BrockLi Soup

It’s Wednesday night, and I finally have enough energy to talk about the weekend. Erin and I moved in together, which has been great, and my company moved to a new office. As far as I’m concerned, I did three moves this weekend: me, Erin, and my company. For those of you I haven’t spoken to lately, Erin and I managed to get a one-bedroom in my building. It’s in a great location, pretty cheap, and in good condition, so we were hoping to stay here. The place we got was at a reduced price, since not a lot of people are moving this time of year, and it had just been re-done with new carpet and appliances. Really, it worked out pretty well.

So, the quick and dirty:

Spent the week packing up our office. Erin and I signed our lease and got keys Thursday night.

Friday, we moved to the new office, and then I went home and moved most of my crap up to the new place while Erin packed up her stuff.

Saturday, I woke up early and went in to the new office to unpack with the rest of the company. Went straight to U-Haul after that to get a truck, then went to Erin’s to load up (which only took half an hour, with Schmitty and Aubri helping).

Sunday morning, Erin and I unloaded all her stuff in less than hour (I was pretty proud of us). We spent part of the day unpacking, had ourselves a nap, then had my company holiday dinner, which was awesome.

Monday was the first day at the office. Finished most of the unpacking there and at home.

Erin and I are pretty much settled. We’re getting real furniture sometime in January, which kind of sucks because we’ve just got patio furniture in front of the TV right now. Without actual furniture and everything moved in, I just feel kind of unsettled.

We’re pretty much moved into the new office too. It’s a lot bigger than the old place, which keeps surprising me because there was so little space to move around in the old office. I keep being surprised that I don’t have to goose step my way around road cases, boxes, and desks that were strewn about.

Also, I’m STILL looking for someone to move into my old place and replace me on the lease. We’ve been meeting people for like three weeks. My old roommate offered the room to about a half dozen people. Three of them accepted, only to back out on us. It’s getting pretty frustrating. If you know anyone looking for a place in DC, you be sure to let me know, because I don’t want to pay an extra $900 at the beginning of January.

Friends in DC: I’m moving. Again.

Our lease here at Brockstone Manor will be up at the end of May, and Jym and Mel (understandably) want a place of their own, and I can’t afford the place on my own, so we’re all heading out. My new place is up near Mt. Vernon Square - I found a guy on Craigslist that was looking for a roomate.

The problem is the moving bit, particularly the way the scheduling worked out. I’m going to be packing up a truck here on Sunday the 27th - I’ve got the freight elevator 5-8pm. I’ve got the elevator at the new place until noon on Monday - which is, unfortunately, Memorial Day. This all worked out a lot better last time, when I did it all in one day before the holiday, but things got a little screwy this time around.

So, I’m imploring you, dear friends, for a little help. I’m planning on selling off some crap, I’m getting rid of some furniture, and I’ll be taking smaller stuff over on Saturday, but I’m looking for a few people to help load up Sunday evening and a few to help unload Monday morning. I know that moving the morning of a holiday Monday totally sucks, but please please please consider giving me a hand for a couple hours. Folks that pitch in will be compensated somehow - I’m not how, yet, since the usual beer-and-pizza deal doesn’t make much sense at noon on a Monday. A Memorial Day BBQ/Moving Extravaganza would be great, but the new place doesn’t have any grills. But, we DO have the old place until later in the week, so maybe we could move stuff to the new place, have a quick shower, then go back to the old place to BBQ and make friends with everyone else who’s doing a Memorial Day BBQ (of course, there won’t be any furniture or dishes left in the apartment, but we’ll be down on the patio anyway).

Anyone who’d be willing to help out, please drop me a note, and let me know how you feel about the beer ‘n pizza vs. afternoon BBQ issue. Thanks!

Now that we’ve been in the new place for almost a week, I’m finally settled in enough to post about it.

The long and short is that it’s totally bitchin.

This place is orders of magnitude above my last place. The living room and bedrooms are huge, the balcony is great, and the location really couldn’t be better. There are still a few lingering boxes of crap lying around, but aside from that, we’ve got all our stuff put away, and we almost need to buy a bigger entertainment center for our combined collection of electronics.

It’s been a busy week, but people have been here visiting a lot and a bunch of us went and played paintball all day yesterday. This week should quiet down, and we’ll start falling into our groove. FN met us at the paintball place yesterday to pick up my car (with, as it turned out, Fotios’ wallet in it), so I’m car-less again.

This is going to be good. We’ve already got plans for a poker game and some house guests. The couch isn’t on the balcony anymore, but we’re talking about replacing it. It will be a good summer.

I had a feeling things wouldn’t go smoothly at the airport today. They had me stand in this little glass hallway, with no shoes or belt, right in the middle of the security area, until some guy could take me aside and check me over with the wand. To most people, this would probably be embarrassing, but I thought it was hilarious. Turns out, the rivets in my shorts were setting the thing off, so I think I’ll be wearing something else for the flight back.

