Well, the move is done. The 53' truck showed up this morning and somehow maneuvered into our storage facility. Quite a feat of turns and mirrors. Most of the stuff was loaded into our 10x10' unit, and the rest went into our car and my dad's minivan to come back here for the fall/winter.

It will take me several days to get everything sorted out, but I am really pleased to have all my clothes and coats and bathroom stuff and so on again.

Sun is indecisive today. I suppose I should go out to the driveway and get started now. sigh.

Tags: moving

Today we traveled from San Francisco to Roseburg.

We started with a full tank and stopped for gas once, in Medford. We'll probably get gas again about 250 miles from here, somewhere in WA. Even with our car loaded with crap, we're averaging 46mpg.

In Redding, we got coffee at Starbuck's. The young guy working the register was wearing a hearing aid in one ear and spoke in a slight monotone. I was of course fascinated. Anyone who has read parts of my stupid book will know why.

As we left Redding I saw a flyer stapled to a pole for a band called Hookahstew. Wow. Hookahstew.

The cats were drugged early this morning and were knocked out sleepy the whole way. No crying or yowling, just dozing. They are now wandering around the hotel room, thinking this is where we live now. Brian is napping. We're going to some crummy place called Elmer's for dinner.

As we left SF I did feel some sadness, some strangeness. I think that's normal. Right now I am still feeling odd. It's not as though I'll never go back. But it will never be the same. Moving messes with your head, especially going so far. I hope to snap out of it soon.

Tags: cats, moving

I'm taking a little break here and figured I would write something. The move is still feeling sort of unreal. It's hard to get a handle on it. We have so much stuff, and yet we have gotten rid of so much, too. I think it's just that all closets and cupboards and drawers have been emptied now, exposing everything to the light.

The stress level is going to keep building until the movers arrive and start loading the truck. I am worried about the armoire. It is massive, but I LOVE it. They will have to carry it out through the back because of the sharp turn on the stairs outside. Fucking San Francisco houses.

When we get our own place somewhere, the armoire will go into the bedroom and be used for my sweaters and bags and other accessories. No more "entertainment center." It's just too pretty for that anyway.

Brian has been such an amazing help. What an excellent husband I snagged.

This morning I went out for coffee with Heidi and Rena. Rena is opening a second boutique on Market at Guerrero next month. It's going to be super cool, you should try to go if you can. I donated my monstera delicioso plant to her and she has it in the store window right now; perhaps it will make its home there.

It was swell to see my old friends and actually rather bittersweet as it made me wish I had hung out with Heidi more often. She's quite the busy bee though! But I am glad that she is happy and having a great year, and who knows, may end up in the Northwest too someday.

Last night we had dinner with a friend of Brian's from his martial arts group. We ended up at one of our favorite restaurants, La Mediteranee, and wonder of wonders, my favorite special was on the menu: saffron chicken. It was perfect. I will miss that place. We had our third date there.

I just went to Arizmendi to get a cup of coffee (coffeemaker is packed) and I also picked up a tshirt to remember them by.

Tags: moving

Simon is going to be so famous.

We got a ton of packing and cleaning done so far today. When Brian is around to help, things go so much faster.

More under-bed finds: boxes containing

+ all four high school yearbooks ("Tempo", lol)
+ stacks of letters from people who read my old fanzine
+ some personal letters
+ some really old 1940s magazines called "Liberty" which I bought at a flea market
+ both mix tapes from Iain (YAY!!) which I thought were lost
+ the cassette my high school jazz choir recorded in 1989

I have thought to myself several times during this process, ruefully, I should have done a lot of this shit weeks or months ago. Particularly the cleaning and throwing away of crap. Oh well. The purging feels so good, especially the part that involves money changing hands.

Last night we had a delicious dinner at Stephen's. He is the gourmet cook who did our wedding desserts. Just had a fabulous time talking after we finished eating. It was quite decadent and relaxing.

And we have dinner plans tonight downtown, and I am having brunch tomorrow with Ert. Trying to juggle everything at once, social engagements with moving chores. Feeling like the place is emptier and emptier.

Tomorrow will be all about painting the office and packing the kitchen.

In a week we will have arrived at my dad's. Yikes.

Tags: moving

Today I went to my ninth bikram yoga class. When I go to my tenth, I will have spent $3 per class. I am really making the most of that introductory offer.

I think I am making progress, but with yoga, it really does take a long time to work up to an "advanced" level. For example, the pose where you twist your arms around one another, then your legs



For some reason I am unable to make my arms do that in that tight, crossed way. Are my arms too short? Are my tits too big? (ha ha, no.) I am hoping it just happens eventually, rather than it just being a structural fault of mine, being a petite girl.

I did a lot of packing last night, packed up all my clothes. I listed my dressers and nightstand on craigslist, and so far I have over ten interested people. Man I love craigslist. Because I am honorable, I am saving it for the first person who replied, who claimed they would be here tonight by 6:30. If they flake or if they pass, I will still have everything sold by tomorrow.

Today: hot shower, roomba the apartment again, pack a couple more boxes, clean under and around the kitchen table, watch a netflix movie (I suspended my account, did you know you can do that?), and go to dinner at Stephen's. Another full day that will likely fly by.

Tags: fitness, moving

The moving sale went great. I think we got rid of over 2/3 of our crap, and pocketed about $130. For the last ninety minutes, Brian took off to mail seven boxes of books to my dad's house and pick up lunch for us.

