Relaxing

I wanted to take a break from house stuff and decided to relax for the evening. For the past hour I've been sitting on the balcony and enjoying a glass of wine. Aside from the occasional plane that passes overhead and aside from my music playing inside, all I hear are the sounds of birds chirping or a owl hooting in the distance. Through the green leaves of the trees outside my apartment, I can see the mountains in the distance. With the sun setting, they look like a simple dark blue mass of peaks. There are a lot of clouds in the sky, and they are drifting slowly by, almost inching their way across the sky. It's been beautiful. It's calming and relaxing.

Now it's time to pour a second glass of wine and get back outside.

Current mood: relaxed
Current music: random shuffle of Dead Can Dance and Lisa Gerrard
Current drink: Swanson 2003 Merlot

Getting Settled

I've been in my new apartment for exactly one week, and so far it has been wonderful. I'm still in the process of unpacking a few things and putting everything where I want it. Then I have to figure out where I want to hang all of my artwork. Now that I have a bigger apartment and more walls, this might actually be difficult. Decisions, decisions, decisions... I also want to buy another bookcase (now that I have the room), but I might hold off on that for a while. After spending $200 on the movers, it might be a good idea to save some money.

Our entire complex is in the process of renovating certain things, and on Tuesday the maintenance crew came in to install new windows and a new sliding door to my balcony. These are double-pane windows, so that means they will be more energy efficient. So this will be much better when winter comes around.

All in all, everything has been great and it is all coming together. I've been doing well and settling quite nicely. I've also been sleeping well, so that's a welcome change!

More later...

Silver Lining

Rainbows
Originally uploaded by Tenth Muse

I was having a really rough day at work today. Things have just been busy and chaotic. I was feeling kind of down and apathetic, but then I came home to this...

This is a view from my new balcony.

New Home

Here I am in my new apartment! Yay! The move yesterday went really well. The movers showed up at about 8:30 in the morning, and it took them only about 30 minutes to load up their truck. Of course, since I moved most of my things myself, all they had to move was the furniture and only about four boxes. It took them longer to move things into my new place, but that is understandable considering I'm on the third floor. But, all totaled, the whole move took only two hours. That made me pretty happy.

Then came the task of unpacking everything and placing everything in its proper place. It's all starting to come together. I'm also in the process of getting used to everything. The dishwasher works perfectly fine. Since all of my dishes were wrapped in newspaper, I thought I'd give it a quick clean in the dishwasher to get all of the icky ink or dust off everything. Earlier in the week I turned on the stove to make sure it was working. It turned out that it wasn't, but the maintenance people came right over yesterday and fixed it. Now everything is fine. This morning I made hash browns and scrambled eggs for breakfast!

The place is wonderful. Last night was beautiful. It was really hot during the day, but things cooled off at night. I had a nice breeze coming through my windows in my bedroom, and I fell asleep right away. I felt pretty rested today, but my body is still a bit sore and tired. Other than a tired, old, and sore body, things are wonderful.

Packing Booze

I've been procrastinating for the longest time on packing my alcohol. But tonight I decided to finally do it. First I put each bottle in those plastic newspaper bags. I double bagged it, of course. Then I wrapped the bottle in newspaper. I then packed the bottles in some boxes and added some extra newspaper for some extra padding. All totaled, my alcohol filled only two small boxes. I'm not sure if I should be proud or ashamed...
+++++
Update: make that three small boxes. I found some more booze.

Moving...Yes, STILL...

I'm sure my loyal reader(s) will be happy once I move so that they won't have to read any more of these posts...

But, yes, I'm still in the process of moving, but I'm making better progress. I'm now forced to move quicker because of having the pressure of an actual "move-in date" when the movers will be here to take the big furniture. Most of my non-essential items and smaller things are already in my new place. I just need to make a few more trips with some of the bigger things. Then all I'll need to do is get things organized for the movers. Then on the day of the move, I'll probably use my bathroom as a storage room for things that I'll be using that morning and packing later--sheets and pillows on my bed, my teddy bear and doggie, the coffee maker, etc. I'm hoping it will be a smooth and quick move...and the smoother and quicker it is, the less it will cost!

