fauxklore | Entries tagged with moving

Not that anybody else cares, but I finally finished the shelf paper. Annoyingly, one cabinet was about a half inch wider than the width of the paper off the roll, meaning I needed to measure and fit two pieces.

I have another cabinet related annoyance, by the way. Namely, the clearance between the counter tops and the wall cabinets is just a little bit too low to allow my spice rack to fit there. I think I can hang the spice rack on the wall. I'm not really crazy about that as a solution but the only other real option is buying a new spice rack that will fit. Which is kind of wasteful.

I bought my condo two months ago and have been living in it roughly 5 weeks. It is only today that I realized that the study nook has a fluorescent light built in under the upper shelf. It's not something I will actually use much, but still.

I found a list of things to do from about two weeks ago and realized I still haven't done half of the things on it.

I also keep finding odds and ends as I unpack. For example, I am wondering why I own a melon baller. I also believe that the tupperware must be reproducing in those dark cabinets as I can't imagine how else I got so much of it.

In the process of unpacking, one discovers all sorts of things that one has forgotten one owns.

In my case, this turns out to be insect repellant.

Obviously, what happened is that I took several trips where I needed insect repellant and either didn't remember I had any or forgot to pack it. The latter definitely accounts for one of the bottles, since it's Australian insect repellant and I suppose I bought it in Brisbane on the way to Papua New Guinea.

That may or may not account for the number of shoehorns I own.

Not only am I never going to be done unpacking, I will never be done filling out change of address forms. My company is particularly inefficient and I have now filled out their change of address form which goes to HR, a second copy of that for the credit union, and telephoned the payroll folks (since I get my paycheck mailed home, being one of those odd people who works in a field office and rarely goes by my company office). I also emailed both our division secretaries. So, today, I get our division phone list and it still has my old home phone number, meaning yet another email.

At least I have finished unpacking all the bathroom stuff. Which includes enough half-used hotel shampoo bottles to open a museum. Along the way, I found a sample size bubble bath. Which is exactly what I need to cope with all this stuff. And is a good way to procrastinate still further on more shelf paper in the kitchen.

What is truly annoying is that normal household stuff, like paying bills and doing laundry and cooking meals, has to continue while you are still coping with moving.

I know it's the day for giving thanks and, really, life is quite good and there's plenty to be thankful for.

But I just paid bills and I realized I don't know where the nearest mailbox is and I couldn't find any 2-cent stamps though I know I have a bunch. (Oddly, I found a sheet of 3-cent stamps and decided it was easier to use those than to search further).

I am most unthankful for chaos and clutter and, yes, I know it will all get organized but it inevitably takes longer than I want it to and going away for the rest of the weekend is not actually helping in getting anything done.

I am also unthankful for run-on sentences.

1) If somebody gives me a confirmation number, it should actually be a number. Something which starts with, say, a "W" is actually a confirmation code.

2) Once again I made the effort to get a proposal in on time for a conference. (In this case, a working group proposal, but the same thing I am about to whine about happens with abstracts.) Once again, I submitted it on the deadline day. And, once again, the next day I got an email telling me the deadline was extended a week. Does the word "deadline" mean anything to anybody besides me? (And, yes, other folks tell me I shouldn't complain because I'm done and all, but it annoys me.)

3) Finding my money belt should not be as hard as it is proving to be. My fear is that it is somewhere in the second bedroom, which I have not yet found a good name for. It would be the study, but I have this little study nook (with built in computer desk) which claims that title. And library seems pretentious. Office is confusing, since I have two work offices. Den is inaccurate. This was going to be a rant about unpacking, not about room names, but I seem to have digressed.

By the way, celebrity death of the week is Ian Smith, ex-president of ex-Rhodesia. I've been thinking some about colonialism in general, having just read Graham Greene's The Quiet American (which, for some reason, I thought was set in Hoi An, but it's mostly in Saigon and never mentions Hoi An). The real problem with the "white man's burden" sort of colonial rule that Smith fostered is that it inevitably leads to strong man politics as its counter. Robert Mugabe is just the flip side of the same coin, but with a better scapegoat. I'm sure there are still whenwes mourning Smith with their refrain of "When we lived in Rhodesia..." but maybe most of them have emigrated from South Africa (probably to Australia) by now.

