Mostly frustrated--though perhaps prematurely since we have been in LA for less than a week and things are generally going okay.
Our boxes are piled in part of Paul's parents' garage and part of their house. Paul and I have rented one car which makes sense since we spend all day together apartment shopping--but the closeness begins to wear thin. I look at the state of our room--the one place we are responsible for in the house, and see my future--and as always when confronted by our opposing views of what is tolerable--want to cry.
Maybe I just want to cry anyway and don't realize it. Got a hint that that might be the case the other day. I opened my car door just as someone pulled into the spot next to us in a parking lot. Our rental is a two-door Chevy Cobalt...and the doors open preternaturally wide, which i didn't realize--so I nicked the paint on this womans car--a new shiny hybrid SUV thing. I felt awful and apologized and even offered her money--but she was basically just pissed--and rightfully so--but still pretty mean. She didn't want the money, but she didn't really take my apology either. she stalked off and I just felt like crap and started crying.
And I guess since I'm whining, I'll also report that I was very excited about a certain apartment we were supposed to look at tomorrow--had really pinned some hopes on it I think. To the point where I got dressed this morning and "saved" a certain top to wear to the viewing--ridiculous--and then they called today and said it had already been rented to people who had filled out and application last week. Tomorrow was the first day the place could be viewed, so I guess they were friends of the current tenants--or they just really liked how the outside of the place looked enough to sign a year's lease.
The car search continues--but on the bright side--having a mechanic for a brother-in-law totally rocks. He notices stuff I would never notice about the cars I've been looking at...The only problem is now I don't want to do any car shopping without him!
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
From the Road
11:30PM in Deming New Mexico is 1:30AM in on the East Coast and tonight I'm feeling it after a long day of driving. People complain about flat Texas but I have to say i love it...maybe from living in Alice, which was so flat and desert too. And prefer to drive on the straight roads. The curvy hills feel like a roller coaster and I have to do this kind of lamaze-style breathing to keep myself from hitting the breaks going into every turn.
We're making approximately ten miles to the gallon, which is a bit less than our estimates. Part of if has to do with the fact that we ordered a ten-foot truck but due to lack of availability received a fifteen-footer, giving us all kinds of dangerous packing options we hadn't considered before:
"That heavy-ass dresser with the broken drawers I got at Goodwill for forty bucks?"
"Sure, might as well bring it, we'll need something and now we've got the room."
"Should we tie this off so it doesn't topple?"
"Ye--no, wait--why do we just wedge it with that desk we were going to leave by the dumpster?"
We're making approximately ten miles to the gallon, which is a bit less than our estimates. Part of if has to do with the fact that we ordered a ten-foot truck but due to lack of availability received a fifteen-footer, giving us all kinds of dangerous packing options we hadn't considered before:
"That heavy-ass dresser with the broken drawers I got at Goodwill for forty bucks?"
"Sure, might as well bring it, we'll need something and now we've got the room."
"Should we tie this off so it doesn't topple?"
"Ye--no, wait--why do we just wedge it with that desk we were going to leave by the dumpster?"
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
And We're Off!
A post with writing…what a concept!
I am writing this while riding shotgun in our 15-foot budget truck packed to the hilt. I took the first shift driving this morning, and was pretty happy, as we drove by Baton Rouge, to find a radio station playing zydeco and Van Morrison.
However, Paul and I have an unspoken agreement that the driver gets to pick the entertainment. Since he’s taken the wheel we’ve been channel surfing, landing in twelve-second minutes increments on stations with slogans like “Nothing tired, nothing old, just the best in cool new country music.” Right now we’re listening to what I think is Lifehouse and the DJ has promised that if we stay tuned there is “trashy talk from Tinseltown” still to come.
To bring folks up-to-date, we’ve left Tallahassee and are making a marathon run via Interstate 10 to L.A. The leaving was somewhat prolonged—as those who were expecting us to show up in California two weeks ago have probably figured out. Paul’s been operating on ridiculously little amounts of sleep trying to complete post-production on his parrot movie. I’ve been trying to write in the mornings and dedicate the rest of the day to tasks of sorting, packing, last appointments with doctors, dentists etc.
