31 July 2008: 6:00 PM
UHaulin’ Ass
Wow.
What a day.
And it’s still early.
Andy and I got up at 630 today to drive to Russell to pick up our truck. Russell. Yes. And the truck was 26’ instead of 17’, which is what we ordered four months ago when we made our reservation. But it actually turned out to our advantage because we have a lot of stuff.
And we drove through a crap load of fog to get there, only to discover that the UHaul guy wasn’t there.
Fortunately, it being Russell, he lived across the street and so was there only 15 minutes late. It seems that his brother had asked for the day off and his father was supposed to open, but he forgot.
It didn’t really matter that he was late, because our truck, all 26 feet of it, wasn’t there. The guy who had rented it for two days previous to us had received a call from the guy who was refurbishing his car telling him that they no longer fixed up cars and would he come and get it? So he rented the truck to take his car, piece by piece, to some place in Russell. Which turned out not to be waterproof. So he sat and thought about it a bit. And that was why he was 24 hours late.
In the end, we waited from 730 to 1100 for the guy to show up and we were finally on our way shortly after that. One bonus of our three hours spent in Russell was that, aside from enjoying the pretty scenery, we ran into Laura, one of the groomers from work, who lives there. So that was nice.
And then we put stuff, Tetris-fashion, in our 26’ truck with its bouncy Easy-Ride suspension. What a beast. I’m not going to enjoy it.
And all of that took only 4 hours.
So it’s a very disjointed post because it was a disjointed day. I apologize for the nonsense. Stay tuned for more updates. I plan to update daily but I won’t have internet so you’ll have to be patient.
NEVER TRY TO PLAN A WEDDING, MOVE ACROSS THE COUNTRY, PUT TWO PEOPLE BACK IN UNIVERSITY, and FIND A NEW HIGH-PAYING JOB ALL AT THE SAME TIME.
I really don't recommend it. It's a might stressful. Especially when most of the people who are supposed to help you with the first item live all over the continent. Especially when you've never lived in that part of the country before. Especially when the school you are trying to register with is not letting you add classes to your schedule. Especially when you have no idea what the job market is and you are now about to support both those university students.
GAH.
Moving in T-minus four days.
I *may* have nearly broken Andy's nose yesterday. Andy, my brother Chris, Andy's brother Shannon, and Angus went to Mont Cascade and there was an incident on the Mammoth Mountain raft with my head and his nose. The result: a huge blue egg right on the bridge. Luckily nothing is broken.
After that we headed to a pool party at the house of the girlfriend of one of Andy's friends, which turned out to be the super nice new home across the street from Andy's parents, one that everyone had been itching to see inside for the past year. It was super nice.
Then I left early to hang out with Lisa one last time as she packed her bags for Oregon, and headed home to collapse.
it's amazing how much chaos I, in my OCD state, have learned to live with.
there is no longer a place for more than two people to sit down at any given time.
every wall in my house is dotted with spackle. it looks like the apartment has chicken pox and overdosed on the calamine.
there are no longer surfaces upon which to set random items. they have been relegated to a basket. thus, I can no longer find things I need.
other random items dot our other available surfaces, namely dismantled shelving and our box mountain, which grows steadily every day. yesterday I created a box specifically for the transportation of a fully functional katana. and my wrapping paper.
and there's still so much more to do - I just don't know where to start.
errand-wise we're pretty much good, save for a few more things here and there to tie up.
wedding-wise we're also good. we still need some measurements from people for kilts, we need to book chairs, we need to send out invitations and book our honeymoon suite, and a few other things I can't remember at the moment.
we even bought our wedding bands today, which was an interesting experience. it's hard to pick out something that you will wear (and like) every day for the rest of your life. Andy's ring we had to special order, but the one I picked fit perfectly, so the ring I tried on today is THE ONE I will be wearing next August. it's weird to think that the next time I have it on my finger, Andy will be putting it there.
marriage is such a strange and unreal process. you are only supposed to do it once so you of course have no idea how it's done. you end up putting all your hopes and dreams (and money) in the hands of other people, and they are supposed to know more than you and are responsible for making sure everything goes according to plan. it's an odd feeling for me to relinquish control over something so important.
hm.
What a way to find out bad news.
If you read those last comments there, you'll know that my favourite professor, Karen Emilie Richter, passed away on Thursday from a long fight with cancer. It was something that we had all expected - I just didn't expect it so soon.
I have rarely felt so inspired from a single person. Charles Laughlin and Brian Given mentored her, and then all three, in turn, helped me figure out what I wanted to do. Karen and didn't agree on everything - in fact, we spent most of our time arguing - but it was all philosophical. We did agree on what was important - namely, that Firefly was the best television show never to make it big and that chilling out with a good beer on a hot day was the smartest thing to do.
Karen was one of the most underrated minds I have ever met, and it is a damned shame that others didn't have an opportunity to shine in her light. I will miss her.