Words are inadequate

Three days after finding internet access, I've finally caught up on Dreamwidth. (It doesn't help that I'm effectively using DW as an RSS reader.) Now to wade through the dozen or so tabs I've opened.

The immigration lawyer hadn't filed the paperwork in time for it to have properly entered the Canadian immigration computer system (because $work hadn't gotten some required information to them in time), so we ended up making for the busiest Wednesday night the guys at the train station had seen in awhile. There was the searching through the computer for how to code "technical writer," there was the obligatory 'bad cop' routine of drilling me on the job and the information I'd provided to make sure I'm not trying to sneak in with someone else's paperwork[1], and finally the going back and forth between the office with the old dot-matrix printer... and then after an hour and a half or so we had our work permits. And there was much rejoicing.

We spent the night in an overpriced hotel (stupid Stanley Cup eating up all the hotel rooms near city centre) and took possession of the apartment Thursday morning. It's very nice: about the same size as the place in McLean but more windows, and high-speed internet, and a real washer & dryer, and hardwood floors except in the bedrooms. I think it'll work out. I won't know for sure until Monday when our stuff gets here.

Thursday afternoon we did some errand-running, and stocked up on food for the weekend. Didn't quite make it to the Zipcar registration place, so we didn't make it to Ikea, so we slept on the floor. If I'd had a real pillow I think it would have been fine.

Yesterday the rain stopped and the sun came out, for what I'm told is the first time all spring. Aw, the city stopped crying because I finally got here. We took sandwiches out to Cardero Park, and were just getting settled on the benches by the water when something sleek and brown and wet zipped up over the seawall, across the sidewalk, and down the other side into the harbor. It took about half a minute for my brain to stop shorting out and come up with "Otter!"

After a great deal of yelling at the movers, it sounds like our stuff is showing up on Monday afternoon. I expect I'll be taking a couple hours off from work to oversee the load-in. (ugh, work.) I'll make up the time this weekend by building my work desk and prepping my work laptop. Other than that there's a little bit of paperwork yet to do (temporary health insurance, bank transfers), and enjoying the gorgeous 17 degree weather.

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[1] This was more harrowing than I'm making it out to be. Brusque guys in uniform with the power to crush my hopes and dreams are kinda scary, no matter how much I tell myself "they do this to everyone, it'll be okay."

As of today, for the first time in ten years I have no car, and for the first time in five years I have no fixed address.

Moving things are mostly coming together, and in some cases coming apart (there's a better-than-even chance I'll have to buy a second set of Amtrak tickets because I thought they'd be more like airline tickets, and instead of being in my emailbox they're instead somewhere in the USPS). Tomorrow will be a big day of making phone calls and sorting and packing things.

Still alive, but not terribly responsive. Ask again later. Mostly I just wanted to note the date of carlessness.

21 days for Dreamwidth, #16:
What are you glad you did but haven't really had a chance to post about?


D101, but that was months and months ago and it's more "haven't figured out what I want to say about it." (Or "to whom.") Most of my "glad i did that" events these days are along the "got to spend time with person X while it's still relatively easy to do so" variety.

I'm glad I started watching Avatar: The Last Airbender. There's just not much for me to say about it yet (only six short episodes in), other than "this is pretty cool."

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I just told Facebook that I'm moving. One more step towards making it sink in that this is Really For Real Happening. (eep.)

The Burly Men will be showing up on Friday to take all our stuff away. At that point it's going to be a lot harder for me to keep thinking "this is all some kind of weird game, and when i get back from the beach i'll just be going back to work in the open-backed cube, same as the last seven months."

We'll be crashing with my parents for a few days after the beach, and then (by some yet-to-be-determined means, on some yet-to-be-determined schedule) heading out west in time to get there by the first of June.

And then... I dunno. The settling-in, and the meeting-people, and the finding-things, and all that, I guess.

As he thought of it, though, he could not imagine what "just living" might actually be. He had never done it in his life. But he wanted to do it anyway.

Satyrday was, um, exciting. Also tiring and sore-making. On the whole, though, quite good. There were people. There was stuff. There was an empty apartment. Thanks to the people, the stuff and empty apartment were combined. I managed to go through the entire process without moving a single box, which I'm somewhat proud of. (I spent most of my time hauling bookcases and other furniture, calling for pizza, and directing traffic.) Around 2/3 of the pizza got eaten. The rest has been providing dinner, and will probably continue to do so for the next week.

