Well, the price for yesterday was paid today. Work was alright, I got more done than I was really expecting to, but this week is going to require four straight days similar to that. Only four days till I'm unemployed, which is totally liberating, but also a little scary. This stint at the Nature Center has been the longest job I've ever held, but 3+ years is really all that job can last. It has given me the opportunity to work with some of the loveliest people I have yet come across in Austin. It might be akin to my apartment complex, funny priorities lead to funny people ;)
Brandy picked me up from work today and we met Doug for a beer and some food at Billy's. Originally I met Doug working at the Nature Center (he was doing the job I do now,) but he is now an elementary school librarian, and while his job is safe at the moment, he was heading off to a meeting where other jobs were to be voted on. Really sad stuff, I hope they can get their priorities straight before too many good teachers and crucial positions are cut.
Bless her heart, Brandy helped me sort though some things in my apartment - she was only slightly motivated by the fact that she basically got to keep whatever I chose to part with ;) My dirty laundry (while tempting to donate to Goodwill - but, I wont) is really taking over. Must address that soon, maybe tomorrow. Brandy also took the opportunity to basically make sure my head was on straight. Which is her job really, but sometimes I do feel like its a case of the blind leading the blind - not that thats not fun too ;)
I think I'm going to have to make peace with the fact that my apartment is falling apart, and I wont have a 'put-back-together' apartment until I'm in Alaska - again, liberating and also a little scary. Also, I haven't had roommates in a really long time...like over three years, so that will be interesting. Well, thats not true, I lived with Nancy for a few months about a year ago; that went down in flames, but it was fun before that happened! In Alaska I don't think I will have the luxury of being picky, so I'll probably be much more eager to be flexible.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
One for the team ;)
With nothing but good intentions, my apartment is in shambles :P
I know that this is something that comes along with moving, but for some reason its really frustrating me right now. From where I sit, a five-man tent, an ice chest, no less than 30 books, dog toys, and melted glass from Burning Man are littered around me. This is in addition to the pile of dirty cloths that have manifested themselves in the south-eastern corner of my room.
It appears that instead of continuing my productive spurt, I slept until 2pm and spent the rest of the day drinking margaritas with my partner in crime. I'm feeling pretty guilty about wasting my day, but I can (and will!) pick this ball up again tomorrow.
I know that this is something that comes along with moving, but for some reason its really frustrating me right now. From where I sit, a five-man tent, an ice chest, no less than 30 books, dog toys, and melted glass from Burning Man are littered around me. This is in addition to the pile of dirty cloths that have manifested themselves in the south-eastern corner of my room.
It appears that instead of continuing my productive spurt, I slept until 2pm and spent the rest of the day drinking margaritas with my partner in crime. I'm feeling pretty guilty about wasting my day, but I can (and will!) pick this ball up again tomorrow.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Good morning, Leslie
Yesterday with amazing determination, and the help from friends, the headliner was finally removed from my Xterra! Removing the cloth was actually the easy part. The foam underneath was the problem. But after several hours and glasses of wine, I finally brushed the last bit of orange foam down. Meanwhile, a motley crew had been forming in the parking lot outside my car. I joined the circle of neighbors for general b.s.ing and eventually a game that was new to me, a word game care of Allen, called Contact. (Wiki explanation so I don't forget!)
By the way, can I just say, I love my apartment complex. There are twenty seven units of people who I like to joke 'have made significant compromises in their life plan.' We are 20-30 somethings who have decided that living in studio apartments is not only still ok, but fairly awesome. Most of us live in our little shoe boxes for the location, we can walk to Barton Springs pool in less than 10 mins, and be on the greenbelt even faster. If nothing else, these and perhaps a few other factors definitely lead to an interesting sampling of Austinites. We joke that this complex needs a reality show, the oddities really never stop, or even slow down. For example, I was just bid good-morning (its 4:00pm) by Leslie, yes, the Leslie - he moved in with my neighbor a few weeks ago. And while yes, it did actually raise an eyebrow, it was not nearly the most interesting thing to happen this month. By the way, today's poison appears to be Jose Cuervo, god bless him ;P
I woke up this morning just wanting to get things done, which is lucky because drizzly Saturday mornings usually deliver the opposite affect. I headed straight to Goodwill to drop off about 8 bags of crap, four four of which had rode out the horrific orange foam fiasco in the back of my car and were now decently coated in the stuff. Sorry Goodwill, I love you!
Then something I've been dreading: sorting through my books. Three piles: coming on the trip (obviously a very small pile,) going to my parents house (larger than I would have liked,) and the final pile were those to be sold to Half-price Books. I actually made $12.50, which was more than I expected, I kinda thought they might laugh and toss them in their own Goodwill box ;) So I was feeling pretty good about that, and came home with decent but dwindling motivation. Got some stuff down to the car to take to my parents, hoping to drive it over there tomorrow.
That sorta brings us up to speed. I might move a few more things down to the car this evening, also I need to deliver a juicer and some books to my friend on the east side. Tonight I'm grilling with my neighbors behind the complex, its been too long since I've had some good food under this roof! After that I need to get busy on research; my friend Pedro just suggested taking a ferry to Alaska and I'm eager to find out exactly what that entails!
