then she appeared

Had a weekend, got stuff done. Have unpacked almost everything. Have a big box of hard drives that won't get unpacked for a long time, a box that has jewelry boxes in it along with a few other random things, and a bag of current paperwork left. Everything else is organized and put away. The closet will need more work (still has mom-shoes in the bottom, and have shoved some storagey stuff up top), and I will need to deal with the last few boxes somehow. Maybe I'll get some different under-bed storage and use that. Anyway, it's otherwise done. So yay! Did about five loads of laundry yesterday, put everything away. Weeded some of mom's clothes (somewhat on the sly) and brought two big bags to donate. Even weeded out more of mine. I have so few left, now, it's kinda sad. Oh, also have a couple pictures left to hang. Did most of them, but have to move the bureau to hang these and was tired.

Now, that just means my ROOM is done. Whole rest of the house to go! I also cleaned out the back hall, and put some very old freezer food out for the trash today. Next up will be the pantry, I think. Tomorrow will be mom-laundry day while I work from home. And maybe I will get something done about her cable box. The thing is plaguing me. It doesn't get On Demand, which was the reason I got it for her. It says "Error 7, Call Customer Service" or something. I did, already, and they "sent a signal", but that seems to be as worthless as it sounds. While I have time and patience tomorrow I'll try calling again. Why do cable companies suck so hard? Christ.

Visited the old apartment today now that Patrick has moved in. Looks so different! Just the office is untouched, everything else is totally different looking. I wasn't sad there this time, which is a relief. Gracie seems to be relaxing a little. Poor little thing. A few months ago she has to leave everything she's ever known for a strange place with a stranger, and now she has to adapt again to moving! But she seems ok. Patrick is a good cat-daddy.

SO bored at work lately. I can barely sit still in my chair. My goal was to get moved and settled in before I start looking for work. I guess that's done. I might take another few weeks to relax (plus I have to go see my aunt, and do more tech support there, plus I have a ton of things to do around here), but soon I shall do a full-court press on the job search front.

Down what looks like another pound and a half. Not sure, saw it today, we'll see what tomorrow brings. So that would take me to 65 total lost since July? Something like that. Ate a bit over my calories today, had delicious beef stew (made by mom) for dinner, couldn't resist a second serving. Then had a snack later! But hey! Once in a while is ok. This isn't a race. I've been doing well with the slow-but-steady loss thing, and I can manage like this (hopefully for a long time). Except on those days when I want to buy a two pound bag of peanut M&Ms and just eat the entire thing. Which is most days, honestly. Resist! Keep in mind the compliments. Another today (wore better clothes): coworker Pete said "you're really getting smaller! That's awesome!" and hey, I can just listen to that shit all DAY. So fuck you, M&Ms.

Read a few things so far:
1. The Fifth Witness, Michael Connelly (good)
2. Deception, Jonathan Kellerman (library kindle) (better than the last one but still meh)
3. Eleven, Patricia Reilly Giff (library kindle) (very good)
4. The Silent Girl, Tess Gerritsen (audio) (pretty good, reader was good, too)
5. Dead Sleep, Greg Iles (audio) (Greg Iles is pretty consistently excellent. Even writes women well, which seems to be a challenge for a lot of men. Reader was great in this one, too. Very southern, many voices sounded the same, but she managed to do things with dialogue that many readers don't — she really made it sound like people were actually talking. Some people talk faster, some people talk slower, some people slur words or swallow consonants or whatever. Very good.)

Ugh. Why do I have days off? I spent today crossing town lines trying to cross a bunch of things off of my TO DO list: I needed to get a specific power solution for the kitchen, I needed to return my cable boxes and other equipment to RCN, I needed a new cable box from Comcast, I needed to go food shopping, I needed to get Mom's soda at Walgreen's (good sale), etc. I had about a 50% success rate, but then everything went to shit, I disappointed Patrick in a huge way, and I feel like a huge failure.

