Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

Unsurprisingly and fittingly, I was a semi-slacker today. Both legs and one arm have serious aches and pains, and I was tired in general all day. Also unsurprisingly, I went to bed at 8:30 last night. Continuing the 'unsurprising' trend, I got up at 5 AM today.

I got a few boxes unpacked (seriously, just a few. Maybe four? And the stuff doesn't have a home yet, it's just out of the boxes). I moved a number of boxes into my storage room ("room", it's small for a room but giant for a closet). The only other thing I did was go to Big Lot. (A supposedly-discount chain, if you don't have them by you. In less expensive parts of the country, their prices actually are discounted. Here it's generally as expensive as anywhere else.) I had to get some of those big plastic containers for storing clothing. Still no rod in my closet, but they're going to send a guy to look into it on Tuesday. Either way, it will be shorter than my previous one, so no need to hang clothing I never wear but don't want to throw out.

Ellie New Cat is semi-settling in. This evening she's sleeping for the first time, though she's still on edge. The stomping from the floor above bothers her a whole lot than it does me. (Gods above, how do these people walk so loudly? Luckily, at least so far, they're not home much. Hopefully that's how it will always be and not just something special for the holiday weekend.)

I'm really liking my apartment, though I boggle at all the crap I own. I don't cook, I do little but heat things up in the microwave, so how on Earth do I have EIGHT boxes of stuff from the kitchen? I hate to unpack it all and re-clutter my life.

As far as I can tell, only one thing was lost in the move. It's a small thing, but a big pain in the ass not to have: The cable that brings TV service from the wall to the TV. So, while supposedly I have service up and working, it can't reach my TV. Tomorrow I'm going to go buy a new one. (Thankfully I had a ton of stuff on Tivo waiting to be watched, so I watched that all day.)

Tomorrow hopefully I'll be better about unpacking. I also need to rearrange my bedroom; I think all my other furniture is okay where it is.

Oh, right! I have a couple pictures. I'll post more once something other than boxes can be seen.

My very first time sitting down at my desk and looking out the window, I saw my second favorite bird, a Dark-eyed Junco, sitting on my porch:

If I believed in such things, I'd say it was a sign I made the right decision about moving here. :)

Having learned my lesson in my previous apartment, I arranged it so I could see my TV while at the computer. When it was a 90 degree turn away, I never watched the screen, just listened to it. This is so much better! I can easily watch while on my computer -- just a bare eye movement to the left.

(Ellie is being extra clingy, all my photos end up with her in them.)

Lessons learned:

1) When you file a change of address with the post office, they offer to send you free coupons. Take them! I had to go to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to pick up a couple things, only to find that the coupon they sent me wasn't the usual 20% off any one item, it was 20% off everything!

2) Bed, Bath, and Beyond is darned expensive. I needed a bunch of bath things, so seemed like a place with "bath" in its name was a good choice. At least the 20% off everything made me feel a little better. (Plus, while I usually hate shopping, I actually didn't mind this shop at all.)

I visited the new apartment again today to drop off more stuff I was hand-moving. It didn't seem anywhere near as small as the first time I saw it. (What's up with that, brain?) I said hello to two neighbors, but the conversations were mega-awkward. The man I met seemed angry at me from the moment we spoke, and the woman who lives across from me I just totally failed at conversation with. Talking to people shouldn't be so hard! :/

Continuing the trend of injuring myself when stress levels are high: today I sliced open the tips of my right index and middle fingers. Breaking two toes days before I went on the cruise was worse, but this is no picnic. (Especially since anything and everything I could clean the cuts with was packed. I ended up using napkins and packing tape to make bandaids.)

Movers are coming bright and early tomorrow morning, so all this is almost over. So long as my internet connection works and Ellie New Cat doesn't escape I'm going to call the whole thing a big success. Oh, and the truck not getting in an accident and catching on fire would be nice too, but it's only a 5 minute trip between apartments, so hopefully we'll be safe on that end.

