Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

In the past week I've:

- Moved from California to New Mexico
- Been diagnosed with a giant kidney stone

Unfortunately the second came directly before the first and so, a week later, it's still kicking my ass kidney.

Move date: Tuesday February 23.
On Saturday the 20th, I had serious pain in my flank (I was pretty sure it was kidney stone pain, I used to get them a lot). Went to urgent care. Asked doctor what they could do since I was flying on the 23rd. He said cancel my move until it was taken care of, that it wouldn't be safe to fly.

In a panic, I left. But it was too late to do any calling to cancel anything, so I just went to bed. Next morning pain was so bad, I went to the ER. I was hoping the on call urologist would do the procedure to blast it to bits, then I could get the follow up care done in NM. Nope. Urologist said I either stay and get it done (10 days or so with a stent in me, then get it removed, THEN I could move) or I could move and get the procedure done in NM. He said it would be safe to fly, and since he was the specialist, I went with his opinion. (In addition to my furniture being moved, my car was being shipped, my cat was flying with me, and I had already given up my apartment. Too much to cancel at the last minute.)

The CA urologist said that once I landed in NM I should go to an ER and they could do the procedure that same day. Unfortunately that turned out into a complicated mess. I picked the wrong hospital (the only one out of four that has no urologist on call). The NM ER doctor looked at me in the eye and asked "Why are you here? For a referral?". Ugh.

But what could I do? I took the referral... and then that office (another hospital) canceled it. The state of NM has no 14 day quarantine, but the hospitals do. Sigh. So they made me an appointment two weeks out, but if the pain gets too bad, I can go to their ER.

The move itself was stressful. While the flight was only three and a half hours long, there was a layover in the middle of it, and I was flying with my cat.

Things learned the hard way about New Mexico:
- Uber/Lyft has zero cars available after 9 PM. I spent an hour and a half in the airport trying to get a ride to the hotel, my cat having been in the carrying case for eight hours at that point.
- The difference in altitude will kick your ass. I get winded walking down a short hallway (I used to walk every day for almost an hour). I get so out of breath going up a single flight of stairs (and I live on the second floor).

Lifesaving things:
- Siri. Before smart phones existed, how did anyone get around in a new city? Paper maps? Reading them while driving? All I do is follow her directions and I can get where I'm going.

New Mexico:
- I picked this state because it's so much cheaper to live in than California, but I hadn't realized what that really meant. I had (stupidly) thought that it would be just a much cheaper California -- that it would look the same, the people would be the same, the services would be the same. But I was so very wrong.
- Smoking. OMG. In California, I saw someone smoking maybe once a year. Here every single person I see is either smoking or holding a pack. These apartments are supposed to be nonsmoking, but everyone just stands on their balcony and smoke. I can smell it in my apartment all the time.
- The mountains are great! So pretty!

I'm looking forward to seeing more of the area once I'm feeling better and the virus is more under control. I was looking forward to trying more new places to eat, but I'm sorry to say most of the food I've eaten so far has been from chains. (I'm usually too hurting or tired to venture.)

On book reviews: I haven't read a single page in a week or so. Kidney stone = being in bed hurts, and I do most of my reading in bed. Plus I kind of misplaced my Kindle (I'm nearly sure I saw it in my apartment somewhere, so it's not lost-lost).

Move all done! I'm really happy with my new (new-new) apartment. $100 and change more a month than my previous new one, but I have a lot more space (junior bedroom instead of studio), AC, an assigned parking spot (instead of first come, first serve with fewer parking spots than there are apartments), and spiders. Okay, maybe that last one isn't really a feature. I found the biggest one in the bathtub this morning though, and another outside of it. Luckily I don't mind spiders much. But I'm sure the spiders come from the fact that we have nature here. Grass, trees, shade, growing things. Previous-new apartment was nothing but pavement and concrete -- the property (four large apartment buildings) had a grand total of three palm trees growing. This place is right on the border of a river (a creek for those who know the area) and has stuff growing everywhere.

But why am I awake at 2:30 AM? The game I play has a big patch coming out today (due to drop at 3 AM my time) and I did intend to get up for it if I naturally woke up at that time, but my legs were hurting so much all night, I couldn't sleep at all. Dozens of trips up and down the stairs and hours of moving boxes was just too much for me, I guess. For some reason, laying down makes them really, really hurt, but sitting or standing isn't as bad. Seems wacky, but since the game has a big patch coming, I figured I might as well give up on sleeping tonight. zzz I do feel tired, but not sleepy, if that makes sense.

