- Today I finally snapped out of my denial about moving in a week and made big progress. Regarding the concurrent effort to pare things down, I threw out well over half of the cables of one kind or another that were in different boxes in my apartment. The biggest single reduct was being able to get rid of several hundred feet of telephone cable and connectors I had saved from back when I had apartment configurations and dialup that required me to string phone line from one end to the other and back. I was surprised at the unnatural nostalgia I felt for cords.
- Price per 1.5 cubic foot boxes for carrying books when purchased last month at the U-Haul store in Madison, WI: $1.70/box. Price at TAGS Hardware in Cambridge, MA: $6.49/box.
- ASA found and sent me my lost iPod! While I may have ambivalence about never having considered naming my blog anything other than "Jeremy Freese's weblog," I benefited from naming my iPod "Jeremy Freese's iPod." I returned the replacement I had purchased to the store. Given that the night before I had spent my insomnia time reading the blog of the kid who developed the soldering-iron-and-software method of hacking an iPhone, I was tempted to trade up to an iPhone rather than just get my money back.
- I did not do as well as I had aspired in getting rid of books, but some will not be moving back with me. The Tao of Pooh just made the cut, the Te of Piglet did not. I entertained getting rid of almost all my reference books--who uses a print dictionary anymore?--but in the end could part only with my Random House Word Menu.
- I have an extra ticket to the Iowa Hawkeyes versus Northern Illinois football game at Soldier Field on September 1. I'm just saying. Presumably this year I will be subdued in the Hawkeye regalia I wear to the game, just from not wanting to haul too much of it with me on the plane out there.
- The unfortunate situation with my housing is unchanged. Briefly, I have an absolutely fabulous apartment but, due to a planned roommate situation falling through, it's much more money for much money space than what I want to pay. Not sure if I should try one last craigslist assault regarding this.
- I have completely fallen off the wagon on the one Coke Zero a day thing. More generally, I've been living the lifestyle of someone who will return to looking like a narwhal. This has got to stop when I get to Evanston!
Monday, August 27, 2007
bullets of moving miscellany
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13 comments:
The Pooh/Piglet crisis is understandable, and you made the correct decision. (That's speaking as the other person who is waiting impatiently for The Ching of Eeyore.)
Diets should be suspended in times of ultra-high stress, as they produce suboptimal results by adding more to the current stress than the extra work later will cost. (Kris Kristofferson and many economists refer to this as "trading in tomorrow for today." It should only be done for short periods of time, otherwise you end up with a housing bubble.)
Wondering why you moved the "a" out of miscellany? Glad that so much is going so well!
Ken: I've never seen the idea attributed to Kris Kristofferson, but it's a good one.
RPS: As stress increases, a first thing that happens is that I start bothering up my spelling.
No One in Cambridge BUYS boxes when they move. You get them from grocery stores. eg Trader Joe's by the river has them conveniently by the door.
But now you have a nice matched set. Happy moving!
I agree with Ken, moving is NOT a good time to introduce anything complicated/hard/stressful into your life that isn't already otherwise necessary due to the move. We'll figure something out once you're in Evanston. For one thing, you could put your pedometer to use! Better yet, how about taking up ping pong so I have one more person to play with?!
Funny that you should need boxes when we are throwing away handfuls just a few blocks down. And driving a UHaul truck to the Central Square Uhaul place. Where boxes are cheaper. And you and I are about to meet up later today. Me, on my way out, carrying boxes. Funny.
If he drank, he'd see that liquor stores throw out/give away great boxes every day. Marvelous, sturdy cool liquor/wine boxes, marked with all those heady brand names.
I think moving inscribes nostalgia on the most unlikely objects. Since you're leaving in a week, it may be time to stop sorting and just pack. While it seems ridiculous to get rid of stuff when you get to your new place, that may be the most efficient strategy.
I'm sure you can find a roommate for the new place. You can even find one you like if you can float the rent for a month or two. It would be worth it to me if I really liked the place.
Everytime I vow to drink fewer Diet Cokes, I get a huge headache or end up feeling crappy in some other way, which then leads me to drink more Cokes than I would have otherwise. This is my latest excuse for my uncurbed passion for caffeine. I agree with Ken, don't try to restrain anything until you finish the move.
Jamy: I think you're right.
Anon: I don't have a car (and don't even get my started on Zipcar), which much affected the economics of box procurement.
Jeremy, friends help out at times like this. In fact, you can actually make friends at times like this when people find out you need help.
Jamy does have good advice.
(By the way, have you ever shared an apartment with someone? You might want to find out something about how this works before you commit yourself.)
Boxes from stores? You just started (last week) to carry home a couple at a time. OR if you found a great pile of them yesterday, you called a taxi!
Nina: I should have thought that you would have a gaggle of boxes. Oops.
This is kind of dreadful of me, but I'm glad to hear you've fallen off the Coke Zero wagon. I gave up about a week ago at even pretending to cut down my consumption of Diet Coke and I was rather ashamed to have to tell you. I don't even remember what caused it, but one day I had more than the one daily allotted drink and then I just gave up.
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