Moving to do list

- Engage moving truck - DONE

- Pack things in kitchen - DONE

- Pack things in living room - DONE

- Pack things in bedroom

- Pack things in basement - DONE

- Cancel current NSTAR account - DONE

- Cancel current oil account - DONE

- Arrange for final oil fill - DONE

- Call Formal Oil AGAIN re: final oil fill because it doesn't seem to have happened yet - DONE

- Call National Grid to make new gas account - DONE

- Fax ID and proof of residency to National Grid - DONE

- Confirm all things are in order with National Grid

- Cancel Verizon account - DONE

- Engage Comcast account - DONE

- Buy Groupon for massively discounted cleaning service so old landlord doesn't gouge it out of our security deposits - DONE

- Arrange for my cleaning service to come to the house

- Send out plan for lovely moving helpers - DONE

- Throw away massive amounts of trash and recycling

- Pick up keys from new landlord on Saturday

- E-mail old roommates about moving out finalizing - DONE

- Send old landlord information about cleaning service, key dropoff, and ask for security deposits to be returned within the legally proscribed thirty days

Gah, so much to do, so little time to do in it...

Moving plan!

I thought I'd post my moving plan here well in advance of things, in case anyone is interested in showing up to help, or provide moral support in the form of cooling beverages or delicious snacks.

The date of the move is Tuesday, May 31st. Because the only time I was able to secure a moving truck rental was 2PM, things will be beginning early. Let's say 3PM is the official start time, and I plan on working until it's finished, hopefully before the 9PM deadline when I need to return the truck. I know that some of you will be unavailable during the day, but any time you can come is very much appreciated. If you could let me know when you expect to show up, that could be useful for planning. Like, I can plan on moving the heavy furniture pieces when I'm looking to have the most people present.

We will be moving the furniture contents of a living room, a kitchen, two bedrooms, and a small mountain of boxes. My goal is to have everything ready to be picked up by you lovely folks and placed directly onto the truck or the appropriate car, so hopefully there will be minimal need for you to help with packing or anything like that. I may need some minor help with furniture disassembly, though, and I may assign people to some light cleaning tasks if no one minds.

I will be providing dinner in the form of some kind of takeout on the day of, and then everyone who shows up to help is then invited to a real, home-cooked "Thank You for Hauling My Stuff Around" dinner at my new place (Illyria, 51 Morton Street, Waltham) at 7PM on Saturday, June 4th.

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask. And please let me know when you think you might be coming so I can make a plan. (I do so love making plans.) If things have changed for you and you don't think you can make it, no worries, I appreciate the thought anyway.

Thanks so much, everyone. Your help is very much appreciated, and I will repay you with deliciousness the weekend after.

Antsy for the move

More and more my thoughts turn to my move at the end of May. I was always looking forward to it, but now I'm getting downright ansty for it. I think it's more wanting to get everything squared away more than actually feeling pressed to get out of my current situation and into the new one. God knows I like things taken care of, so I've already begun preparing for it and making my plan. I've been collecting boxes for the last several weeks, mostly those from office supplies delivered to my work; my bedroom is becoming quite cluttered with them. Unable to hold off any longer, this past week I started actually packing. My goal is to have everything already packed up and ready to be moved onto the truck by the time all my helpers come on the 31st, so things go as quickly and efficently as possible. Though I do want to get that stuff done ahead of time so I'm not scrambling at the last minute, the problem is that everything I pack now is something I can't use for the next several weeks until the move. So limiting my ability to do advance packing is the fact that I don't want to have to do without a large chunk of my stuff for that time. My clothes and my cookware, for example, are two significant chunks of my possessions, but I know the minute I start sealing that stuff away in boxes I will be vexed with pressing need for it. So I've confined myself to getting my bookshelf squared away, and the contents of my drawers that I like to have on hand but don't necessarily use every day. I wish the weather would at least straighten itself out, so I might be able to decide I don't need one sort of clothes or the other. I've also already begun tranferring my utilities account away from Elsinore and, where I can, to the new place. But beyond that, I feel like as eager as I am to get this taken care of, it's too early to do much else.

It also speaks to my desire to take stock of my possessions and get rid of as many as possible. I culled some junk out of my drawers, and found a handful of books I'd just rather get rid of. I should probably go through my clothes and figure out what I don't wear anymore. I recently gave away a bag of stuff to the thrift store, but I feel like there's got to be even more I should be getting rid of. *Sigh* There's going to be so much stuff to move. All my furniture, all my boxes... gah. I guess the enormity of that is making me want to find some way to do it in pieces starting now, but practicalities are thwarting my anticipatory efforts.

Moving: call for help!

