the cave

What's that old movie, possible with Goldie Hawn--likely not, where they buy an old house and try to fix it up, but it's a complete and utter disaster?
Well that's sort of how I'm feeling now... My brother's home is beautiful--I love it--but let's talk about the fact that it's sinking into the ground with a faulty foudation, and slowly sliding down the hill, or about the fact that the furnace is broken (and has been for a year) so with all the truely lovely wood and marble in the house, it's like a freaking grocery store freezer aisle in every room. And while we're on the topic of cooling appliances: ironically enough, the refrigerator broke the day I arrived. So they've got two little guys jam-packed with stuff, one big smelly refrigerator in the corner, and plenty more food literally just chillen all over the kitchen.
Furthermore, I spent one day--I am not making this up--digging ditches in Ted's backyard to create a place for rain water to run off, so that it wouldn't seep into his basement and cause further household sink-age. Another couple days were spent shoveling rocks off his street and hauling them in trash cans to dump on the side of his house. Oh the joy, home sweet home...imagine my anxiety about returning home at night.
I literally spent 3 hours down the street at Whole Foods this afternoon, not wanting to spend time in the house, but not wanting to go all the way into the city, as I was waiting for Ted to get off work. It took almost that long for my toes to defrost.
Maybe this is his way of deterring me from crashing with him if I find a job in the Bay Area...
And as for the job search, I've applied to several odds and ends nursing jobs--laser hair remover, labor and delivery nurse, medical assistant at a GLBT clinic, all of which would be lovely, but I'm not convinced I want to live here either....I may be more convinced when I return back to the midwest for the holidays with all that snow (Seriously--I hear we got 6 tons of garlic salt donated because we ran out of salt?? WTF, where are all those sand bags now?). I may well too just decide F IT, I'm going to Cuba! I simply can't find a good reason to freeze my ass off if I don't have to--here or in Iowa. Don't believe a word of what those SF-ers try to tell you--it is cold!
So tomorrow I'm off to New Mexico. I'm taking a train to Sacramento, then meeting a lovely guy named Wil and driving down to Taos. I foolishly thought I'd be getting into warmer parts with the southern descent, but have since learned that Taos is covered in snow (of course Rachel...it's a ski town). Oh well. The change of scenery will be nice...one last push before I very happily slide into home--grandma's home that is--for the holidays.