After you move there’s a big reckoning: you unpack your boxes and discover how many things you either packed so cleverly you won’t find them until next Easter or that you actually never packed at all.  Sometimes it’s big stuff like your bedroom furniture but it’s the little stuff that often cripples you such as the bottle of melatonin that your son suddenly needs at 12am because he can’t sleep and you can’t find it in the bathroom boxes or in the box of EVERY SINGLE THING OFF OF HIS DRESSER which ought to include the bottle of melatonin that has sat on his dresser for over a year… but somehow it has been sucked up into the ether or is gathering dust in the old forlorn house.

We can’t find our tv remote either.  You don’t think that’s such a big deal until you realize that your kid is bored off his rocks and has no friends to play with right now and you have to work a ton to catch up and also be unpacking so you can find all the other crap that you desperately need.

The worst thing for us is that my work check didn’t come to the old address in time and so it got caught in a forwarding sludge and I actually had to ask my work to cut me a new check because it seemed it would be much faster – but naturally my cancelled check got here the day before the new one.  And now my credit union wants to hold my check to make sure I’m not trying to swindle them or to make sure my company isn’t writing bouncers.  So money has continued to be a huge issue.

Anyway – I’m happy and I’m slowly catching up with work and the kitchen is unpacked even if most other things aren’t and honestly – I don’t have that much crap after all – lots of empty spaces and shelves in this house.  But also missing furniture and things are being felt.  Today I went to buy a telephone and discovered that Best Buy only carries two models of corded phones.  I guess the idea of being physically grounded to a single spot on earth for any amount of time is unthinkable to most people these days.  I have officially become a relic of a human being.  It wasn’t cheap either.  I’m debating whether I should go to an office supply place to find a better and less expensive option?  The one I bought looks a lot better than the crap-phone we left behind in Oregon though.  But if I returned the expensive one and got one for half the price I could buy myself a pair of comfortable sneakers for walking and exercising in since I left my hideous (but still decent-ish) pair in Oregon.

Meanwhile – there is all this pressure mounting concerning things I need to take care of and I need to make a list to keep track of it all.

The tedious crap I have to attend to sometime before yesterday:

1.  Take written driver’s test to get California driver’s license.

2.  Register my vehicle.

3.  Pay my friend back for the U-Haul rental.

4.  Pay the last electric bill for McMinnville.

5.  Pay the last garbage bill for McMinnville.

6.  Send and IRS payment and payment plan request form to the IRS for 2011 taxes (will have to call since deadline is tomorrow) begging may be required for a stay of execution.

7.  Send in tax payment and payment plan request form to Oregon Revenue Service (more begging may be required).

8.  Get insurance plan for my vehicle for California.

9.  Call Frontier to cancel internet and phone service to McMinnville house (this was supposed to be done by Philip which if he didn’t already do it he will have no memory of it being his responsibility) Ask Philip to do this call.

10.  Call Police Department in McMinnville with bank and loan information on McMinn. house so they can put a lien on the property to keep it fire safe.  Ask Philip to do this one (already did, must ask again).

11.  Notify Wells Fargo that we have moved and are letting the house go into foreclosure.  Ask Philip to do this one (again).

12.  Pick a family practice doctor for me and Philip and a pediatrician for Max with new health insurance.

13.  Make appointment for Max with pediatrician for as soon as possible to get a referral for psyche testing and med consulting.

14.  Make appointment for self with doctor to get referral to psychiatrist for med consultation.

15.  Find a vet and get Penny and Chick their updated shots and get vet files transferred so we have proof that Pippa is up to date already.

16.  Get flea meds for all the animals.

17.  Register Chick with the county.

18.  Get a library card.

19.  Get a YMCA membership and start working out.

20.  Buy melatonin at store today.

I only added that last one because I can’t bear to have a list of 19 items.  It’s too uncomfortable and wrong.  I think I also added it because it means there’s one thing I can actually cross off today.  Everything else is tedious and will take phone calls (so I better decide about the phone tonight) and time and money and paperwork.

I am so happy we moved but there’s no question that even if you’re making a great move – it’s still always a huge pain in the ass.

A couple of quick observations about Santa Rosa:

• A lot fewer trucks than there are in McMinnville.  Car size in general is smaller and the number of hybrids on the road is inspiring (there are tons of them).

• By Bay Area standards Santa Rosa is a super white city – not a lot of diversity.  Yet compared to McMinnville it’s quite diverse.  I see people of color everywhere I go here and it makes me happy.  The majority of the people of color here are hispanic, yet I have seen more black and Asian people here in the week and a half I’ve been here than I saw in all six years of living in McMinnville combined.

• For some reason the stores in Santa Rosa aren’t hip to the Cheeto’s brand natural cheese puffs (the main food my kid is surviving on right now).  I found them at GandG and bought all of them and they havne’t gotten more in.  I bought all of them at Target and I’m wondering nervously if they’ll get more in?

• The weather has been almost exactly the same here as in McMinnville so far.  Kind of funny.  I’m pretty uncomfortable but I’d be just as uncomfortable at the old house except WORSE because it doesn’t cool off as much at night in the summer in McMinnville plus it’s way more humid there than it is here.

• Food is way more expensive here in general.  Tofu at Trader Joe’s in Oregon is 50 cents cheaper per tub than it is at the Trader Joe’s here.  Why?  I’m also used to shopping at Winco and haven’t found the equivalent here.  Plus there’s the sales tax – but Oregon kicks you in the ass with income taxes so I feel like this evens out in the long run.

• People don’t wear their pyjamas and slippers to go grocery shopping here.  I find that uplifting.

Alright!  Time to see if I can find a DMV online study guide to practice for my written test tomorrow.  The main site says it might be down for maintenance until tomorrow after my appointment to take the test is over.  Grrrrr.  Hope I can pass it!