Tofa and Reaping the Spoils

We said goodbye to two attorneys from our office last week. Friday was the last day of work for our immigration attorney and the other civil litigator. We did the traditional farewell, a tofa, meal for them and they were presented with the traditional parting gifts for those leaving the island.

Our immigration attorney is staying on-island, but is going to be acting as her kid's caretaker this summer. The other litigator is heading back to Utah. I'll miss him (not just since I'm taking over his case load until a new attorney is hired and arrives on island), as he was the other member of the office that arrived on the same flight as me and we both carried similar litigation case loads. Hopefully your endeavours back on the mainland treat you well.

One side benefit for when people leave our office is the reallocation of their work and office space. This time around it benefits Sara, as she was the most senior attorney without a window office. With everyone on two year contracts, it doesn't take long to move high up the seniority ladder, both Sara and I are near the top of the Civil Division ranks. As a result, Sara's now been upgraded to a view of Pago Harbor Mount Alava and Rainmaker Mountain. Not too shabby there, Mrs. Sayles.

Sometimes saying goodbye is tough, but it also means you're around to reap the spoils.

Sara Made It

After a 20 hour travel day, Sara made it in to Pago Pago International Airport last night. It was great to see her step through the crowd that formed around the exit from the customs office. She spent a bit of last night unpacking and taking stock of her new home. Now she's sleeping in at the house. I'll need to go rouse her in a couple of hours and send her off with our paralegal to go run errands and start getting her paperwork in order to start work.

Moving

So after thinking I was going to have to live with a floor that wanted to swallow me whole, hornets and wasps coming through my window screen and light bulbs that were corroded into their sockets; it looks like I'm moving. After a few of the issues in my original house were referred to the government housing office an inspection determined that the these issues were going to be long term problem. Now I'm being moved from Freddy's Beach #13 to #23.

The new place has got two air conditioning units in the windows. It's also wired with a 220V outlet for laundry, something I wasn't looking forward to doing at my old place. It's also got better cabinets and drawers in the kitchen. Plus, this is the view from the deck. You can just see the ocean peaking through between the palm trees, which is really all you can hope for when living on a island.

Out of our house

After a frantic week plus of packing, moving and cleaning we are out of our Sacramento house. All of our worldly possessions are either packed into bags, in boxes ready to be shipped or in our storage unit. Now the waiting begins.

I have roughly two weeks before I fly out, so there's a little downtime to fill. My plan is to track down a few old mountain bikes to get into peak shape before shipping them to AS. There's also trying to see as many friends as possible before we head overseas, as there will soon be a few thousand miles between us and them. Let us know when you have time to hang out so we can get in all the quality time we can.

Sara needs to work for the next two weeks and then it's off to Ohio to visit friends and family before heading off to American Samoa. Our time on the mainland is quickly slipping away.

Sacramento

Sara and I are in the midst of a frantic move. Our lease in Sacramento is up at the end of April and we're purging and sorting our way out of the house. In two-and-a-half years in Sacramento we've managed accumulate too much unnecessary stuff and with our pending move most of it needs to go.

Thankfully we got a PODS storage until for this move. It's making the packing and storage much easier. Instead of running car loads of furniture to an offsite storage unit, we only need to heft it to the driveway. It's also only one round of loading and moving stuff. Raise a glass to efficiency.