Moving on up!

It was an historic weekend in the life of Matt Johnson. I just got a new job in Omaha, and after six long years of living at Fountain Glen, I'm finally moving out! A bunch of my amazing friends from the Omaha Jitterbugs came to help me move all of my worldly possessions into a fourteen foot trailer, then move them all up the World's Most Annoying Staircase to our new second-floor apartment in Omaha. I expected the ordeal to take all day, but after just a couple sweaty, exhausting hours, we were stuffing our faces with Papa Murphy's upstairs and then heading back to Vivian's place for a celebratory swim. Every weather forecast had been predicting rain all weekend long, but the weather couldn't have been more perfect. It was one of those rare occasions when I was grateful that they couldn't predict the weather accurately even one day in advance.

The rest of our three-day weekend was about as nice as you could expect: dinner at the Brazen's Head pub after our swim, then Lindy in the Park on Sunday. Cliff brought some great cheddar wurst dogs, and we got to have Ted and Wally's ice cream afterwards. The weather went from cold and cloudy to hot and muggy within an eye blink. It makes you wonder what happened to spring.

I now have one more week to scrub down my apartment before turning my keys back to the management, and I have just two more weeks at Land and Sky before I start my new job in Omaha. Before long, I'll be married. Boy, when things change, they change fast.

Signing the lease

Vivian and I signed the lease on our new two-bedroom apartment last week, so now it's official: I'm moving up to Omaha! It's been an insanely busy week as I've been packing and digging through years of old stuff in my apartment. I've thrown out loads of old comics and magazines, I've donated dozens of books to our local library, and I'm still discovering more junk to dig through. It's going to be a monumental challenge to cram all of this stuff into one new place, especially since we've discovered our new home's utter lack of closet space. It's all a part of marital bliss, I suppose.



All this packing up means I've had to miss out on a couple fun things in Omaha, such as Eric's first campfire party and an impromptu barbecue at Hugh's. However, I couldn't possibly miss the first Lindy in the Park of 2008! I drove up to the Gene Leahy Mall and enjoyed a couple hours of dancing with a nice big crowd. The weather was perfect for it, too.

Afterwards, Vivian and I dropped by Nebraska Furniture Mart to try out a Land and Sky latex bed. We dropped by the apartment afterwards to unpack a couple things and start filling out the "what's wrong with this apartment" sheet for the landlords. It seems our previous tenants broke the garbage disposal by stuffing it with a number of foreign objects.

Apartments and Cheesecake

It was a busy weekend for some of our Omaha Jitterbugs. They hosted a weekend of swing dancing and workshops from some Cowtown veterans: Peter Loggins, Mia Goldsmith, Shannon, and Bill Butler. Vivian and I just went for "regular old JNO" on Friday night, which happened to include a Jack and Jill dance competition, which was fun to watch. Afterwards, practically the entire Eagle's Lodge wound up going to Village Inn. I squeezed into a table with Eric, Dan, Meg, Ben, Vivian, and our friend David from Sioux Falls. We also managed to fill three other tables with Jitterbugs that night. With this extra business, we'll probably pull VI out of bankruptcy.

Saturday was a pretty eventful day for Vivian and me. We took a look at a couple more apartments and finally settled on one to call our new home. We signed the application and should have a one-year lease all taken care of this week. It wasn't an easy decision—every place we looked at had something to offer—but this our new home will offer the best of just about everything. We returned home for a private blues dance lesson with our friend David, and then Vivian made some yummy cheesecake for her mom for Mother's Day.

We rounded off the night eating spicy breakfast burritos and watching The Village on DVD. That was a nightmare-inspiring combination if I've ever heard one.

Springtime birthdays

Spring is finally in the air as a long winter that made Narnia look downright tropical takes a backseat to warmer days. May is also a popular month for birthdays, it seems, as we had a number of them last night at Great Adventures batting around a piñata for Cinco de Mayo.

I had quite a bit of fun with friends in Lincoln and Omaha over the weekend. On Friday, I went with Vivian to have gizzards for the first time at Popeye's on Dodge. I wasn't quite sure what to make of them, but they were quite good with honey (and very sticky). At JNO, we had a special jam circle for the graduating class of 2008, so I got a chance to take with a few of the lady seniors in our circle.

Saturday, Vivian and I took a look at a few more apartments. For some reason, the apartments just south of Omaha in the suburb of La Vista all seem to be much nicer and much less expensive that the older apartment in midtown Omaha. We both really like Applewood Pointe, though I was also quite taken by Thomasville. They had some great amenites, including an heated indoor pool and a huge gym, but little things like the large collection of Beer bottles strewn about the property (and some telling reviews online) led me to believe I was in the middle of college party central.

After our apartment hunting, Vivian and I dropped by the Spaghetti Works in the Old Market to say "happy birthday" to our friend Robin. A bunch of our mutual friends showed up, and we got to stuff ourselves with pasta, salad, and birthday cake while snapping random pictures of each other.

To work off our carbohydrate binge, we took a nice long walk around Heartland of America park after lunch. Spring was definitely in the air, and we passed by a couple birds who were on the nest. A large male swan (a "cob," I've since learned) was fiercely guarding his mate (a pen), who was sitting on her nest by a stairway in the park. He was hissing at us when we got near, so we had to tiptoe around him carefully. We stumbled upon a nest of Duck eggs on the other side of the pond was well. Trees all over downtown Omaha were in full blossom as well, turning these formerly overgrown twigs into giant allergy inducing wondered. They filled the air with the sweet smell of springtime.

