Only memories, fading memories 6 February 2011

So here I am in Virginia.  Yay?

Eh, it’s not that bad.  While I was initially frantic about losing so much square footage, it looks like it’s going to work just fine.  The kitchen is tiny, but in some ways it’s set up better than the one in Rhode Island.  For one thing, the sink isn’t right next to the stove, so one of us can be washing up while the other is cooking.  That would never work in Rhode Island.  Yes, the bedrooms are smaller, but we still have plenty of room to have the girls share again, and the room we lost in the office closet is more than made up for in the master bedroom’s walk-in closet.

Folks, I have a walk-in closet again!  Hurrah!  And there are two shelves above the rod, so I have plenty of space for long-term storage on the upper shelf.  Right now I only have the closet about half full, which isn’t so great in a way.  I have a feeling I might try to fill it.  I need to not to do that; I have plenty of clothes as it is.

We have a kind of a weird layout in the downstairs, though.  The front door opens right into the living/dining room, but this room isn’t really large enough for both functions.  I suppose if we didn’t have both a couch and a loveseat, plus two end tables, it would be fine.  But we’ve created a bit of an intimate living room with our tv in one corner and the couch and loveseat making an L in front of it.  The so-called dining area holds my largest bookcase and our storage bench/coat tree.  I’m glad we still have room for that; we have wayyyy too many coats and a tiny coat closet now.  I seriously need to weed them out.  I mean, how many coats does one family need?!  Sheesh.

We have an eat-in kitchen, of sorts.  Technically the area off the kitchen is the “breakfast nook.”  Somehow we’ve managed to shoehorn my china closet and our dining room table (minus a leaf) into the breakfast nook.  We still have yet to eat a meal there; I haven’t managed to clear off that table yet.

But my favorite place in the whole house might be my reading nook.  Yes, folks, I have carved out a nook for myself in my master bedroom once again.  And most of my books are right there in my room with me!  I couldn’t figure out where to put my smaller bookcase, so into the master it went, along with a hanging shelf that used to live in my kitchen and held most of my spices and teas.  Basically anywhere you look in the master, you see books.  How can this be a bad thing?!  I’ve got my reclining armchair right up against the huge window in the master, and today I had a lovely breeze coming in and cooling me down after a long day of unpacking.  And I can see most of the way down my street too.

It’s a very relaxing place to be, and I look forward to spending lots of time there.

I admit it’s pretty weird to be back here.  You know, a lot of people, when they move back to a place they’ve been before, will say, “Wow, I can’t believe how much has changed!”  I didn’t know the area well enough to say that, I guess.  Instead I’ve been telling Kurt, “I can’t believe how much has stayed the same!”  The bank we used to visit a couple of times a week to do a night deposit when I was a kid is still there, though it’s changed names a million times.  The bar where my sister used to waitress right after high school is still there.  Doumar’s, the drive-in diner (and where the ice cream cone was invented) that Norfolk is famous for, is still there — though in that case I would be more shocked if it wasn’t.  We’ll drive by someplace, and I’ll point it out to Kurt as something I remember from 2003, when we lived here before.  I suppose seven years isn’t long enough for things to change drastically.  I’ll let you know when we finally made it down to my old ‘hood.  It’s gone from completely scary ghetto into gorgeously desirable beach front property.  Who would have thought?!  I admit I am surprised.

I just wish the unpacking was over with already. Ugh.  At least I’m more than halfway through it.  I hope.

Caught a snowflake on my tongue 30 January 2011

Well, folks.  It’s that time again.  My time here in Rhode Island is now at an end.  I admit I am very sad; Rhode Island has really grown on me.  Initially the accent grated on me, but now I find it almost charming.  I still will never drop my r’s or add them where they don’t belong (Korea = Korear but career = careah), but that’s the southern in me.  Can you just imagine mixing a good ol’ southern accent with the Rhode Island one?  That way spells trouble, I am sure.  Not to mention a split personality.

I admit I am pretty much stressed out of my mind.  I really shouldn’t be; I’m not the one who’s doing the packing.  I’m so worried about how much stuff we have, but then I look around and realize I’ve done a very good job of purging over the last three years.  Just today I got rid of three full garbage bags of kids’ clothes that my girls have outgrown, not to mention the changing table that was given us when Grace was born.  Their new room in Virginia is a bit smaller, so it was necessary to scale down the amount of furniture there.  Besides, the more furniture you have, the more stuff you will accumulate.  And stuff is my enemy at the moment.

We’re scheduled for two days of pack-out and a day to put everything on the truck.  I’m guessing it won’t take that long.  It took a while when we moved from Washington, mainly because we had the garage packed full of… junk, I guess you could call it.  I’ve done so much purging and getting rid of that Kurt is insistent that we have only a fraction of what we had before.  Most of it’s in boxes anyhow, so theoretically the movers could simply mark it “owner packed” and call it good.  Nothing’s breakable in there anyhow.