Comcast started out easy. Exchanged an old box for a new, was frustrated that they'd told me the wrong amount for DVRs on the phone (call #1 & call #2 — I wanted a supervisor and they hung up on me!), but decided one DVR and one new box was fine. Went from there in Malden to Arlington, which is the closest RCN place. Took two seconds, all done. Yay! Headed off to Cambridge to buy a new wifi router because I am having nothing but stress with my current one, and I've had it for something like 9 years anyway, probably time for an upgrade (or at least a refresh). From there I headed to Staples in Somerville to try to get a new battery for Mom's cordless phone. Yeah, right. Ok, fail #1. I will move on. Got lunch in Medford at Subway. It's then off to Melrose AND Wakefield to Walgreen's for her soda. Nope! Not in stock. Got a rain check, but fail #2. Then Home Depot for power solutions. I got something that MIGHT work. Ok, fine. Getting late now, gotta skip grocery shopping for now. And anyway, I've been in enough towns for today.

Head home, plug in cable boxes. Mom likes to watch the evening news, and by now it's 3-ish so I want to get everything done so I can go to Patrick's to help paint by 4:30 or so when he gets home. Now the huge fail begins. Go to activate cable boxes on phone (#3, automated system): the DVR starts up fine, but the regular box won't display channels. Call to Comcast #4: lengthy wait, lots of attempts of things, do this and this, then the rep says turn it off, wait 45 minutes, should be fine. 45 minutes? Christ. It doesn't even sound right, but what can I do? It's now 4. Go put other stuff away, pull some laundry together. Look at phone, P texted, said he'd be home at five. Slight reprieve! Excellent. But the internet is now not working? Call Comcast again (#5). Fix internet. It's now 4:40, turn on Mom's TV, nothing. Still dead. I am CERTAIN it's an equipment issue, but I call again anyway (#6). Send another signal, do this and that, say "well, we can send someone out". No thanks. Mom needs tv tonight. How late is local office open? 6pm. SIGH. Call Patrick, tell him stuff. He sounds resigned to me sucking, says ok, never mind coming over, be done with everything before I could get there anyway.

Get to Comcast (back to Malden) by 5:25, wait in line until 5:45, get new box. While there, clerk tells me my modem is "wicked old" and should really be swapped out. "Will there be activation issues, etc.?" I ask. She said, "Nope, just unplug the old one, plug in the new one, follow the screen." HAHAHAHAHAH! I get home around 6:10, set up Mom's cable box (which works instantly after I activate (#8), so yeah, I was right), then go in to set up the new cable modem. (#9) At 7:30, after the Comcast rep actually said "it's never taken me this long before to get something activated" we finally got everything working. Basically four and a half hours of nothing but Comcast. Two visits in person, 9 (NINE) phone calls (I might have forgotten one, too). Delightful. Can't say I'm a contented customer.

Finally sit down to eat (after going out to fetch dinner) around 8, P gets online and tells me all the stuff he did painting and moving things, and of course it was all without me, despite me promising to go over and help. He's upset, rightfully so, and I really suck, sometimes. I need to work on my priorities. I get tunnel vision when it comes to Mom-things, and I really need to work on balancing things better. I apologized a lot, of course, but I feel like a jerk.

Tomorrow I will go over after work and try to make up for sucking.

Augh! Here it is, about 12 hours before I stop living at my apartment and start living with my mother again, 12 hours before we haul my heavy big stuff out in frigid coldness, and I've come down with full-blown con crud. Why did I decide that the weekend I'm planning on moving would be a good time to go to a con? I have no idea. I am not too bright, sometimes!

So about half my facebook friends and LJ friends all seem to be sick this week, and now I join the ranks. Oh joy!

