Well ... Gay marriage lost in New York, but this is still worth a watch ... and maybe a second or third watching, too ...
Packing for the big move is virtually done. The apartment is empty but for two lamps, our airbed, a tiny 12-inch tv, our two suitcases with clothes and stuff that we'll need short term, and a very few last random things.
Decided that I don't have it in me to make it to work tomorrow as we'll have to be COMPLETELY out by midnight tomorrow. We'll have to shut off our cable, our phone, our broadband, and finish some last minute cleaning. We've been in the apartment for a decade so there really is no way that we're getting our security deposit back, but I still feel like we need to run the vacuum and clean up just a bit before we leave for good. Thankfully, our building managers have said that we can keep our mailbox keys until we are able to switch our mail delivery to another address (hopefully the house that we're still waiting to buy).
On top of the last minute things to do when closing up the apartment, I seem to have come down with a bad cold. Thankfully, though, S/O is back so I have company dealing with the packing and closing.
Whatever happens, this chapter of our lives is going to close tomorrow. We hope that the next chapter will open in our new house very shortly, but at this point whatever happens is going to happen. Interestingly, I've come to the realization that one way or another we're going to be fine in the end.
The past two weeks have actually been rather liberating for me as I've come to realize that, ultimately, I don't need a lot of stuff to live my life quite fully. That alone, I think, will make this process worthwhile no matter what happens in the end.
It is 6:11 a.m. and I'm back from my trip to Target.
Yes people, I was a black Friday door buster!!!
I set my alarm for 4:50 and I got to the local Target just as the door was opening at 5:00. The line was crazy long, but everyone was calm, orderly, and friendly. Virtually everybody entering headed straight to the back of the store where the electronics section is located. By the time I got to electronics, all of the 32" LCD TVs on sale for $246 were gone. Target, apparently, had all of the TVs set up in shopping carts lined up along the aisles of the stores and people just came in and grabbed one of the carts. As I went to Target specifically only to pick up that specific TV I was a bit disappointed, but decided that since I was up and about I might as well take a look around. A few minutes into my wandering, I came across a single 32" sale TV sitting on the floor at the end of one of the aisles. Apparently, someone got swept up in the excitement and rush of the opening, then decided that they didn't want the TV after all. S-C-O-R-E!!!
I picked up some extra Coldeze and I was out of Target by 5:40. I took a bunch of pictures of the crowd and of my TV in the back of the Jeep, but alas, I seem to have packed my USB to mini-USB cord and I can't download the pics (I'm too cheap to have a data plan for my phone so I can't even email the pic to myself ...).
But then, I got a 32" LCD TV for $246 plus a $10 Target gift card ... S-C-O-R-E!!!
I'm a glass half empty kind of guy, but I sure do have a lot to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving. Cliched as it may be, sometimes doing cliched things is good.
I'm thankful for Significant Other who knows that I'm high maintenance and loves me anyway.
I'm thankful that I think that I can honestly say that in the last few years my brother and my sister have become my firends as well as my siblings.
I'm thankful for my mom who truly is a woman ahead of her time and who has shown me how life can be lived with grace.
I'm thankful that the job that I love is a stable one.
I'm thankful that I work for, probably, the best boss ever.
I'm thankful that I've recently figured out that at this point in my life, if I were to lose all of my "stuff" while I think that I'd be incredibly sad, I'd be okay in the end.
I'm thankful that I have friends like Mrs. B who I can call for a dose of honesty when I need it (or a kick in the butt when I need that too).
There's a lot more, but needless to say I'm a very fortunate guy ...
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!
Thanksgiving addendum:
I'm thankful for broadband access.
I'm thankful for the invention of the DVR.
I'm thankful for the invention of 12-hour decongestant.
I'm thankful for the development of Coldeze (which I'm convinced will kill off a cold more often than not).
