Pizza for Dinner
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
(sort of) huzzah!
I unpacked the last of my boxes just now. Of course, there's still stuff to put away, photos and hangings to put up, and a good dusting and vacuuming to do after all that is done. But the end is nigh!
I almost have my car stereo fixed too. I'm actually a little ticked off. I made an appointment a week ahead of time, I drop it off this morning and take the shuttle to work, I get to work and find out the car is ready to go (they could have just told me to wait), pick the car up at the end of the day and find out that they need to order a new stereo. I could have told you that. I DID tell you that. Whatever. I was expecting that to begin with but they implied it was done when I called this morning and done to me means the problems are fixed. Especially since he made a point of telling me that the bracket for the front plate needed to be ordered. (Seriously, shouldn't plate sizes/holes in the car be standard? At least shouldn't they match the back plate?) I think I'm really just upset because after telling me the stereo doesn't work the woman at the desk told me the stereo was gone, sent out to be repaired. That made me happy because it has been constantly searching for a disc for the last 17 days. It's a little headache-y. But it's not gone. I just hope the new stereo shows up soon, it'll make the $40 I spent to be told my stereo doesn't work worth it, after about 10 times that to actually fix it. Yay car repairs!
Friday, November 23, 2007
Moving is a disease, part DMV
Before I talk about how awful the DMV is I want to mention that my Grandfather's funeral was very nice. The American Legion said a prayer at his wake, the funeral sermon was very comforting and the Naval Honor Guard ceremony was very moving. My feelings are still confused, on the one hand he was good to me when I was a child, on the other I barely knew him. And on top of that there are issues with my Dad. He's behaving exactly the way his father behaved, which he hated him for, and on top of that goes on and on about how generous and loving he is to us. And more that I don't want to get in to now. Family.
I did get to see my other Granpa yesterday, which was really nice. I don't get to see him a lot but now that I'm in state hopefully I will. I love hearing his stories from his childhood and working at Pratt and Whitney. He's 91 so they really are stories from a different world at times.
I now have my CT license, registration, and car insurance. It took two trips to the DMV totaling 3 hours, a trip to get the emissions testing done, and $262. The $20 for emissions testing had to be cash, which I didn't know at the time. I also needed to have a lien release for my car because even though I paid it off in September the title still had the lien on it. I had to call Fifth Third Bank and ask them to send the lien release. First they told me they mailed that to me on October 30, which I never got. (Either it's in today's mail or they sent it to the address I was at when I bought the car, which would only make sense in a bureaucracy.) Then she said it could take 3 business days to FAX. Thankfully it faxed immediately and I got my plates and registration this morning. Let's just say lame.
Unpacking is moving along. I need to get rid of empty boxes and move things to storage (not too much) when my landlord finishes that room in the attic. Half the remaining boxes are books, the rest being hanging pictures and other random things. The closet space here is less than at my last place so the random things will be a little more random as I'm putting them away. I have no linen closet but tons of space in the kitchen, for example, so the cupboard in the kitchen has towels and stuff in it. But all my furniture is inside and the essentials are unpacked.
I have the renter's insurance agent coming soon to do an inspection, then I may call a few doctor's offices to get new doctors and a dentist. Then I'm calling it a day. It's my birthday so I'm going to relax. I mean, I'll probably do some unpacking or something because the mess is driving me nuts, but also relax. Maybe I'll set up my Wii or keep going on Guitar Hero III.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
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Friday, November 16, 2007
Moving is a disease, part III
I last left off on Wednesday morning. That day I luckily got my laptop, badge and parking pass at work. Hurray! I'm still waiting on the HR page to confirm my paycheck and benefits but at least I should have access to that now.
Wednesday also brought me more family drama, but on the bright side I found that the e-mail I sent Ken Jennings was published on his blog. Another geek thinks I'm cool! A famous geek! I didn't get much unpacking done on Wednesday because I was at work for the whole afternoon.
Thursday was exciting for me but a bummer for any neighbors that can see in, I got curtains! I also found out that my bathroom will need work. I showered earlier in the week and couldn't get much water to come out of the showerhead, mostly the faucet. And it drained slowly. This needed to be fixed but was manageable until the landlord could replace the faucet. Yesterday however the water SLOWLY drained from the tub after my shower. Like it took 18 hours. And the toilet won't flush really while it does this. So that's going to need work. Unfortunately it looks like that will have to be on Monday or Tuesday. Sponge bath it is!
Yesterday I also got my car running again. It was towed at 7:30a, luckily covered by Progressive, and fixed by 9:30a. It wouldn't run because the idle air solenoid needed replacing. Obviously. Who wouldn't guess that? The stereo is still dead though. That's going to be lowish priority right now.
I also had some sad news yesterday, my father's father died. I've seen him once in the last 17 years so I'm mostly sad about the lost potential relationship. It's going to be strange seeing family I haven't seen in almost 2 decades, or more in some cases.
Today was a better day, I have a lot of stuff unpacked. Most of what's left is books, paintings and photos and other decorative stuff, and some random boxes. Also still that surge protector. And some bathroom items that I haven't found in any of the boxes labeled as such. My couch is also in the apartment now! The guys took out the bed and hoisted up the couch. They told me I wasn't allowed to buy any more sleeper sofas, that they would be disassembled with a chainsaw. As my Granpa said, kids these days don't like to work.
The day just flies by when you're trying to get settled in a new apartment in a new state. I remember everything I did but it still doesn't seem like it should fill the time. I guess the internet filled the rest.
Labels: bad news, good news, moving
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Moving is a disease, part II
In my haste to get a post up last night I forgot to mention a very amusing part of the cleaning and painting fun on Friday. I realized I hadn't cleaned the drip pans under the burners so I stuck them in the dishwasher. After 10-15 minutes the dishwasher started spewing soapy water. Hey, at least it helped clean the floor!