I decided back in November that I'd go to Arisia this year, mostly because Suzanne was going and I haven't been to an actual con in probably a decade. I went to WisCon five years ago?ish and had a membership and a hotel room, etc., but I never actually attended the con. I went mostly for the car trip and to hang around in Madison. Weird, right? Anyway, I had reserved a hotel room for this whole weekend, I'd gotten the membership, and then at the last minute I cancelled the hotel and decided I'd just go for Friday and Saturday nights. Work was busy so I couldn't really leave early like I'd wanted to, so I hopped on the T after and headed over. Didn't do a ton of stuff. Hit the dealers room, wandered the hallways, went to Suzanne's reading, had dinner, went to a couple parties. Saw my ex-coworker and we caught up, which was nice. Got some nice compliments from some people I hadn't seen in a long time. Was very pleasant. Caught an Uber back to my car at work, drove home, was pretty sore from the constant standing and walking (plus moving!) so took a handful of advil and tried to sleep. I think I fell asleep at 3:30am. Around 8am P responded to a text I'd sent him at 11pm and unfortunately I have an alert sound for texts so I woke up, and never managed to get back to sleep. Knew the second I woke up that I'd already managed to get sick. Lovely! Sore throat, very dry. I drank a ton of water at the con and when I got home, but clearly I was already doomed.

Spent today packing things and loading the car and Patrick loading the attic. We had some lunch together and then I headed over to Mom's to get the car unloaded and the final prep for tomorrow done. Did a bunch of chores, too (dishes, vacuuming, etc.), and relocated a few things around the house. Lots of stairs.

Got home, sore, tired, blah. Suzanne texted to see if I was coming back today as I had said I might. REALLY didn't feel like it, but didn't want to let Suzanne down and also have been trying to say yes to more things this year, so I decided I'd see how I felt after my shower. I did feel a bit better (more advil helped, too) so I got dressed and just as I was thinking of leaving Brian came home. I whined a bit about how cold out it was and how annoying getting to the Westin Waterfront is by public transportation, and how expensive my Uber ride was, and he suggested just driving in. I'd rejected that idea because hotel parking was full, and would remain full for the weekend, but he'd been there fairly recently and mentioned all the meters along Summer Street. Hadn't thought of meters! Yay! Problem solved. Drove in, took about 20 minutes to get there, there was a shiny spot less than a 1/4 mile from the hotel, and just as I was starting to walk it I saw a shuttle bus parked with the driver smoking a cigarette outside. The shuttle had a little white sign that said "Arisia" on it, so being me I asked the guy why. It's the dinner shuttle to Fanueil Hall, and he's going right over to the Westin now. Did I want a ride?

Did I? Duh. It was already about 20 degrees out, with temps plummeting. So sure! Nice. Door to door! Met up with Suzanne, took the same shuttle to Fanueil Hall food court for some dinner, then back to the hotel for some wandering. Caught some of the masquerade on TV, wandered through a few parties, sat in the lobby watching peeps go by, the usual stuff. We'd decided we wanted to see Space Battleship Yamato (in Japanese with subtitles) at 10:30, so we hit that and that ate up the rest of the night. I bundled up, put up my hood, hiked to the car, and drove straight home. Trip again took maybe 20 minutes? Boston on the weekend is so nice to drive.

BUT I am sick. Ugh! Brian's got a van for tomorrow, and when he and his crew are done with his stuff I get the van so P and I can move my stuff to mom's. I suppose I could just tell Brian I don't need the van and I will move stuff another day, but it's all set up to go, there's no point. I can muscle through a few days with a cold. But WAAAAHHHH! I just want to dope up on some NyQuil and sleep for a week. Stupid germy cons. I wasn't licking the tables or swapping spit with anyone. I just walked around! Feh.

Tired! So very tired. And of course instead of sleeping I am posting. Not too bright, am I?

Got a lot accomplished today. Friday was a lot of nothing at work. We got new laptops this week, so everyone was a little unsettled, trying to restore customized toolbars and cookies and software. Was really slow, however, so we all had loads of time to do that. Revenge and Chinese food with P for Friday night. Saturday more nothing at work. Saturday night dinner at P's place with Jeff and Mary Ellen. Fun!

But today, today was all about work. P had asked last weekend if I could be done with the living room by the end of this weekend so maybe he could start painting. So ok. I had a lot of books left, but books are dead easy to pack. Woke up pretty early (Brian was off with his lady, so the cats woke me up with the sun) and had breakfast and stalled and procrastinated, but finally started. Did a bunch of stuff, then P came over and carried it all into the attic. He really gets the hard part of anything when I move. Almost ran out of boxes! I had brought 80 home from my seekrit source, but I have three (3) left as of right now.

