June 2002 Archives
For the record, moving makes me retch.
1. ...sent a handwritten letter?
I hand-wrote my end-of-lease move-out notice. I wonder if that counts. Before that? It's been a long time. I've been a big fan of e-mail since I first got an internet account at home that I could use to check it regularly. When I was in high school, though, I sent letters to a boyfriend of mine, enclosed in envelopes that were elaborately decorated with squiggles and designs.
2. ...baked something from scratch or made something by hand?
I don't cook very often, but I have a great recipe for mushroom soup made with portabella mushrooms and creme fraiche.
3. ...camped in a tent?
The ex and I used to take trips to California most years and camp in the mountains with his family. I don't think I've been camping since our last trip together, but it's something I enjoy in moderation.
4. ...volunteered your time to church, school, or community?
I foster cats, which to me feels like volunteering my time to my community.
5. ...helped a stranger?
This one's hard. I try to be a helpful person. I hold doors for people, I leave some room between my car and the car in front of me when I'm in an intersection so that people can turn left, and I try to do my part to help people in my localized community. But when was the last time I helped -- truly helped -- a stranger? I don't know. Obviously, it's been too long.
It was almost 5pm today when the rain started pouring down in wide sheets that blew sideways in the gusts. The whole world seemed topsy-turvy outside, the rain taking over a sky that's so often blue and stiflingly hot. It was all a bit like a metaphor for the day.
I worked ten hours today, and eleven yesterday, and truthfully, it's wearing on me a bit. My boss doesn't expect us to work extra hours, and she'll probably be horrified when she finds out I've worked as many as I have lately, but she likes for things to get done, and I'd really like to get some of these things done. So it's been a 21-hour week so far, and it's only Tuesday. Sadly, a lot of things still aren't done.
So between pulling my hair out over a tiny little module that should've been done and gone weeks ago and pulling my hair out over a much larger system that also should've been done weeks ago, I'm starting to run low on hair. It's unfortunate that today also had to be the day that:
-someone I don't know terribly well got fired
-we found out that our manager might no longer be our manager
-I have to keep packing in preparation for my move this weekend
...and so on. It's been such a topsy-turvy day that I'm certain there must be something in the air or in the stars. Which reminds me (strangely) that I'm supposed to go take pictures of the Tower tonight. It's lit up orange for the UT baseball team, which just won a national championship. I'm glad I remembered...
So I'm moving next weekend, which means it's chaos in my little apartment this weekend. I would be a happy girl indeed if I could snap my fingers and it would all be boxed up and ready to go. So far, however, I haven't perfected that kind of kinetic power, so I'm stuck doing it by hand. What tedious work it is to pack stuff. Hate hate hate.
Because, really. How much stuff does a 25-year-old girl really need? I need a bed to sleep on, a computer to play on, and a chair to sit on. I could use a few clothes, maybe, so that people don't laugh at me as I walk down the hall. A television is nice so I can watch one channel. And heaven forbid I ever socialized, I might need a couch or two for people to sit on. Oh, dishes. I can't forget the dishes. And then... see? Stuff starts adding up. I don't know how to be a mobile girl.
But I'm boxing stuff up, trying to put like things together, like Claudia suggested. And I'm trying to wash dishes, do laundry, de-fur my furniture... (Heh. Thank Bay and Hux for putting the "fur" in my "furniture".)
Really. I hate moving. All I want is a little place that's not -too- little, with some storage, in a nice neighborhood. I'm hoping the new place is all of these things. I'm hoping really hard.
This week's Friday Five is about moving, ironically enough.
1. Do you live in a house, an apartment or a condo? I ve in a tiny apartmment right now, but I'll be moving to a two-bedroom duplex in about a week.
2. Do you rent or own? I rent.
3. Does anyone else live with you? It's just me and two cats right now: Bailey and Huxley.
4. How many times have you moved in your life? Something like nine times, but the move next week will be my fourth in five years. It's all very Sagittarian, I hear.
5. What are your plans for this weekend? Mostly packing, I imagine. I need to buy some paint to touch up some scratched spots on the walls and get all my utilities switched over to the new place. This is -not- the part of moving I like. In fact, the only part of moving that I like is being able to finally wake up one morning in a new place.
I always find the Friday Five questions to be fun, if not always intellectually complex. (Sometimes, they're that, too.)
This week: Laundry.
1. How often do you do laundry? Once a week, if I'm feeling inspired.
2. What's in a typical wash load? Usually, it's jeans, t-shirts, and underwear, but I try to wash my towels and bedding every week or so as well.
3. Front or top loader? Powder or liquid detergent? Usually, I use a top loader, but if I make a special trip to the laundromat (to wash bedspreads that the cats have hurked on, or whatever), it's a front loader.
4. Do you use fabric softener in the rinse cycle? My mom used to use Downy when I was a kid. I'll probably start that habit again when I get a washer and dryer of my own.
5. Dryer or clothesline? I love dryers. I'm not nearly patient enough to let all my clothes line dry. Of course, there are exceptions, for sweaters and bras. (Random Hedwig quote: "Did you put a bra in the dryer?! How many times do I have to tell you, you don't put a bra in the dryer! It warps!")
Um, yeah. So anyway.
Catherine's baby picture, as she mentions, is from the big pond in the parking lot in front of the Tanaguchi Gardens. In fact, so is the first picture from my photolog entry, which I posted about a week ago and have been working on writing the story for ever since. If you take a look at the full photo, you can see the same rocks that little CY was climbing upon. It's much more full of tropical waterlilies and parrot feather than it was back then.
There's an entry to be written here and a photo essay to be added to the photolog. I'll upload the pictures tonight, and maybe I'll get around to writing it all tomorrow. I need to make an effort to do it while it's still fresh in my mind.