You know what's the best part of having friends? They ask you to help them move, yaaaaay!

So as I have mentioned, lovely friends, I will be moving out of Elsinore at the end of May and into what is now officially Illyria, a new residence about the same distance away from Brandeis on the other side. Originally the plan was to split the moving between two days, packing up the U-Haul on May 31st and then unloading everything in the new place on June 1st. Unfortunately the truck is only available on the 31st, so both the loading and the unloading will have to happen in the evening of that day. Harrumph. I suppose that will have to be that. I suppose I will try to have all of my smaller possessions (clothes, books, cookware, etc) already moved in before then, and then have only the sizeable furniture pieces left to move during the time I'll have the truck.

So I am asking for any lovely friends who might be available in the late afternoon and early evening of Tuesday, May 31st to lend the strength of their backs to moving a significant chunk of furniture to be taken to my new place. Someone who is comfortable driving a ten-foot truck (over a distance of about a mile) is particularly welcome. More details will come closer to the date when I make a firm plan on action. To entice you to come, all those who contribute are then invited to what will be my inaugural dinner party at the new place on Saturday, June 4th in thanks for the help.

So, if you are inclined to be generous, or just want in on the reward dinner, e-mail me or comment here letting me know that you're available to help. Thanks in advance for your assistance!

Housing next year

So after much stress, much wrangling, and much worrying, at last I have my housing situation figured out for next year.

After three years there, I am finally moving out of Elsinore. Though I was pretty contented with what I could do there, it really is time. The landlord is impossible to deal with, the heating bills in the winter have been insane, not to mention a host of sundry other little annoyances that add up to a fair-sized pain. So, especially when it became clear I was not going to find suitable roommates to fill in those who were definitely moving on, I decided it was best to move on too.

So now, with lovely friends blendedchaitea* and my current roommate Emily, I will be moving to the other side of Brandeis to a three-bedroom apartment on 51 Morton Street. (Emily is going to be a graduate student at Brandeis next year, so staying close to the school was necessary for her.) This is, interestingly, also about a block away from Albion, where Steph, Plesser, April, Lenny, and Jenna will be living next year. Features of this new place that are a definite improvement over Elsinore are the wide driveway (no need for stacking and therefore constant carswapping), TWO bathroom for THREE people, a huge kitchen with plenty of counter space, new appliances including a dishwasher, significantly cheaper heat and electric bills, and only having to share the place with two others instead of four. I actually have enjoyed living with all of my current group of roommates, but more people means more crowding and more mess, which I will be glad to have to deal with less.

Also, it looks like I will not have to be compromising on bedroom space. I was initally interesting in this really neat-shaped room upstairs with cool nooks and crannies and a whole separate space with a door almost like a walk-in closet for where the bed goes, but after some measurements were taken I realized my bedroom furniture was probably not going to fit. So Rachel will have that room, and I will have the sizeable downstairs bedroom that will more easily accommodate all my stuff. It's one odd feature is that it doesn't have a closet so much as a storage space, of good size but unfinished inside. I am actually okay with that, as I am confident that if I laid down a piece of carpet and got moveable clothes racks I could basically make it into a pleasant little walk-in. I've always wanted a walk-in closet, so that should work out nicely. Also, as it is on the ground floor, that means the ground floor bathroom is basically mine when we don't have guests.

There are some downsides. As it is only a three-bedroom, there is considerably less common space. That probably means while dinner parties can still happen, the big parties I have every now and then probably won't fit. That makes me sad. Also it will probably mean having to get rid of some of my furniture, seeing as pretty much all the stuff in the commons spaces is mine. My baker's rack, for example, may not have a home (unless I repurpose it into a shelf for my planned walk-in closet...). The washer and dryer are coin-op, though I am grateful enough that they are on-premises that I don't really mind. It will also mean something of a raise in rent for me, which I am hoping with my new job won't be quite so burdensome, but we'll see. But the positives outweight the negatives by far for me. I will really miss living with Charlotte, Jane, and Ryan, all of whom someone managed to overcome my hermit tendencies to make me actually enjoy being roommates with them, but I am very excited to live in this new place with Rachel and Emily.

It's going to be kind of a relief to me, to be honest. All it needs now is a name. I myself am partial to "Illyria," but I would also be amenable to Rachel's idea of "Arden."

HTP party, and housing concerns

I am super psyched for the Hold Thy Peace tenth anniversary party this Saturday. It's going to be really big with food and lots of HTPers and an open mic portion of the evening and it's going to go late into the night. I don't know if I'll stick around for the sleepover, seeing as my actual bed is going to be a couple streets away, but I would like to show back up for pancakes in the morning. I am struck with the desire to wear something fun for it, so I might dress up if that's not too out of place.