And, now that I have a bigger place, I "had" to buy a few more pieces of new furniture. My current computer desk/workstation is really a dining table. Now that I have a dining room, I will be able to use the dining table for actual dining. But that meant that I needed a new computer desk/workstation, so I went out and bought one. It's nothing big and nothing fancy, but it will do the trick. It's all packed in a box and needs to be assembled, but fortunately that made it easier to carry it up the stairs. But, considering it's around 25-30 pounds, I'm pretty impressed that I was able to carry it all the way up by myself! Go me!

Now I just need to find time to assemble the desk. The cable and internet people will be at my apartment the day after I move to set everything up and to install everything. (No, I can't possibly go a day without internet access. I'm a pathetic internet addict, I know!) So the desk and computer have to be ready by Saturday afternoon. Just a little more pressure for me to get things done...

Moving...Yes, Still...

Needless to say, I've been busy. I'm still in the process of moving, but now I have an "official" move date. I've hired movers to take care of the big heavy stuff, and they will be moving my things next Friday on the 14th 18th. (I'm so confused!) I think that I'm going to be glad when that happens, because I just want to be in my new place. I'm getting a little tired of moving a little bit each day. My body is getting tired of it, too! My legs are getting sore, and my back is starting to hurt. Strangely, though, it's not my lower back that is hurting. My upper back right below my shoulder blades is hurting. And it is starting to hurt whenever I move any part of my upper body. I don't think I pulled or strained anything. I think I'm just sore. I suppose I'm lifting the boxes correctly by not straining my lower back, but by using different muscles, I'm sore in different places. Can't win, I suppose...

I need a back rub... :(

Moving...Still...

I was going to move some more stuff today, but when I woke up, I decided I wasn't in the mood to move anything. I was feeling too tired and a little sore. So instead I just packed some more things today, and I'll move it all tomorrow after work. I am making progress, though, so I suppose I can be happy about that. All I can say is that I'm going to be very happy when I'm officially moved in!

Current mood: tired
Current drink: Jack Daniels...straight up

Moving (cont.)...

I just got home after moving another carload of things into my new apartment. While I was at my new apartment, there was a sudden rainstorm, so that interrupted the move a bit. But it was a nice break. I was able to stand outside on my balcony and watch the rain fall, and I didn't get wet. There were a few times when a gust of wind would spray some of the rain into my face, but that actually felt nice after making several trips up and down the stairs. There were even a few rumbles of thunder. So I guess you can say that I experienced my first thunderstorm (although it wasn't a big one) in my new apartment!

Now I'm just taking a little break before I figure out what I need to/want to move next.

Current mood: getting tired
Current music: iTunes on shuffle - Kelly Clarkson "Sober"
Current drink: Barq's root beer

Long Weekend

I finally have a chance to write something today. Things have been busy this week. After a wonderful week off last week to spend time with my family, I was back to work this week. Whenever you take time off from work it always takes a few days to get resettled and to get things back in order. It was a rough week, though, and it was tough to be back after having so much fun the week before. On the first day, I immediately feel the stress and tension come back to my shoulders. Oh well, what are you going to do...

Fortunately, though, this is a short workweek because of the Fourth of July holiday. We got out of the office today at about 1:00 and we have the day off tomorrow. But this probably won't be a weekend for me to relax. I still have a lot of things I need to move into my new apartment. I'm still moving everything myself, and still moving a few carloads each day. In a few weeks, I'll be hiring movers to take care of all of the furniture and other heavy stuff. There is still a lot more I need to do, but I'm making reasonable progress. Since I have a three-day weekend, I'm hoping that I can get a lot accomplished. Hopefully my strength and endurance lasts all weekend!

That's all for now. I'll post more when I have more time...