Despite some of this preparation, we were less than ready when our excellent friends showed up for “Moving Day.” My feeling about having friends help you move, is that it’s fine—but that EVERYTHING you want them to touch should be in a box, or bigger than a box (like a couch). Being unprepared for movers is nightmarishly like hosting a dinner party but having forgotten to cook any food…or even plan a menu. We quickly worked through the boxes we had prepared, and then had to delegate tasks on the fly—Paul and I had not even seen each other enough in the last weeks to make a battle plan, so the result in testiness all around. After four hours there was a consensus that the friends—who I pray don’t now hate us—had done they could, and Paul had to go in for his night shift at the film school. For the next two days we sorted more, packed more, took more carloads to the Goodwill etc.
Yesterday we embarked on the cleaning. Alumni Village has a checklist of requirements for avoiding fines, including cleaning in and around stove, fridge, heating units, as well as bathrooms, windows, blinds, walls and floors. Maintenance came first thing in the morning to remove the air-conditioners. The temperatures outside climbed to 96 degrees and soon I was scrubbing hardened grease from broiler plates in the equivalent to Cool Hand Luke’s hot box.
Paul’s estimate was that after not mopping or dusting for three years, we could clean for an hour or so and be on the road by 8am—hopefully in Austin, TX by 11pm. My estimate was “Are you on crack?”
But since he had been up all night (yet again) I just said, “I think you should be open to the possibility it might be closer to noon.”
It was 4pm when we turned in our keys to the Main office.
We made a couple of stops on the way out of town—one to sell the Volvo (2.5 hours from Craigslist posting closed deal—how much does that rock?) and another at Fresh Market to load up on chi-chi deli salads, flavored teas and green juices with phyto-nutrients (have you see the plastic Voss bottles?) before diving into the deep South, and finally hit the road around 5pm. Since Paul had now been awake for 36 hours I took the wheel. The adventure begins…
I am writing this while riding shotgun in our 15-foot budget truck packed to the hilt. I took the first shift driving this morning, and was pretty happy, as we drove by Baton Rouge, to find a radio station playing zydeco and Van Morrison.
However, Paul and I have an unspoken agreement that the driver gets to pick the entertainment. Since he’s taken the wheel we’ve been channel surfing, landing in twelve-second minutes increments on stations with slogans like “Nothing tired, nothing old, just the best in cool new country music.” Right now we’re listening to what I think is Lifehouse and the DJ has promised that if we stay tuned there is “trashy talk from Tinseltown” still to come.
To bring folks up-to-date, we’ve left Tallahassee and are making a marathon run via Interstate 10 to L.A. The leaving was somewhat prolonged—as those who were expecting us to show up in California two weeks ago have probably figured out. Paul’s been operating on ridiculously little amounts of sleep trying to complete post-production on his parrot movie. I’ve been trying to write in the mornings and dedicate the rest of the day to tasks of sorting, packing, last appointments with doctors, dentists etc.
Despite some of this preparation, we were less than ready when our excellent friends showed up for “Moving Day.” My feeling about having friends help you move, is that it’s fine—but that EVERYTHING you want them to touch should be in a box, or bigger than a box (like a couch). Being unprepared for movers is nightmarishly like hosting a dinner party but having forgotten to cook any food…or even plan a menu. We quickly worked through the boxes we had prepared, and then had to delegate tasks on the fly—Paul and I had not even seen each other enough in the last weeks to make a battle plan, so the result in testiness all around. After four hours there was a consensus that the friends—who I pray don’t now hate us—had done they could, and Paul had to go in for his night shift at the film school. For the next two days we sorted more, packed more, took more carloads to the Goodwill etc.
Yesterday we embarked on the cleaning. Alumni Village has a checklist of requirements for avoiding fines, including cleaning in and around stove, fridge, heating units, as well as bathrooms, windows, blinds, walls and floors. Maintenance came first thing in the morning to remove the air-conditioners. The temperatures outside climbed to 96 degrees and soon I was scrubbing hardened grease from broiler plates in the equivalent to Cool Hand Luke’s hot box.
Paul’s estimate was that after not mopping or dusting for three years, we could clean for an hour or so and be on the road by 8am—hopefully in Austin, TX by 11pm. My estimate was “Are you on crack?”
But since he had been up all night (yet again) I just said, “I think you should be open to the possibility it might be closer to noon.”
It was 4pm when we turned in our keys to the Main office.
