This and That - Weekend Edition

Well, as you can see from my lack of posts over the past week, there hasn't been that much to report. But here is a brief rundown.

Friends: On the previous weekend, I spent some time with my wonderful friends. On Friday I met friends for happy hour at Boulder Beer. It was over 90 degrees that day, I think, and on a day like that it's wonderful to have a nice Boulder-brewed beer to cool off. And, of course, the company and conversation was wonderful and a lot of fun. On Sunday, I met other friends at a cool little place in Denver called the Red Trolley. It's a little cafe that sells hot dogs and gelato. I had a bison hot dog and for dessert I had mint chocolate chip gelato. It was so yummy! And again, and of course, the company was lovely and wonderful. That weekend gave me plenty of warm, fuzzy, happy feelings that carried me through this week at work.

Work: Work has been surprisingly slow over this past week. All of my projects are at a stage when they are in someone else's hands. I'm waiting for a lot of work to come back to me or I'm waiting for people to give me important answers or to make important decisions before I can move on with other projects. Until that happens, there isn't much I can do. Although I very much appreciate the calm before the inevitable storm, I have to admit that it is incredibly boring to be at work with absolutely nothing to do. Fortunately over the past few days we've had job interviews and those have taken up enough time in the day to keep me from going crazy.

New Apartment: Things in my new apartment are coming together nicely. Everything is more or less in its place and organized. I still have little piles of papers scattered about, but that's the general status of my apartment. There are always papers or books scattered somewhere on the floor no matter how long I've been living in a place. But, all in all, everything is in order and I am enjoying the new place. The weather has been really hot over the past week—temperatures were in the high 90s and low 100s on some days—but my apartment has stayed cool, as I mentioned in previous posts. The temperature inside didn't go far above 75 degrees. So I'm grateful to not waste energy to run the air conditioner; however, I generally have to turn on a light or two because I don't get much direct sunlight into my new place. The worst part of my new place is living under people and hearing every step they take. And I happen to live under a family with an infant and a toddler, who obviously likes to run, jump, and crash about so much so that my light fixtures and chandeliers often shake and rattle. Apparently these days parents no longer tell their children to not run in the house. Oh well.

Lazy: For the most part, I've been incredibly lazy this weekend. There are several errands I could run or chores I need to do, but I've been feeling just too lazy to do any of them. I'd rather just sit on the couch and read a book or watch a movie. I enjoy being lazy.

Friday...

...right now I can't think of a better post title than "Friday"...

I haven't had all that much to report over the past few weeks. After I got all moved in, I've basically been spending time unpacking, organizing, and getting settled. There are still several piles of stuff lying all over the place, but eventually everything will get put away in its place. So far there isn't much of a rush to get things finished, and I've also been kind of lazy. Oh well, it will all get done in time.

In terms of work, things have been both busy and slow. Things were busy earlier this week both with my "real" job and with my freelance job. But for the past two days at my "real" job I have had absolutely nothing to do. Right now all of my projects are being worked on by someone else, and I can't do anything with the projects until those people return them to me. So I spent most of the day yesterday cleaning my cubicle and, if you could imagine, just reading some of our books (and maybe surfing the Web a lot). Today was slow as well, but fortunately we're on summer hours so our office closed at 1:00 today.

This weekend will be a combination of work and fun. I have a freelance project to finish up, and I've also been considering applying for more freelance work to do online copy editing. All I have to do is take the tests and see if they want to hire me. I'm not thrilled about doing more freelance work during the day, but it would be nice to have some extra money in the bank account. Fortunately the weekend won't be all work. Tonight there is happy hour with some friends and former co-workers and on Sunday there will be brunch or lunch with other friends. Should be a nice weekend.

Moving Day - Day 5

Today was finally the last day of my move, and I couldn't be more grateful. As I mentioned in my previous post, yesterday I took a break from all the lifting and carrying and moving and instead spent time trying to unpack and organize everything. And because today was my last day off from work, I considered today to be my last opportunity to actually move things. The last thing I'd want to do after a long day at work was to move. Fortunately I had only about ten loads left to carry down, so I was able to make quick work of it. And after these past five days, I'm happy that I never have to climb those stairs again!

Now I just have to continue to unpack and organize things, and thankfully there is no rush to get this done. I only wish I had another week off from work so that I could take time to recover and get resettled. Oh well.

Moving Day - Day 4

A thunderstorm woke me up this morning at about 6:00. I listened to it and enjoyed it for a while, but then fell asleep and continued to sleep until about 10:00. I slept in much later than I wanted, but obviously I needed it.

I didn't do much in terms of actual moving today. I started to get tired of stepping over boxes and piles of stuff, so instead of moving more stuff down, I decided to just unpack and organize what I already moved. So far my kitchen, bathroom, and closets are mostly organized. And I've unpacked several boxes books and put them back on my bookcases. There is still a lot of organizing I need to do, but I'm still making good progress.