A little stressed about housing for next year. It looks like I may have found new people to occupy Elsinore for the coming year, but they're not friends and I think I've gotten used to living with people I like AND live well with. Not delighted with that, but at least I'd keep my bedroom and my entertaining space and wouldn't have to move. I'm also a little bit nervous that things might change and somebody isn't going to be sticking around after all, in which case I'll either have to chase someone new down, or else find another place. It could be that there isn't much on the market yet with June 1st move in dates, but my cursory explorations have not revealed much that would work for me. Definitely nothing one-bedroom in my price range, so I'd have to find at least one roommate, and I don't know who I would even ask about that. My new job is in Waltham, so I don't want to move too far from that. *Sigh* This is complicated stuff, and it's starting to make me edgy. We'll see what happens, I guess.

Grownup corner 2.0

I have recently upgraded my grownup corner.

The flowers in the blue vase died, as all flowers eventually do, so they had to be removed. There is also now a little blue urn on the corner there, a nice little touch added, I believe, by Charlotte. But you will notice the new copper pot hanging up next to my lucky-find skillet. I bought it off of eBay the other day, and it came in the mail yesterday. I wasted no time in hanging it up beside its fellow.

I find few things so beautiful in the world as copper cookware. It is lovely, it is functional, and it is incredibly cheerful-looking. I can think of no more perfect way to decorate a kitchen than with beautiful specimens of the tools you use in it. I shouldn't be spending money on silly things right now, but this was only twelve dollars, which is a steal for copper. (For reference, even a piece of lower-end new stuff can cost a hundred dollars or more. And let us not speak of the price of the breathtaking Mauviel, the highest quality on the market today.) It makes me a little happier just looking at it, so especially right now when I could do with small joys, perhaps this wasn't so silly a purchase after all.

My grownup corner

In case you haven't been in the kitchen at Elsinore recently, let me tell you that lately it's been kept pretty nice. I like the way the furniture looks in it, the light wood of the table contrasting with the dark chairs, which is picked up by the wood board of the baker's rack and the gorgeous butcher block in the corner. As I think I mentioned, I got the butcher block when my brother moved out of his old apartment. His landlord wanted the building completely emptied of its contents, including this little beauty, which apparently did not belong to anyone-- which means I got to take it home. It is a piece of kitchen furniture that I'd coveted for ages and regularly sells for hundreds of dollars, so that was quite a stroke of luck for me. Last Halloween my dad also brought me six bundles of herbs from his garden, which look homey and nice hung all around. When I got my copper pan, I decided the best way to store it was to hang it on the wall on display. To complete the effect, I moved two of my oil flasks, Jane's mortar and pestle, and Charlotte's pretty glass onto the butcher block beneath it. Charlotte then put some flowers in the blue vase to complete the tableau. I have immortalized what I believe to be the prettiest place in the house in this photograph:

Sometimes I stand in this corner and look at the display before me and I can pretend that I live in a grownup house.

Alone in a clean house

All my roommates have left for winter break. As much as I will miss them as individuals, it will be nice to have the place to myself for a bit. I will be away myself for a while around Christmas, but other than that I will be at Elsinore enjoying the brief period of solitude. Nautrally, my first act as soon as everyone was gone was to clean. I cleaned the whole house, from bedroom to basement, except for vaccuuming. I burnt out on cleaning before I got to the vaccuuming, so I guess I will leave that to later or even tomorrow. Still, I am always worlds more comfortable in my space when it's clean, so it is very nice to have the almost the whole place done.

I am now relaxing in my room with a cinnamon-vanilla scented candle and a mug of eggnog. Every time I drink eggnog I think to myself, "This tastes the way I always wanted... something... to taste." But I can never remember exactly what that something is. It might be milk-- the flavor of milk certainly is never what I feel it should be. But it makes me feel nice, and I can use the relaxation and comfort for the moment so I can get more work done this evening.

Frances in town, and the perks of living alone

The much-missed crearespero* has graced us all with a visit this week, stopping by on her way to grad school in England. She will be staying with us at Elsinore for the next seven days. Despite the massive clamor for her company from the moment of her arrival, I was lucky enough to get to bring her to my rehearsal and then take her out to dinner afterward. I had a lovely time getting to hang out with her again, and I look forward to having this week with her around before she departs the country.

We had some really nice conversation last night. She mentioned that she will be having a flat all too herself, and after I got finished dying of jealousy, we talked a little bit about the various issues one encounters in living with other people. My living situation has been quite good lately, and let it be known how awesome I think my current roommates are. But still, in my ideal world, I think I would still choose living alone over living with roommates. Now that I live entirely with amicable people there are actually pleasant things about having others around at home, but a lot of things about my nature inclines me to desire a space which I am in complete control of where I can be totally alone.

