Let the Fun Begin! (Aug 12th)

Hi!

Well. I woke up Monday morning knowing this week was going to be pretty bloody busy. And it was.

So yeah, the first part of this week was packing, cleaning, sorting….. though I realised that you can only pack and clean so much ahead of time before you’re constantly making trips to dig through boxes. That got old pretty quick. Took the Thursday and Friday off to move and stuff. Moving day was nuts, as they usually are. Tho I rented a car for the occasion (I don’t have nearly enough stuff to warrant renting a real "truck"), so just rented a Mitsubishi Outlander. Big. Nice to have a car for a change. Shame it was only for the day to move. Anyways, Natasha’s friend Veronica was kind enough to help me hoof boxes down 4 sets of stairs (and across town and into the 'new' place). She had the week off before starting her new job and thought one nice way to spend one of her days off was to help me move. Hmmm. But she was a big help. Not messin’ around at all! No farting around or rest breaks (I don’t have much, but up and down 4 flights of stairs can take it outta you). All in all we did most of it in 2 trips by about noon. Pretty good. And then she had to go meet a friend of hers for lunch. Short and sweet! Then I tidied up the old place, packed up the fridge stuff and had the manager do his exit inspection (or whatever the heck it’s called). He didn’t even look through the place, just glanced around and declared "Ahhhh, it looks fine!" Cool. So all I had to pay was $77 to get the carpets cleaned (standard here) and I got all of my massive deposit back! Hooray! Money! But boy oh boy, so sad to leave that place. Was I spoiled there or what. Broke as all get out, but pretty happy. Oh well. Onwards!

And then came to the new place and, well, yeah. The less said about it the better. I keep telling myself 6 months is all, pay off the bills, save some money, yeah. So yeah, by Thursday night I was beat. But this was really nice – Cindy and Natasha came around and we went out to dinner at this really good Italian place up and around the corner from me. Goooooood food!!!!!!!!! Hooray to live so close to really good Italian food! And then we came back here and they helped me set up my bed (airbed) and a couple chairs that I saved from the old place (as he was going to throw them out) and I thought, well, better than no chairs! So we quickly set all that up, Natasha had to hit the road and Cindy and I stayed up drinking champagne and talking until late.

Then first thing Friday morning I picked Cindy up, we dropped the rental car off, and wandered over to the Ekka (country fair). Oh my god. We had The Best Day!!!!!!!!! It was sooooooo much fun! No crowds! It was most excellent! Not too hot, lovely and sunny, little breeze – it was perfect! We did all the stuff you do at fairs, rode the Ferris wheel, they have those bucket chairs from one end of the place to the other, ate all the junk food we could stand, looked at more cows than I could think possible, goats, chickens, llamas, all kinds of stuff. It was excellent. Then at the end of the day we did what all the other farmers did and went and had a beer in the ‘Stockman’s Bar’. Well. I never saw so many cowboy hats in one place and yet not hear country music. There were actually all kinds of folks there but the majority was all the livestock show people from out of town. It was cool. Lots of cowboys. And for being around cows all day, they sure all scrubbed up really nice – nicer than city boys I decided! All of them had nice, ironed shirts, tucked into nice khaki pants (Wrangler, of course) with belts and jackets. And everyone was really friendly. Then we wandered over to the main arena for the official opening of the fair. Well, that dragged on and on and on and on, and we’d been there all day as it was, so we ended up giving up. The fireworks show was still a good 45 minutes away and we were so tired. So we called it a night. But man oh man, we had the best day. It was so fun!

And then, Saturday morning, it was all go at my new little place! First Zoey and her husband Michael turned up with Kona (they kittysat while I moved and got settled), a tv, tv stand and a set of dishes. Then Jade and her husband came with a highboy and a dresser. Then Julian and Linus turned up with all kinds of stuff Julian had living in his garage that he thought I could use, including an old-ish desk with a 3-shelf bookcase attached (probably my favorite piece of furniture I now own!), 3 comfy-ish old chairs (2 which I made into a sort of 2-seater couch), some more dishes (Mexican themed, hmmmm), a fan, a real set of knives, all kinds of stuff. Man, I was pretty touched. No one wanted any money or beer or anything. They were just being nice and getting rid of their stuff. I was pretty overwhelmed. It’s made moving into this little dumpy place that much easier to bear. And everyone, whether they were being nice or not, said the place is fine and I could do lots with it. Ehhh, 6 months, I ain’t gonna do much! But their opinions have made it feel, well, not as embarrassing to have people come around. Jade said it’s kinda like a beach pad – little old, basic, but bright and comfy (minus the groovy beach a block away). So yeah, I can live here for a little bit. The most important thing is to save some dough, pay off these damn bills (scooter & credit card) once and for all and go on trips. I can do this!

So! Whew! Was a busy busy busy week! Am beat! But here I am. I’d say come for a visit but there’s no room for anyone to sleep! Hahaha!!!! So hope you’re all well up there!

BYE!
J!