Five days and counting. We have five days left to stay in our apartment. As of 12:01am on December 1, 2009, I no longer will rent the apartment that has been my home for the past nine years. The thing is that S/O and I do not yet own the house that we've been in the process of purchasing since September. My stuff is just about all packed up, but there are a lot of things that you don't think about when you have a permanent address. Don't get me wrong at all, I'm not saying that I understand and relate to the thousands of Americans who are homeless ... Not at all ... I realize that my "stress" is all relative and self-imposed, but little things make me anxious. Where, for example, should I have people send my mail? How will I get my credit card statements and bank statements and mortgage statements? I don't know how people do it. I suspect that I'll find out soon. Apparently our mortgage guy has just signed off to "receive" our documents any time ... Documents that we were supposed to have and sign in the first week of October ... Then the first week of November ... Then last Tuesday, mid-day for sure ... I'm truly fortunate in that a friend has an extra room and has said that S/O and I can stay with him for as long as we need so I'm not "homeless" in any real meaningful sense, but shortly I will likely be without a permanent address for the very first time in my entire life.
It's a scary feeling ...
Significant Other is off in Paris with students so I'm on my own for the week. I have very strong tendencies to be a loner and enjoy time by myself, but given all of the upheaval of moving and our house issues and all the rest I have been a bit down about being on my own this week. I spent this weekend keeping myself busy, I think, in order to avoid the task of packing up the last things in the apartment--the kitchen and the two bathrooms.
Here's my weekend in a nutshell:
- I set out to find a reasonably priced clothes hamper to buy as I refuse to pay $49.99 for a clothes hamper from Target. I spotted one at Ross Dress for Less that fit the bill, but I hesitated and wandered off only to have the hamper get picked up by another
gay(I guess we should never assume) guy wearing low cut jeans and a t-shirt that was two sizes too small and asking another guy wearing low cut jeans and a t-shirt that was two sizes too small if he liked it. Apparently the second guy liked it because they carried it off to the register and bought it. The moral is that when discount shopping, he who hesitates loses out ... - I spent the rest of the weekend scouring literally every single Ross Dress for Less in the La La Land area for a second clothes hamper like the one that I lost out on. I hit the stores at La Cienega, Ladera Heights, Inglewood, Westwood, Pico, and the one on Venice.
- Found a duplicate hamper at the Venice Blvd. store!
- Went for breakfast by myself at the King's Bakery and Coffee Shop in Torrance.
- Went to go visit my things at the house that I don't own and came across two guys having a fight in the street. The guy who threw first punched like a girl so starting the fight probably wasn't the best idea he's ever had.
- Had Panda Express for lunch at the newly remodeled Fox Hills Mall.
- Bought a "throw" from Marshalls that I'll use to cover up the love seat that is dirty and gross looking.
- Found a cheaper "throw" from T.J. Maxx that I can use to cover up the love seat that is dirty and gross looking.
- Like a total doofus, tried to return the first "throw" to the T.J. Maxx only to have the clerk look at me like I was doofus so I took my two "throws" and left the store like an idiot.
- Returned to Marshalls to return the "throw" that was theirs.
- Went to IKEA.
- Went to Costco.
- Spotted Ms. Scooterkitty, Melle, K, and their friend that I didn't meet doing the Walk Across LA in Culver City on the way home.
- Returned to turn on my one lamp, lie down on the airbed on the floor, and turn on the 12-inch TV and DVR (thank goodness for my TV and DVR).
As much as I like being by myself, it got really lonely this weekend. It's weird, I have a lot of really great people in my world, but I'm kind of an antisocial person so I don't do enough to make them into friends. It makes me realize how much I depend on Significant Other. It's nice, but maybe not too "healthy."
I think I need to fix some things about the way I relate to people. Being antisocial is not really a good thing ...
I will never be able to be featured on an episode of any real estate show on HGTV. If you know me at all, you probably already know that I'm an HGTV junkie--particularly real estate shows. My DVR is set to record episodes of My First Place, Property Virgins, House Hunters, House Hunters International, Real Estate Intervention ... You get the picture. Anyway, people on shows where they shop for homes and move into their new places are always giddy and ecstatic about their wonderful futures and lives in their wonderful new homes. Well, S/O and I are in the throes of moving (into a house that we don't yet own ... It's a long story ...) and I am, indeed, very excited and very happy about our new home. Being the neuroic person that I am, however, means that I can't JUST be happy and excited about the future without mourning the end of something that will soon be my past.