Back in Lincoln, I got to celebrate a second birthday with my other group of friends from Bible Study. Sarah was celebrating her 24th down at Lee's Chicken in West Lincoln, so I got to eat even more fried chicken with them. (It was good, but I think I'm pretty much done with chicken and all fried foods in general at this point.) Robyn was busy taking pictures with me, and Sarah got to have cake and ice cream with a sparkler in the center to celebrate her turning another year.

On Sunday, I went out again with the bible study gang to Schlotzsky's for some more less-than-healthful sandwiches after church. I spent the rest of the day getting a head-start on packing up things in my apartment for the big move I'll be making before the end of the month. I worked with the windows open, and it felt great to let a little of that fragrant springtime air into my apartment.

(If anybody would like to help with my big move to Omaha, I'm planning on making my exodus on Saturday, May 24. We'll have pizza afterwards for anybody willing to lend a hand.)

Barbecue on the farm and apartment hunting

On Thursday this week, my Lincoln Bible Study had a cookout on a farm outside of Waverly where a couple of our members live. We ate hamburgers, hot dogs, and nachos together before having a tour of the big place. Jeremy fired up the tractor and pulled us around the grounds, which hosts some kind of tractor and farm implement show every year or so. There was also an old church on the property that we got to look inside. It had been uprooted and hauled down here from Mead some time ago, and it was fun to check the place out and watch Ethan bang away on the old organ.

On Saturday, Vivian and I toured a couple of apartments in Omaha. We weren't sold on any of the properties we looked at, since we're hoping to find a place within our price range that had a washer and dryer hookups and a good elliptical machine in the gym. We headed down to Lincoln afterwards, where Vivian got to attend Becky Moore's bridal shower, and then I got to watch Rocky Balboa with her afterwards.

On Sunday, we went to church together and then went out to watch Expelled at the Lincoln Grand. I quite liked it, particularly the parts about how hard it can be just to discuss ideas like Intelligent Design in a classroom and keep your job afterwards. We had some lunch afterwards and then returned to my place to look through one of the photo albums my dad sent me last week. I'll be using some of the pictures in a video for our wedding come July, and Vivian liked looking through my collection of baby pictures.

Surprise Party Weekend

This was a weekend for a couple of (so-called) surprise parties, as two people both Vivian and I know celebrated some landmark, decade-turning style birthday parties this weekend.

The first surprise party was held for Chad, the unofficial leader of the Christian singles group Great Adventures. It couldn't have been much of a surprise, as Angie led him up to the garage where we were all hiding wearing a blindfold. For the clueless among us: blindfold = surprise party. We had a flaming grill with hamburgers and hot dogs and a volleyball court cake made with coconut and red licorice.

Vivian and I spent the weekend in Cedar Rapids visiting with my Uncle Ben there. We came at first to talk about our wedding: my Uncle Ben will be performing the ceremony, and he's been through this routine enough times that he gave me and Vivian a list of things to figure out ahead of time.

What we didn't know when we arrived was that last Thursday my Uncle Ben turned seventy, so after we attended a church service on Saturday night, a bunch of our family from town came by to throw a "not so surprised party." We had a good time, and my Uncle Ben got ribbed quite a bit over turning over another decade.

On Sunday, Vivian and I got to visit my Grandma Gibbs. Aunt Carol said that she seemed to be much better today than she had been in a while. Vivian and I visited Arlan and his family a bit before heading on back for home. We drove along part of the Lincoln Highway, having an adventure traveling a few of the less traveled roads along the way home. We also stopped to have a picnic at a park in the tiny Iowa town of Elderon before the final stretch home.

Video from Chad's Party

Laser Quest

Vivian and I went down to Lincoln. on Saturday to go on a double date with my brother Nathan and his girlfriend Renae. We went to Laser Quest and had some fun trying to find each other in a very large maze filled with mirrors, haze, and freshly-waxed floors. Renae was beating us rather easily and it was a very fun time, and I was glad just to find other people in that very large maze. The four of us had the room out to ourselves. Afterwards, we went practically across the street to go to Grisante's to have dinner together. It was packed, especially for a Saturday night, but the food was great and we got to enjoy some Italian food with bread warmed by candlelight.

On Sunday, after going to church and having lunch with our friends at IHOP, I got to introduce Vivian to the Marx Brothers. We watched the movie Horse Feathers, and Vivian liked Harpo the best of the bunch. I was still getting chuckles from Groucho even after seeing this movie multiple times.

On Monday night, we went out with our friends to GAMe for our Monday night bible Sunday. It was much more comfortable at this time in the room because they were furnished very nicely with couches, end tables, and coffee tables from Nebraska Furniture Mart.

I also wound up eating very well on Monday night. Vivian made me pork ribs for dinner with mashed potatoes loaded with garlic and sour cream, asparagus and some toasted baguettes. It was very lovely. Then the next morning, Vivian got up and made me a breakfast of eggs with bacon, potatoes, onions and peppers. I've been eating like a king all weekend.