Chattanooga - a few days in...

     Greetings and salutations friends, loved ones and all you other folks! Without covering a few states in a day there has not been as much to write about. Nonetheless we have been plenty busy being bored. At this point I could care less if I never ever never ever ever ever stayed in a hotel again. This past couple weeks has certainly made me even more thankful for my job that allows me to stay home. I would not want to be one of those that lived out of hotels and suitcases for most of the year. No thank you! That's almost as bad as base hopping across Iraq living out of a back pack. Yeah, OK! Not even close. At least here there has been no 16 hour days sleeping on a concrete slab at the flight line.

     First things first, we have a new home. Well kinda. We will have a new apartment tomorrow. Yahoo for check out in the morning! Friday morning we slept in a little after driving 7 days. For me that meant I made it til almost 0800. Once up I made contact with Steve and we set off to drop my date for last week off at the VW plant. They were nice enough to allow me to park Ol' Penske in a staging lot behind the EOC. That way our entire life's worth of stuff would be a little more secure than at the hotel.

     From there we linked up with my boss, checked bunker gear sizes, received a crap ton of uniforms, got badged, and receive a meal card. As it just so happened my future shift was working so I got to meet most of them. Thank goodness they all wear their names on their shirts, because I will not remember them for at least 3 months. The ones I remember prior to that probably wont be good. Which, yes for those of you thinking it, they may be like I use to be...or worse. But hey I turned out pretty good. Okay, well at least pretty! ;-)

     Seriously they all seemed pretty nice and eager to help. I know I am excited to get up to speed and start having fun. Hopefully after I left they all weren't wondering who the tattooed skint head was? It would not be the first time I was confused and mistaken for a skint head communist by a new employee! But then again I am working for German engineering now. Just sayin. Maybe it's a new leadership model to shoot for. Pardon the pun.

     Once the meet and greet was all done Bobbi and I headed out apartment hunting. She had her list ready to go, and I was driving. I most certainly did not have a list and don't even ask about that. Moving on. Fortunately thanks to some pre-planning and screening on our part we had a good idea where to go and in less than a few stops had found our new temporary home. We are getting a 2 bedroom apt. about 1350 sq. feet. Granted it will take some getting use to after leaving our 2000+ sq. feet home, but it is a lot better than these hotels! Actually it is a little bigger that the first house we rented in Mose Lake.

     Since then it's been taking care of electricity, insurance and the 42 hundred other details of moving to another state. Oh and by the way, Tennessee is one of the highest states to get auto insurance in. Apparently no damn body around here can drive. And I thought Pitt county was bad. Now that I've been here a couple days, I see why insurance is higher. My blood pressure will be too.

     Traffic, Om my goodness golly gracious holy hell, the traffic. Now you would think with living in Greenville most of my life, this population wouldn't be that big of an adjustment. But for the last 5 years we have been living in a population of 20k people. The 5 years before that it was small military bases. So it has been and will be for some time, one hell of an adjustment!

     Since we found an apartment early, I headed off to the Gold's gym 2 minutes down the road. I swear when I walked in the door I heard angels singing. It was so nice not to be in one of these hotel fitness closets.  This place was so massive and had so much equipment I didn't know where to start. I was like an over-sized kid in a candy store. There are a few more gyms around and I will check them out before joining. But Gold's is looking pretty high on the list. There is a Planet Fatness and I will have to go there. My goal is to get thrown our before I get started. I am sure it won't take long to set off the lunk alarm. And yes they have those.

     Other than all that it has been a lot of hanging out in the hotel room and Hailey's daily trip to the indoor pool, not to mention a lot of eating take out. Oh my craptastic take out. I have tried to do subway as much as possible, but the other 2 chics aren't down for that. At this point we have been living on takeout for about 2 weeks and we now just argue over where we don't want to eat.  Even here with all these new options it all starts to taste like morbid piles of fatness. Oh wait, that's how I feel after eating it all.

     There has also been a whole lot of getting on each others nerves. Yes even the sweet Ormond family. You try living with your family in one room for evvvvvvvvvvver. Actually we haven't been that bad. Well except for one. I wont name names, but her initials are Hailey Scott. Let's just say my wife had a daughter JUST like her, and no I don't mean loveable and sweet. I think Little Miss Attitudy or LB (Little Bobbi) as I call her, is over this hotel thing.  But so far no one has killed anyone, YET. I have threatened to slap her head back to Missouri though.

     All in all things are going well. Once we get unloaded tomorrow the fun begins and there will be no time for boredom. I start with some job shadowing/training shifts on Wed and then its on shift for me starting next Monday. Bobbi will be handling the unpacking and settling in along with getting Hailey registered for school and keeping a check on her dad's status. He starts his chemo next week so please keep him in your prayers. The best news is on the 29th we are heading home for a week. The first time we have spent the holidays at home in 5 years. For me it will only be the second holiday home in 10 years! Yes we are excited.

The Ormond's are signing off so we can rest up for our busy day of moving!