But yeah, living room is done. J&ME were going to take one of my bookcases, but decided they didn't have enough room. Put it out on the street with a free sign and off it went. Two other bookcases are going to a coworker, so that's good. Will throw out the coffee table when I'm finally gone from here. Other bookcases are tucked away in the attic and moved to mom's. That leaves the sofa and loveseat, and Brian was supposed to take the sofa but says it won't fit in his new apartment, so now I'm stuck finding it a home. Augh! The loveseat is going to live in P's office.

Saving the kitchen for last. Bathroom will take five minutes to pack. Add in five more for the linen closet (already packed and stored all the linens). That leaves the bedroom and the office, and almost all of that is going with me to Mom's. So finally, some progress. Thanks, P!

Going to try to get more stuff dragged over to Mom's, tomorrow. P took me to get a rug tonight, so I can get that down and move the last few things out of the new room to make way for my stuff.

Then it's the MRI. Oh joy! Such a fun day I have to look forward to. Yippeee!

A new year! Let's all agree to make it a fine and dandy one, ok? Because I am done with bad and dumb and pointless wastes of precious time, see?

I ended my old year by bringing my CD shelves over to Mom's and unpacking all my CDs into the shelves. Also did a few other minor-but-necessary cleaning and packing things. Then came back home, ran a quick load of laundry, then leaped into my car and sped out to western Mass, to spend the Eve with Suzanne and her brood of kids, cats, and one big fluffy dog. The drive was a bit harrowing toward the end, as it was hugely foggy and the roads aren't really well-lit. But I lived and once I got there we had a good time; chatted, got some takeout, had some snacks, watched the ball drop. A decent evening!

Woke up fairly late, so had to speed back home to meet up with Steve and Val; they were coming over to help me pack. I got home around noon, called them, and Steve had to work so they had to bag out. No worries, though. P and I ended up having lunch, dropping off some stuff from him to Goodwill, and then moving a ton of stuff into the attic. (The moving part was all him. I did the packing part.)(I am still very sore. Man, I am pathetic!) We're now 2/3 of the way through the books. 25 boxes of books in the attic, I'm thinking 10-15 more? I hope that's all, anyway. Heavy!

P and I decided to have dinner at my fave Thai place and tried to last minute invite a couple of friends, but one of them was sick so we ended up going alone. Mmm, tasty Thai food!

I haven't figured out my resolutions, yet. From the looks of my journal here, I didn't make any specific ones last year, but I did make some decade hopes back in January of 2010. Not making a lot of progress there other than bought a new car, although I guess I made a little progress if you count weight loss as a life goal. I've been actively trying to do more fun things, too. So maybe I am sneaking up on a more active life. Gotta figure out a way to keep my mind in the game, I think.

My brain is just so sad, these days. I don't mean emotionally, I just mean that my brain used to be formidable and now is fuzzy and ordinary. I sit here and think "OK! Writing an entry, what have I done?" and seriously everything is just blank blank blank. I should probably start journalling daily again, so I can at least be able to piece together my life later when I'm in the nursing home with my Alzheimer's.

Let's see how I can do: Saw "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" on the 23rd with Patrick. We bumped into each other in the front yard as I was heading out to get some lunch, so we decided to hit the movie right then. We both really liked it. I'd read the books, he hadn't, and I'd seen the Swedish version of the movie, too, but I didn't think it detracted from watching this version. I do wish that Stieg Larsson had had a decent editor while he was writing these. SO MUCH PLOT. Nazis and murders and crazy families and torture and religion and child molesters and rape and hacking and ...

