At first my parents were dead set against my move but I explained to them that I wanted to move not only because of Steve, but because I wanted a change in my life. I wanted to see if I could make it on my own. My father had a fit, and surprisingly my mother got mad at my father for telling me to never come home again. As a result, for the first time in my life, my parents and I actually communicated. They listened to what I had to say and as a result my parents and I are closer than we ever have been.

I moved and then the fun began. Upon moving, we found out that Steve would be going out to sea in November instead of January. Steve is on the Coast Guard Cutter Polar Sea. She is one of 2 icebreakers in the U.S. Coast Guard. Her sister ship the Polar Star broke down and there was a lot of negative publicity. As a result the Polar Sea had to take over the Star's mission. So instead of leaving in January, and only being gone for 2 months, my Steve left in November for 6 months. This past month has been increadibly hard. Not only am I living in a new state far from my friends, but my best friend leaves me and goes off to the Antarctic courtesy of Uncle Sam.

Shortly after Steve left, I was struggling to pay all of our bills, and the headlights in our car went out. Since I had not worked for a month, Steve and I were just barely making it finacially. The wonderful recession is not helping any. Steve's friend, Doug, left his car with me just in case something like this happened.

After driving Doug's car for about 15 days, I went out one morning, and got into the car, and thought "Gee, the car feels lopsided." My first thought was that I had a flat tire. No such luck. Someone had stolen the entire tire. Only one mind you, the rear tire on the passanger side. I couldn't even put on the spare because they took the lug nuts too! I had to wake up my neighbor, and she had to give me a jump start on my car. The short in the electrical system had drained my battery. I was an hour late for work and I am fortunate that the company I work for is so nice to me. They did not get upset with me at all.

That night as my neighbor and I were driving around the area looking for an auto supply store, Steve tried to call me twice. I had only heard from Steve once since he had left and that was via a Ham (?) Radio patch. He left me the number for the ship and I tried to call him back. He was not on the ship so I talked to Doug and explained what happened to his car. Talk about upset! I was in tears.

One of the guys was supposed to come back to Seattle at the end of the month, but he decided to extend his enlistment for the rest of the trip. I was looking forward to him coming home since I don't know too many people in the Seattle area. I was so upset, that neither Doug or My Steve had the heart to tell me that Rodney wasn't coming home. Needless to say, now I have to survive this next 5 months by myself.

To top the cake while I was talking to Steve later on that evening, (the first time I was able to actually talk to him since he left in November), I realized that the ring he had given me last Christmas, which is doubling as an engagement ring, had a broken prong. One more thing to fix.

The following day, I found out that I had "Lake Okachobee" in my trunk. My trunk was filled with water, and as a result, there was a short in the wiring, causing the lack of headlights. Due to all of these bad events, I decided that I deserve a Macintosh. Steve being the wonderful guy he is, has been sending home part of his paycheck to help pay for all of our bills, he said that I could buy a Macintosh so that I could continue with Archipelago.

Pretty neat guy huh? So the move isn't a total loss after all. I got a Mac out of it!!!