The Cyclical Nature of Apartment Dwelling

So we’re moving again. I’ve postulated that my own personal brand of Wanderlust results from some masochistic binge purge cycle – this is based on the fact that one of my favorite things about moving is getting rid of things.  This is especially facilitated this time, by the fact we’re downsizing.

Luckily, we're moving within the building again, so we're not going to need any help, it'll just be me, Earl, some carts and hand trucks, and maybe one friend to help move the TV stand.

Before I go any further, let me just say I love this apartment. It is FANTASTIC. But it’s too big. And I’m too jumpy. There will be times where I don’t know where Earl is, and if I’m not paying enough attention, he’ll start talking and I’ll do the whole cartoon jump-out-of-my-skin thing… because I didn’t know he was in the room. And to be completely honest, we do not need the space we have now. So we’re going to drop some square feet (and the rent that goes along with it) and I’m super happy about that.

 

So we’re surrounded by Boxes! We spent yesterday Painting and getting most of the stuff staged and ready to go. We get the keys on Friday and start moving that night (Though we both have to work, I did manage to get the morning as a half day.)

So I’ll have a lot to talk about with the new smaller space once we get moved in!

Hopefully The Last Weightless Wednesday

So… I really do plan on getting a scale before next Wednesday. You can check behind my back, I promise my fingers aren’t crossed.  But for the moment, I’m going to guess I’ve lost some weight based on a few things:

• The stress of moving,
• The physicality of moving,
• That lovely little pooch at my tummy seems smaller as I look at it in the mirror,
• My work slacks are fitting looser,

And

• The fact that multiple people have asked if I’ve lost weight.

This week I’ve eaten fairly okay. I had a spinach and feta salad… with a bacon vinaigrette. Tacos (I skipped the cheese and sour cream, opting for lettuce as my only garnish). With the apartment in utter disarray, we did end up having some of the pizzas and a hamburger helper two nights, but, I did make sure that I paid attention to my portions.

Because of the move, we haven’t done much of any working out, which is lame, but I’m not beating myself up over it.  Normalcy is my #1 priority right now.

Ah moving….

So, there’s no couponing post today, because we didn’t go grocery shopping… Crazy, I know. But this weekend was so swamped, Sunday morning came around, the new apartment looked like a hoarder’s home and we just couldn’t bring ourselves to do something that required so much structure and planning… so we didn’t.

Let me give you a rundown of this weekend, or, as I’m calling it: Exhaustion Fest 2011.

Friday morning, I woke up with Earl (he had to work), made breakfast, and saw Earl off, and then sat down to wait (Luckily Connie was there to talk with as I ate my breakfast and sat, biding my time). At 9 am, both the apartment office and the State Farm office in the building opened, so I headed downstairs and stopped in to pick up the new Rental Insurance Policy info, and then headed to the office.  Signing the transfer paperwork went like a breeze, and the assistant manager gave me the keys  as we talked about the(now former) gun-toting neighbor.  Neither he nor I can really get our head around what he was doing.

I took down two loads of stuff on these nifty carts we got to borrow from work – they are a life saver when you’re moving lots of stuff a rather short distance – and then Earl’s mom got there to help. And over the next 2 hours, we got the entire bathroom moved, most of the kitchen, all of our paintings and a large number of miscellaneous boxes taken down (Including my four huge boxes of books).

And I took Lucy down to get acclimated. (She seems to like the place so far…)

She's turned into a grey smudge that will match the floor!

Then, we went to lunch at Centurion, where we both had flat breads and shared a saffron shrimp risotto. When all was said and done, Eric gave us both a truffle… which was delicious. (He made them for the wine dinner they were having on Sunday night).

Then it was time for her to leave and go take care of her mother.

At this point I used a piece of EMT we had left over from our curtain rods. I attached some feet to the ends and became a walking wardrobe. It is nice to be able to move clothes without taking them off the hanger.

Natalie and Dave came up and helped me for an hour after that, but their weeks had been so stress full, they both looked like they were ready to pass out.

And then, Earl came home and stuff got done!

At this point I was pretty close to the point of exhaustion, my knees were trying to start a coup, and while my calves were considering joining up, they were trying their hardest to oppose anything my feet were for.  But Earl was there to do all the heavy lifting for the night and we got a lot moved down. 

One of the couches, All of our rugs, the bar, and 4 of the 7 bookshelves.