Christmas Eve I went shopping a little; wanted to see if I could find something else for Mom. I was surprised how empty the stores and roads were. Mom called around 2 and asked me to come over and help her wrap her presents that she was giving to the landlords upstairs (they have two little kids and she loves to buy toys), so when I got there we wrapped and watched the end of the Patriots game and speculated that maybe that was why everything was empty. I mean, Christmas Eve is normally hugely busy. So maybe everyone knew the Pats would be playing and shopped accordingly? Anyway, was odd. Later that night I went with P to his Mom's place. She made dinner and we hung around for a few hours chatting. When I got home I watched some redbox selection and read a book, I think.

Mom has been very weird about Christmas Day since Dad died. I guess because our traditions had to change she's decided she doesn't want any at all. So when I called to ask what time she wanted me to come over, she initially suggested 4 or 5. P had said he'd be by sometime after 5, so that was frankly too late for me. I suggested lunchtime, so we compromised on 1:30pm. I picked up Chinese on the way, and we ate in the living room with the Celtics game on, while we opened presents. I was only there about 2 hours before she kicked me out because she was tired, so I headed home again and watched more movies. Conan, I think. I never did watch the end. So not worth it! P came over later and we did our gift exchange, then picked him up some dinner and watched a couple of episodes of Revenge. We're almost caught up.

The next day was lunch at Jenn's place in Manchester, NH. NH always seems like another planet when we go. It's so oddly "country" for somewhere within an hour of downtown Boston. Anyway, we got to hang out with her kitty Harlow, who is a gorgeous ginormous tuxedo Maine Coon — humongous paws, sweet disposition, very mellow — and watch "Elf" which I had never seen. Had a good lunch, then headed home. The rest of the night was more movies and not much else.

Today was a wash, mostly. I was going to get some stuff done at Mom's place, but when I called she suggested that I get stuff done here, instead, since I had a tooth filling scheduled for smack in the middle of the day anyway. So of course I got nothing done. I went by work so I could water my plants and use the printer for some labels for my stuff-to-live-in-storage. I got my filling done — my dentist is pretty awesome, so it was completely painless and just a little awkward to have my mouth propped open for that long. Bought a few groceries. Rented a few more movies. Watched "True Grit" and "Another Earth", enjoyed both but in completely different ways. Watched "Another Earth" with Patrick, since he thought it looked interesting, too.

Brian looked at a bunch of apartments the last two days, and has found one he likes. He's waiting to hear if they have chosen him, but here's hoping. He'd be moving on the 15th if he gets that one, so that's good. Give P a little time to paint, anyway. Be good to have everyone settled.

So tomorrow my gal pal Val is coming over to help me pack. I am totally freaked out about it! Because now it's real, right? And now I'll have to say goodbye to my stuff again for another undetermined amount of time. And now I have to do tons of work. Ugh. And I have to pick her up at 9am, so I probably should clean my bathroom and go to bed, already, as it's 12:30. Why did I say 9am? Why did I agree to this at all! I want to stay in denial for at least another week! AUGH!

So lately I've been prepping for moving out of my Mom's place; I move out August 1. I decided that this was going to be a purge move, where I could hopefully get rid of a lot of stuff. I have too much, and it's been bothering me.

( cut for lengthy blathering )

Well! Today was Move from Old Wet Storage Unit to New Dry One Day. p_j_cleary showed up around 11:45am and we headed over to pick up sarcasticah and her husband. The storage place opened at 12, and we got there pretty much right as they opened. I think sarcasticah and her husband were horrified at how much stuff we were going to have to move (p_j_cleary knew exactly what he was getting into, having helped me move INTO unit previously, and having visited with me several times since), but everyone gamely grabbed carts and started digging into the piles.

I went off to get the new unit unlocked so we could start moving into it. Along the way to the unit with the manager I asked a question — "So, does this new area ever get any water, because this is the second time I've been warned about water in the old area!" "No, this is our best area! The owner's personal unit is right next to yours!" Ok...so he unlocks it, throws up the door, and ... there's water on the floor! Ack! The skylight above the unit is slowly drip-drip-dripping into the owner's personal unit (HA!). Naturally, I demand another unit. While freaking out a lot.

( The rest of the tale of woe, misery, and eventual redemption within, with pictures! )