Just got out a psuedo contentious meeting of the membership of the cult co-op. We were amending the bylaws, and we just left the meeting room at 11:30, after starting at 8.
This is why I stopped doing city government stuff; I couldn’t take the long meetings late into the night.
It will probably totally kill my chances of being awake enough to run in the morning tomorrow, but we’ll see how that goes. Grrr.
I was out running this morning, about 20 minutes or so in, was rounding one of the three corners around Hains Point, running on the grass, when I passed under some of the many cherry trees there. It was misting lightly, and some last few hardy blossoms were coming down in the rain, falling nicely across the path. Very pretty, very zen, very cool. And then one of the petals found its way into my mouth.
Nothing like spitting out cherry blossom to ruin a mood.
The good run (an hour, no calf pain!) was had despite sleeping in late, having been out late last night tricking. Tried water sports successfully for the first time (had an abortive attempt once before) and I have to say it did absolutely nothing for me. One set of initials checked off the list and in the ‘nah, don’t need to do that any more’ column. Along with that I also fisted the guy, and again I don’t think it does much for me. Is interesting in an itellectual sense (anatomy, displacement, etc.), and a sensual sense (control, texture, etc.), but it’s just not a very sexual act to me, in the sense of turning me on, because it just doesn’t. I won’t rule it out if a partner’s really into it, but I just need to realize that it’s silly to seek it out because it’s just ‘blah’ on the continuum of turn-ons for me.
Other than that I shopped, a lot (Homo Depot, Target, Pearson’s liquors), got a lot of things for the house, and generally got my money’s worth out of the rental car I had for the weekend. Have a fresh case of wine, replenished the liquor cabinet, got the aforementioned kitchen sink aerator, and got rid of 99% of the stuff that was left at the old place. Still have to haul off the old Kirby vacuum cleaner, and get my flour and stuff, but the big stuff that was being donated is now gone, which I’m sure Richard is glad of.
I just performed my first home repair: I changed out the aerator on the kitchen sink. The previous owner had some sort of water filtration system hooked up at some point, which was long since defunct. The aerator and attachment were still there, however, so I wanted to change it out for something a tad less decrepit looking. So, off to Homo Depot this weekend to get that and a few other things for the house.
Well, just found my plyers this evening, so I ripped off the old aerator and I was appalled at the amount of crud built up inside the old one. No wonder I was getting crap for water pressure in the kitchen, nothing could get out amongst all the gunk that was built up in the aerator! Yuck, yuck, yuck. Had to go run off and grab my old toothbrush (that I use for scrubbing small spaces) and clean the thing off thoroughly to get all the crud off the thing before I could put the new one on. Thankfully it all came off quickly, and the new aerator screwed on pretty easily.
Not bad for a first repair, but yuck on all the crud that was discovered.
Nothing quite like having your hair stylist ask if you want to have her trim your eyebrows. This after a morning spent plucking the odd long hairs out of my ears. Ah, the joys of aging.
In happier news, I biked a couple loops around Hains Point this morning on the tri bike, nice 40 minute ride (seriously, seriously have to get more water bottles and soon). After getting ready I decided it was time to try biking into work. Commute time, door to door: 10 minutes. 7:40 of that was actually riding (1.3 miles), the rest was getting down in the elevator, locking up the bike and getting up to my office.
It’s hard not to gloat about a 10 minute commute. Oh, who am I kidding, I’m gloating. Full-on, doing the happy Snoopy dance gloating. Gloating with my shaggy eyebrows.
Having food at home is a good thing. Cooked yesterday (just some frozen pasta & sauce) for the first time, and made a good salad this evening. Starting to feel like home, finally, with some food in the fridge & cabinet (and my belly).
Work’s been odd this week, with absolutely no one in the office on Monday when I got in, which is really, really bizarre as I’m usually the very last person to get there in the morning. Easter Monday, go fig. And otherwise it’s just been a strange mix of busy and not-busy. And of course the last place I want to be is at work, preferring to be at home getting things together. Whee.
Calf is still okay, so I’m hopeful it’ll be okay when I run tomorrow or Friday (haven’t decided if I want to run or bike tomorrow). Swam this evening, pretty good swim, and not too busy in the pool, which was a pleasant change from the mornings. I still want to check out the two closer pools, but if an evening swim would be less crowded, that might be a better option (since I do like the YWCA facility overall).
Took my first run in the new place this morning, my first run in about two weeks. I was a tad nervous – the reason I’d not been running was because of chronic calf strain so had taken the time off to let it heal up. I had originally planned to bike this morning, but it’s a tad cool out, I didn’t feel like bundling up for a bike ride, and with the on-and-off rain we’re getting here it was easier to just throw on running clothes and get going.
Ran down to the waterfront, along the marina, up to L’Enfant Promenade and across the Case Bridge (aka the 12th Street Bridge). Made it to the other side of the bridge and was over East Potomac Park, but turned around there (at 15 minutes in) and didn’t enter the park itself. The run was nice, my calf is feeling okay thus far, and I stretched it thoroughly after I got back. I’m keeping my fingers crossed, since I am supposed to do this little 1/2 ironman race in less than two months, and not being able to run would be a slight impediment to that goal.
This is my first day back at work after the move, so I get to see what the commute to work is like. I’m walking, even in the rain, so it’ll be interesting to see how long it takes, especially after I just ran most of the route I’ll take to work. I sense somehow that I’ll manage to bike up there more often than not, just because I’m too impatient to deal with the walking pace. But not this morning; this morning I walk.
