we went to check out a gaming store called the war room last night and holy cow! our "gaming store" in cali was pretty much a comic book store with a bookshelf of gaming products. it used to be a real gaming store, but was closed down or sold or something when the owners moved out of state (see? we're not the only ones!). anyway, from then on it pretty much has sucked, and it was the only place local with much of anything, so the war room blew us away. since it looks like there's a shadowrun game on the horizon, we picked up some dice for saxy, dice for me, and a book on s.r. dragons. it'll be nice to gm a run or two again, it's been awhile and i miss gaming. the good news is that there are a lot of gamers locally. unfortunately, most of them probably play 3e on everything and i'm pretty much a 2e girl. ;)

i've already got an idea of what to do for the game. oh yes indeed, my runners are in trouble already . . . and we haven't even started yet! ;)

when we got home, i told saxy it was about time for us to settle in with the money and to get back a little control here. yes, there are things we need, but most can wait. today i had to write our first rent check here and that thing is HUGE. i mailed it today, along with a letter asking the landlord if he could hang onto it for a few days since the bank has a hold on our funds. the money is there, it's just a new account, so they put everything on hold for 9 days. it sucks, but it will eventually stop. however, while there is the silly hold, if the rent check goes through, it will bounce. if it bounces, i will owe the rent plus another $100 late fee, plus another $5/day from the 5th to the day i actually get it paid, plus a $15 bounce fee, plus $22 to the bank for non-sufficient funds! i explained the situation and am hoping he'll not charge me late fees for holding the check this month. we can make next month's rent without all this hassle as long as saxy and i don't go playing around. it would be nice to build up a reserve at least the amount of the rent in the account, but that's unlikely to happen, so i just need to make sure we have enough money free in the account by making the last deposit to the account for the rent no later than the 20th until we no longer have to deal with these holds.

hopefully it will only take me two or three months to settle in with managing the money and bills. yes, saxy is making more, but most of what he is making got eaten by the extra expenses (our rent tripled, and i haven't seen what our electricity will do yet) and the fact that taz's check will be cut by $115. we've gotten a lot of support to settle us in, but that's about to taper off, so it's time to pick up that slack. we're very grateful for all the help we've received, and now it's time for us to be grown ups and to take care of ourselves. saxy's working, and i'm hoping to get hired for subbing come september, so we should be okay. i just hope we can save for the car - it's going to be absolutely necessary. heck, it already is. everything i need to get to is no where near enough to walk to.

tomorrow we hopefully register jewel for school, assuming i can find a way to get there. i'm still trying to find someone to tell me what to do with taz. the mentors are off during the summer (how stupid is that - okay, not totally stupid, but come on! like new parents of special ed kids aren't going to be moving into the area in the summer? puhleeeeeaaaasssse!) and no one else will return my calls. i'm very frustrated with the school system so far, and i have no one like i.r.c. to help me get through the maze. school starts in 9 days and we still need to get him registered and hold his i.e.p. right now i get answering services, message boxes, the occasional real human who directs me elsewhere (which lands me in, you guessed it, a message box/center), and not much else. just thinking about it is pissing me off.

beyond that, i have to get my driver's license transferred and that's pretty much it. it feels like its been a long journey just to get this far, but at least all this transferring stuff is almost done with. it's very hard to have my focus so split up - it feels like nothing gets done even if i'm actually managing to make even a little progress. but not much longer now and i can feel a lot less scattered and a lot more settled in here. at least all the important stuff will be dealt with and not be needing attention.

i think my biggest gripe out here right now is that the state seems determined to make everything harder than it should be. moving is a pain enough without having to run around for extra forms and all this other crap i've had to do. i just keep reminding myself it's worth it. saxy's employed, we're in a better neighborhood, froggy even has a friend or two on the street already. yep, definitely worth it.