Oh yeah... I'm moving... :)
My closets are now nearly empty. I'm still trying to figure out why I packed those first, as the new place only has one small closet and I don't own any drawers yet. All the clothes that were in my closet (aside from some holdbacks to keep available for wearing next week) are now in boxes in my car. ... and I've got a couple growing piles of laundry needing to be done and as I've got that moving adrenaline thing going, I'm debating staying up until like 3 or 4 am to see how much I can get done. No more boxes though... nothing more will fit in my car. Literally. I think I'll take a picture in the morning before I head out. Good thing I've got 3 weeks during which I can do this move.
I'm very fortunate I was able to get the boxes from one of the Free Moving Boxes ads on craigslist. I had ordered boxes online that UPS said on Friday would be delivered on Friday. ... that is until I called them at 11pm (my fourth time calling) to ask whether they really were still going to be delivering (which prior to that every representative had said they double checked and confirmed etc etc etc and that they'd be coming)...
I used every single box I got from that ad. Well, I only got like 6 or 7 boxes. I also had 2 of my own that I used. and I put my moon chair in the trunk (barely squeezed in) so I'll have something to sit down and relax on when I take a break while moving stuff in tomorrow.
So the apartment's all painted, and the landlady has been singing my praises for the colors I chose. She's babbling something about making one of the colors mandatory for all apartments that get repainted going forward. I'll take a camera tomorrow and see if I can figure out what makes this color so amazing that she couldn't stop talking about it. She said something about how it seems to completely change its color based on the light conditions... going from a green green to a turquoise... and I have yet to figure out which of the 4 colors I chose is the one doing this. :)
color summary: bedroom is grey-blue... sort of a hazy midnight during a full moon color. Bathroom... I forget. I may have ultimately gone with some blue/green ocean-type color, or I was considering some mild purples for a bit, and I can't recall what I chose. Living room is one shade of green/blue that I thought would be nice and calming. Kitchen is a yellower shade of green/blue that I thought would be helpful in curbing my appetite. ;)
But yeah. Empty closets and finally getting those boxes out of my living room (I packed them all today, but I was feeling very claustrophobic once they were all put together) has really helped make this whole move *real* to me.
Every so often I have to stop and ask myself why I'm moving. This place is nice, I'm used to it, it's a good area, it's never as hot as Van Nuys, and all my regular conveniences are out here (I like Vons, and there're 2 within a 1-mile radius... but when I move to Van Nuys, the closest one will be nearly 4 miles away)... but usually the reminders come quickly...
The reasons I'm getting out that I'm reminded of most often: (1) no matter how many times I put that polite "no smoking" sign back up in the stairwell, someone's still smoking in there, and this makes it impossible to breathe as I'm climbing that 3rd flight of stairs... (2) those 3 flights of stairs, (3) the noisy neighbors who only start getting noisy around 2am, and then it's just a TV set bleeding through the wall, (4) I can't have pets here, (5) I don't know my neighbors other than by sight (reminder of that was when I was taking my boxes to the elevator today and had a conversation with a couple from down the hall while we all walked to the elevator... longest conversation I've had with any of my neighbors here, and that only happened because they're moving, too, and asked whether I was moving when they saw my boxes.)...
And that's not even getting into the management or building issues... which I'm sure will have their equivalents anywhere I go.
Meanwhile, I spent nearly an hour or two with one of my neighbors at the new place when I went to revisit it last weekend. And I befriended her dogs (her cats didn't come out to say "hello", unfortunately). And tonight I had a long conversation with the landlady about the apartment and the fixes that have been done and the ones that won't be feasible... and about fostering pets. Lease says I can have up to 3 pets, but that was put there by the management company. The landlady says she doesn't care how many I have so long as I'm able to clean up after them and care for them properly. And it sounds like SHE may be giving me a couple of cats to foster/adopt/whatever... she's a vet tech (attn: gyrbyl!) and is quitting her job tomorrow, and she's been caring for 2 cats there that she's certain nobody else will bother caring for once she's gone, so she was going to take them home with her, but she's already got 3 dogs and 4 cats and a few birds etc etc etc, and while she'd love to have them, that's a bit more than a full-house... so she'll take them until I'm ready for them. And as this means I'll probably have 4 cats around my place, I'll probably need more than one litter box... and while Animal Avengers will provide everything their foster cats need, I'll probably need to buy my own food and litter for the other 2, as well as provide for their vet costs myself... so we'll see whether I can make it happen. If not, maybe I can talk Animal Avengers into taking them in to try to adopt them out, and let me foster them in the meanwhile. ;)
ugh, I've got a headache. Yes, it's 11pm, but maybe I should eat some food. I didn't have a real lunch today, and definitely haven't had anything even resembling dinner... I think I'll eat and see whether that eliminates the adrenaline rush or whether it adds to it... hrm...
