Hey there faithful blog readers! We know, we know, you've been dying to know what shenanigans the LA Benners have been up to recently. We apologize for the lack of posts, but this time of transition leaves our lives (and internet connections) rather irregular. So here's a recap of the past couple weeks:
Weekend of May 16-19:Benner went home for his Uncle Butch's funeral, which was a rather mournful time. Uncle Butch was a very sweet and funny guy and very supportive and loving godfather/great uncle. We are missing him. Benner hung out at McShea's with the family (big surprise) and got to visit with his cousin Sean who was in town from Rhode Island. The funeral was widely attended, and they passed a microphone around for people to share some of their favorite Butch stories.
Benner talked about the first time we had Butch over for dinner after we were married. He was sure that Rhianwen would get along fine with Aunt Marge, but Uncle Butch was a different story; they didn't exactly share the same sense of humor. Half way through the meal, Butch starts in on his first fart joke and Benner freezes, thinking Rhianwen will never like Butch now. Then he looks over, and Rhi is cracking up. That's when Benner realized Butch was a one of a kind guy: even Rhianwen laughed at his fart jokes.
On Sunday, Benner went to Narberth Presbyterian and caught up with Pastor Steve for a few minutes. Afterwards, he went golfing in South Philadelphia with Adam, Alec and Jake. It started raining, but that didn't really stop them from finishing their game out (and nearly crash a couple of golf carts doing donuts on the fairways). That night, Benner spent the night at Adam and Megan's, where he played with Edan and watched Nancy Drew, which was better than he expected. Edan by the way, took his first steps last week and Benner got to see him in action.
Over on the other coast, Rhianwen was feeling somewhat daunted about her first weekend in LA alone, because Sarah and Steve were out of town too. Fortunately, it ended up being a great weekend. She went to a barbecue at Manhattan Beach and met lots of new people, and her toes touched the Pacific Ocean for the first time. Despite how hot it was that day, the water was surprisingly cold! The scenery and conversation was of utmost quality, but perhaps most interesting was watching the volleyball game; The sand was so hot that people played with their socks on.
Later, Rhi explored Pasadena, went shopping, visited a new church and, of course, applied to jobs and prepared for our move later that week. It was nice to have some time alone, but Benner and Rhi agree: it's better to be together, and seeing each other that Monday after Benner got back from Philly was a relief.
Benner's travel time wasn't particularly enjoyable, so Tuesday was spent resting up and applying for jobs. Also, we both needed to mentally prepare for the big move into our new apartment on Thursday. We thought it may be a doozy, and whoa man was it.
Thursday, May 22nd: The MOVEMoving was a complicated endeavor. We didn't just pack up a truck and move it from one apartment to another. If you'll remember, we packed up all of our belongings into a little metal pod and had them shipped here. They've been sitting in storage in Pacoima, CA since the end of April. And in case you didn't know, when you rent an apartment in CA, it doesn't come with a fridge. So you have to buy or rent one. In the long term, it's better to buy a fridge-- you save money because the rental places will nickel and dime you--and you know you're getting a new fridge which has less complications. So we bought a fridge and had to pick it up that day too.
And we didn't have the help of our dear friends and family on the east coast, so we prayed that God would give us the grace and help we needed to get through it. And faithfully, He did.
So here's was our day:
9:00: Picked up a 17 foot uhaul and drove to Lowe's in West Hills which is the only Lowe's that had the fridge we wanted.
It was on sale, to our surprise.
We loaded the fridge, Benner fastened it tight and we drove from there to Pacoima.
11:30: When we arrived in Pacoima, ABF was surprised to see us. (Even though we had called them twice that week to confirm.) Our "relocube" was stacked and we couldn't access it. And the guy who could get it down had left town to drive a big truck somewhere. We had to wait 30 min.
for him to come back. In the meantime, we saw wild cats (Benner says they're feral, whatever that means) in the parking lot and waited.
12: We loaded our pod. Stuff had shifted in transit and some things were banged up and broken. We packed really well and strategically until the end--some stuff wasn't in boxes which was less than ideal. We then unloaded everything and had to strategically pack it onto the truck. The truck was a large space so we had to be careful of how to pack it because it would move. We saw rain clouds as we loaded. The second we closed the truck, the first raindrop fell. Thank you God.
We were in need of some fuel in the form of food. So we dropped off the Uhaul at our apartment and drove to get some In-N-Out. For the uninitiated, In-N-Out is fast food the way God intended it to be. The beef comes from local cattle, the vegetables are fresh, the potatoes are cut daily on site, the service comes with a smile and they are the greatest burgers on the planet earth (on the plus side, word is that In-N-Out employees are paid fair wages and have full benefits, which means it's a business we don't feel bad supporting). Benner in particular had been craving an In-N-Out burger since we came out to California, but held off the pleasure until the moment that he absolutely needed it.
After we finished packing up that truck, Benner
needed that burger. And it was glorious.
We sat in the parking lot of the In N' Out and stuffed our faces
with meat and French fries and loved life for a sweet moment.
Then it was back to moving.
Our new friend, John Unger who we had met once before heard that we needed help and just showed up. We were so happy to see him. Moving the fridge and our furniture would have been really hard just the two of us, and we were already feeling sore and weak from the first move. Plus, our apartment is not wheelchair accessible, which means we had to strap the fridge on a dolly and get it up multiple small sets of stairs. Thank God for John Unger, he made it happen. We were so grateful. John, we owe you dinner.
And for the first time since April 1, we were living in our own space. And for the first time since April 24th (minus two nights in hotels) we weren't sleeping on an airbed. Heaven.
We are thrilled with our new place. It's got more storage than any east coast apt. building can boast of. Our kitchen is new, and at night, the courtyard/pool/grill area looks like a place we'd vacation. We are thankful to Sarah and Steve and the Lozanos who took us in during our time of transition, but are thrilled to back on our own.
Interesting facts about our building:
- We are told that John Wayne's gradson lives in our building.
- We are steps from CBS Radford, the studio where the NY scenes of Seinfeld were shot. Currently CSI Miami is shot there.
- We got a notice on the Sarah Silverman film is shooting in our apartment building over the next week or so.
- We can walk to Trader Joes, we're on the LA river (which is a euphemism for the large drainage ditch that runs through the entire city-- woohoo. You would think this means we're in a bad neighborhood but we're in a great neighborhood, actually.)
Saturday, May 24th: Benner's Birthday! Ikea is like an amusement park, right? So of course Benner wanted to spend his birthday there. He was a little disappointed when he found out there was no roller coaster, but we enjoyed it anyway. It was an amusement park of furniture, and we bought some for our new apartment, including dressers and bookcases and all that fun stuff. Then we ate 50 cent hot dogs and drank Lingenberry juice, which is perhaps the best part of all when going to Ikea.
Then we went back to our apartment and spent the day trying to settle into our apartment. Benner built pieces of furniture like a man possessed, and Rhi organized, organized, organized. Finally, at the end of the night, Benner was treated to one of the best cooked meals he has ever had; Rhianwen made linguine with scallops in a white wine sauce, and it was UH-MAZING.
Seriously, best meal ever. And then she made her trademark pumpkin chocolate cake with cream cheese icing, complete with Batman candle for Benner's birthday. Our friends, Sean and Sean, came by for some cake and hung out for a while.
After they left, Benner fell asleep almost instantly. It was a long day.
And that's our past week. We miss you Philly!