This move went better than the move three weeks ago. That move, moving the same amount of stuff basically the same distance, cost me $440 + $40 tip. It was killing me to pay that much again, but for some reason this move came to $230 + $40. Much much better!

My apartment is currently such a mess. To hopefully avoid bringing silverfish with me from the old apartment, I wanted to unpack and get rid of the boxes as fast as I could. So I unpacked everything and just put it anywhere -- stacks of stuff in random spots.

Unfortunately one box had so many silverfish in it, I threw it all out. It was a box of my drawings and photo albums, so... that was painful to lose. But silverfish lay their eggs in and on things, and there's just no way of cleaning them up. Maybe at some point in my life I'll be sad I lost them, but through my life thus far I haven't wanted physical photos and never looked at them, so... Hopefully I won't feel bad about it later. I would have liked to have kept my drawings (I could actually draw when I was younger!), but paper is the worst thing when it comes to silverfish.

Ugh. I hate silverfish so much. Horrible little bugs.

So I decided to look for a new apartment. Because the current complex is breaking my lease (not having my leased unit ready), I can get out of it.

My goal in coming here was to save money, but with all the fees ($80 pet rent, $30 Internet/month, $30 trash valet/month), I'm not really saving all that much. Looking around, I could get a one bedroom (current one lease is a studio) in a better area, much much better complex, with a parking spot (current apartment has no assigned parking, more apartments than spots in the lot, and no street parking) for not that much more. Plus the place I'm looking at has a $25 pet rent -- so much better than $80. The complex I'm going to visit tomorrow has AC in some units, so that might not happen, we'll see how that changes the price.

I feel insane to think about moving again, but hell, all my stuff is still in boxes. I'd have to pay for this move ($400 at least), but it seems like the stress of moving again would be reduced.

I'd have to go back to a personal Comcast account, but checking their site, I could get it for $30 -- same as here. And I bet, unlike here, it won't go down every couple hours.

While I'd really rather not move again, I'd have to move soon anyway -- into the unit I leased, if nothing else. So if I'm going to move, I could at least try to improve my situation.

I'm going to see a place that looks reasonable tomorrow. The clock is ticking, I'll need to be out before the apartment I was supposed to move into is ready, and unfortunately I don't know when exactly that is.

I wish I wasn't so awful at looking for apartments. I hate doing it, so as soon as I find one that seems reasonable, I jump on it so I don't have to look for more.

It's been a rough 24 hours! Being on the second floor means endless trips up and down the stairs.

Good thing: A flight of stairs no longer bothers me! Two flights don't! Three! My brain still thinks I weigh 130 more pounds than I do, and even a couple steps was hard. Now I can just run (or plod) up them without trouble.

Bad thing: About five times up and down is the line for my comfort. After that it starts hurting/getting tired. Yesterday I went up and down 12 times in a row, plus assorted other trips up and down during the day, plus more today. I think my poor legs might fall off.

After 24 hours with no Internet (EEEK) I'm finally settling in. While this apartment and complex have a hell of a lot of issues, they're quite responsive on fixing things. The complex offers "free" Internet (which you have to pay a non-optional $35 fee for...), but it wasn't working. They had a tech here in my apartment for almost an hour to make it work. While the $35 fee sucks, I had been paying $68 for Internet alone, so I'm saving. Plus it's the highest level/fastest customer access Comcast Business offers, so it should be good. (So far, so good, though I haven't tried streaming video yet. Edit: Streaming seems really good, whew!)

My apartment is full of boxes, and it's going to stay that way, which is a pain. But it IS a nicer apartment than the one I leased, so I'm going to just try to enjoy it while I'm here, until mine is ready to move into.

Ellie New Cat is settling down (I'm sure the place being full of all of our stuff helps). Unfortunately there's a (young?) cat-eating Boxer dog next door. Ellie likes sitting in the window, and the dog goes crazy trying to get at her when the owner walks it by. The owner seems responsive and is correcting the dog, so that's something.