We made a couple of stops on the way out of town—one to sell the Volvo (2.5 hours from Craigslist posting closed deal—how much does that rock?) and another at Fresh Market to load up on chi-chi deli salads, flavored teas and green juices with phyto-nutrients (have you see the plastic Voss bottles?) before diving into the deep South, and finally hit the road around 5pm. Since Paul had now been awake for 36 hours I took the wheel. The adventure begins…
Sunday, July 20, 2008
1994 Volvo Station Wagon $2500 OBO
(Update: This car has sold thanks!)
Sigh...
Just found out that our buyer doesn't have the money...and we're leaving tomorrow.
Should we tow it to Cali?
Give it to a friend to sell?
Or will someone miraculously call us at 850/212-5224 and come look at it this Sunday evening? (Probably at the Film School, where Paul will be up all night editing in preparation for our 13-drive tomorrow.)
It could happen.
It's been a very reliable car--rides smooth, AC, radio and CD player all work. We like it.
Registration is good until December.
Exterior looks great, interior a little worn but still quite respectable.
Sigh...
Just found out that our buyer doesn't have the money...and we're leaving tomorrow.
Should we tow it to Cali?
Give it to a friend to sell?
Or will someone miraculously call us at 850/212-5224 and come look at it this Sunday evening? (Probably at the Film School, where Paul will be up all night editing in preparation for our 13-drive tomorrow.)
It could happen.
It's been a very reliable car--rides smooth, AC, radio and CD player all work. We like it.
Registration is good until December.
Exterior looks great, interior a little worn but still quite respectable.
Moving...
moving is very hard.
but at least the logistic keep your from thinking to much about moving.
but at least the logistic keep your from thinking to much about moving.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Sewing Table--Free!
It's just the table--no sewing machine included.
I got a great deal on this when I first moved here and was very excited when I thought of all the sewing projects I was going to do. What I didn't realize is that some sewing machines are made to go in sewing cabinets like this one...and some, like mine, are not. (What look like nicks in the wood in the second picture are actually holes for the hardware.)
So if you don't have the hardware on your sewing machine, or you don't have a sewing machine you can do what I did, which is keep it folded up and use it as a cute desk. The three side drawers are fully functional.
A reminder that we are leaving soon, so if this is calling your name, you need to call back this weekend!
Thursday, July 17, 2008
OLD SCHOOL Super-8 package $100
Sadly the camera isn't currently working. One of the battery connectors inside the handle of the camera is crusty with corrosion, and someone will need to unscrew the handle and scrape like the dickens.
but if you are handy and not entirely risk averse, or just think these items look cool on a shelf--which they do!--then you could score the whole camera package:
Canon Super-8 Camera (with additional telephoto lense)
Argus Dual-8 Editor-Viewer (turns on when plugged in)
Bell & Howell Projector (also turns on)
all for one crisp hundred dollar bill--or five crumpled twenties.
This is a little less but comparable to eBay pricing...but you don't have to double your cost in shipping.
Make scratch animation, have home-movie nights, or shoot that “Natural Born Killers”-looking sequence for your next picture.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Still Love CDs?
No floorspace required with this sleek & modern mountable CD rack: $5
Or if you're feeling a little more Victorian...this faux-wrought-iron beauty is approx. four feet high and 8 inches wide: $8
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Filing cabinet: $15
The filing cabinet has been sold!
A small price to pay for a life-changing organizational tool.
This metal filing cabinet has four drawers and takes standing file folders (you don't have to purchase hanging ones.)
A small price to pay for a life-changing organizational tool.
This metal filing cabinet has four drawers and takes standing file folders (you don't have to purchase hanging ones.)
Friday, July 11, 2008
Free Couch
The free couch has been taken!
The whiter areas are reflections--the cushions aren't threadbare.
The whiter areas are reflections--the cushions aren't threadbare.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Pig Goes On A Journey
This is our latest foray into contest land. I don't have to pressure you to vote--yeah! There's no public voting--the band picks. Of course, if you'd like to follow the link, join, and leave us a nice comment or ranking--it might help our chances.
In any case, we are pretty proud of this effort. Mark, our production designer, was excellent as you can see, and Paul's lighting and direction shows the production design off to best effect. I found some elusive polystyrene for my contribution--and along with Amber and Becky cut out trees and moved pigs and such.
You have to let it buffer for a couple minutes.
Enjoy!