So when I left off yesterday I had driven about 14 hours (including gas and bathroom breaks), 10 of which were without a radio or mp3 player. My car needed a jump for some unknown reason and traffic around NYC was a little heavier than I expected for a Sunday afternoon. I guess people were going back home after a weekend in the city. I fell asleep around 9p and woke up at 7a to be ready for the movers.The movers showed up at 9ish, just two this time. The lead guy was the same but the other guy was different from the Michigan crew. They complained about all my stuff some more. I know I have a lot of stuff (I'll need help going through it when I move again) and some of it is heavy as large pieces of furniture often are, but come on. I told the moving company what I had as best I could---they asked me if I had a DVD player and VCR, an ironing board, etc but weren't interested in my small kitchen appliances. Weird. And really this is their chosen profession. So there were stairs on one end. Boo hoo.
I'm in the second floor of an old townhouse, it's nice and newly renovated. It's also bigger than my old place, although closet space is smaller so I need to do some rearranging on that front. The only problem with the stairs is that they aren't a straight shot, there's a turn at the bottom. So my queen box spring and sleeper sofa couldn't make it up. My landlord took out a window so they could get the box spring up but the sofa is currently in the barn. It'll have to go up the same way but moving special services needs to take care of that. MSS also took care of breaking down my desk for some reason. It's just a bunch of cams. The movers took apart my bed frame and dining room table. Once again I'm a little fuzzy on the line between standard and special services here. I wasn't even expecting the table to come apart at all and yet the desk was a special service.
So Monday was a bit of a trial. My landlords are nice though, an older couple. The house is on 5 acres and the nearest neighbor is the landlady's daughter. The whole area is very rural/low population suburban. Almost everyone at Pfizer is at least 10 years older than me (or at least they look it). So this is definitely not going to be the college town atmosphere I'm used to. Not that I went out a lot but when I wanted to there were people to see and things to do.
Yesterday I unpacked most of the day. Comcast came to set up the cable, internet and phone. That was frustrating because he couldn't split the line in the living room again for cable and internet because it had already been split in the basement and I would lose signal. There was a cable jack in the bedroom but he wasn't allowed to run cables through/over doorways. So I had him set up internet and phone in the living room and cable in the bedroom and then just ran the cable myself when he left. At the same time the MSS guy was assembling the desk and assessing the couch. If they take off the legs and take out the bed hoisting it should be easy. I guess I have a bigger couch than normal. I didn't think about it very much, I figured someone must have had a couch up here and professional movers could make it work.
I also found out yesterday, on my way in to work to collect my badge, parking pass and laptop, that my car died again. Fantastic. The battery is only 2 years old so it shouldn't be a problem. Unless I got a bad one or something. So I didn't get any of that stuff yet. I also didn't get a whole lot unpacked because I spent so much time setting up my desk and entertainment center. I still haven't found the power strip for the entertainment center so I can't plug everything in yet. God only knows what box that's in.
I did get caught up on TV yesterday and today I plan to start catching up on my web comics and blogs. I hope to get unpacked completely by the end of the weekend. I hate living out of boxes.
Labels: bad times, good times, moving
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Moving is a disease, part I
The movers came on Friday; it took one packer and two carriers 6 hours to pack my entire place and load it on the truck. That's about what I expected. I have a lot of stuff. I went through a lot of it but I think the next time I move I'll have to be more thorough. I'll also consider packing myself (unless like this time it was paid for) because as I'm unpacking I'm having a hard time finding things I need. For example, I would chose to pack the power cord with the corresponding item or all together in one box. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Friday evening I cleaned and put primer on my painted walls with the indispensible help of Chris and Ashley. That actually went pretty well. The beer and paint fumes were great for morale and the red walls only needed two coats of primer. I think the point I realized I needed to actually stand in front of the open door was when I thought it was REALLY funny that Ashley was trying to blow the water out of Chris's beard.
Saturday I packed up my fridge and freezer, packed my car, and did the last of the vacuuming and cleaning. Then I watched the football game with C&A and got on my way. It was really sad leaving town but I have to say that I'm glad I'm not the last one out. I'm going to really try to be good about keeping in touch with everyone since my friends mean a great deal to me.
About 2 hours out of town my car stereo died. I felt like Homer Simpson that time he and Lisa did the sensory deprivation tank thing. Driving along the dark Ohio/Pennsylvania stretches of I80 with no one to talk to or radio to sing along to. It wasn't too bad, I amused myself somehow. I stopped for the night near Punxsatawny hoping to stop in town really quickly before moving on. But my car had other ideas. It did not start and I needed to call my car insurance company to send me someone to jump it. Luckily, Progressive offers roadside assistance. I got going later than I intended to so I skipped the side trip. It might be better to not ruin Groundhog Day with the real thing.
The rest of the trip was ok, except for some heavy traffic between Newark and NYC. That actually wasn't too bad considering how bad I think it could be; it took me about an hour/hour and a half to do that stretch. I got to my new apartment around 7. I brought a few things up from my car and basically crashed.
In the next segment, the movers arrive!
Labels: frustration, good times, moving
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Moving freakout
I'm moving very shortly. I have a lot to do in a short time, without much notice. I'm going to miss all my good friends left in town and the ones that are already long distance. My friends mean so much to me I'm really bummed that I won't be near anyone and won't be in the best area to meet new people. I'm shy and I prefer to hang out at home but I'm really going to have to go out of my way to make friends.
I hope this new job works out for me, for at least a year or two. The last few years have been so hard I feel like I need something to work out so I can stop being so stressed and depressed so much and be myself.
I'm getting sad again, back to distracting myself.
