Journey to the East, then West Again
I had a long trip, so I'll mention each "big part" in a paragraph of its own, respectively.
My dad came up last Wednesday and got us a U-Haul. We filled it with our belongings, and, sadly, it still appears we have more junk than I'd like. Considering that we only had three pieces of serious furniture (a bed, dresser, and desk--I don't count bookshelves as furniture because you can basically fit them easily into a truck with a lot of space to spare) and that we were moving Katie's mom out there too, I think we did a pretty good job.
We started driving to Maryland on Friday morning. My Dad and I slept about two or three hours before we took off driving again on Saturday. We went from Minneapolis to Toledo on Friday, then Toledo to College Park on Saturday. We got to our destination at about 5pm, though my dad erroneously assumed we'd be there at 2:30 (I told our landlord 5, but my dad was hellbent on thinking we'd get there super early).
It was really hot in Maryland. We found our way around our neighborhood, my dad took the train just for the fuck of it and ended up in DC before coming back. We arranged the house a little bit and there is, sadly, no internet access for Katie yet on account of the router is haunted.
My dad and I took Greyhound back to Minnesota. I am never taking Greyhound anywhere for any reason ever again. The drivers were fucking assholes: when I turned on my phone to check the time, the bus driver from Pittsburg to Cleveland said "If you don't turn that light off, I'm gonna kick you off." When a person sitting in the back went to the driver on another bus and said it felt hot in the back, he came back and felt the temperature and reprimanded the complainant for complaning, saying, "It's fine. And you're sitting on an engine; of course it's warm! Stop complaining!" Finally, the driver from Milwaukee to Minneapolis was an hour late, yelled at people to sit down when they came to ask him questions, deliberately tried to leave a woman behind (I'm the only one who said anything to him), and caused the Duluth-bound bus to be 2.5 hours late. I missed the only city bus back home by--I'm not kidding--thirty seconds. As soon as we pulled into the bus station, the #2 bus, the last city bus from West Duluth that leaves in the evening, pulled out. I had to call a cab. If fucklips hadn't been a douchebag for seven grueling hours, then I wouldn't've had to pay $15 to get home. Bullshit.
Now I'm at my professor's house. It's my small room with a futon, an Ikea table disguised as a desk, and the box I showed yous guys a few months back. When I got back last night, after only having slept for about two total hours since leaving Maryland, I stuffed a T-shirt with clothes and used it as a pillow and promptly slept from 11:30 to 8:00am. I wish I could say I slept in, but I couldn't; I had all this stuff on my mind. My to-do list that I can't forget about until it's done.
So I ran to the co-op (twice--I accidentally got fabric softener instead of detergent), then Walgreens, then came home and started my laundry. At present, I'm sitting in swim trunks while my clothes dry.
I also got a Neti pot today and did that for the first time. I put a 1/4 tspn of very fine non-iodized salt in and filled it with very lukewarm water (not cold, not hot, but a little warmer than room temperature). It cleared my sinuses noticeably, but not like magic. I wasn't like, "Wow! I can breathe!" In fact, I was like, "AH! MY FACE HURTS AND I WANT TO DIE!" as I slowly put the thing down and blew my nose and cried. Not like a child, but I realized that my eyes were red and watering and that everything in my face hurt, so I really looked like my grandmother had just died. I decided I did something wrong and tried again. This time I tilted my head back more, and that did it. It's just weird because it filled my sinuses completely before coming out. So I was tilting and I felt that filling-up sensation for about ten seconds before the water came out the other nostril. Then I repeated. Then I realized, and accepted, that my septum is bent in on my right nostril, thus constricting my breathing on one side and also (for those who've seen me in the last two years) responsible for my nose being a little crooked if you look closely enough. Then I did the neti again, so that I did it twice, completely, in each nostril. My nose is filled with so much mucous it's retarded. For a bit afterwards I felt more congested, but now, sitting here and typing, I feel a little clearer. It's nice.
Ah, and yesterday I finished Dune. I realized that what I like is the world and the scenario of the Dune universe. What I don't like is that whenever something happens that's related to the Bene Gesserit, somebody mentions it really deliberately, either in thought or speech. Like: "She felt a weak draft coming from a nearby wall. Lady Jessica, using her Bene Gesserit training, learned that it came from a door. Also thanks to her Bene Gesserit abilities, she fought 45 men simultaneously, who all cried 'Bene Gesserit witch!' They were non-Bene Gesserit Saudarkand fiends, and had never before faced such a Bene Gesserit in their lives, and could not Bene Gesserit their way out of the situation." Otherwise, the book is fucking fantastic. I am a little confused because the last chapter is this sort of Deus ex Machina where Paul very suddenly becomes emperor and accepts that he's the Kwisatz Haderach after being otherwise reluctant to do so. But I can deal with it. Now I really do want to read the second one, probably based on the momentum and cliffhangerness of the novel's end.