In any case, we are pretty proud of this effort. Mark, our production designer, was excellent as you can see, and Paul's lighting and direction shows the production design off to best effect. I found some elusive polystyrene for my contribution--and along with Amber and Becky cut out trees and moved pigs and such.
You have to let it buffer for a couple minutes.
Enjoy!
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Life's Better When You're Organized...I Imagine
I purchased my first filing cabinet in Chicago. Metal, 2-drawers, a shade of hunter green that was popular in the early nineties. It matched the plates and bowls I bought at the Crate and Barrel outlet around the same time. I still have it…although the drawers are a little stubborn from the dents and dings of having been moved from coast to coast and country to country. The handle on the top drawer and come off, and I have been too lazy to search for the proper screws to reattach it, and instead have fashioned a makeshift one out of a shoe-string.
Two drawers long ago ceased to be enough. Do you know that if you are self-employed you’re responsible for keeping your taxes seven years back? And of course I still have notes from my theatre classes in undergrad. In Australia I had to buy an auxiliary cabinet, for the new taxes and classes, but left it behind because it wasn't compatible with the U.S. size folders. When we got to Tallahassee I picked up a 4-drawer cabinet used for twenty bucks. It was one of the first items to enter the house since our shipment items from Australia—green cabinet among them—had not yet arrived and it pre-dated my furniture shopping spree at the goodwill. We were still looking at apartments, so I made a folder that said “Apartments, Tallahassee” for all the flyers and listings I printed from the computer. I made folders for our new utility company, for our internet provider, one for each of my classes…you get the picture. The new cabinet didn’t use the hanging folders, you just set the cardstock folder in the drawer and a little metal bar would hold it up. I could intuit this wasn’t quite as good as the hanging folders, but figured it would save me having to replicate the outer folders that hadn’t arrive yet—and, well, it was twenty dollars. Now though, it is time for a purge and a revamp.
The purge has taken place. It took nine days (seriously!), but I now have many pounds of paper waiting to be recycled and lot of tedious changes made that I won’t bore you with in this post except to say that if you are nostalgic, or just afraid that you'll somehow be held responsible for remembering something from any random period of your life when your memory's not so great, then the longer you live, the more file drawers you'll need.
But what about the revamp? Metal cabinets feel clumsy and cumbersome. I’ve lost the TrapperKeeper-like excitement I had when my green file cabinet was shiny and new. And I have seen now, that cabinets—just like the TK, can become overburdened. Once they have reached capacity, it’s a drag to find anything, and especially to try to jam new items in. So you have to buy a whole new file cabinet—which, let’s be honest, is kind of nerdy and lame. No one ever walked down the hallways of my junior high with TWO Trapper Keeper. But single notebooks and folders…well there was really no official limit.
Thus I decided it was time to go with single stackable drawers. Great idea, right? You would think there would be multitudes of options.
Not true. Really, there are many stackable file boxes with lids, but lids are about storage, not about use. I want to interact with my files, and I don’t want it to involve heavy lifting. Am I struck by the whimsical desire to revise the short story I wrote in my Fall 2005 fiction class? Well I have the notes right here! The name of the store where our condo association finally found the approved screen-doors in 1999? I'm not sure, but it's somewhere, and I don't have to shift boxes to look.
The marketplace seems a little behind the ball on this one though. Nothing in the storage areas at Target, K-mart or Walmart. Only online and at office supply stores did I find these.
I bought a couple to try them out. I like the smooth roll of the drawers, but they are so lightweight that they tip forward when you have to pull the drawer out far enough to get to folders at the back. I worry about the very flimsy looking "clips" that hold them together--the are packaged as a part of the drawer frame that you "snap" off and use--like the old assembly-required toys that used to come in cereal boxes. And I wonder if stacking four or five might distort the bottom drawer.
I have found this alternative,
but I think at some point in my late twenties I just decided "No" on fake wood grain laminate, especially for 64 bucks--is that plus shipping?!
I was momentarily intrigued by the simple clean lines of this
but was tremendously put off by the price tag, and then I started to wonder with that smooth surface, what's keeping that five-high stack of cubes from crashing down on me at the first little earthquake tremor. No go. An by the way, I've read every description I could find and still can't tell if drawer hods hanging files or regular ones.