My frequent but not constant tendency to withdraw into my own thoughts makes it so I require a lot of alone time, and I am always most comfortable in the space I call my own. I don't want to make people feel like they're ignored, uninteresting, or unwanted, but if they encounter me when I'm in introvert mode, I'm probably going to treat them like they are. It's not my intention, but that's kind of the message that "No desire to talk to or interact with you now," sends. And I really dislike being put in the position of not getting to have my introvert time just because I'm afraid of coming off as rude or of hurting feelings. Living alone means that there is always a way to be in my own space, where I am most comfortable and at ease, where there's no one else around.

Theoretically this can be dealt with by living with understanding people who get that just because you don't want to visit or hang right now doesn't mean you hate them. And in large part, at least in my current situation, it is. But even the whole "being alone together" thing is difficult for me, because I am always so acutely concerned with what the other person may observe.

See, most of the time I love having, and actively work to cultivate, a state of affairs where all eyes are frequently on me. Therein lies one of the chief reasons I keep a public, frequently updated Livejournal as opposed to a private diary, because I thrive on people's attention and interest. I'm sure even the little bug living under big rocks have noticed this. But I have a very definite idea of how I want to present myself in public, and at times that can take a lot of effort to maintain my preferred presentation. It's a bit complicated to describe exactly, but it's basically my way of appearing to and interacting with others to all the ends I find most valuable. We all have this to some degree or other, I believe, but I would think I'm a little more uncomfortable than most when mine is not what I would like it to be. I want, for example, to always be polite to people. That's something important to me. It can be tough to be polite, however, if you're tired, upset, or otherwise not feeling yourself. I have a rule that when I don't feel able to act like a person, I am not fit for the company of other people, and should therefore retreat to somewhere where I will not encounter them. There's a certain way you should act in front of company, and when you live with people, you always have some kind of company.

And of course there's some measure of vanity to it, as there is with everything in me. Though I am worlds better than about it than I was when I was in high school, I still dislike being seen when I'm sweating, bleeding, bloated, sick, or otherwise not appearing to my best. To this day, whenever I get a new zit, the first thought that crosses my mind is "Well, maybe I won't run into anyone I know today." And at any rate, I simply don't like having an audience for some of things I want to do that I worry may be perceived as weird or annoying. Having my own space means I have a place to hide when I'm not feeling up to being polite, engaging, interesting, and perfectly groomed. Again, I like to keep everything in order for when I have company.

I've had conversations with people about what it's like to feel invisible, which is something I've never really experienced and feel incredibly sorry for anyone for whom that's a common occurence. But even though I would never trade places with them, sometimes I wish invisibility was something I could turn on and off selectively. Because sometimes I don't have it in me to behave in the manner that I feel is appropriate for company. Sometimes I want to cram my hair into a squashy bun and sit around wrapped in a blanket and schlubby pajama pants. Sometimes I want to eat cake frosting with a spoon. Sometimes I want to watch endless hours of television I've seen a million times before. I have evolved enough to be comfortable talking about the fact that sometimes I do these things. But I still really don't like people being witness to when I do them.

Here go I with frivolous spending

So I've had this idea of purchasing a sideboard or a long thin side table for the living room for a while now, and last week it seemed like I had finally found something on Craigslist that fit my desires and budget. I found a very handsome dark-wood piece for just forty dollars and figured I'd lucked out. Unfortunately it turned out to be a lot bigger than I thought it would be, too big for what I wanted, and wouldn't have quite fit in my car anyway, so I regretfully passed on buying it. That left me with an extra forty dollars in my budget that I hadn't expected to have. So, of course, instead of saving it for rent or whatever, when I dropped off a couple of size-too-large sweaters at the thrift store, I allowed myself some time to browse to see if there was anything I liked.

I have to say, thrifting can be great when you're small. A lot of the time people who were small at some point don't stay small, so a lot of small clothes get donated, and of those people that used to be small, they were not usually small for long, so their small clothes tend to be less worn. An excellent example would be the really elegant pencil skirt I found. It's a dark green floral weave pattern on a black background, cut in the old-fashioned style all the way up to the true waist. Not as comfortable as hip-height, but very chic in a retro sort of way. And frankly if I were so much as an inch wider in the waist or even the hip, there would have been no chance of my fitting into it.