My apartment complex is right next to a train track (same street as it, only one other complex between the tracks and us -- standing in our parking lot, you can see the trains going by). While I hate noise, I actually like the sound of trains, so that's okay. Train lines seem to be like airports -- they respect quiet hours as much as they can. After 9 PM, they seem to stop doing the train whistles and bells, so you only hear the track noise.

I really, REALLY need to get some book reviews written, before I forget everything about them. Life has just been too busy lately. Long weekend coming, so hopefully soon!

I got a call from the apartment complex I'm moving in to. "We have good news and bad news..." That is NOT what you want to hear from a place you're moving to.

The good news: My apartment is completely finished and ready to move in to.

They opened with that news. Which is good news, but what could be the bad news compared to that?

The building hasn't passed the town inspection and they can't move residents in.

Gods above...

They offered to move me into a different apartment in the complex for a week, and they're going to pay for movers to move me in to my intended apartment once it does pass. So that's something, but I won't be able to unpack anything for at least a week. And I'm going to have to move twice.

Lesser annoying thing: The temporary apartment is in the second floor, with no elevator in the building. My knees ache going up only a couple steps. :( And I'm going to have to move my computer and cat myself and things like the cat box... things I don't want the movers to do.

Sigh.

- In the endless tangle of worries that is my brain, a new BIGGEST MOST IMPORTANT WORRY EVER has come to the forefront of the others: The new apartment complex I'm moving into comes with wifi, so I'm going to cancel my personal service and use the complex's (saving almost $100/month), but now I can't stop wondering if it'll be good enough. If I'm sharing wifi with an apartment complex, probably 50 other apartments, what are the chances I'll get the speed/bandwidth that I'm used to? Good enough to play online games (MMOs) and steam video without lag? Is that a pipe dream or might it be good enough that I won't need to return to a personal account?

- In other apparently worry-related news, last night I had a dream I was at work. Working. So when I woke up, I felt like I had been at work all night... just in time to go to work this morning. Thanks, brain.

- I'm watching the new Voltron series from Netflix/Dreamworks. I had loved the original Voltron when I was a kid, so I had hoped I'd like the new series, but right now (halfway point of the first season), I'm pretty meh on it. I don't hate it, I don't love it. It's watchable.

- Ellie New Cat is the oddest cat. She doesn't like to climb things. I used to have a floor-to-ceiling post for her, but she never used it so I got rid of it. Now I have boxes stacked halfway to the ceiling, formed in "steps" that would be easy as pie for her to jump up, and she hasn't checked it out once. She never wants to go higher than the back of a chair or desktop. I never met a cat like that before.

- Packing for my move is going well. I said it before and I'll say it again: It rocks to start really early. I have three weeks and change left, and I'm nearly done packing -- too done! I packed stuff I now wish I hadn't packed, bowls and such.

- I have a ton of non-packing, move-related stuff left to do. I've been dragging my feet on it for some reason, things like change of address through the post office, scheduling power to turn on in the new place, etc. Much of it can be easily done online, though some of it (like canceling Comcast) will need a phone call and an office visit to return hardware.

- Though I said I was done with Freecycle, I decided to list one more thing. I had three very nice plush toys (picture of them), very good condition (kept on shelves, never played/slept with). I thought they would get lots of interest and snapped right up, but nope. Only one single request, and that person wanted just one of the three. (I ended up saying no to that person, since I'd have to take the other two to Goodwill to donate, splitting the group would just double my work.) I know this area has very few families/kids, but I still thought there would be interest in them. Oh well.

Everything about my life right now seems all wrapped up in my coming move, which is odd as it's still a month and a half away. I have my lease signed for the new place, so that's locked up. Good apartment location, right on the back corner, so it should be the most quiet option. Unfortunately I think the afternoon sun will pour in, so that will make it hotter in the summer (no AC, so that's an issue). The unit on the opposite side would be cooler and more private, but I think less safe. It faces a fence to another apartment complex, one a little more run down than the one I'm moving into, so it would be easier to break into with no one seeing it.

Endless worrier that I am, I'm worrying nonstop about the parking situation there (no assigned parking, very small lot -- fewer spots than there are apartments). The thinking part of me says it should be minimally annoying -- once I'm home for the day after work I never want to go back out, and I'd rather not go out on weekends as well, and since I get home from work early I can get a parking spot and not worry about losing it later in the day. But the rest of me? Endless what-ifs and all sorts of images of parking nightmares. It's stupid and pointless to worry (the lease is signed, there's no backing out even if I want to), but I live my life like one of those tiny dogs that trembles endlessly, so I just can't quiet the worry.

