Eseme's Den

Moving is like an abyss, but without cookies. Hence the icon.

Moving sucks. The current game plan:

I work today. I may get a few more boxes packed. This is my last day of work.

Monday I pack. I madly pack. All must be packed.

Tuesday Dad acquires a U-Haul trailer. And we load it up with the stuff here in Maine. This includes some furniture which I either bough from the L.L. Bean employee store, or was handed down from my parents or grandparents.

Wednesday Dad and I drive to Small Town, New York. I'm not saying where that is in a public post- do not tell the internet where you are. We unload the trailer as fast as we can and try and drive to Syracuse by 8:00 or 9:00 PM to sleep.

Thursday we drive from Syracuse to Buffalo and all my stuff in storage. We work very hard to get it all packed up, so that I don't have to pay for another day of storage (this would be the 31st of January). Then we drive to Rochester to get stuff from the Panther's closet. He will now have a closet again. Then we go to a hotel and sleep.

Friday- well, we might end up getting stuff from the Panther on this day, depending on how loading the U-Haul went the day before. We then drive back to Small Town. We unload as much as we can. I would love to return the trailer to U-Haul on this day, so we pay for one less day of use. That may or may not work out.

Saturday we either keep unloading the trailer, or start arraigning my apartment. By this point it will be a sea of boxes and unassembled futons. Dad will have to leave sometime around 1:00 PM as he has an early-morning appointment in Massachusetts on Sunday. This is when I would have liked Time Warner to show up and turn on my cable and internet, but they don't do house calls on weekends (so I've decided to give them less money in return for less service).

Sunday I will try and listen to the Superbowl on the radio while I unpack. My parents are Patriots fans, living in Maine and all. My mom is a bigger fan than I knew- Dad bought her a Patriots sweatshirt and she wears it while she watches games. I find that a little alarming... Anyway, this really matters to her, so I want to know what's going on. I'd rather not go to a sports bar or something deep in Giants country and root for the Patriots. Sounds hazardous to my life. Besides, this way I can unpack at the same time!

I start work Monday.

People reading this in Rochester or Buffalo might think: "Hey, she'll be in town. We could have dinner with her or something." That's a great thought. But I'll be insanely busy, and will likely be moving stuff until after dinnertime, then sleeping and getting up at hours my father considers morning and I really don't. Plus all this fun will be happening at the worst possible time of the month for me to be doing heavy lifting. So I'll be frazzled, snippy, and possibly screaming at times. Plus, we might not even have time, given the schedule we will be working on. Sorry!

I hope to make it to Rochester for SimCon, but I may not have any vacation time then, so I can't be sure at this point. I do know I will have a small housewarming party later in February, consisting of me and lissa_dora. Hey, I said small! This will be kind of odd for me.

I don't get visitors. When I lived at RIT, I had people other than me in my apartment about twice in the year I lived there. When I lived in my first off-campus apartment I had visitors more often, but tended to weird them out by being a hostess. I'd try and have nice food and stuff to do- for them it wasn't an occasion but it was for me since no one ever came in my place and saw my stuff. But I had people other than me in my apartment maybe ten times out of that year.

Visitors were common at Frank and Suzzanne's place, but they were generally in the public areas of the house, not my little room. I dated a viking who turned out to be smarmy- he saw my room but almost no one else did. I had no visitors while I lived in Buffalo at all, with the exception of one weekend when the Panther came and by then the apartment was such a mess that he was kind of alarmed. "Can't move, stuff might eat me." Well yes, but when you live in a place where no one else has been for over a year, you get in the habit of leaving piles of stuff lying about because it is easier than cleaning up and no one else will see. And since I was only in that Buffalo apartment for about half the week anyway, I wasn't really living there myself.

So, a new apartment, and a visitor who has never seen any of my belongings. My inner hostess is channeling Martha Stewart and trying to decorate, thinking about what china I have and do I have wine glasses, planning some sort of menu, and trying to make me nervous a month in advance. I'm trying to shove her in a box. We'll see if that works. Someday I'd really like people dropping by to be a normal thing as opposed to an occasion.

So, before my semi-yearly Christmas post I must make what is the second (and hopefully final) installment in the Eseme Had a Job Interview series. As usual, there will be very little information on the interview itself, as I don't want to jinx that.

Wacky travel hijinks follow.

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Icon is fun. And indeed, although possibly at random knowledge tests.