I've also had this bee in my bonnet about trying to incorporated dresses into my daily wardrobe, so I checked the dress racks as well. Of course I didn't find anything interesting that would be appropriate for day wear, but I did find a very sexy fancy black dress with an asymmetric hem and only one shoulder strap that fits me like a glove. I must find an excuse to wear this sometime soon. Amusingly, I chose it in part because it was a similar style and material to my beloved backless cocktail dress, and when I compared the two upon arriving home I realized it is the same brand.

The last thing I looked at were the sweaters. I'm interested in sweaters again as summer seems to have been blackbagged and kidnapped off somewhere already, and they're good for wearing to work. As I've said before, thrifting sweaters can be a tricky proposition, as they wear so badly that donated ones are often too stretched out to really look nice. But I actually got very lucky, finding an XS burgundy-purple Banana Republic v-neck made of merino wool. Merino is a lovely, maintainable material, and the cut was such that it would look equally nice worn alone, or with a collared blouse underneath it. Work-apparel score!

I had planned on the cavalcade of spending to end there, but not quite. Yesterday I went to Westborough to spend the evening hanging out with acousticshadow2*, and I got there crazy early because I misjudged how bad the traffic would be. We had a lovely time hanging out, hitting a coffee shop before having dinner at a place with the charmingly multicultural name of "Jose Murphy's," which offered a ten-cent taco night. It was a lot of fun, though I could have done without the rain driving down so hard that my windshield wipers literally could not work fast enough. But beforehand, while I waited for her to get off of work, I wandered around in some of the nearby stores in the plaza. One of which was a very interesting store filled up various kinds of unfinished pine furniture, and the second was a TJMaxx.

My mother tells me TJMaxx used to be a great place to find famous labels from last season at discounted prices, but in recent years department stores seem to mostly fill it with lower-end brands they couldn't get rid of in stores. Still, every now and then if you look carefully enough, you can find a gem. I found myself drawn to a display of lovely leather gloves in many interesting colors. I kind of wanted a bunch of the colors, because I like matching my gloves to my scarf when I'm bundled up against the cold, but I was drawn mostly, as usual, to the basic black. There was unfortunately no completely plain ones, which I would have preferred, but I did like the look of the ones with the slight gathering of material around the wrists. They were twenty dollars marked down from fifty, which for genuine leather with silk lining is not a bad deal. I really hadn't planned on buying anything else, but I've always wanted a pair of nice leather gloves, and I know I'll certainly wear them all winter. So in the end I went for it.

Though I'm not exactly thrilled at how easily the rarely-had extra cash slipped through my fingers, I am proud of myself for being able to find reasonably-priced items that please me, fit me, and will see actual use. So not a total loss, right?

Jane at Elsinore, and on entertaining

Jared gets in today! I'm so excited. I will be picking him up from the airport around five-thirty, and then we will go out for a dinner at a nice Italian place in the (surprisingly close nearby) North End, followed by coming to BSCF. We should probably be there around eight o'clock and staying for the rest of the evening, for those of you who would like to see the boy while he's in town.

In housemate news, we now have a Jane at Elsinore! She got in around the middle of the day yesterday, and with her arrival, the place is now complete. I hope she is settling in comfortably, and enjoys living there with us. I'm glad to have her, and I'm also glad that things will finally be able to settle. It's looking like Elsinore's going to be a pretty fun place to be now.

Which brings me to the thought of how, especially lately, Elsinore has been a favorite hangout spot. This pleases me, because I love entertaining. One of the best things, in my opinion, about living at Elsinore is that there is the kitchen and living room space necessary to have people over to do things like hang out, have gaming gatherings, and my very favorite form of socialization, the dinner party.

Cooking has become a major hobby of mine as well as something I've gotten kind of good at, so it gives me a lot of job to be able to share it with the special people in my life. I very much have internalized the notion that food is love. By going to the time and effort to cook something delicious to serve to people I care about, I am showing the love I have for my guests and my desire to make them happy. I also love food as a social lubricant. Some of the best and most comfortable conversations I've had with large groups of people have happened over a dinner table sharing a tasty meal. It's so easy to connect with each other that way-- I suspect that it is because of this that so much of human ritual, ceremony, and celebration incorporates people eating together as a major aspect.

It also enormously helps my development as a cook. As much as I enjoy cooking for its own sake, like pretty much everyone I find it much more worthwhile to cook for a large group. It feels like a greater return on the effort. And I like the challenges it offers me as a menu planner. What meal can I design that will appeal to everyone's tastes, and satisfy the requirements of the vegetarians, the carnivores, the kosher people, all on the same plate? I like serving lots of different things to my guests, so it keeps me looking for new dishes to try in order to keep the menu interesting. And then I get external feedback. Are things cooked to your liking? Do the flavors of a given dish go well together? Do you find the various dishes I picked for the meal to be complementary? What did I do well, and what should I change for next time? I want to improve as a cook, so I am really interested in varied sources of feedback, and I certainly love talking about cookery and food, so the discussion is interesting as well as useful to me. And of course there's the validation factor-- I love getting compliments on what I serve! So basically having people over is a perfect combination of my favorite things, good food, good friends, and compliments. No wonder I love throwing parties!