I'm very fortunate I was able to get the boxes from one of the Free Moving Boxes ads on craigslist. I had ordered boxes online that UPS said on Friday would be delivered on Friday. ... that is until I called them at 11pm (my fourth time calling) to ask whether they really were still going to be delivering (which prior to that every representative had said they double checked and confirmed etc etc etc and that they'd be coming)...
I used every single box I got from that ad. Well, I only got like 6 or 7 boxes. I also had 2 of my own that I used. and I put my moon chair in the trunk (barely squeezed in) so I'll have something to sit down and relax on when I take a break while moving stuff in tomorrow.
So the apartment's all painted, and the landlady has been singing my praises for the colors I chose. She's babbling something about making one of the colors mandatory for all apartments that get repainted going forward. I'll take a camera tomorrow and see if I can figure out what makes this color so amazing that she couldn't stop talking about it. She said something about how it seems to completely change its color based on the light conditions... going from a green green to a turquoise... and I have yet to figure out which of the 4 colors I chose is the one doing this. :)
color summary: bedroom is grey-blue... sort of a hazy midnight during a full moon color. Bathroom... I forget. I may have ultimately gone with some blue/green ocean-type color, or I was considering some mild purples for a bit, and I can't recall what I chose. Living room is one shade of green/blue that I thought would be nice and calming. Kitchen is a yellower shade of green/blue that I thought would be helpful in curbing my appetite. ;)
But yeah. Empty closets and finally getting those boxes out of my living room (I packed them all today, but I was feeling very claustrophobic once they were all put together) has really helped make this whole move *real* to me.
Every so often I have to stop and ask myself why I'm moving. This place is nice, I'm used to it, it's a good area, it's never as hot as Van Nuys, and all my regular conveniences are out here (I like Vons, and there're 2 within a 1-mile radius... but when I move to Van Nuys, the closest one will be nearly 4 miles away)... but usually the reminders come quickly...
The reasons I'm getting out that I'm reminded of most often: (1) no matter how many times I put that polite "no smoking" sign back up in the stairwell, someone's still smoking in there, and this makes it impossible to breathe as I'm climbing that 3rd flight of stairs... (2) those 3 flights of stairs, (3) the noisy neighbors who only start getting noisy around 2am, and then it's just a TV set bleeding through the wall, (4) I can't have pets here, (5) I don't know my neighbors other than by sight (reminder of that was when I was taking my boxes to the elevator today and had a conversation with a couple from down the hall while we all walked to the elevator... longest conversation I've had with any of my neighbors here, and that only happened because they're moving, too, and asked whether I was moving when they saw my boxes.)...
And that's not even getting into the management or building issues... which I'm sure will have their equivalents anywhere I go.
Meanwhile, I spent nearly an hour or two with one of my neighbors at the new place when I went to revisit it last weekend. And I befriended her dogs (her cats didn't come out to say "hello", unfortunately). And tonight I had a long conversation with the landlady about the apartment and the fixes that have been done and the ones that won't be feasible... and about fostering pets. Lease says I can have up to 3 pets, but that was put there by the management company. The landlady says she doesn't care how many I have so long as I'm able to clean up after them and care for them properly. And it sounds like SHE may be giving me a couple of cats to foster/adopt/whatever... she's a vet tech (attn: gyrbyl!) and is quitting her job tomorrow, and she's been caring for 2 cats there that she's certain nobody else will bother caring for once she's gone, so she was going to take them home with her, but she's already got 3 dogs and 4 cats and a few birds etc etc etc, and while she'd love to have them, that's a bit more than a full-house... so she'll take them until I'm ready for them. And as this means I'll probably have 4 cats around my place, I'll probably need more than one litter box... and while Animal Avengers will provide everything their foster cats need, I'll probably need to buy my own food and litter for the other 2, as well as provide for their vet costs myself... so we'll see whether I can make it happen. If not, maybe I can talk Animal Avengers into taking them in to try to adopt them out, and let me foster them in the meanwhile. ;)
ugh, I've got a headache. Yes, it's 11pm, but maybe I should eat some food. I didn't have a real lunch today, and definitely haven't had anything even resembling dinner... I think I'll eat and see whether that eliminates the adrenaline rush or whether it adds to it... hrm...