By the way, can I just say, I love my apartment complex. There are twenty seven units of people who I like to joke 'have made significant compromises in their life plan.' We are 20-30 somethings who have decided that living in studio apartments is not only still ok, but fairly awesome. Most of us live in our little shoe boxes for the location, we can walk to Barton Springs pool in less than 10 mins, and be on the greenbelt even faster. If nothing else, these and perhaps a few other factors definitely lead to an interesting sampling of Austinites. We joke that this complex needs a reality show, the oddities really never stop, or even slow down. For example, I was just bid good-morning (its 4:00pm) by Leslie, yes, the Leslie - he moved in with my neighbor a few weeks ago. And while yes, it did actually raise an eyebrow, it was not nearly the most interesting thing to happen this month. By the way, today's poison appears to be Jose Cuervo, god bless him ;P
I woke up this morning just wanting to get things done, which is lucky because drizzly Saturday mornings usually deliver the opposite affect. I headed straight to Goodwill to drop off about 8 bags of crap, four four of which had rode out the horrific orange foam fiasco in the back of my car and were now decently coated in the stuff. Sorry Goodwill, I love you!
Then something I've been dreading: sorting through my books. Three piles: coming on the trip (obviously a very small pile,) going to my parents house (larger than I would have liked,) and the final pile were those to be sold to Half-price Books. I actually made $12.50, which was more than I expected, I kinda thought they might laugh and toss them in their own Goodwill box ;) So I was feeling pretty good about that, and came home with decent but dwindling motivation. Got some stuff down to the car to take to my parents, hoping to drive it over there tomorrow.
That sorta brings us up to speed. I might move a few more things down to the car this evening, also I need to deliver a juicer and some books to my friend on the east side. Tonight I'm grilling with my neighbors behind the complex, its been too long since I've had some good food under this roof! After that I need to get busy on research; my friend Pedro just suggested taking a ferry to Alaska and I'm eager to find out exactly what that entails!
Friday, February 25, 2011
Two weeks notice
Today, February 25, 2011 marks three things for me; first, today is the start of my very first blog, second, I now have exactly one week left at my job, and third, two weeks from today I will begin my move to Alaska.
I don't want to spend a lot of this first blog with my reasons for moving, as I'm sure those will pepper themselves in here and there over my journey. Actually, I'm banking on that because most of the time I don't really know why I'm going, and it would be great to be able to reply with something other than 'because its far' or 'why not?' So, we'll see, maybe I'll gain some incite by looking back on this.
Though I've come a fairly long way in getting ready, my progress so far is not really where I would like it to be. I'm really only taking with me some cloths, a few sentiments I would rather not part with, my dog Phoenix, and his kennel. So, the fact that my apartment still contains a couch, a bed, and about a thousand small odds and ends has me fairly stressed out. My coworker Jess just assured me that her and her friends will be coming for the couch ( I love that couch!) they can have it but the only catch is getting it down three stories - should be easier than moving it up, but still I don't think she knows exactly what shes in for.
Today is Friday, which means I have two nights and two days to balance play with work. Play being taking any excuse to hang out with the friends I'm leaving behind, and work being getting everything out to goodwill. By Monday I want to only have the cloths that are coming with me, Phoenix's kennel, and minimal kitchen stuff. I'm only mentioning that to keep myself accountable - by Monday I should be feeling a great deal of relief :)
I do tend to move apartments a lot, I think I last counted 13 places since leaving my parents house. But this, this is a completely different ball game from the short hops around south Austin I'm used to making. There are a lot of things I like about moving, and usually I just love getting rid of the riff raff. But this time in addition to riff raff, I'm getting rid of things I actually like and actually use, which is proving to be challenging. (Did I mention, I love that couch?)
Also, (in a *possible* act of avoidance,) I think I'm going to tackle the headliner in my car this evening. My theory is that years of smoking with the window down on the highway led to the Arabian Nights theme I have going on right now. Its pretty bad, and my road trip buddy has voiced several times that it needs to be fixed pre-trip. So, that still counts as getting ready, god knows I would probably otherwise just continue to ignore it.
I'm really hoping to write everyday, especially once I get on the road. So, stay tuned to see how this headliner business goes, like always, I'm just guessing!
I don't want to spend a lot of this first blog with my reasons for moving, as I'm sure those will pepper themselves in here and there over my journey. Actually, I'm banking on that because most of the time I don't really know why I'm going, and it would be great to be able to reply with something other than 'because its far' or 'why not?' So, we'll see, maybe I'll gain some incite by looking back on this.
Though I've come a fairly long way in getting ready, my progress so far is not really where I would like it to be. I'm really only taking with me some cloths, a few sentiments I would rather not part with, my dog Phoenix, and his kennel. So, the fact that my apartment still contains a couch, a bed, and about a thousand small odds and ends has me fairly stressed out. My coworker Jess just assured me that her and her friends will be coming for the couch ( I love that couch!) they can have it but the only catch is getting it down three stories - should be easier than moving it up, but still I don't think she knows exactly what shes in for.
Today is Friday, which means I have two nights and two days to balance play with work. Play being taking any excuse to hang out with the friends I'm leaving behind, and work being getting everything out to goodwill. By Monday I want to only have the cloths that are coming with me, Phoenix's kennel, and minimal kitchen stuff. I'm only mentioning that to keep myself accountable - by Monday I should be feeling a great deal of relief :)
I do tend to move apartments a lot, I think I last counted 13 places since leaving my parents house. But this, this is a completely different ball game from the short hops around south Austin I'm used to making. There are a lot of things I like about moving, and usually I just love getting rid of the riff raff. But this time in addition to riff raff, I'm getting rid of things I actually like and actually use, which is proving to be challenging. (Did I mention, I love that couch?)
Also, (in a *possible* act of avoidance,) I think I'm going to tackle the headliner in my car this evening. My theory is that years of smoking with the window down on the highway led to the Arabian Nights theme I have going on right now. Its pretty bad, and my road trip buddy has voiced several times that it needs to be fixed pre-trip. So, that still counts as getting ready, god knows I would probably otherwise just continue to ignore it.
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| Its hard to say whats actually keeping it up there... |
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