Charlotte, arrived!

Elsinore is now in possession of a Charlotte! She arrived in the afternoon yesterday, and despite the rain we managed to get her things into the house safely. Spending time with her as she got her things in order was very nice; I am feeling really good about having her as a roommate. Jane, as it turns out, will not be getting in until midday today, and with any luck I will be home from work in time to help her out as well.

It turned out to be a good day for socialization, something I have not had overmuch of in the last several weeks. After all of Charlotte's things were brought into the rooms in which they will be stored, I spent a lovely evening hanging out with at various points Charlotte, Steph, Caitlin, Emily, Plesser, and Plesser's younger brother Ben (newly arrived as a student at Brandeis) as Charlotte arranged her bedroom. The Plessers arrived after I offered to feed them when they went to a dining hall and found it closed. I made them open-faced burger sandwiches, due to my abundance of the mail-order burgers sent to me by my dad, but at the time having only one bun. While having to pull a dinner out of thin air on a moment's notice is not a challenge I'd like to face every day, I am flattered that they thought of me as somebody who could be relied upon when they needed to be taken care of. It was a lovely evening of chill, low-key socializing, which I enjoyed very much. Goodness me, how I missed these people.

As a side note, I'm very tired of the rain. It has been raining for days. I dislike such weather; it makes me inclined to hole up in a warm dry place such as my bedroom and not emerge until the deluge has passed. The one advantage is that today was the first day I got to wear my smashing new leather trenchcoat that I got off of eBay. Between the coat, my knee-high boots, my shoulder bag, and my belt, I am simply armored in leather today, and I like it! Makes me feel dangerous.

The Great Move-en-ing, and Jared visit!

Several things to report on, but most importantly, Jared is going to be in town! He is coming to visit from Thursday to Monday, and I'm hoping people will be around so that he can see them at some point during that time. Plans are not totally settled yet, but after I pick him up from the airport on Thursday we will be grabbing dinner in Boston downtown, and then heading to BSCF where I'm hoping for a lovely evening of gaming with friends. Yay! So excited.

The Great Move-en-ing has commence, though less smoothly than I would have liked. Our landlord said we were going to have a cleaning person come in yesterday to do the place from top to bottom (for which a substantial chunk was taken out of our security deposits, grumble grumble) but then the person never showed up. I am incredibly irritated, as we all went out of our way to get the house straightened up for it, and because blendedchaitea* was out of town when it was supposed to happen, I even packed up her stuff for her so it would be cleared away in time. I was happy to help out, but I felt awkward just going through her things, and was really nervous that I would be inconveniencing her because she wouldn't know where I put everything. I called the landlord yesterday to ask what was up but didn't get a hold of him. Sigh. I'll have to try again today, as I was really hoping this would be done before aurora_knight* and nennivian* got here.

Yesterday I also went over to grad to help Plesser and Marissa move in. I finally got to see what the newly remodeled inside of grad looks like. It's actually quite nice, with all the walls and ceilings redone, and all new fixtures and appliances in the kitchen and bathroom. Grad is actually a decent place to live now, but of course, only now that Jared's moved out and I no longer spend half of my nights there. :-P There wasn't actually a ton of work to be done-- there were so many of us that the actual moving of stuff took like two trips --but I'm glad I made the effort. Plesser was in a rather nasty car accident lately, and though he's mostly all right, thank God, he still has blood in his eyes that make him look rather demonic, and isn't supposed to exert himself for the time being. He and Marissa have a two-person grad with a common room, which is quite nice, except that the common-room furniture that Brandeis had hitherto provided was not present. Since they moved in early, it may be that the school just won't deliver it until the last moment, but there is a possibility that they just don't provide it anymore. Which is pretty silly, in my opinion-- why wouldn't they just keep offering the stuff they've been offering in previous years? Oh, Brandeis, what a pain you can be, but I hope Jonathan and Marissa are comfortable there.

So I am preparing myself to make plans with Jared, and help Charlotte and Jane move in on Tuesday. And, if all goes according to plan, I will be seeing katiescarlett29* tonight! I have missed her so, and she's finally back in town. So I am certainly set for occupation and social interaction this week, not least of all with Jared!