Before I get to the apartment, a couple lessons I learned while packing:

1) Moving isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I wanted to move out of my current apartment long ago, but I thought moving would end in tears and me driving my car off a bridge out of stress. It's not fun, but it 100% is doable.

2) A grocery cart/basket/wheeled thing makes all the difference. Not the kind you use at the store, but this one:

Instead of three or four trips between apartment and car, it gets reduced to one, plus it's still a lot easier. I bought one for about $13 on Amazon. Cheap as hell, but it's been more than worth it so far.

Now, on to the apartment. I hadn't been able to see the inside of it, since they were renovating it and construction was going on. We looked in through the windows, but that hadn't shown much. So today was my first good look.

It's much smaller than my current place. Enough smaller that even the little bit of furniture I have will be an issue. My current place has a large living room, large bedroom, medium dining area, and small kitchen. New place has a small living room, small bedroom, small kitchen. No dining area/no place to put my kitchen table other than in the living room (which will be full of my living room stuff -- a sofa, TV stand, and desk). The ceilings are surprisingly low too, which makes it feel even smaller.

The patio is nice, though being on the first floor isn't private at all. The sliding glass door is wonderful. The ceiling fans do wonders to keep things cool! (I never had those before.) Lots more windows + sliding glass door + ceiling fans = less AC use, I hope.

The bedroom closet might have been a deal-breaker, if I had known about it ahead of time. It has no rods for hangers, just shelves. Never in my life have I had a closet without a rod. I have a metric crapton of clothing, I really have no idea how I'm going to deal with this. (Even if I get a stand-alone rod thing, where would I put it?)

The shower might have been the other semi-deal-breaker, though I won't know for sure until I try it. It's even smaller than my current one (which is really small), and I'll need to buy a shower curtain (my current one has a sliding glass door to get in). I don't like shower curtains. :/ At least the rod has a curve in it, so the curtain will be out away from the tub a little/less likely to try to get busy with you while you're wet and naked.

Tons of outlets (electric, cable, and USB). The washer seems nice and new, though the dryer seems older than I am. Luckily I don't use the dryer much.

At 11 AM, there was a surprising number of people around. Lots of kids (very young, 5 and under), lots of dogs. The apartment across from mine has a yippy dog who barked every time I went by, but luckily once I closed my door I couldn't hear it. Some people had multiple dogs, including big ones. I can't imagine having more than a cat in these little apartments.

I've always said I had more space than I need in my current apartment, so less space in the new one shouldn't be an issue. (I just hope I won't trip over the cat box in the bathroom too often...) And, even with the lesser space, it does seem like the apartment is more aimed towards the higher end of things, which is nice. The stovetop is that kind with the smooth glass top -- no burners! Alas my new fridge is no bigger than my current one, and might even be a little smaller. The front is a nice brushed metallic color though.

So, all in all, I think it's an okay apartment. Once I have my furniture in place I'll have a better idea how I feel. However, thanks to Lesson Learned #1, I will certainly move out if I don't like it. (I'm paying a good deal more than I am in my current place, and after buying my car funds are suddenly tighter, so I wouldn't mind moving someplace cheaper.) My lease is only one year.

Edit: I think we need a new game. Porn Movie or Awkward Stock Photo/akwardstock? ( Click to see -- implies NWS. )

After a string of great books, I hit three duds and a meh one.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. I looooved Westerfield's steampunk trilogy so much, but I hated every single word of every page of this book. Or, well, of the couple chapters I read. If a book were ever written for the exact purposes of me hating it, it would be Uglies. I read a lot of YA books, so unfortunately I encounter a lot of teenagers with teenage problems; I couldn't care less about that sort of thing. This book couldn't be more that. In Uglies, everyone is born "ugly" (normal), but at some age in their teens everyone gets a ton of surgeries to make them into a Pretty. Uglies live in Uglytown. Pretties live in New Pretty City (kill me now, I hated those names so much). What little I read about this book was stupid teenagers in godawful stupid romances thinking about nothing other than being "pretty". If I could kill myself with a book, I wouldn't be writing this post now.