It’s been a stressful week. Jeff, the guy sort of above me, was on vacation for most of the week. A project for one of our big clients is nearing completion, so I spent the week fielding all the bugs and changes he would usually deal with. I was also trying to get all my laundry done (it’s been accumulating on me for months) and pack all my stuff before leaving for home this afternoon, since we’re moving Tuesday and I didn’t want to do everything at the last minute again. I need to figure out how to get to U-Haul Tuesday afternoon, when Jym and I can go over and sign the lease, when we’re doing the move-out inspection at my current place, and how I’m going to get back after I drop off the truck Wednesday morning. And, somewhere in the middle, actually move all our stuff into the new place.

So yes, I’ve been a little on edge lately. Things keep popping up - oh crap, I forgot to cancel the cable…and the power - which makes this little balancing act more interesting. Hopefully, I’ll make everything happen at the right times, and it will all go smoothly, and I can sit on my balcony drinking a victory beer Wednesday evening.

Or, as customary, perhaps everything will go wrong in a most spectacular fashion. Someday we’ll look back on this and lauuuugh. For now, I’m going to enjoy a few days at home and in Rochester and try not to think about any of it.

Jym and I started packing some stuff tonight, after stealing boxes from the Barnes & Noble cardboard dumpster.

I’ve been in Virginia for just a week shy of six months. It certainly doesn’t seem like it’s been that long, but at the same time, it feels like a lifetime since I left RIT. DC has been good to me - it’s nice living in a real city - even if I haven’t met as many new people as I’d hoped to. Thankfully, I had quite a few friends down here already, which made the move down a lot easier.

As I’ve mentioned in passing, I’ll be moving really soon. Jym, Fotios and I will be taking up residence in the Crystal Plaza in Crystal City. It’s less than 5 miles from my current place, but it’s a totally different neighborhood. The place I’m at now isn’t too bad, but it’s certainly not good. We’ll be on the 9th floor of a much nicer building with some really nice facilities - pool, balcony (overlooking said pool), billiards room, two laundry rooms, two fitness rooms, and a little coffee shop, among other things. It’s also connected to the Crystal City Underground, which is basically an 8-block long underground strip mall, with all sorts of restaurants, shops, and even a couple doctors and dentists. Within 3 blocks, there are a few more coffee shops, the Metro stop, at least one bar, a liquor store, and much to Jym’s delight, there’s a McDonald’s practically under our building.

We’ll be moving next week Tuesday, right after I spend the weekend visiting family and friends in Buffalo and Rochester for Commencement/Memorial Day (and no, I won’t be walking). I started packing up some books and stuff today, because I want to have most of my crap ready to go before I leave Friday. I’ll be back here Monday around noon, then I’m taking a half day Tuesday so I can move in the afternoon.

It’s going to be a hectic couple of weeks, and I’m already looking forward to being done with it. As it is, the living room is full of Jym’s crap, since he moved in last Sunday, and the entire kitchen and bathroom cabinets are in boxes - I had to empty everything out when pest control visited our building early this month, and never bothered putting it back.

I hate feeling like my world is in disarray, with my stuff in boxes and crap in every corner, but it’s much better than the last time I moved; at least I know where I’m going, when, and more or less how I’m going to do it (UHaul, duh). I just look forward to being through with it. When all is said and done, my stuff will be in a much nicer place for at least the next year, and my car will be in the capable hands of FN (who needs it much more than I will, sinec I’ll be so close to the metro and a mere 8 blocks from work).

Oh, and our place has grills near the pool, and people will be visiting throughout the summer, and I’m going to make it to a couple bluegrass festivals. This summer is sure to rival last year’s.

I was cleaning up my apartment the other day, and finally got around to putting my new books in the bookshelf. Right now, my bookshelf is organized in a careful manner, where books belong exactly where ever they fit. “I should put these in order,” I said to myself (I say a lot of things, aloud, to myself when I’m home alone).

It’s a good thing I didn’t bother. This morning, as I was walking around my apartment, I said to myself (again, probably louder than I should have), “I should start boxing those up so I don’t have to pack everything all at once like last time” (oh, by the way, I’m moving again in a couple weeks).

I always seem to find time to organize right before I throw everything in random boxes.

I’m in DC and the President (I call him Gee-Dub) is doing well.

I start the new job tomorrow morning, and I can get into my apartment after work. My car is loaded down with about half of my worldy possessions. I’ve still got a bunch of stuff in my parents house, and they’re giving me a bunch of old furniture they’ve had in the attic. I may fly home for Christmas and drive a U-Haul back down, or my parents will rent a truck and come visit for a weekend.

The drive down was an incredible pain. I met Wes at RIT and we drove down as far as Virginia together. The last 30 miles took about an hour and a half, because of traffic. I finally made it to the leasing office at the apartment complex about two minutes after they closed, but they were still there. Unfortunately, the guy didn’t have a chance to change the locks, so they didn’t have a key for me. After dealing with traffic and coming up empty at the apartment, I was pretty pissed by the time I got to Matt’s. A quick shower helped a lot, and now I’m just relaxing. I’m a little worried about getting the keys, though, since I work till 5 and they close at 5:30.

I’ll feel much better about this move once I’m settled in my apartment, and maybe get some furniture. And if I never have to leave home, because I don’t want to try to get out of or back into the DC area ever again.