I got the moving company reserved already, though I have to call them this morning to give more information. (I sure do wish companies would do more business by email than by phone!)

My current apartment offers a pre-move out inspection, so they can tell me anything that will impact getting my deposit back. That's nice. It's on August 23rd, so I intend to try to have all my cleaning done by then. It's nice that there's so much time, I can do one big task a day instead of having to get it all done NOW NOW NOW.

There was so much paperwork. My new lease was 51 pages long! I tried to read it all (since it was all online and so I had time to do it), but man, I feel like the whole thing is a trap that's just waiting for me to fall into. My ending-lease paperwork for the current apartment was another 20-something pages, including information like, if they find a new person to lease to, they could tell me to leave before my lease is officially ended... (I suppose I have to live on the street then?)

Lease for the new place mentioned that we're close to somewhere with "public entertainment" and there could be noise after hours. I have no idea what that's referring to -- I'd think a sports stadium or something, but there's nothing around the area that I can see. (Maybe it's a default thing they put into leases...)

As I had lived in my last apartment for 10 years, when I moved into my new apartment, I put up wall decals. I'm so sad to be taking them down. Not only are they semi-expensive, but there's no saving them -- when they come down, you throw them out, since they're like big stickers. I really liked them so much, I'll miss having them.

Books! hamsterwoman posted a link to the new Tor.com ebook of the month club -- a free ebook once a month. Win!

You know what, Salvation Army, I didn't want to give you my stuff anyway. You could have made good money off a newish working flat panel TV (along with DVD, Tivo, and a new-ish glass table thingie I was using as a TV stand), but it's a two month wait for you to send a donation truck out to get it? Clearly you don't need my stuff. And like I said, I didn't really want to give it to you so much as I just wanted to be rid of it in the easiest way possible.

I dabbled in Freecycle tonight. I was pulling out a bookshelf to give away, and found I had a bunch of old gaming systems (PS2, GameCube, N64). I decided to list them and see if anyone wanted them, and someone responded. While it was more of a pain than I would have liked (I had to be dressed and ready to meet him in the parking lot for a half-hour window), I'm glad someone took it. Will he sell them? Maybe. But either way, hopefully they'll end up in the hands of someone who wants them.

I ended up putting the bookcase out with the trash instead of Freecycling it. Maybe someone will pick it up on their own or not, but it was too big for me to have to deal with dragging out to meet someone (even if it's only out to the parking lot).

The tricky part of this is that I don't want Freecycle/Craigslist people to come in my apartment -- I'd rather them not even know which apartment is mine. So I have to lug things out to the parking lot to meet them. It's not far, but for something big, or something that could break, it's a pain.

It'd be nice if my apartment complex had a board for posting stuff. I bet there's someone here who could use a TV. I spent some time looking for a shelter that would take a used TV, but it seems like they only want new or money. Maybe loading it into my car and taking it to SA myself might be the easiest...

For some reason, I like to keep my book review posts on their own, so there will be another post sometime later today with a couple of reviews.

First off, exciting times! While this DOES NOT COUNT, as tomorrow is my official weighing day, I couldn't help but take a picture anyway. The first time I've been under 200 since I went away to college (multiple decades ago).



Now I just have to eat really, really good today so it doesn't go up for my official weighing tomorrow. :D (And yes, I'm bad, I can't help but weigh myself every single day. Yes, it makes me crazy. But I also think it makes me more accountable for my day-to-day eating.)

For a couple reasons, I think I'm going to move to Kaiser insurance when we're able to switch. Money is part of it (they're the cheapest plan by far), but also gonzostar posted some information on coverage of skin removal, and it seems like it will be a much easier process there. I'm not 100% sure I want to have it done (surgery, eek!), but my surgeon said I have about 15 pounds of stomach skin (can you imagine?), and getting my breasts done would be another big chunk, so I almost want to have it done for "easy" loss off ~25 pounds.

