2014, February: Finally Here!

I finally have a moment to write and there's a lot to catch up on. Apologies that this post will be long! We made the drive over from Baltimore to Idaho Falls in 3.5 days. It was an amazingly problem-free journey. We didn't encounter any snow or rain, just heavy winds through Iowa, Nebraska, and Wyoming, which were a little freaky in the RV. The cats did well. Wagner and Rearden were the happiest, exploring the space and hanging out in the cab with us.

Penny took a little longer to get over her fear, but then did fine. Jellybean and Poppy were consistently pathetic. Whenever the vehicle was moving they buried themselves under whatever they could find, and pressed their faces against the wall. As soon as we stopped moving, however, they reverted to normal. For more photos and cat stories, check out MovingFiveCatstoIdaho on Tumblr and my Flickr set.

We arrived at the new house on Friday, January 31. Saturday we made the 6-hour round trip to Salt Lake City to return the RV, and Sunday we retrieved the bed from Christian's apartment so we could get some decent sleep before both heading to work on Monday. Our belongings arrived the following Friday and we began to unpack.

Unpacking sucks.

It was great that the moving company (paid for through Christian's relocation) carefully wrapped and packed everything. It saved me a lot of time and stress in Baltimore. However, there are three main problems with having other people pack your stuff:

1. Even though they have labeled every box with the main items in that box, they don't necessarily have the same opinion as we do about what a "main item" is. They labeled the iron, but not my cowboy boots (clearly, they don't know me). They labeled random craft supplies, but not curtains. They also packed in weird and wonderful ways - items that were not at all within proximity of each other were wrapped together. My Chronicles of Narnia books were in three different boxes, for example, even though they were in a neat line together in Baltimore. The modem was in a box with my art supplies (and found entirely by chance). As a result, searching for one particular item that isn't documented on any of the labels can take a loooonnnnnng time.
2. There was no motivation for us to get rid of stuff. We ended up with 188 massive boxes and a grand total of 470 "tagged items." If we had been sorting and wrapping and hauling all of that, we definitely would have gotten rid of more crap.
3. They. Wrap. Everything. They wrapped a bundle of rubber bands. They wrapped a single bar of soap. They wrapped the shredded paper from our shredder. It took me two full days to unpack the kitchen because every possible thing was wrapped in crazy quantities of paper (which also had to be folded and packed away in boxes to avoid us getting lost forever in several tons of crumpled paper). Ugh.

Despite all of this, the main level of our house is finally starting to feel like home. You can move in the bedroom, find dishes in the kitchen, and sit on a sofa (the joy!) in the living room. If I ignore the basement, the shed, and the office, then I can pretend that we're almost done. One thing that I never appreciated about the Baltimore house is the amount of storage that it had. There were closets everywhere and we did a mighty fine job of filling them all. This house (while being almost exactly the same size as the Bmore one, only on 2 levels instead of 4), does not offer the same closet-wonder and there is a definite need for more shelves. But I love the old farmhousey-ness of it. I love that the rooms are finished, painted, and without holes. There are fancy light fixtures, no wobbly tiles, and we have antler curtain rails in the bedroom. You can see mountains from the kitchen window on a clear day. Mountains! It's a good job that I like it, really, because we are Never Moving Again.

Finally (for now), my new job. I'm in my third week as Visual Arts Director for the Idaho Falls Arts Council and while everything is still overwhelming, I'm starting to enjoy it.

I'm managing the development of a new facility, the "ARTitorium on Broadway," which will be an interactive art center (we're on Facebook!) with art-making software, a virtual gallery of art, found-object sculpture tables, stop-frame animation, a green screen room, and more. The pros: It's an innovative project that is unlike anything I've seen before. The philosophy that art should be fun is one that is very close to my heart. I get to make decisions about decor, programs, hardware, etc. The cons: The project has been in the works for several years. Things that made sense for a technology project in 2009 do not necessarily make sense today. I was late to get started (they wanted me to begin in November) and there is a lot of work that needs to be done. But we'll make it happen and it will be fabulous - never let it be said that I don't enjoy a challenge!

My job also includes curating the Carr Gallery and the Hall Community Gallery at the Willard Arts Center, each of which has around four exhibitions per year. Now, this is FUN. I get to spend time researching artists, looking at art, and making decisions about the people and artworks I want to feature here. I've booked my first few shows for next year and I'm very excited to share them with the community (and you!).

I was thrilled to find a job here that fit so perfectly with my passions for art and technology. The salary drop was a bit of a shocker (I took a 69% pay cut - ouch), but I'm excited to be doing something that inspires and challenges me. I also have a studio! I've joined the artists in residence at the Willard Arts Center and have a fabulous space with a red floor that will hopefully motivate me to paint again. The people are great, the work is fun, the house is a home, and the mountains are in sight. We made it!

Whew.