Friends moving in, friends moving out

Another thing I did this past weekend was help blendedchaitea* dye her hair. She had this charming-looking bowl of mushy greeny-brown paste that apparently is how one prepares henna for use in dying, and after plonking her in the bathtub we proceeded to work this mess into all of her very long hair. Then, once she was thoroughly be-mudded, I am not joking when I say that we wrapped her head in plastic wrap before we swaddled it in a towel. I had no idea that was what dyeing with henna entailed. It was a messy process, and she had to be awkwardly bent over the entire time. But she amused me to no end by saying, "See, I knew you were the right person to ask about this, because you understand that beauty is pain!" That I do, my dear, that I do. :-) Her hair is now a lovely auburn, with some lighter redder streaks toward the front. I think it suits her.

Move in day at Brandeis is fast approaching a week from today, so soon Rachel will be leaving Elsinore to move into her new dorm, and nennivian* and aurora_knight* will be taking up residence with us. I am sorry to see Rachel go, as the current arrangement of people has been more pleasant for me that it's been in a long time, but I am confident that Charlotte and Jane will make things just as nice. It is odd for me to be so optimistic about a roommate situation, but I am actually looking forward to having them. :-) How's that for growth and progress, eh? I am planning on making myself as available as possible to help Rachel pack and move out and Charlotte and Jane move in, in hopes of making things a little smoother. Hopefully the leaving and entering will be staggered enough that people aren't running into each other.

Things I have done to pass the time until Jared gets here

Stained my new coffee table. Using some of the wood stain generously given to me by morethings5*, I picked the darkest color and went over the whole thing twice. It is imperfect, you can still tell the difference between the marked and unmarked parts of the surface, but it looks a hundred percent better and is now closer in color to the end tables. I am quite pleased with it.

Reading Stonesoup, an awesome, beautifully photographed blog on keeping a minimalist kitchen recommended to me by captainecchi*. My anti-stuff nature and desire to eat deliciously but healthfully is appealed to by the notion of keeping a small number of essential kitchen tools to prepare things with just a handful of tasty ingredients. She recently released a free e-cookbook that looks lovely, and I have especially enjoyed her interesting, thoughful entries on topics like how to season your cooking and the best things to have in minimalist kitchen.

Worked on my new cowboy-themed larp bid for Intercon, The Stand. I am currently working on fleshing out a backstory that will provide a mystery to solve and will hopefully be a plot that affects a large percentage of if not the entire game. One notion that occupies me strongly as a larp writer is that in-game mysteries must be solvable-- there must be evidence of some sort that is possible for players to put together to figure things out. The trick is making is that evidence neither too obvious nor too obscure, a surprisingly difficult thing.

I've also been doing a lot of staring at the clock, but that's less interesting than the other things. Just five and a half more hours to go.

Coffee table at last

After several months of enduring a big empty space in the middle of my living room, I finally found a coffee table on Craigslist. It was tough to nail down one I liked. The one we used to have was kind of unattractive, but it had the advantage of being very large, conducive to serving dinner on and playing board games. I couldn't find anything nearly so big in two or three months of searching, so I settled for something about three quarters the size. Its certainly nicer-looking, made of dark wood and also with a second level shelf underneath the tabletop. It could use some restaining, and I might try to get it to match the espresso color of the end tables also in the living room. It isn't perfect, but the living room is a lot more functional and complete-looking than it did without it. My dinner parties and unofficial BSCF should be better now.

Awesome Independence Day

Had a wonderful Fourth of July weekend. Went to a fantastic party with Bernie, lightgamer*, and morethings5*, who are some of my favorite people to do anything with, let alone going to fun parties. I had a blast at this same party last year, and so was really really looking forward to going to this year's. My excitement grew when shortly before the day, captainecchi* sent out an e-mail saying we could swim in the lake if we brought our swimsuits! I was so happy we did; that was the first time I'd been swimming in over a year, and it was a lot of fun. My poor bikini doesn't get to come out and play often enough! We swam and canoed and explored islands and I didn't get the whole story but I'm pretty sure Kindness beat a bear into submission with his bare fists. ;-) It was cool. Then we came back to the house where electric_d_monk* grilled up some fantastic burgers, hot dogs, and corn on the cob. I had made my "inaccessible rice," as some are wont to call it, with the golden raisins, pecans, mint, and scallions and brought it along. And because the beef in the burgers was locally grown, lightgamer* actually got to eat one! I was happy for him, since they were damn good burgers, and I am sorry when anyone can't enjoy deliciousness. Then there were board games, fantastic strawberry shortcake, and morethings5* sweetly offering to learn how to brush out my hair. The party was a blast, the food was excellent, the company was great, and it was also lovely getting to spend time with captainecchi* and electric_d_monk*. Thanks to our gracious hosts for having such a fun gathering!

