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My kitchen however is in much better shape.  I’ve got almost everything covered.  I’m missing a few kitchen essentials like a quality colander, and mostly importantly a coffee pot.  For 3 years I existed with about 5” of counter top at my old place, and while the new place is a lot bigger, the new kitchen gadgets really eat up the space.   I don’t really feel I have adequate area for prep and cooking here either.

I’ve been eating at home a LOT more.  I’ve been eating a lot of Scrambled Eggs, fried myself of course, as well as the bachelor staples of Hot Pockets and Pizza’s.  I’m liking this new Paula Dean cookware I bought, and that makes cooking at home easier.  I can’t wait to buy a roast at the meat market so I can try out my crock pot .

I’ve got curtains up in my bed room, but that’s all that I have in there.   I’m still waiting on a bed frame so I can elevate my bed off of the floor, and finally get a good night of rest.   I’m still waiting on the couch, the dining room table, as well as a dresser to go in my bedroom.  Hopefully I’ll be able to pick all of these up this weekend, and this place can truly start feeling more like a home.

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When I first moved out here, everything fit in a car.  Anything that didn’t was discarded or left back in Indiana.  All these years later, I’ve acquired so much junk that it’s going to take six times as many car loads to do the deed.  And I still have to locate a truck to get a bed over there, as well as pick up a couch, table, and dresser I just purchased.

I remember the giddiness I felt driving from Indiana to Kansas.  I remember getting here, signing a lease, and sprawling out on my new floor dead tired from the 10 hour drive the day after Christmas.  I remember Danyale curled up next to me, a huge smile on her face.  I remember running to Walmart six times in one night buying house hold staples that wouldn’t fit in my car for the trip.

Three years changes a lot of things.   It’s been an emotional roller-coaster, some bad, some good, but mostly for the positive.  Tomorrow, life will continue on, but it will advance another step.  I’ll finally be able to be comfortable at my own home, not just existing.   I’ll finally have adequate room to cook and to relax.  I won’t be sleeping in the same room that I just spent six hours on the computer.  Life should be a little happier after tomorrow.

I still have a lot of cleaning left to do at the old place.  Smoking in a studio apartment for three years is disgusting.  I need to clean the blinds, clean the walls, and finally pick up a carpet cleaner to clean the carpet.  I should be mostly moved by Christmas given my casual speed, and the 10 days I have to get out.  But, I will have to run to Walmart a few times to get new stuff for the apartment.  Some things never ever change it seems.

I think I’m the happiest today than I have been in the last few months, and work tomorrow will be very long.

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Very little of it is truly inspectable work.  I’ve seen enough pull boxes installed in the ground, as well as conduit trenched to make my eyes bleed.  I’ve kept up with the boredom by keeping very, very, detailed dairies of the project.  Simple jobs this size should never been more than a few paragraphs, but I stretch them into pages.   Totally a bitch to type up afterwords, but keeps me busy through out the day.

I can’t help but feel under-utilized and bored.  I’ve been looking off and on for new work, but there’s really nothing in Topeka that is a pay increase.  I’m supposed to change positions in another month or so that will net me a new theoretical title,  but not any increase.   More work for the same pay is actually an effective pay cut! I’m just very, very tired of working for the State,and looking for a way out.  I’m looking for something better, something grand.

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Unfortunately that also means lots of sweating and sunburns.  On that last note, I still look like a damn racoon.

I just helped finished doing a Mill and Inlay of  US-24 in town.  I’m helping out right now in the Asphalt Plant for the next few days.   Then I have a concrete patching project coming up as well.   Should be interesting, since I’m lead inspector.

Overall work should be fun for the next few months, and I should bring in quite the bank working these hours.

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