So the search for perfect storage continues. Paul keeps telling me the way out is a "superfast" scanner and the computer's "spotlight" function, but I think he's missing the complexities associated with even naming each document: Samplestory, draft 2, page 1, margin notes from Brenda, Samplestory, draft 2, page 2, margin notes...etc. Even if the machine could scan like the wind, which I've never seen, something about it just feels all kinds of tedious to me--more so than nine days of filing.
Of course Paul has a great system already, that leaves him with free time and free floorspace--it's called the dumpster outside. Would that I could be so cavalier.
Two drawers long ago ceased to be enough. Do you know that if you are self-employed you’re responsible for keeping your taxes seven years back? And of course I still have notes from my theatre classes in undergrad. In Australia I had to buy an auxiliary cabinet, for the new taxes and classes, but left it behind because it wasn't compatible with the U.S. size folders. When we got to Tallahassee I picked up a 4-drawer cabinet used for twenty bucks. It was one of the first items to enter the house since our shipment items from Australia—green cabinet among them—had not yet arrived and it pre-dated my furniture shopping spree at the goodwill. We were still looking at apartments, so I made a folder that said “Apartments, Tallahassee” for all the flyers and listings I printed from the computer. I made folders for our new utility company, for our internet provider, one for each of my classes…you get the picture. The new cabinet didn’t use the hanging folders, you just set the cardstock folder in the drawer and a little metal bar would hold it up. I could intuit this wasn’t quite as good as the hanging folders, but figured it would save me having to replicate the outer folders that hadn’t arrive yet—and, well, it was twenty dollars. Now though, it is time for a purge and a revamp.
The purge has taken place. It took nine days (seriously!), but I now have many pounds of paper waiting to be recycled and lot of tedious changes made that I won’t bore you with in this post except to say that if you are nostalgic, or just afraid that you'll somehow be held responsible for remembering something from any random period of your life when your memory's not so great, then the longer you live, the more file drawers you'll need.
But what about the revamp? Metal cabinets feel clumsy and cumbersome. I’ve lost the TrapperKeeper-like excitement I had when my green file cabinet was shiny and new. And I have seen now, that cabinets—just like the TK, can become overburdened. Once they have reached capacity, it’s a drag to find anything, and especially to try to jam new items in. So you have to buy a whole new file cabinet—which, let’s be honest, is kind of nerdy and lame. No one ever walked down the hallways of my junior high with TWO Trapper Keeper. But single notebooks and folders…well there was really no official limit.
Thus I decided it was time to go with single stackable drawers. Great idea, right? You would think there would be multitudes of options.
Not true. Really, there are many stackable file boxes with lids, but lids are about storage, not about use. I want to interact with my files, and I don’t want it to involve heavy lifting. Am I struck by the whimsical desire to revise the short story I wrote in my Fall 2005 fiction class? Well I have the notes right here! The name of the store where our condo association finally found the approved screen-doors in 1999? I'm not sure, but it's somewhere, and I don't have to shift boxes to look.
The marketplace seems a little behind the ball on this one though. Nothing in the storage areas at Target, K-mart or Walmart. Only online and at office supply stores did I find these.
I bought a couple to try them out. I like the smooth roll of the drawers, but they are so lightweight that they tip forward when you have to pull the drawer out far enough to get to folders at the back. I worry about the very flimsy looking "clips" that hold them together--the are packaged as a part of the drawer frame that you "snap" off and use--like the old assembly-required toys that used to come in cereal boxes. And I wonder if stacking four or five might distort the bottom drawer.I have found this alternative,
but I think at some point in my late twenties I just decided "No" on fake wood grain laminate, especially for 64 bucks--is that plus shipping?! I was momentarily intrigued by the simple clean lines of this
but was tremendously put off by the price tag, and then I started to wonder with that smooth surface, what's keeping that five-high stack of cubes from crashing down on me at the first little earthquake tremor. No go. An by the way, I've read every description I could find and still can't tell if drawer hods hanging files or regular ones.So the search for perfect storage continues. Paul keeps telling me the way out is a "superfast" scanner and the computer's "spotlight" function, but I think he's missing the complexities associated with even naming each document: Samplestory, draft 2, page 1, margin notes from Brenda, Samplestory, draft 2, page 2, margin notes...etc. Even if the machine could scan like the wind, which I've never seen, something about it just feels all kinds of tedious to me--more so than nine days of filing.
Of course Paul has a great system already, that leaves him with free time and free floorspace--it's called the dumpster outside. Would that I could be so cavalier.
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