Marissa moved into Elsinore on the Fourth as well. Unfortunately I was at the party when she got in, and due to feeling sick and gross with the heat the next day I did not so much welcome her as spend the day hiding from all human contact like a small wild animal. I shall have to rectify that soon. I may also have to take steps to rectify the intense heat situation in my bedroom. For some reason, no matter what the weather, my room is always the mostly extremely affected in the house, making it an icebox in winter and a blast furnace in summer. Climate control is expensive, but it's getting to the point of unbearableness.

All alone for now

Jared is back home in Chicago now. I drove him to the airport yesterday morning, then spent most of the rest of the day not doing much beyond a few random chores and hanging around feeling slightly mopey. I know we've spent three previous summers separated before, and I do honestly believe the downtime will be good for him, but it's always tough to spend the time apart. Ah, well, it'll be okay.

We now officially have blendedchaitea* as a roommate. She moved in successfully on Sunday and I believe is settling in well. The house went on a massive Target run after she arrived and we replaced a lot of necessary items in the communal spaces. Then we had a nice big dinner together, planned by Jared and I and prepared by everyone working together. I feel more comfortable and optimistic about my living situation than I have in a long time. I like and feel like I will get along with all the people I'm living with and will be living with, which may take a great deal of stress out of my daily life. Certainly could use that.

Today I begin my exercise plan. All this week Jared and I made an effort to walk places rather than drive, which was giving us around two miles a day. Not a bad start, but I'm going to need something more intense if I want to get in shape and get rid of this little gut I'm getting. So in addition to making an effort to walk more, I want to add a daily routine that goes at least a half an hour a day. Let's see if I can muster the discipline.

Goals and tasks for the summer

Some thoughts on things I am planning on pursuing over the summertime this year.

Budgeting will need to be focused on. Though actually, one goal I actually have more or less met over the last year is keeping my finances in order. The old budget has been and will continue to be pretty tight, but I'm making it work, covering my bills and actually managing to put a little away. I'm now even closer to my in-case-of-emergency savings goal! Since our new lease is starting next month, I have been carefully getting ready for the expense of handing over first month-last month payment. I am extremely annoyed, however, by the fact that my landlord will not allow me to just roll over my security deposit from last year. Instead, he wants to give it back to me and have me pay a new one. Okay, this wouldn't be so bad if he could get it together to return it to me before the new one is due. If I remember correctly from last year, we got the old one back eventually, but not in a prompt manner, because frankly this guy doesn't really do anything in a prompt manner. I am budgeted and prepared to hand over first month-last month, but digging up an ADDITIONAL security deposit is going to pose a serious hardship. I just don't want to cause any trouble, so as unhappy as it makes me, I'm just going to go with it. I know I will get the old one back, but still, I dislike the notion of having twice what I owe in security handed over for any period of time.

I got into the play I auditioned for! I will be playing Longaville, one of the prince's men who swears off love for scholarship but finds he can't keep to it, in the Gazebo Players production of Love's Labor's Lost. Tonight is the first read through and I'm excited, though I have to miss a Labor Wars meeting to attend. :-( I will in the future carefully manage my schedule so this does not happen again. I think it will be good for me to have a show to keep me busy and creative this summer.

I must get back into the habit of working out. I'm barely working out at all these days, and the squishiness is starting to show it. My belly is turning to mush and my thighs are becoming monstrous. It's easier for me to keep to a workout schedule over the summer with my increased free time and my decreased responsibilities, so perhaps I can actually make a good habit of it. I will have to overcome the challenge of my sleeping badly makes it hard to get up to work out in the mornings, and yet I've never had much success making myself work out at any other time.

I would like to restart my Burn Notice campaign. We haven't played in a very long time, but I would enjoy getting back into it, if not on a regular basis, then at least somewhat frequently. Hell, we even still have a storyline to finish. I honestly have difficulty coming up with more and more story so quickly, but I liked running the game and had a great time spending it with the players. I'll have to go about figuring that out.

I must find a doctor. I recently got new health insurance, so I've got to find someone who accepts it, but honestly I haven't had a primary care provider since going away to college. I don't often need one, and when I was in school I just used the health center. But I've been convined to get checked out about how badly I've been sleeping lately, and my feet seem to be hurting an awful lot. To be honest I don't expect a doctor to be able to do much about any of the things that have been troubling me, since I think most of it's due to stress, but Jared and my mother are convined I'm falling apart, so I guess it can't hurt on the off-chance there's something concrete medical care can do.

So there's a starting point to begin my summer with. Let's see how it goes.