And if you know me… you know that my priorities, this was the first thing up:



Sorry about the bluzzy Cellphone Picture



And then, Saturday morning came around and we had three helpers, Natalie and Dave and Morgan. By the time everything was said and done… the down stairs looked like a hoarder had taken up residence, and the upstairs looked like… well, I’m not quite sure, but it was a mess.

So we went down stairs to Portland’s for dinner and a few beers (I drank pear cider – because I cannot stand the taste of actual beer) and I went upstairs and promptly passed out.

Sunday morning, we went up stairs, loaded up the last of the stuff we needed to get out (leaving only the cleaning and painting supplies behind.

With everything spackled and sanded and most things swept and dusted, we took a break to refuel.



Yes, that is covered in hollendaise sauce



Earl had an andouille, Irish cheddar, caramelized onion omelet, and I had a goat cheese waffle (not pictured – sorry, I saw it and just dove in).

After breakfast, we went to the office picked up the paint and got to covering up the spacklage and finishing the cleaning.

And then, we went down stairs, spend some time with our dog…. And went to look at a couch, but that’s a story for another day….

And the good news is... the only thing broken were my nails!

Lucy doing her "sad dog on pillow" face

What about you? What did you do while I was moving?

Lucy's Not 100% Happy...

About this Move. Look at that face!

Out Run My Gun

So, we're moving this weekend.

It’s just down stairs, but it’s rather sudden.

I guess I should start with some background information first, huh?

On Thursday last, I was in the shower at about 10:15 when I heard a really loud bang. It was metallic and my first though was that Earl had dropped something heavy on the floor and crushed some pop cans (we stomp our cans and then take them to scrap yards) but he came in a few minutes later, asking if I heard it and he had no idea what it was either.

Fast forward to Friday morning, Earl goes out on the balcony to smoke, and he sees this:

That, ladies and gents, is a bullet hole in our neighbor's window.

So on Friday after work, I went to the office and told the leasing agent I always deal with about it. Because A) I’m obligated by my lease to inform them of any damage to the exterior of the building, B) Someone could have gotten hurt, and C) someone really did need to be told.

He came back up to our apartment to check it out and less than an hour later, there were about 7 cops in the hall way.

The leasing office hadn’t been able to get a hold of the tenant, and they have a clause in the lease where they can perform a wellness check under circumstances that include a bullet hole in a window.

At this point, Earl and I had run to the grocery store for a few things for the Tea Party Prep, and we turned the corner in the parking garage to see the gaggle of police officers and to hear someone say: “Yeah, that’s him, The yellow Jeep.”

(Point of note: Our neighbor drives a big WHITE Jeep that is loaded down with off road gear – after all this, I think he might be a Holn survivalist. We drive a yellow X-Terra.)

So we had to inform the police that we were not the tenant, but in fact, the neighbors who reported the whole thing.

The police came into our apartment to look at the window as they waited for the locksmith – because el duderino had changed his locks…. So the Maintenance supervisor’s key didn’t work for his apartment. (Anyone else feel like this is a bit shady?)

Anyway, they did eventually get into the apartment and I – being a little nosey – watched through the shotgun skewed blinds as their flash lights flitted about in the space… and then stopped on a military grade assault rifle leaning against the wall.

I went back inside at this point, because I didn’t really need to see anything else.

Shortly thereafter, an officer came to the door and told us that no one was at home, and there was no sign that anyone had been harmed. What they think “Probably” happened… was that he was cleaning his shot gun and it accidentally discharged. (Let me just tell you: every one of us at my tea party the next day knew that that was the sign of someone who should not own a gun.)

The neighbor did come home that night and Earl saw him seemingly trying to unjam one of his guns…

So basically, I don’t feel all that safe living with just drywall and metal studs between us and the guy with an unknown number of guns*… who apparently needs a lesson in gun safety.

(Chances are he’s probably going to be evicted. Or forced to get rid of the guns, but I’m not a trusting person, and so, in the event that the office is lenient – which, it was an accident, I understand that – and lets him stay, only making him pay for the window’s replacement… I do not feel comfortable living next door.)

As a result, we went down to the office, looked at our options, worked out what fits in our budget and long story short… we’re moving into the apartment our good friends Natalie and Dave moved out of mid September.

I have tomorrow off (Earl couldn’t get the day off) and I’ll be moving some little things down, finishing up the packing and starting the cleaning process. Then on Saturday afternoon, we'll be moving everything else down there.

And you know what’s awesome. Minutes after I put the transfer paperwork in with the office, Natalie and Dave offered to help us move without even needing to be asked – something I’m super thankful for!