It took 2 trips this morning (and a final unloading of the car after work) but everything is in the condo. It's total chaos, of course, but a big step forward. I returned the apartment keys (and parking permit and facilities pass).

Well, everything except the 42 boxes of books in storage.

I figure I will be unpacked by 2015.

I ran over to the apartment and brought one more carload to the condo early this morning, then went back and filled the car again. One more trip will do it, I think - but I said that last time. I appear to own all the yarn in the world. I have upped the estimate from the equivalent of 2 sheep and an alpaca to the equivalent of 5 sheep, an alpaca, and 30 acres of cotton.

I will not buy more craft supplies. I will not buy more craft supplies. I will not buy more craft supplies.

Unless, of course, they are too wonderful to resist. (Like the two skeins of yarn - one cotton, one alpaca - I bought in Chile, where they counted as souvenir, not stash.)

I'm not quite done, but I feel reasonably in control with the move. I only have a few more big things - my wooden stool, the metal closet shelf thingie, and this huge straw doll / scarecrow, which I bought at a garage sale when I was a teenager. There's a lot of little stuff, like all the board games and a bunch of kitchen stuff. I am trying to understand where I got so many wine glasses. I thought I had about 4, but it turns out I have two each of 3 designs, plus another 6, plus one I got at a wine and cheese storytelling event. Since I drink wine fairly infrequently, it's rather absurd. I only have 3 glasses that are specifically beer glasses (2 are souvenirs from bars, 1 is from a beers of the world gift I got once) and I drink beer far more often, though, admittedly, usually right from the bottle. I discovered I also still have 2 glass coffee cups, which are all that remains of the 6 a long ago boyfriend gave me. The distinction is that I realized there was no future when he gave them to me and said, "don't get excited, they aren't crystal." Hint: do not deprecate your gifts if you don't want them to become part of the EX-boyfriend collection.

Did I happen to mention that moving sucks?

I didn't quite get everything moved over on the weekend, partly because I seem to have picked up the cough that half the state of Virginia has. (Someone who was supposed to pick up some magazine files from me called this morning to cancel because of it.) So I rescheduled the cleaners to Wednesday morning. I'm still overwhelmed by how much stuff I own. Back to the slog.

As many of you know, I closed on a condo in mid-October. I waited until after getting the bedrooms and the living/dining room trim painted and the carpet cleaned to move stuff in, so that took a couple of weeks. I got the furniture moved over on Thursday, but I am still moving small stuff over. My general conclusion is that moving sucks.

The fundamental problem is, of course, that I own too much stuff. Books, CDs, craft supplies - I swear that my yarn stash is equal to at least 3 sheep and a half an alpaca. I've been unpacking as I go along, so the books are largely on shelves (except for the unread stack, which I stuck on a closet shelf for now). I set up the TV and VCR, but I still have to do the stereo. I have barely started on the kitchen (largely because of the awfulness of putting up shelf paper).

On the plus side, this is a great opportunity to really go through stuff. I've gotten rid of a few things already (via freecycle - fabric remnants and a quilt bat, since I finally accepted that I don't really want to take up quilting, the electric frying pan I used twice around 1996 which had been taking up counter space since, etc.) and have been separating out more stuff to get rid of as I unpack.

I also have a growing list of things I need to buy, which includes desk chairs (yes, plural - I needed to replace the one at my desk for a long time, but I also have a built in "study nook" in the condo" and a folding chair is not really adequate there), a filing cabinet for the study nook, sheets with deeper pockets because I didn't think about that when buying the new mattress, etc. But between the new mattress (tempurpedic - pricy but cozy), the new futon (to replace the sofa which was falling apart) and the new computer, not to mention a couple of plane tickets ... let's just say that I don't want to spend any money for a while.

My goal is to get everything else over here tomorrow, so I should really stop playing with the computer and go back to work.