I finally broke down and went to get some whole bean coffee from the local grocery store down here just now. Cola and/or napping in the middle of the afternoon wasn’t cutting it, and I wanted the ritual of being up and getting some coffee on the weekends.
Managed to get a good chunk of my clothes out of boxes and into either the closet or the chest of drawers last night, after I put the couch together and got the mattress out of the bedroom (where it was blocking the closet). It was really nice to get the couch together so I had somewhere to sprawl out upon, other than the bed. Also consolidated the boxes of books to one location (all dozen of them) so I had some floor space in which to put the couch. I need to dump empty boxes soon to clear up more space. As boxes have emptied and space has become available it’s been easier to get a feel for the flow of the apartment, even while it’s still in flux.
I am officially annoyed with Presta valves. I can’t seem to get my front tire on the tri bike inflated to save my life, which killed taking a ride this morning, until such time as the bike shop opens and I can figure out where I’m going wrong on the inflation thing. User error, but not sure where the error lies.
I’ve yet to use it on aught but the bathroom floor, but I picked up one of those “swiffer” things to get all the dust and tree sperm off the floor. While wandering around barefoot on Friday I noticed that my feet quickly turned black from all the residual dust. I wish I’d had a chance to clean the place now (hindsight, 20/20, all that) before I moved in, or at least have run a damp mop over the floors to get the dust up. Ah well, working at it bit by bit now.
But having the stuff mostly together in the bedroom has been wonderful. To have one space where I can stop, not be looking at five gazillion boxes in various states of repair and fullness, and just relax, has been invaluable for my mental health. The gorgeous weather we’ve had, which has allowed me to have the doors wide open, has also helped. I say doors because the way this apartment works, the “windows” in the living room are floor to ceiling glass which open onto the screened-in balcony, one of which slides behind the other to open up the room. The windows in the bedroom don’t open at all, but there is a door to the balcony which opens up into the bedroom to allow air in. Has been fun running from the bedroom to the living room via the balcony. I’m sure that’ll stop once it heats up outside, but it’s nice now, and lends to the feeling of openness of the apartment.
Packages seem to be a hit and miss thing. Got my blender and my TV just fine, but haven’t been able to get the toaster out of hock yet. It’s here according to Amazon, but they’ve not given me a package notice on it yet, and the guard couldn’t find it because “there are a lot of packages back there” in the office. Oy. I’m sure it’ll turn up Monday when the regular office folks are back in. Good thing it wasn’t something important like coffee making equipment.
I’ll get some pictures up once I dig out the camera and clear some more floor space.
Yay for neighbors with unprotected wifi networks. I didn’t expect to be back online until tomorrow afternoon after the cable folks showed up.
And yay, yay, triple yay for hiring movers this time around. It came in, with tip, to just under what I’d budgeted for it, and it was worth every freakin’ penny. I did get shooed out of the way when I was trying too hard to be helpful, and I’ve never been called “sir” so much in one morning (outside of a B&D scene), but as I said, every freakin’ penny.
And so far, since they’ve been gone, the only thing I’ve done is find the wifi network and set up my desk. Because honestly, right now I just don’t feel like doing much more than sitting in my chair and enjoying the afternoon sun.
Looking at the boxes spread out all over the living room, I’ve very glad I culled stuff over the past week, and the past year. I can’t imagine having to go through all that stuff again to find homes for it. As it is I still have to go pick it up and dispose of it this weekend, but I don’t have to find a place for it in my life, or my home, and I’m grateful for that.
Tax forms printed and in the mail, 95% of everything I own packed away, all that remains is to head to bed, get up tomorrow and get ready, greet the movers, pack the remaining 5%, and get over to the new place.
You know, packing is fucking depressing.
I think the height (depth?) of that was removing the magnets and comics from the refrigerator. Going through all of these memories, quickly, and having to quickly sort them into ‘want,’ ‘don’t want’ and ‘deal with later at a more leisurely pace’ is really draining. Thankfully most things sort easily into the first two categories with only a few items (old letters, mainly) falling into the third. I used to write multi-page letters to people via snail mail and I have a lot of that correspondence from the early 90s still, and I’m reluctant to part with it as yet. But it does bring back a lot of looking back, both good and bad, on that period in my life. Harder yet has been having Richard shred years upon years worth of financial records, many of which sat in envelopes, unopened, in storage. And I had deluded myself into thinking I don’t suffer from depression. Ha! Those unopened envelopes put the truth to that lie pretty quickly.
Part of the financial mess I got myself into back in the late 90s, after grad school and both while I was living with The Ex and after, was that I just didn’t want to face that I was in so much debt. It took years to get out of that, and finally smacking myself and organizing my finances in such a way that I had a system I could follow (and follow to this day) to pay all my bills on time and not accumulate more debt than I could handle. I’m proud of having gotten out of that, but not so much about having gotten into it in the first place. Thankfully I picked a profession and a career path that’s allowed me to make meaningful progress on my debts and do things like buy this apartment.
Took today off to do more packing. I’m going to need more boxes, but I’m not sure how many at this point. I think I may be at the point where I’m just going to have the movers pack what else is ready. Shouldn’t be a problem, especially seeing as how the bulk of my stuff is packed. I’ll continue to sort my stuff so they only need pack the things I’m taking with me, and I’m glad we packed so much this weekend, but I think I’m tapped out for this mess now.