So I'm going to go do my laundry and start feeling lonely. Then I'll read and listen to music and maybe organize my room a little more.
My dad came up last Wednesday and got us a U-Haul. We filled it with our belongings, and, sadly, it still appears we have more junk than I'd like. Considering that we only had three pieces of serious furniture (a bed, dresser, and desk--I don't count bookshelves as furniture because you can basically fit them easily into a truck with a lot of space to spare) and that we were moving Katie's mom out there too, I think we did a pretty good job.
We started driving to Maryland on Friday morning. My Dad and I slept about two or three hours before we took off driving again on Saturday. We went from Minneapolis to Toledo on Friday, then Toledo to College Park on Saturday. We got to our destination at about 5pm, though my dad erroneously assumed we'd be there at 2:30 (I told our landlord 5, but my dad was hellbent on thinking we'd get there super early).
It was really hot in Maryland. We found our way around our neighborhood, my dad took the train just for the fuck of it and ended up in DC before coming back. We arranged the house a little bit and there is, sadly, no internet access for Katie yet on account of the router is haunted.
My dad and I took Greyhound back to Minnesota. I am never taking Greyhound anywhere for any reason ever again. The drivers were fucking assholes: when I turned on my phone to check the time, the bus driver from Pittsburg to Cleveland said "If you don't turn that light off, I'm gonna kick you off." When a person sitting in the back went to the driver on another bus and said it felt hot in the back, he came back and felt the temperature and reprimanded the complainant for complaning, saying, "It's fine. And you're sitting on an engine; of course it's warm! Stop complaining!" Finally, the driver from Milwaukee to Minneapolis was an hour late, yelled at people to sit down when they came to ask him questions, deliberately tried to leave a woman behind (I'm the only one who said anything to him), and caused the Duluth-bound bus to be 2.5 hours late. I missed the only city bus back home by--I'm not kidding--thirty seconds. As soon as we pulled into the bus station, the #2 bus, the last city bus from West Duluth that leaves in the evening, pulled out. I had to call a cab. If fucklips hadn't been a douchebag for seven grueling hours, then I wouldn't've had to pay $15 to get home. Bullshit.
Now I'm at my professor's house. It's my small room with a futon, an Ikea table disguised as a desk, and the box I showed yous guys a few months back. When I got back last night, after only having slept for about two total hours since leaving Maryland, I stuffed a T-shirt with clothes and used it as a pillow and promptly slept from 11:30 to 8:00am. I wish I could say I slept in, but I couldn't; I had all this stuff on my mind. My to-do list that I can't forget about until it's done.
So I ran to the co-op (twice--I accidentally got fabric softener instead of detergent), then Walgreens, then came home and started my laundry. At present, I'm sitting in swim trunks while my clothes dry.
I also got a Neti pot today and did that for the first time. I put a 1/4 tspn of very fine non-iodized salt in and filled it with very lukewarm water (not cold, not hot, but a little warmer than room temperature). It cleared my sinuses noticeably, but not like magic. I wasn't like, "Wow! I can breathe!" In fact, I was like, "AH! MY FACE HURTS AND I WANT TO DIE!" as I slowly put the thing down and blew my nose and cried. Not like a child, but I realized that my eyes were red and watering and that everything in my face hurt, so I really looked like my grandmother had just died. I decided I did something wrong and tried again. This time I tilted my head back more, and that did it. It's just weird because it filled my sinuses completely before coming out. So I was tilting and I felt that filling-up sensation for about ten seconds before the water came out the other nostril. Then I repeated. Then I realized, and accepted, that my septum is bent in on my right nostril, thus constricting my breathing on one side and also (for those who've seen me in the last two years) responsible for my nose being a little crooked if you look closely enough. Then I did the neti again, so that I did it twice, completely, in each nostril. My nose is filled with so much mucous it's retarded. For a bit afterwards I felt more congested, but now, sitting here and typing, I feel a little clearer. It's nice.
Ah, and yesterday I finished Dune. I realized that what I like is the world and the scenario of the Dune universe. What I don't like is that whenever something happens that's related to the Bene Gesserit, somebody mentions it really deliberately, either in thought or speech. Like: "She felt a weak draft coming from a nearby wall. Lady Jessica, using her Bene Gesserit training, learned that it came from a door. Also thanks to her Bene Gesserit abilities, she fought 45 men simultaneously, who all cried 'Bene Gesserit witch!' They were non-Bene Gesserit Saudarkand fiends, and had never before faced such a Bene Gesserit in their lives, and could not Bene Gesserit their way out of the situation." Otherwise, the book is fucking fantastic. I am a little confused because the last chapter is this sort of Deus ex Machina where Paul very suddenly becomes emperor and accepts that he's the Kwisatz Haderach after being otherwise reluctant to do so. But I can deal with it. Now I really do want to read the second one, probably based on the momentum and cliffhangerness of the novel's end.
So I'm going to go do my laundry and start feeling lonely. Then I'll read and listen to music and maybe organize my room a little more.