I’m hoping that they won’t unpack most of my bins.  Some companies insist on putting everything in a box and carrying the bins empty, while other companies will allow you to keep your bins packed.  Clearly I’m hoping for the latter since it’ll be less work for me on the other side.  But I am not sure yet.  We still haven’t met with the movers, though they usually do a pre-move inspection of our stuff.  I guess it’s kind of clear we don’t have much, and nothing terribly valuable unless you count our Obnoxiously Large TV.  Fortunately they already know about that.

I suppose I should just quit worrying.  I’m at the point where there is very little for me to do anyhow.  I’ve got most of the stuff we’re going to need for the next couple of weeks packed up already.  I just wish I had more information.  It’s still not clear when we’ll be getting our stuff.  It could be as early as Friday of this week, but it has to be delivered no later than Monday of the following week.  I’m hoping for Friday because I really do want to watch the Super Bowl in my own house.  My parents would be fine with me hogging their TV for several hours on Sunday, but I’d rather not have to do that.

I don’t handle transitions well, is the problem.  Once I’m there, I’ll be fine.  And being here, I’m fine.  It’s the getting there that’s the issue.  But I’ll be as positive as I can manage and will everything to go as smoothly as possible.

Hey, at least I don’t have to sell my house or look for a new one once I’m in Virginia.  That’s all taken care of, so I really don’t have much to worry about.

Let’s just keep our fingers crossed that the moving truck doesn’t go up in flames on the way down.  It happened to one of my friends.  She lost everything.  Can you imagine the conflagration all my books would cause if a fire broke out??  Yeeesh.

And now, it’s time to relax, chill out, sip my Scotch ale, and maybe read a little.  Just… breathe.  Breathe I can do, one breath at a time. Starting now.

Get down and go out and just lose it all 19 January 2011

You know what would be nice??  If something would go right in regards to this move.  K just called me to tell me that our leasing company has no record of my signing our 30 days’ notice.  Good thing the woman I talked to made me a copy because I sure as hell did, thankyewverymuch.  Now it looks as though I’m going to have to go back in to the office today.  Joy.

At least the office is right around the corner.  And I have nothing much to do today, aside from straightening the house in preparation for having guests over tonight.

I do have some good news.  I’m getting a new cell phone!  I am ridiculously excited about this, mainly because I am so tired of my current phone. It’s a smartphone, one running Android, which I love.  But the battery life has always been downright awful.  I know smartphones suck battery life, what with their huge screens and all, but my phone is ridiculous.  I pretty much cannot do anything online while I’m away from a charger because my battery drains so quickly.  At that point, what’s the use of having a smartphone?  I could just go back to having a texting phone. Sheesh.

This summer I finally got tired of my phone and called Sprint because I’d sent two text messages and uploaded a photo, which caused my battery to drop to 60%.  Sprint sent me a new battery, but that didn’t solve the problem.  So then I took it in to a Sprint store and they ordered me a replacement phone.  The battery issue seemed to be a bit better on the “new” (i.e., refurbished) phone, but my phone has gone completely non-responsive three times in 24 hours, to the point where I had to pop out the battery to be able to restart the phone.  I’m pretty sure two of those times were a battery issue, but there’s no reason that my battery should die when it was reading 60% before I talked to my mom for 30 minutes.

Last night I called Sprint (and immediately got a human to speak to, and one residing here in the States to boot), and was given several options.  I could: a) take the phone to a Sprint store, where they would probably issue me a “new” (refurbished) phone by the same maker of my current phone, or b) use my upgrade and buy a whole new phone.  I chose option b, even though I shouldn’t really be spending money on a cell phone right now.  During my conversation with the Sprint guy, he told me that phones by the maker of my current phone tend to have a lot of issues, and he confidentially told me that he wouldn’t recommend them to me.  He also told me if I bought my new phone online, I could avoid shipping charges and an activation fee, so it’s not like he was just recommending the expensive phone to get a better commission.

I was hugely impressed by the Sprint guy.  I plan on contacting Sprint and letting them know how awesome he was.

So now I’m getting an HTC Evo.  I admit I have been lusting after this phone since I first saw the commercials for it.  A friend of mine has that phone and adores it.  I have to say, I much prefer Android over iOS4.  I have an iPod, and while it’s not quite the same as having an iPhone, I don’t particularly care for iOS4.  Android gives me a lot more flexibility and control over how I want to arrange my home screen, and I love having widgets available for when I don’t want to open up the full app.  I can even check the current temperature without waking my phone up completely.

I think my old phone knows I’m getting a new phone because now it’s behaving.  It’s still reading a full charge even though I downloaded five updates to my apps this morning, plus sent several texts, plus spoke to K for a short time.  Usually I’d be down to 70% already.  It’s too little too late, though.  I’m definitely eager to get my Evo!

Off to the leasing office now.  Wish me luck.