Moving Day - Day 3

So the moving continues. Today I decided to sleep in a bit, because, well, I thought I deserved it. After walking up and down the stairs so many times and carrying so much stuff, I thought that by now my thighs and back would be sore. But when I first got out of bed, I immediately felt that my calves and shins were tight and sore. I also noticed that my deltoids were sore. Apparently I walk on my toes when I'm going up stairs and I do most of the lifting and carrying with my arms without straining my back. Anyway, after a shower and breakfast, I watched the World Cup while trying to unpack and organize my new apartment. I still have a long way to go. Then, later in the afternoon, I moved more stuff downstairs and I'm still making good progress. There are only a few more boxes left and all of my pictures still hanging on the walls. I think that by tomorrow I should have everything completely cleared out. Hopefully.

Even though all of this sounds like extremely slow going, I think I'm doing pretty well considering I'm moving everything by myself. With the exception of the movers who helped a few days ago, I've been all on my own. Good thing I'm a tough little girl!

Moving Day - Day 2

Today I continued my move. As I mentioned in my last post, I still have quite a few things in my old apartment, so my move is going to continue over the next few days. Because I was tired from yesterday, I decided to sleep in this morning. Then I spent the rest of the morning relaxing, having breakfast, and watching the World Cup. Hup Holland! After breakfast and the soccer game, I had to go grocery shopping. Because I knew that I was going to move and didn't want to carry all the contents of my refrigerator downstairs, I haven't been grocery shopping in a week or two. That, however, meant that I had nothing in my fridge except for a pitcher of water, an almost empty carton of milk, butter, cheese, and bread. Needless to say, I had a lot of shopping to do. And after all that I bought, I'm grateful that I didn't have to carry it up three flights of stairs!

After my grocery shopping, I started to move more of my stuff. Today I was just trying to clear out the kitchen, bathroom, and closets. I never realized how much clothes and shoes I had until I started to move everything. And, as I mentioned in an earlier post, most of it are things that I almost never wear. I even have a few skirts and dresses that I never wear, but you never know if there is that once in a lifetime moment when I might actually need it. But, other than that, there are a lot of donatable items that I should really get rid of. (I'm not sure if donatable is a real word, but I'm using it anyway.) Unfortunately my closets are are also full of a lot of other junk, so I think it might take another day to clear everything out.

For the most part I'm making good progress of clearing out my old place. My new place, however, is overrun with piles of stuff that needs to be sorted, organized, and put away. Who knows how long that will take, but fortunately there isn't a deadline for that.

P.S. Happy birthday to my lovely friend, Anna!

Home Sweet Home

Well, I am finally moved into my new apartment...for the most part. I took the day off from work yesterday to finish some packing and to get a few things organized. I was very productive and jamming and dancing to a radio station from Hesperia, California. Then suddenly the music went silent. I was listening to the station online, but Comcast disconnected my cable and internet service yesterday afternoon. It wasn't exactly a surprise, though. I originally scheduled to have my service disconnected and reconnected yesterday, but that was before I found out that I couldn't move into my new place for another few days. So I was without TV for the rest of the day—perish the thought!—and I had to rely on my cell phone if I needed to get online or check e-mail. And thank God for iTunes so I wouldn't have to spend the entire afternoon in silence. (My internet and cable service was reconnected today.)

Today was the day of the big move. The movers came at about 9:15 and they were out the door by 10:45. I basically had them move all of the big and/or heavy items, and I moved the smaller, lighter boxes and furniture. After the movers left, I continued to move what was left. There is still a lot upstairs that I need to bring down, but fortunately I have a week to clear everything out. And all I have to say is that running up and down three flights of stairs all day is extremely exhausting. I already have a feeling that my legs are going to be really sore tomorrow.

My new apartment is very nice. It's the exact same floor plan, but it's flipped in the opposite direction, if that makes sense. So, where in my old place I'd have to turn right to walk into the kitchen, in my new place I have to turn left. In my old place, the bedroom was on the right, now it's on the left, and several wrong turns into the bathroom leads me to believe that it might take a while for me to get used to it. Light switches are also on the wrong walls!

My new apartment has brand new carpet, not hardwood, which, I think, will be nicer in the winter when it gets cold. The kitchen has brand new appliances, new cherry wood–style cabinets, and new counter tops. The walls are taupe (I think) and there is white crown molding. Everything in the bathroom is also brand new. The shower fixtures are different from what I had in my old apartment. When I used it for the first time this afternoon, I felt like I was in a hotel room and trying to figure out how to turn on a new shower. And I have a shower rod!! In my previous unit I had an awful shower door, so I'm grateful to have a shower rod again. Plus, I have a cool Greek-themed shower curtain that I can use again!

Being on the first floor is nice because I don't have to walk up the stairs. My apartment also feels about 20 degrees cooler than my third-floor apartment. But, as to be expected, first-floor apartments also come with a few negatives. Now that my apartment faces other apartments and not a greenbelt, I have to be more conscious of privacy. I can't just walk around naked because people might actually see me, so I have to at least make sure that the blinds are closed. And, being on the first floor, you're naturally going to hear everything above you, and I just happen to have a woman above me with her two children, a toddler and an infant. The toddler sounds like the hyperactive, running around type.

All in all, the new place is very nice and I think I made a very wise decision.