Irony is the Shackles of Youth

My apartment is packed with 30 minutes to spare.

Now to move the sofa and chair to make sure there's nothing underneath them.

1) The first stage of packing is denial. You don't actually pack during this stage. You just sit around feeling slightly guilty and finding excuses not to pack. You know you should start packing, but you have plenty of time and not that much stuff. Really. Besides first you have to get boxes from somewhere, buy some tape, and oh hey, Facebook needs updating...

2) Next is the miscellaneous stage. This is where you start packing misc. crap (some of which you haven't really unpacked since the last move) that you don't think you'll need until you unpack it. The only noticeable difference in your apartment/house is that the shelves and closets begin to look a bit cleaner. Which takes us to the next stage...

3) ...Worry. You now have several boxes filled with stuff, and your house/apartment doesn't look that packed up. In fact, it looks no where near complete. You begin to worry about just what you have left and start packing in earnest. Thinking about how much you have left, where you are going to get more supplies, and if you'll get it done in time. You make a renewed effort to get things done, but lack of sleep causes you to be exhausted most of the time. Soon you move on to the next stage.

4) Despair is the low point in the process. You keep packing and packing, and nothing seems to be complete. Just when you think you've finished a room, you move a piece of furniture only to find more stuff. Where did it come from? Who cares, just put it in a box. Boxes pile up in the corners of the house and you discover things you don't remember buying or haven't seen in years.You have more rolls of tape at this point than you have night outs, because honestly, you're too busy packing to go out.

5) Just like a runner getting his or her second wind, you gradually swing into the determination stage. At this point you are a lean, mean, packing machine. boxes with the labels "Stuff", "More stuff", and "Shit from the closet." You don't care. If it stays still long enough, it's getting PACKED. You put things in boxes you would normally never think to put in boxes such as spices, dirty dishes, small animals (you take those back out, hopefully before you tape shut the box. Hopefully.), and all your underwear. You know you have hit this stage when you find yourself unpacking boxes in order to eat dinner or go to work the next day.

6) Dumping. At this stage it is too late to pack anything more because the movers are at your door, you have run out of boxes, the car/u-haul is overflowing, or you are just plain tired of putting crap in boxes. You start going through whatever is left and determining if you really need to take it. Several trips to the dumpster or nearest Goodwill/Salvation Army are made. It is possible to go through stages 4-6 again and again until the process if over.

7) Completion. Pat yourself on the back. You'd celebrate, but you're too tired and strung out on Sharpie fumes to do so. But you are finally done. What an accomplishment. What pride in your work. What a sense of closure.

That is until you realize you have to unpack everything you just packed.

;_;

(BTW, I am somewhere around stage 3 and quickly heading towards stage 4).

Surprise time change! I mean, I knew it was coming, but didn't know it was this weekend until I opened my computer and stared at the time displayed in confusion.

Yesterday, miome and I found Vietnamese restaurant that specializes in pho and is nearby. According to Google Maps, there are at least 8 Vietnamese restaurants within a 10 mile radius of here. I think I may just learn to love this place.

Curtain hanging is going. We seem to be missing a panel from our old apartment. I'm sure it will turn up: one does not simply lose an entire curtain panel without noticing. It's probably in a box used as padding for something.

The kitties are adjusting to the new place well. They show this by sleeping, randomly chasing invisible fairies up and down the stairs, and demanding pettings as soon as they hear us talking in the morning. In other words, by acting like cats.

We are both still trying to learn how everything works in our kitchen/apartment. For example, the last stove we had tended to bake about 50-100 degrees higher than what you set it at. On this stove, the range is high powered. I haven't tried baking anything yet. I'm sure it will take a few runs to get it right.

Now if only we could figure out how the thermostat worked here...

I was vastly amused by all the helpful comments I got from my last post. I <3 my friend's list.

The good news is that thanks to my ninja packing skills, very little in the boxes got damaged. If you could see state some of these boxes arrived in, you would be amazed at that statement. I'm amazed at that statement. Heck, there were boxes I unpacked (boxes full of pictures and breakables) where I was certain I'd find nothing left but glass fragments. But that didn't happen.

Oddly enough, the box that contained damaged items was the one the moving company supplied. In fact, none of the boxes the moving company supplied survived the trip well. I can't say I'm too surprised. They were shitty boxes. Heck, miome and I decided not to use some of the boxes because they were in such bad condition. The only reason we used any of them is because we needed larger boxes to pack some of the cookware. We lost some of that cookware in one box because the bottom split. The movers complained about how we put our cookware in the box not knowing that that was the box the moving company told us to pack cookware in. Can't win for losing.