M and I went down to Five Islands Lobster Co. on Wednesday. Drove all the way down the Georgetown peninsula, until the road ends at the wharf. The food was good (the lobster just overflowed on my lobster roll) and we ate out on the docks, with a good view of three of the five islands that give the place its name. We brought her dog Barci (really Barcelona, but it's such a long name and such a small dog that Barci works better). I'd thought Barci wasn't too well behaved, as every time I'd met her before she kept racing around the room and trying to jump on me. It turns out this is enthusiasm, and she's really trying to get me to pick her up. She's so small (6 pounds) that she's really trying to say "Pick me up so I can get close enough to your face to lick you madly!" Dog tongue up your nose is an interesting experience. She really is a very good dog, as she sat in M's lap and watched us eat, and never begged for anything.

I picked up Changeling: The Lost last weekend while I was in Brunswick for the art fair. It's very green. And I'm nowhere near done reading it - I've barely hit the crunchy bits.

Oh, and for those cool people in New York who read this, you too shall soon know the wonder that is L.L. Bean. There is a factory store opening up near Syracuse in a few months (which will have discounted items) and of special interest to those in the general area of Albany who may be missing their home state *cougheamclarencough* a retail store will be opening in Albany in September. It won't be as big at the one here in Maine, nor have as much stuff, but it will be the real deal.

Being in Southern Maine this past week has had its ups and downs.

I love the area. I know the roads, the shops, and I can get to a beach easily. It's home in a lot of ways. Comfortable.

The job that I interviewed for last week is literally just down the road. Great location, someplace I'd want to live. Plus the library was welcoming and fun. it would be close to not just my parents but a good friend who lives in the area.

I got the rejection letter by email. That's new. I mean, I've gotten written letters, and phone calls... but not email. I moped on the couch for a while last night.

I've got a phone interview tomorrow, and have yet to hear from Institution of Higher Learning Number Two who has asked to contact my references and told me when their interviews would be. But they haven't called since. I sent an email (gah!) in the hopes of finding out if it is just trouble contacting my references. I'd like that position, they have some interesting digital projects going on.

Both academic jobs would be inland, one two hours inland. I'd miss the beach, but Maine is littered with lakes and rivers, and mountains.

I've had some great food on my trip up here. M took me to her favorite Mediterranean Grill, and the meal was divine. I've also had Indian and Mom made guacamole yesterday.

More job hunting in my future.

Spent the weekend being sick, when not at a Halloween party, looking at Panther's soon-to-be house, or having lunch with Panther's mom.

Still not well.

Hopefully did not make Panther sick.

In other important news, Montana Mills is making a specialty bread through Halloween- Pumpkin nut swirl. It is very good- it's essentially their famous Cinnamon Swirl with pumpkin, walnuts, and pumpkin pie spices. Yummy. Get it while you can.

Worth the last $2.00 in my wallet- Java Joe's ordering Kinky Reggae and listening to James Brown declare himself to be a sex machine.

Colleen and I finally met up Friday with the rest of her Powerpuff Posse from work. We went to Friendly's and had food and fun. Colleen decided she wanted me around for the weekend- I take a really long time to do anything, and me taking my time would slow her down and get her to relax. So I stayed on the couch Friday night, and spent most of the day Saturday watching Colleen in pre-trip mode.

We had breakfast with Wade at Perkin's, a resteraunt I remember as a treat when visiting my grandmother in Iowa. I didn't realize they were this far east. Yummy trippleberry syrup. Mmmmmmmmm. Then we went to the mall to froof. I had my hair trimmed a bit and braided in a crown around my head. Colleen had hers trimmed and washed and came out looking lovely. Then we had out nails done. My fingernails are shiny and opal-like, while my toenails are purple!!!! PURPLE!!!! I love having very purple toenails. Yay!

We stopped and got a few other travel essentials for Colleen, then tried to have ice cream with Aaron. This didn't work out so we grabbed Kevin and Berardi instead. Colleen's favorite ice cream place turns out to be Berardi's favorite too, and I must agree that they had some wonderful flavors and were exceedingly generous with the servings. Brain got a large- 5 scoops, and we sang him Happy Birthday while he tried to finish it. He probably would have if Colleen hadn't needed to pack and the cone hadn't fallen apart under the weight of the ice cream.

Then Brian and I went to Sabbat while Colleen packed. There was a big battle with what was left of the Inquisition, and they lost. It took AGES for the battle to start, and once it did Di ended up shooting people rather then hitting them because she was not in the first wave of people through the door and could not really get close to anyone. I left once it was over.

We got up ass-early to get Colleen to the airport. She's going to be the prettiest woman getting off the plane in Georgia, and I hope she has a wonderful vacation. She really deserves one.

I wanted to see Sinbad today, but there are no shows after 5:00. So I'll probably see Tomb Raider. I doubt it will matter that I haven't seen the first one.

The only sad note of the weekend was coming in to work on AI and finding a dead bird on the stairs of Building 70. Finding dead animals is a disturbing trend that has to stop.