Settling In

I got back from the US yesterday, after a two week long trip. The trip was basically a blur of meetings, hotels, airplanes, fattening dinners and credit card swipes. On the plus side, I was able to spend some time in Austin with Triad 1 and hubby over the weekend. We ate yummy Mexican food and did some shopping, including a trip to Sparks, which is one of the most fun stores I've been in in a while. Then, last Thursday, my mom and my sisters came down to Houston and we were able to spend some time together, along with my stepdaugher and my wonderful friend B. Again, much overindulging food-wise and shopping-wise ensued.

While in the US, M called and told me that he talked to our landlord (landlady, I guess) and she's going to let us get a cat! I'm unnaturally excited about this, so much so that when I told my mom and sisters that I had an announcement to make, they automatically thought I was going to tell them I was pregnant. Nope. Just getting a cat. Still quite cool however.

We are also continuing to research how exactly to go about getting a car here. As it turns out, there are some leasing options available. Normally, I would opt for buying something used so that when we leave KL, we can sell it and at least recoup some of the money we spent on it. However, with the leasing option, the monthly cost includes road taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc. One stop shopping, basically. They take care of everything. So it really comes down to a question of convenience versus a return on investment. I need to do some more research on how to go about getting insurance here, the cost of it, how easy it will be to buy and sell the car, how easy it is to have maintenance done on the car, etc. etc. I haven't been able to find a lot on these things, although maybe I just haven't looked in the right place. We're planning on visiting a couple of dealerships this weekend before M heads off to Australia, so hopefully after that we will have more information so that we can make a decision. Because now that we've finally decided to get a car, I want it, like, yesterday. I'm all about the instant gratification.

Between the car and the cat, I'm pretty excited and it seems to have really improved my outlook on things. I can't pinpoint it exactly, but I guess some of it has to do with the fact that it will feel more like home. Settled, I suppose. So far, this has felt very temporary, which I think has really inhibited my adjustment. I've felt kind of...trapped. It's funny how the lack of car made me feel that way, and I didn't realize the full extent of it until we decided to get a car. I just felt this huge sigh of relief. It's a quality of life thing. I know that we can do most of those same things without a car, but having our own ride will make it far more convenient. It will cut down on the ick factor, the little niggling knot in my stomach every time we try to go anywhere here. It just pushes all our buttons and ultimately ends up being a frustrating experience. With a car, we won't be at the mercy of errant taxi drivers, or bad weather that makes it impossible to walk places sometimes. If we feel like having artichokes for dinner, I can just hop in the car and drive to Great Eastern Mall (the only place in KL that carries artichokes it seems) and get them. No trying to hail a cab only to have it start raining and my chances of getting one going down to zip. No calling my list of taxi drivers to try to find one that is working and that can come get me. No scheduling of a car and driver when we want to run a bunch of errands. We can head out to 1 Utama and The Curve and get cute things for the house, and it won't be an exercise in frustration from a transportation standpoint. I can sign up for yoga or dance classes and be comfortable that I'll make it there on time because I'll be the one driving there.

So, yeah, I'm pretty excited.