The Adventures of Whatley Tupper: A Choose Your Own Adventures book for adults by Rudolf Kerkhoven and Daniel Pitts. I bought this book soon after getting my iPad. "It uses ebook technology! Clicking links to make decisions, using your back button to get out of them!" Seemed like a good idea at the time, yet this book sat in my To Read pile for years. Eventually I started it just so I could be done with it. I went through one possible story in it. It wasn't awful, but it was far far from good. Way too few choices to make, and the writing was silly (silly-stupid, not silly-funny). I just didn't enjoy it at all and didn't bother going back to see where the other options lead.

Flesh Cartel: part 9. I'm not even going to link to the damned thing. I said I wouldn't continue with the series even if I got it for free, then I found it for free and said 'whatever' and grabbed a copy. Skimmed most of it. Finally started getting into it... only to have it end. Because it's only 40 pages long. Pissed me off even more than I had been about this series. Why can't they just release it as a whole book?! Grrr. (Oh yeah, because they make $3/40 pages this way...) Never ever ever have I been so happy an ebook was being pirated.

Currently reading: Doglands by Tim Willock. I love talking animal stories, but alas this isn't a good one. It's not awful, it's not bad enough for me to stop reading (yet?), but it's not very good. The writing is unexciting, the characters are flat and unbelievable, the worldbuilding is poor. (Wow, I think Doglands is another example of paid reviews showing up on Amazon. All 5 star reviews other than one 4 star.)

The first three books aren't being included in the 2013 count, but Doglands might be if I get at least halfway through it.

RP! Eeeeee RP! RP! I feel like twirling around in circles until I get dizzy and fall down. It's been so long (more than a year!) since it's made me so happy and excited and eeeee! I have no idea what the difference was. Was I burnt out and I just got over it? Was I tired of the character I was playing? Was it just not the right type of RP*? I don't know.

* I hate to admit it, but apparently I do have a type of RP I like. I love RPing relationships. I'm not in it for the ERP/cyber/tiny/whatever name you know RPing sex as ("tab A, slot B" gets really boring to me nowadays), but the whole emotional connection thing just sends me floating through the roof. (The character I was previously playing basically had zero chance of a meaningful relationship, he was too damaged for it. Lately I've been playing a new (er, old character that I dropped) one, who is perfect for relationships.) And luckily I found a good player! Our RP styles seem to match SO WELL WHICH IS SO EXCITING IT'S MAKING ME TYPE IN ALL CAPS. But seriously, nowadays there are so many different types of RP, it feels so special to find someone who likes to post in the same way I do (same tense, length, style).

It makes me so happy! I know it sounds silly, but it makes me grin endlessly that someone wants to RP with me and is willing to plan to RP with me in the future. It's silly because people are willing to do that now! But the new guy is someone who I don't know, so he's not wanting to RP just so I think he likes me or blah blah some stupid messed up crap. My brain has issues, I know. But it's been more than a year! And it's silly to get so excited, we only RPed twice and have one more scene coming, but it's so nice to be excited about RP again. (Really! A whole year of having NO interest in it!) Midway though tonight's scene I ICly gave his character an out to end it now (I wasn't sure if he had OOCly wanted to RP again) and he didn't take it! He extended the scene of his own will! SOMEBODY LIKES ME! (Silly, silly me, I know. :D )

On moving: As usual, I panicked too soon. I went insane packing the first couple days, then I was mostly done and did little the next few. Then I panicked again (STUFF LEFT TO DO!), then I did nothing for a couple days... I'm almost as done as I can be while still needing to live here, and I have 10 days left! Heh. I have so many boxes packed, I can hardly walk through the apartment. I still need to deal with moving electric etc to new apartment, and updating physical address with about a kazillion companies I deal with.