Huge huge thanks to jonny_law, babushek and her baked goods, elf, airncbuh (and his drink run), Amelia from across the hall (who not only hauled way more stuff than passing-acquaintanceship calls for but graciously allowed a dozen or so sweaty strangers to descend upon her air-conditioned apartment), Jeff from ABG, pooka798, badmagic, silmaril, rislyn and her boy fiancé, vvalkyri, jmax315 (playing the part of bitbug), and of course uilos. You non-gender-specific guys are amazing, in both the hauling- and organizing-of-stuff departments, and I am humbled by your willingness to spend a Satyrday in August moving two people.

Everything fits pretty well. We've managed to combine two moderately full apartments into a single two-bedroom apartment. There's still some question as to how precisely the living room layout is going to work (too many chairs and tables) and where Keishi's going to live, but apart from that it's all coming together nicely.

Apartment quirks: the air conditioning now functions. The fridge and freezer still smell a bit questionable and can probably do with having some baking soda left in them for a few weeks. The stove appears to have been installed with the apartment in the late sixties; instead of an overhead microwave it's got an overhead convection oven. The sink in the master bathroom has the hot and cold water reversed. As in my previous apartment, the outside storage closet is nearly unusable due to condensation from the HVAC duct.

Whine, whine, whine. Except for the stove I'm pretty happy with the new place. Tentative plans call for this happiness to be shared on the evening of the 6th of September. (This means we have a Deadline for turning boxes of books into shelves full of books.)

My arms are still sore, so I should probably stop typing now.

"Look at all these stores selling crap we don't need!"
"I love crap we don't need-- it's my favorite kind of crap!"
--Steve Purcell

As has been noted, combining apartments results in a lot of overlap of Stuff.

The following is free to a good home, provided you come and take it away:

• Pots and pans. A one-meal-of-pasta pot with lid, a normal-sized pot with lid, a pot (with lid) that's perfect for cooking an entire box of pasta, a Tefloned skillet, a wok.
  
• A dining room set consisting of a table and six chairs. The table has expandable leaves.
  
• A card table and four folding chairs.
  
• A flimsy CD/DVD/VHS rack.
  
• Boardgames: Palatinus. Izzi. Clout Fantasy. Ligretto / Dutch Blitz. Twixt. Probably one or two others lying around.
  
• Whatever books in the Go-Away Stack I decide not to take to McKay. This will probably include a number of RPG books.
  
• A KVM switch with all necessary cables. PS/2 ports, not USB.
  
• A PlayStation with a controller, two DDR pads, a memory card, and a handful of games (including DDR).
  
• The zebra chair may be up for grabs as well, depending on whether there's a place for it in the new living room.

Mailing can perhaps be negotiated, depending.

God and Verizon only know when the Internets will arrive at my house. Thus, I am reliant on work for my internet connection.

( Moving )

Despite what you may think from my living habits for the past (three / ten / twenty-nine) years, I actually detest moving. I hate packing up all my stuff, I hate hauling boxen, I hate finding a place to live. I enjoy the tetris of packing a moving van or car, but that's about it.

Rented a large pickup truck on Thursday (well, reserved it), and an Undisclosed Location on Friday. Satyrday morning lizthefair drove me out to Enterprise to pick up the pickup. At tennish gigaclon, markush, narquelion, and ndkid showed up for the initial load-up: filled three cars plus the large pickup, and hauled stuff to the Undisclosed Location. Got back a bit after eleven, to be joined by jedibfa, kittenchan, vond, and vt_andros. Wrangled the rest of the boxes and furniture into truck + one car, and then half of us hauled stuff while the others delivered the sold furniture to various places around Shadowlake. (Speaking of, I've still got this minifridge and coffee-table thing, if anyone's interested.) Then lunch at Macado's, and then collapsing. Many, many thanks to the lot of you.

All in all, a way less traumatic experience than I'd expected. Except for the realisation that my life can be squeezed into five feet by ten feet by seven feet. That was kinda sobering.

Dropped the truck off at Enterprise and walked back to Blacksburg. Lots of honeysuckle and sycamores on Main Street. Got an orange Slurpee (because hey, why not?) and sat at the War Memorial chapel for awhile, and pondered. Life goes on.