The Road to Freedom... continues...

Monday morning, I dropped Sarah off at school, ran around trying to find a house to rent, and spent an hour and a half at the auto shop waiting for some tire-rod-thingy to be fixed that was making a knocking noise. (I had the car exactly 36 hours before it went in to the shop for the first time - thankfully, the dealer paid for the repairs! Yippee Skippee!) Then, I stopped by the Homer News, my new employer, to fill out new hire paperwork and then I was off to take a drug test at the hospital - Homer News requirement. That was a new experience. I was horrified that they'd have to watch me pee or something. That was not the case, but there was blue dye in the toilet for some important reason that I was afraid to ask about.

I spent the rest of the afternoon househunting and furniture hunting both in person and online, using the "guest" computer in the lobby of the Driftwood Inn. Since my stupid Dell hasn't worked for over a month, I feel a bit like my right arm is cut off. They had the nerve to tell me that I needed to gather a screwdriver and an external mouse and then call them back so that they could lead me through disassembling and reassembling my computer. Well, since I didn't have those laying around the hotel room, getting it fixed wasn't an option. Argh!

Househunting in Homer is not an easy thing to do. There are very few rentals available and NONE of the ones currently available accepted pets. None of them! I was flabbergasted. I was disheartened. I was downright worried. The local property management companies told me that they had some rentals coming available in May. May? May! No way can we wait until May!

Sarah and I went to the grocery store when she got out of soccer practice and bought enough frozen meals to last several days, along with a gallon of milk, some Diet Coke, whiskey (of course!), and a cooler with ice to keep in our already terribly small hotel room. We microwaved our dinners in the hotel lobby and feasted as we indulged in the joys of satellite TV! ... for the first time since Christmas, for me!

Tuesday was my first day at work and I had arranged for Homer Hounds (seriously, you must look at their website at www.homerhounds.com) to pick Nali up from the kennel in the back of my car in the parking lot at Homer News (because I had nowhere to keep her during the day), have her in their Doggy Daycare all day (which includes an hour long walk on the beach with her doggy-friends, also known as "Play Group"), and then return her safely back to the kennel in my car at 5pm on their way home (since I work until 5:30 and can't pick her up before then). They are truly angels - those folks at Homer Hounds. As a matter of fact, I have realized that Homer is overflowing with Angels! When I called Tory (Homer Hounds owner) that evening, she told me that she know of someone who was moving out of town and her 2 bedroom place would be for rent. As a matter of fact, she was to leave town the very next day! The best part is that she had a dog and so the house was "dog friendly."

I called the woman immediately and we got along grand over the phone. I went out to see the place - beautiful, clean, safe... in a word, perfect. It even had a dishwasher (on Sarah's list) and a washer and dryer (on my list). Jane was leaving the next day and I paid her for half a month's rent (she had already paid it through April something), we shook hands, and it was a done deal! I was in the house for 400 smackers and could not have been happier. She moved out the next day, Wednesday, and we moved in, checking out of the Driftwood Inn (great people, by the way).

However, there is a little catch to this story (isn't there always). You see, the owners of the property live in a log home on the same property but they are out of town (vacationing in the Cook Islands, to be exact), and so they have no idea that Jane has moved out and we have moved in. She was only on a month to month lease and I'm friends with their best friends, so I'm sure it will all work out. But, it does feel a bit sketchy at the moment. They are due back home April 11th... so we'll see.

Meanwhile, Sarah and I spent the next week stopping at the storage unit to pick up shipping tubs (all 54 have now arrived from Kwethluk) - as many as would fit in the car each time. Everytime we went to go home, we'd have to drive right back the storage unit, so we'd stop and fill up the car and unload and unpack them at home. It's been a long process. But, all tubs and boxes that were shipped are now at home and we are going to pick up some furniture, that I bought from some nice folks in Anchor Point, on Sunday. ... that's an interesting sideline. I'm buying a sofa and loveseat from a woman who owns a hair salon in town that is for sale. She met a man who lives in a bush village outside of Dillingham (he is a teacher-turned-pastor). She is selling everything - her business, her beautiful log home, and most of her furnishings - to move to the bush with the love of her life, after they get married this Saturday. I'm skeptical, to say the least! LOL. But, I'm getting a great deal on furniture.

I'm hoping that by Sunday evening, we'll begin to feel settled into our new place. We've been there over a week, now, and my new job is going great. I LOVE working with adults. My boss is extraordinarily supportive, my co-workers are friendly, and the work is exciting. For those of you who don't know, I'm the new Advertising Sales Rep for the Homer News. My name is in the paper every week! Many of my clients, I already knew from my previous life as a teacher. I get to be out and about in Homer and I already feel connected back to this community.

In my previous blog posts, I usually sugar-coated my experience in Kwethluk. If not a sugar-coating, I was at least surely leaving out much of the bad for fear of retribution in the village. I'm sure I'll write some future posts about the true experience - but you may have to wait for the book! Obviously, it had to be pretty bad for me to break my teaching contract and risk never being hired to teach in the state of Alaska again. Let me tell you, it was worth it!

Oh... and YES, of course I passed the drug test! :)