---

Stardew Valley people: I found an easy way to get a screenshot of your whole farm. Go to http://upload.farm, upload your save file (open Windows Explorer, enter %appdata%, and you can find it from there), and you get a page like mine, scroll down to the bottom for the map. You can see my farm and all my game stats there.

orangerful had said I had a had a good farm, which started my quest to make that screenshot. As you can see, my farm SUCKS. I hadn't even realized how bad it was until I saw that overhead shot. So much wasted space! I think I'm going to scrap the whole thing and start over.


---

I'm spinning my wheels right now on so much stuff. My vacation is coming up in less than a month, and there's so much I have to do/plan, I'm so nervous about so much. (I really hate my brain sometimes.) Even though I'm planning on leaving my apartment four hours before my flight (leaving two hours for what should be just over a 30 minute drive, but it'll be rush hour, and two hours for security and such), I'm so worried something will happen and I'll miss it.

Also, I had thought I wouldn't have to check my bag, but it's a couple inches too big, so I guess I'll have to. That's not such a big deal on the outgoing leg, but onto the returning home leg, I have a 45 minute layover (shorter than I'd like), so I have no idea if I or my bag will make it... Plus there's always the worry that someone might steal your bag during luggage claim.

---

Though it's still early, I'm plotting and planning things for my move. I'd like to be rid of my sofa, but I had no idea how hard of a task that is. If I have someone come in to haul it away, it will be a minimum of $150! It's way too big for me to get out of my apartment myself, otherwise I could sneak it into the apartment complex trash (not supposed to dump furniture there, but people do).

I'm semi-considering buying a saw and, assuming it's made of wood inside, breaking it down into smaller pieces that I can take out during the night myself (putting a sheet down to contain any mess). However, I have no idea of a number of things: How expensive a saw is. What I would do with the saw after. If it's made of wood inside or if there are metal bars. How big of a job it would be to saw a sofa into pieces myself.

I will NOT be buying a new sofa to replace it. :P

The Island by Jill Minkman.

This book was one roller coaster of a ride, but not in the way people usually mean that.

For the first third of the book, I thought it was "not awful, but the author made a really, really bad decision".

Set on an island, a small group of people were trying to survive the end of the world. There had been a few nuclear bombs set off, and then a round of biological warfare killed most everyone left. 150 years later a new, tiny society rose. At age 10, children were considered adults and had to go off and live on their own (joining the rest of the "adults" over the age of 10 but pre-marriage living alone in a house together).

This new society had evolved its own religion. They believed the Force was in everyone, that everyone should use their Force, that the Force could be used for good or bad, that if your Force was strong enough you could do things with it. They greeted each other with "Your Force be with you". Why in the world did the author use "Force"? All I could think of was Star Wars...

Then the main character stole The Book, their religious text that explained all about the Force. On the cover was a picture of... Luke and Leia!. At that point I laughed out loud and suddenly loved this book.

Then it happened. The romance subplot. I love me some romance, but I HATE HATE HATE 99% of the "romance" in young adult books. This is how it happens. Every time.
1) Girl sees boy. Falls in love with him on first sight. She knows he's her soulmate. He's the most handsome boy she's ever seen. She always says something like "why are no other boys like him?". She knows she's going to spend the rest of her life with him.
2) Girl and boy interact. She finds him the most annoying boy ever. Is snippy/sarcastic/mean to him for no reason.
3) The two are apart, girl is suddenly back in love with him. He's her everything, nothing has any meaning unless he's there! ...but wait! Why didn't he kiss her? She decides she must be ugly (yet the book described her as the most beautiful girl around), or she must be stupid (yet she's the smartest)...
4) Repeat the above steps a couple times.
5) They finally kiss, tell each other they both felt love the whole time, live happily ever after.

That drives me up a wall. Is that an accurate teenage relationship? I have no idea, but suspect probably. But accurate or not, it is not enjoyable to read about.

The book ended with an information dump, explaining how all the stuff around the Force came to be. Oh, and of course the boy and girl lived happily ever after.

So, it was an okay book. Not horrible, not good. Would have been many times better without the "romance".

Unpacking: I swear to god, I'm never going to finish. It's been about two weeks now. I'm down to ONE box (not counting the ten small ones full of decorations). But even after I finish that last box, I still need to deal with all the stuff. While unpacking, I put everything anywhere, just so I could get rid of the boxes. On one shelf of the bookshelf next to me is an old purse, a pair of slippers, a CD (no idea what's on it), and a big package of paper napkins. I can't unpack the decorations until I get everything organized and make space for them.