Here's a final list of the damage:

- TV stand: splintered shelf, missing hardware
- LCD TV: now wobbles on it's stand
- A baking sheet: rusted due to water getting into the split box
- A muffin tin: dented, technically we could still use the muffin tin, but half our muffins would be seriously deformed
- Plastic storage container: badly damaged corner, possible missing some ribbon from it

We've contacted the moving company with our complaints and about the damages. They've sent a claim form. We'll be filling that out tonight/tomorrow. We haven't unpacked everything, but we did get all the damaged boxes. Everything in the non-damaged boxes should be fine.

So much unneeded stress tonight. Especially considering I have to get up at the butt-crack of dawn to go into work early. The traveling for work has already started. XD

Four more hours until the movers show up.

This is the last call on the internet before we start the trip.

Have fun. Be good.

You know it's time to stop for a bit when you almost glue your fingers to a desk.

At least I managed to get the bits of tissue off them...

We may have an apartment.

Let project "I'm moving in three weeks, fuuuuuuuuuuuck" commence.

I am in Indianapolis. Actually, I'm currently on campus taking advantage of the fact that there is internet access. I have (somewhat) moved into my apartment. I am going to meet with my adviser in about 35 minutes. My little car made it through the Applachian mountains without dying. I consider this a great success. I am already bored out of my mind during the evenings and it's only been one day. This does not bode well.

I mentally waved to starparty and maderr as I went through Cincinnati. Since I did so at 10am on a Sunday morning, I figured they wouldn't appreciate me calling them up and saying "HI!". I swear the interchanges and off/on ramps are bizarre. I drove over on a canary yellow bridge and then got completely turned around getting on/off highways. BUT I made it.

Number of miles traveled: About 640
Number of stops I made for gas: 2 (36 mpg in the rustbucket! Yeah little blue car!)
Number of times the train woke me up when I stayed in the hotel: 4
Number of tunnels: 2
Number of detours because of construction: 3
Number of times getting lost: 1 (and that was in Indianapolis)
Number of times I hit the rumble strips because I was looking at the rock formations: 34 (-_-)

In Ohio, not only do they have stop lights, but on major roads they have flashing lights letting you know there are stoplights. Every time I saw one I LOL-ed. "A red light is not enough for people in Ohio! Here's some flashing lights. Red means stop! STOP!"

People might get drawings/letters as I get settled in. I will keep things updated (and try to keep up with my friend's list).

I decided to do my road trip in two parts: I'll start after lunch tomorrow and then drive the rest of the distance on Sunday. Twelve hours was just going to be too long to do at one go. And this way I won't feel pressured if something happens (detours, traffic, etc.) and I wind up off schedule.

I have the option of going a shorter route time wise but longer distance wise, or a longer time wise but shorter distance wise route. I leaning towards the latter. The only difference between these two routes is that the shorter time route has me doing a huge detour on Hwy 64 through Lexington, KY. Otherwise the two are identical.

Unless there's something I must OMG SEE! in Lexington, KY I think I can safely forgo that part.

Oh great. I just realized that parts of I-77 are toll. Hrm. Now I have to figure out new directions without paying tolls.

Then again, avoiding tolls on I-77 adds either a hundred miles or an hour and a half to my trip. o_O I'll bring some damn quarters or something.

And what does this tell me? It tells me to make sure I get a map so if Mapquest screws up I'm not lost in the wilds of West Virginia.

EDIT: Here is the route I'll be taking, with generalized beginning and ending directions.

WE HAVE AN APARTMENT!

Now back to cleaning the bathrooms.

I swear, I have filled half of our kitchen with boxes and it doesn't even look like I'm making a dent in our apartment. WHERE DID ALL THIS CRAP COME FROM?

In other news, nothing will make your blood pressure rise faster than trying to find an apartment in a distant city. No, we still have no place to live. You'd think we were asking for the floors to be paved with gold and the cabinets to be encrusted with jewels. All we are looking for is an apartment with a dishwasher and w/d hookups that allows pets and is not in a part of Indianapolis where 6-12 robberies happen over a 90 day period. This is obviously like looking for El Dorado.

And I kid you not, I found a place that I thought was perfect. Everything we wanted and could hope for. Do you know what I got told? I'm sorry you make too much money to live in this apartment.

WHAT IS THIS CRAP?!?