13th.  Good thing we're not superstitious, huh?

In the mean time we need to pack, obviously, and so today we went to get some boxes.  The Doc had been looking at storage units (we've decided that $55 a month is an acceptable cost for retaining a few things that we won't need day-to-day, but don't want to get rid of quite yet, like the grill and 2/3 of my books), and found that they had cardboard boxes for sale for $1.25.  I didn't understand why we needed brand new boxes, so instead I suggested a trip into town so that we could ask for boxes from some of the local shops.

We wanted small boxes, because we'll be mostly packing books and it's so tempting to over-pack larger boxes, so my first suggestion was the local ABC (British translation: Off-Licence) and we got such a great haul there we didn't need to go anywhere else.  We probably got a dozen or so, which means we saved about $15.  Not a huge amount of money certainly, but still worth it.

So, when we move house next week, the new neighbours are going to see box after box being carried into the house, most of them labelled "vodka".  Yep, the heavily pregnant lady and her husband are going to make quite the first impression as chronic lushes.

Evasive Action.

The heat wave is less intense than it was, but I'm still not very comfortable with the temperatures.  This afternoon I suddenly felt both far too hot and exhausted; fortunately I've been observing the Queen of coping with heat, Edith Cavell-Cat.

I slid the coffee table out of the way so I could spread a blanket on the ground and lie directly underneath the ceiling fan, then I took off my clothes and ended up napping, curled up on the floor in just my underwear for an hour.  Best nap ever.

I couldn't have done that in the office.

Re-Watching The Next Generation.

When we move we are seriously cutting back on non-essentials, and I'm just as surprised as anyone to find myself easily agreeing that Tivo and cable television are non-essential.  This has been made immeasurably easier by two things: 1) The is NOTHING on TV over the summer and so we have been mostly watching stuff on Netflix streaming through the Playstation, and 2) There is so much to watch on Netflix streaming that we will be entertained for months without missing cable at all.

One of the things we have started to watch from the beginning is "Star Trek: The Next Generation", which although I have watched some of I really didn't pay much attention to.  However I did remember that in an early version of the uniform there were micro mini-dresses which were worn by both women and men, (these weren't worn by any of the main characters - I suppose Councillor Troi is the most likely to wear a short skirt, but these were too short even for her).  It would just be an anonymous crew member striding around in the micro mini-dress, and I specifically remembered an asian gentleman in a red command/helm uniform. Doc C never believed me when I mentioned this, so it has been very gratifying to be able to point him out.

Also, some of the early episodes are really freaking weird.  There is one that it is practically "Carry On Star Trekking" because it is so full of double entendres and odd acting choices.  It's really quite fun to watch.

Two Chairs.

We went to pick up the keys to our new apartment today, so we took a Mini-load of stuff with us.  So the rocking chair, two floor cushions, all of our winter coats and some of Eva's stuff.

It was so nice to see some of our things in our new living space, and I am really excited about the move.

Star Wars Baby Shower.

On Saturday our lovely lovely friends Laura and Randy held a baby shower for us.  Baby showers are not something we have in England, so this was a very pleasant new experience for me.

Again, people just giving you the things you need for your baby?  Amazing! I am so grateful for this tradition!

As you can see the cake had a Star Wars theme, and the little blobby things in the bottom corners of the picture are these super cute little Star Wars figures that Doc C has already claimed for his office (neither Eva northe cats should be allowed near these little guys, so this seems entirely reasonable and safe.)