I moved to La La Land nine years ago into the wonderful apartment we're on the verge leaving. In that time I met, and and came to love almost as a second mom, the African-American lady who was our building manager and friend. She looked after me, checked up on me when S/O was out of town and was just one of those people that you meet in life who let you know that they world is ultimately a good place. Theo passed away suddenly, a few years ago, but the building that she managed continues to glow with her spirit and her love. Leaving that behind is hard.
Over the course of nine years, our building went from being kind of a rough diamond in the rough to just being a diamond. Grumpy, angry tenants eventually moved and got replaced by happy young families with babies, toddlers, and little kids. The little ones went from riding in strollers and screaming "ALOHA!!! ALOHA!!! ALOHA!!!" when we returned from our summer trips to Hawaii to being honor students in some cases and all around nice young adults across the board.
Most of all, though, I'll miss this apartment for being the place where S/O and I nutured what started out as a truly wonderful relationship and which has only gotten better and better over the years. In a lot of ways, this apartment, this home, is the place where I finally "grew up."
As I sit here writing this and the movers are wrapping up all of my furniture and moving it into a big truck out on the street, I can't help but mourn the loss that leaving this home will bring. The opportunity to own a house is truly a gift in these difficult economic times, and someday, I know that this "new", it was built in 1925, house will be "home." Unlike the young beautiful couples on HGTV who shed tears of pure joy over their new places and new spaces, however, my tears of joy will be mixed with tears of sadness and gratitude as I leave this most wonderful place that has truly been ...
Home.
Spent all day at our first debate tournament of the year. I hate having to work on Saturdays, but the kids had such a good time and learn so danged much from the experience that it actually makes it worth the time. We took seven teams (three students to a team) to the tournament where they debated the topics:
- California should not require an exit exam for graduation from public high school.
- The U.S. should end corn subsidies.
- College athletes should be paid.
- The U.S. should offer a health insurance public option to all citizens.
Keep in mind that our debaters are in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. They have about a month to research and prepare to debate both the proposition and opposition sides of all four resolutions. At the tournaments, the kids find out which teams they'll be debating against and whether they will be debating the proposition or opposition sides. Twenty minutes before the debate begins the league presidents announce the topic and the teams have twenty minutes to write out their notes after which they debate the topic.
They are amazing across the board!!!
Watching a bunch of 6th through 8th graders thoughtfully construct arguments and respectfully debate each other with gusto, then go outside and play on the field together does a lot to give one hope for the future ...
We've reached the time in the school year when I get really exhausted. We're really busy all day, then I have after school coaching that I have to stay for, sometimes, until 5:30 or 6:00. I got up on the grumpy side of the bed today and I feel like I'm gonna rip somebody's head off (of course, not literally, but I'm sure you know what I mean ...). I'm tired of asking kiddos that I'm coaching to turn in permission slips so they can ACTUALLY PARTICIPATE in Saturday's event. I'm tired of working practices around kids' myriad other commitments. Hey, I know we all want it all, but at some point we need to teach you to prioritize your commitments so next time around, it's gonna be "fish or cut bait, kids ..." I'm tired of telling the same kids for the 100th time not to play games on the 'puters in the liberry. I'm tired of telling the same kids that if they're going to "study" as loudly as they are (largely having a friggin' party like it's a friggin' pub) that they should move to a table outside on the terrace.
Previous to tonight I haven't been a very good furniture shopper. Two spring breaks ago I was charged with buying sofas for S/O's and my condo in Honolulu. I ended up paying $1200 for sofas that were worth only about $250-$300. Needless to say, the experience made me feel less than great about myself. It was a big painful lesson learned. Recently, I've been looking for two pine armoires to hold my clothes and I turned to Craig's List. I found a pretty nice pine armoire for $150 that was a really good buy. Tonight, however, S/O and I picked up a second armoire that is of MUCH better quality. It's solid (and heavy) as hell and we got it for ... $40!!! The owner just wanted to get rid of it. Apparently a good number of people had come to see it, but because it was so danged heavy there were no actual takers for it. Well ... It now has a new home!!!
Yay for Craig's List and used furniture!!!