We still have a few things left over. The TV cart and dining table are on craigslist, the rest of it will be given to salvation army when they come to pick it up next week. I still have a ton of magazines. I would like to donate them somewhere. Not sure yet.

The cats are starting to catch on and keep giving us these wtf looks.

I have a new housekeeping resolution for our next dwelling: dust more. I am finding a skin of dust on just about everything and it is groce.

Dinner tonight will involve corn on the cob. Inordinately excited for that.

Tags: moving

Time flies when you're not bored.

I went to yoga right after the painter showed up. When I got back, our red dining room was returned to dull white. Boooooo.

I ate a little food, then I went out to post flyers around the neighborhood. I got back and decided to go down to Hayes Valley for a Blue Bottle coffee. It was as strong as expected. I did a hell of a lot of walking today. I walked back from there all the way to Church and Duboce. I just missed an N train. Another wouldn't come for over an hour.

Muni did what it does best -- totally break down just in time for Friday rush hour. I waited and waited. I walked up to the dog park and enjoyed the doggies for 45 minutes. By then I really had to pee, so I called Rena, who lives 2 minutes away, and asked if I could use her john. She let me, which was a bladdersaver.

I walked back down Duboce and bought some nectarines at Golden Produce. Observed for the millionth time the incredible filth and neglect of this city. The usual trash in the streets and sidewalks, just you know, piles of garbage people just threw on the ground. Best place on Earth!

Anyway, Muni was still fucked, it had been an hour, so I headed up to Haight Street and caught a 6 bus. I sat in the back row, looking down at another pile of garbage and an abandoned t-shirt on the floor. wtf. Moments later I was three blocks from home, watching wisps of fog blowing in.

I'm tired. I'm officially uninsured tomorrow. My health insurance company is taking its sweet time sending out the HIPA letter allowing me to go on Brian's insurance. It's a bit of a fiasco. God bless america, huh.

I think my stress will only get worse in the next couple weeks. Luckily I have a bunch of boxes packed and I actually do feel like I have made a lot of progress. This is going to be a marathon. Moving sucks.

Tags: moving

I have this weird feeling that I want to stay up all night long, avoiding sleep, and just work on packing and sorting and throwing things away. I think about all the hours wasted in bed.

I am imagining Alex's studio apartment, no bigger than my living room+dining room, his lack of possessions, his bookshelf full of dusty old thrift store titles like "Gardening Indoors" and "Kon-Tiki" and "White Teeth" and "Siddhartha." I wonder what it would be like for me to be so austere, to have so very little again. He isn't a real person, by the way.

Today is hot. I made some progress, packed much of my desk, except for the biggest drawer containing all my file folders. Spent time looking at old greeting cards and notes from friends sent in the past three or four years. You know who is a wonderful friend and letter writer? Allison is!

I have been listening to Chet Baker since I got back from lunch with Rena. It was a nice lunch, I had goat cheese on toast with roasted red peppers and an iced tea. We talked about our formative punk scenes, hers in Santa Barbara, mine in Olympia. Turns out we saw many of the same bands around the same time, why did I never know that about her?

Goals for tonight include packing up bathroom items and moving furniture out of dining room to make way for painting. I will miss these reddish-brown walls. I'd like to recreate it someday, when we own a house.

Tags: moving
music: Everything Happens to Me - Chet Baker

You guys I am going to my fifth hot yoga class this morning. I am starting to get used to it. I think today I am going to bring a small washcloth so that I can more easily wipe the sweat off my face every ten minutes or so. I know, it's pretty sexy.

Yesterday I went downtown for the first time in ten days. I bought shaving cream for Brian, face moisturizer for myself, and um shoes. Yeah, yeah. I am weak. I came home and did the shoe inventory, packing up one big cardboard box with them (some shoes still in their original boxes inside), and setting aside a pile for the yard sale and another smaller pile for possible sale at Crossroads.

We continue to sell off furniture. Got rid of the kitchen cart last night and already have an interested party for the set of chairs. The last time I tried to sell stuff on craigslist (years ago), it was NOT this easy. Clearly their traffic has multiplied a hundredfold.

I also haven't been watching TV at all, with the exception of the occasional baseball game and "Flight of the Conchords." Haven't missed it too much.

Okay, off to burn a thousand calories.

Tags: fitness, moving

I quit my job but I'm still makin cash money.

Sold books today and pocketed $70.

Sold my beloved old stereo for $40, my component unit with dual cassette deck that made many a mix tape. I had so many good times with that thing. But it has fallen into disuse as all of my music went digital.

Sold my red IKEA bookcase for $40, which I got in 2002 from Shannon before she emigrated, and it too saw many a good time, living in my matching red bedroom for a while.

Sold the 24" flatscreen TV that sat unused and unplugged in the bedroom for $80, a TV we got for free from a coworker and never hooked up. Brian wants to get one of them fancy HD models after we move to our own place.

So that's $230 stuffed in my wallet, I think I will be making a trip to the bank in the morning.

Wednesday someone is going to come over and take away the beloved cat condo, which I bought online in 1999. I had planned to throw it away, but then saw someone on craigslist was looking for something just like what I have and didn't care if it was used. So I'll get $40 for that. When we get settled in Seattle, I plan to buy another one from the same company. I recommend them very highly.

Still more stuff to sell, too: my bedroom furniture, the TV cart, the kitchen cart, the dining table and chairs. Garage sale Saturday should earn us a little bit. What's most important is getting rid of stuff, though. Nice to have the extra cash too, though. It will for example pay for our road trip north -- the gas, the hotel room, the food.

Tags: moving