Oddly, Ellie New Cat isn't reacting at all to any of this. She's not climbed on single box (she's not a climbing cat in general, the sofa is about as high as she goes). She hasn't shown any reaction to any of these changes at all. I realllly hope that continues once we're in the new place. I have horrible worries that she'll get stressed out and pee on stuff.

* Freecycle: Less successful today. Posted about my floor-to-ceiling cat scratching post. Described it honestly as "well-scratched" in one section. Guy said he wanted it for his cat. Took 2.5 hours to deal with whole issue. When he arrived, he looked at it and drove off. Later emailed me saying it was "soaking wet" and he couldn't take it. (It was bone-dry, had been inside my apartment until I put it out for him.) Wasted time. Had to lug it down to the dumpster myself.

* New apartment requires renter's insurance. $100,000 worth of coverage. Who on Earth owns $100,000 worth of stuff? Set it up today. Luckily costs only $15/month.

* Threw out two black garbage bags full of stuff. How in the world do I own so much that that hardly makes a dent? Going to have to make trips to donate stuff before the end of packing. I had hoped to make one trip at the end, but already have two black garbage bags full of stuff for them.

* Lord, am I tired. Thankfully I work a desk job, because coming home to six hours of physical work is killing me. Hopefully not literally. Six hours last night, six tonight, and again, not even a dent.

* I feel like I'm going about this in the wrong way. Previous moves I did all of one room, then moved on to the next. This time I feel like I'm fluttering: Pack a drawer here, take the stuff off a wall there, pack a shelf of stuff.

* Was going to wait until the weekend to get boxes, but I think that's holding me up. Going to go tomorrow.

* So tired. So very tired.

I think I need to hide or throw up or perhaps both.

Today's happening is in addition to major medical issues I haven't posted about yet. Basically I'm visiting the doctor more times this month than I do in years, and with all sorts of medical tests I never had before. One day I'll write more about it.

Anyway. Woke up this morning. Checked email first thing. Found out I need to move. Owner wants to renovate my apartment, so he offered to let me move into another apartment in the complex, but he raised our rent six times in a year, and I've been wanting to move out. So if I'm going to move, I'm not moving to another apartment he owns.

My blood pressure was already going through the roof, just based on that first email.

I sat down with Craigslist and started going through postings. Found a couple I could live with, then one I liked. 9:30 and I visited it. It had everything I required (permitted cats), and the things I really really wanted (washer/dryer in unit, dishwasher, AC). The location is good, and while it's a big complex, the area is really pretty (feels more like a park than an apartment complex), plus it has a nice pool.

10 AM and I filled out the application.

Today was going to be a big day because I was picking up my first smart phone (an iphone), so I scurried off to the Apple store in the mall to pick that up. Horrible trip, HATE that mall so much (think about every high-end fashion brand on the planet and put them all in one mall, that was this place). I felt so amazingly out of place. Plus I injured my foot a while ago, so I was hobbling around on it through the giant mall. (At least I didn't lose my car. That's one of my biggest nightmares, that I can't find my car. My nightmares really aren't all that creative -- either me doing horrible things to people I like or losing my car.)

Noon I was home with my phone and lunch and got an email that my credit check/application passed "with flying colors" (which made me laugh -- my credit score is nearly perfect, darned straight I better have passed!).

1 PM and I had made a ton of phone calls to movers (phone-phobic me! I hate calling people and talking on the phone). Turned out 8/5 is a really late, bad time to try to book movers when you want to move that same month. I finally found a company that both had a good rating on Yelp and had an open booking.

Now I need to pack. I've been living in this apartment for 13 years, so... I have no idea how I'm going to be ready in time. I have a grand total of 5 boxes to use. Luckily the dates work out well:

New apartment ready 8/28
Movers coming: 8/30
Out of old apartment by: 8/31

I just hope the owner of the apartment I'm in now isn't a pain about "30 days notice" when I'm just a few days short of that.

Must make a list of all the things I have to do. It feels an impossible task to be ready in that short of time.