Friday, July 2, 2010
9:30am – Sleep in because I can. Eventually get up. Pour the cat food and the coffee. Try not to consume the wrong one.
10:00am – Call the water, gas and electric companies to get utilities set up in my name.
11:15am – Drive to grocery store next to post office to scope out PO Boxes. Enter the Food Lion and go to the customer service counter to get my MVP card so I can get deals and they can overanalyze my oatmeal purchasing habits.
11:25am – Buy another bottle of wasp killer, just in case. You can never have too much wasp killer. DIE WASPS, DIE!!
11:45am – Return home. Home! This is my home now! How cool!
12:40pm – Leave for Big Bro’s house. On the drive over, I realize I will have to reset all my radio presets. Such a pain.
1:00pm – Arrive at Big Bro’s house and sign up for cable internet installation using his secure internet. They can’t come out until next Saturday. SATURDAY!! Eight days from now!! How dare they take a long weekend off to celebrate this nation’s independence! That’s sooo un-American.
2:30pm – Baby Bro and I get in Saturn so we can pick up the Budget truck and return it. I am fussy worrying about getting there before the 4:30pm closing time, reminiscent of my mother’s tendency to worry about similar things.
“So, how does it feel to be turning into Mom?” Baby Bro asks.
“I dunno. How does it feel to be turning into Dad?” I reply. I may be exhausted, but I’m still witty!
3:00pm – Arrive at apartment. Try to enter address of rental return place into GPS. Cannot figure out how to enter “HIGHWAY 15 501 S” into GPS. Try everything. In act of total desperation, I do the unthinkable. I call to ASK FOR DIRECTIONS. Crazy! How 1990’s of me.
3:30pm – Drop off truck at the world’s most stupidly designed gas station/Budget rental return. Almost collide with another Budget truck and a silver Honda Civic in less than 5 minutes.
4:00pm – Eat late lunch/early dinner at Jimmy Johns. Thank Baby Bro effusively for all his slave labor this week. This $6.00 sandwich is on me!
5:00pm – Return to Big Bro’s house. Hang out.
6:00pm – Big Bro returns from work and makes brief appearance before changing into black track suit and leaving for fencing lessons. Yes, fencing lessons.
6:30pm – Awesome sister-in-law grills chicken sausages, stuffed hamburgers, and tilapia for us.
8:00pm – Leave for my apartment. My apartment! How cool!
8:30pm – Come back home. No kitties in site. Must still be hiding behind boxes, terrified by change.
8:31pm – BEEP!
8:32pm – BEEP!
8:33pm – BEEP!
8:34pm – Consider breaking window of downstairs apartment and ripping smoke detector out of the wall. Call maintenance and leave a message instead.
8:40pm – Think about taking a shower, but I don’t know where my towel is. Douglas Adams would be so disappointed in me.
8:41pm – Put on headphones and watch videos on my laptop.
11:50pm – Go to bed, happy that everything went smoothly and we managed to overcome all unexpected obstacles with a cell phone call or lethal pesticides. There will be boxes to unpack and I still need to buy a bed, couch and a desk, but I am here. My life is NOW!
11:55pm – Sleep. Sweet, sweet, sleep.
That stinks about the smoke alarm – have you let the rental company know yet? They might not even know that it’s beeping!
So glad you and the cats arrived safe and sound. Let the unpacking begin… =^..^=
Might I recommend 98.7 Simon radio station for your new preset buttons? They play ALL KINDS of music. It’s really fun to listen too. :-)
Congrats on getting settled in and killing those wasps. They are mean suckers.
Yum, Jimmy Johns.
Progress my friend. Every day you are making progress. And hey, you don’t have to search for a job! Just need to get that desk and you are back to work! Eventually. When you’re settled.
Does the complex have a pool or a fitness center? I forget if you told us this……….
Have a fruitful day.
Welcome to NC, PQ! I’d be glad to show you around our state’s lovely capital city and surrounding areas should you care to venture out. Your moving diaries have made me cackle quite loudly. I hope the kitties are adjusting.
I love love LOVE the Douglas Adams reference. I read the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy several weeks ago. Wittiest book ever. Good luck and I hope the kitties are all right :)
well done PQ (and brotherly supporting figures)! It all sounds super well organised and efficiently executed.
Still a ton of work to be done but it’s nice and satisfying work isn’t it! So if you don’t mind me asking, are you living by yourself or do you have a roomie? I don’t think you’ve mentioned it. Not that it really matters.
Do you know what your new Chapel Hill apartment needs? A Chapel Hill kitteh!
My friends took in a stray, who turned out to be knocked up … and is now mommy to 6 very cute kittens.
http://adoptkittens.wordpress.com/
Oh, and if your brother is willing to do a weeks worth of slave labor for the price of a Jimmy Johns… send him out to Seattle!
My very limited experience with that area was 2 visits while I was dating someone who lived in Apex. The only thing I really remember is about the area is that Lucky 32 had tasty grub :)
Congratulations on a Successful Moving Experience.
I’m hoping and wishing good things for you.
Good news — it’s Thursday tomorrow – only two days ’til cable internet installation!! Woo-hoo!
I used to live in Raleigh and I miss it so so so sososososo much! You are going to have a blast! 105.1 is a good “pop” radio station- plays a bit of everything. 88.1 is NC State’s college radio station and it is AWESOME. Check out http://www.wknc.org for their lineup, as they play different genres during different times. Some better than others. Please eat at Lilly’s Pizza in Raleigh. The Tofu Salad with Ginger Soy Vinaigrette is ah-freaking-mazing. The pizza is the best I’ve ever had. I have yet to find an acceptable substitute in Wilmington, NC- my new home. :(
Doesn’t it feel weird to be a ‘foreigner’ in the place where you are living? Maybe it’s just me who had that feeling. I moved so little when I was a young’un. (Practically sessile, as a child. Sad story.)
I’m glad you’re done with the hauling. If you feel so inclined, pictures of the new place would be fun and ease you from the burden of writing blog posts while trying to find which box holds the toaster. :)
So you’re near both of your brothers? Tell you mom to stop crying and move there! I missed the beginning of this adventure — did you move for a job or just a change of scenery?
Don’t forget to go to http://www.foodlion.com and sign up for their weekly newsletter that is full of coupons…..and go to Harris Teeter and get their plastic card too as they double coupons up to 99 cents every week…..
Food Lion? I go there if I only want one or two things or if I’m in a hurry. Otherwise Harris Teeter, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and Weaver Street Market are so much more pleasant. The HT at University Mall even has a Starbucks. If you need to do a big shop for basics then your best bet is the SuperWalmart up 86 in Hillsborough. They have a lot of gourmet items that you wouldn’t expect them to carry.
I think you’re so awesome to get up and move so far on your own. I bet it’s great to be by your brothers though. Or is it just the one that lives there. I hope you enjoy your new place and that someone either moves in downstairs or you figure out how to break in to kill the smoke detector :)