Today I was at work for a good 12 hours. Actually, those 12 hours weren't all that good. Speaking of twelve, someone *cough*geologist*cough* started a sentence in a technical paper with "12 saturation points..." Now, I know I went to public school in Montana, but I was always taught not to start a sentence with numbers. But that's just me.
One good thing I found out today was that our tickets for Jason Mraz are front row. The Pit even. Yea, we'll be counting nose hairs for sure.
That's not an understatement either. The first words out of my mouth this morning, besides the singing in the shower, were "holy" and "shit" upon reading the email from pollstar.com that Jason Mraz was coming to Bakersfield. Later in the day, while messaging the local radio station, it seemed like a bit of a surprise to them that I already knew about the show (since I was going to be announced tomorrow) when in fact I already had tickets by that point. Connections...a good thing to have. Or just realizing that presale tickets would be available. Of course, like the dork I am, I had to email a bunch of people about the show. Should be interesting and fun.
Yes I did make the inhabitants of the house listen to the entire new Guster album "Keep It Together" which I was happy to find waiting in my mailbox today. Don't even say it, I know it. I'm a dork.
The morning was spent pulling weeds in my backyard and picking up the nasty bug infested lemons that had been sitting on the ground. But that's not all. Oh no. I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I started this little homeowner gig. Snail. Ewww. Yea, I said "ewww." Back home, we don't have snails and while I have heard mention of them by friends I didn't think I would find them in my own yard. Granted, my yard is becoming more and more of a jungle. I need to go find a gardener HASTA PRONTO.
The other issue at hand, is I have no idea how to deal with any of the plants in my yard. Lemon tree? Uh, just pick them right? Weird plants, giant geranium, no clue. Starting from scratch may not be that bad of a thing after all. At least I have grass though. Grass and snails. Ewww.
Today at work involved creating a nearly life size cardboard cut out of a coworker/friend who's leaving the group. Just imagine if you will what sort of photo could be taken when you combine 4th of July, beer, an afro wig, and clothes from the 70s including a lacy shirt and bright orange pants. Even the thought of it standing in the corner of the room during out team meeting today cracks a smile across my face. Funnier is that he actually wanted the "Slightly Mini-Me" and showed it off to his new coworkers. It's things like these that may come back to haunt me, but it was worth it at the time.
Of course it was in the on place I was pretty damn sure it wouldn't be. At the bottom of a pile of clean, folded clothes. No more Visitor badge for me.
I don't lose things often. In fact, I usually have a very good memory that is somewhat photographic. So naturally it's quite annoying not to be able to find my ID badge for work. Wonder how long I can get away with being a "Visitor"...
No one told me about it. In fact, it seems like something you'd see in the movies as a sign of bad things are a comin'. Frogs on my doorstep.
Shortly after starting the move in process was started there was a rustling in the foliage near the corner of the garage. There were thoughts of it being a snake, a cat, or some creature but never did it cross my mind that it would be a frog. Shining a flash light into the greenery didn't give any more of a clue to what was stirring. I looked for an object to throw into the ferns - because the best thing to do when there's a mysterious live creature is to throw something at it... Anyway, all I could find was a bottle of water which I tossed - the water, not the bottle - in the direction of the sound. That's when the frog came jumping out. I've lived in Bakersfield for 4 years and I had no idea that there was such a prevalance of frogs. I'm still not used to the idea though, as tonight as I returned from book club, I was startled when I walked up the sidewalk and three of them were sitting there and started to hop away. Frogs. Who knew.
You want to see it? Officially done moving - let the unpacking begin. Spent today bringing over the last few loads and cleaning the apartment up for the final walk though. Not that I expect to get any of my deposit back, because that seems to be against the rules of the game. Anyway - for any of you who care - here are some photos of the house post painting and post moving.
Follow me for a moment with this thought - moving is like a hangover. You wake up the next morning still exhausted and stumbling around. As I walked around the house, trying to avoid boxes and other object, I would often graze them as I passed leaving a nice bruise right below my knee. Part of this is due to hitting the coffeetable really hard as I tried to move the stereo to hook it up. Now besides the stumbling around, which often comes the morning after a night of drinking, is the disorientation. You have no idea where anything is anymore. Even the simplest thing as finding a pair of socks becomes this Mensa like challenge. I remember putting them in a box....
I painted for 12 hours straight today. Well, there were the brief breaks to scarf down a small tin of pineapple and the pizza Kathy ordered when she got there around 6:30. Other than that the day was mainly fueled by liquid intake of the fizzy beverage persuasion. I'm going to pay for this tomorrow...I know my hand is going to be stuck in a clawlike position. Sorry Art, I can't work today because I have a repetative stress injury. At least I thought ahead and scheduled a massage for tomorrow afternoon.
It could have been worse. Several friends showed up to help in the evening and got quite a bit of the house finished. The office is a little more, um, dramatic that I was expecting but Kelli and Karen think it's great, so I'll take their word at it. All the colors started blending together after a while for me.
The evening was spent taping walls, removing socket covers, and caulking baseboards. Much thanks go to Erin, Shannon, and Kathy for supplying some slave labor - they probably have no idea how much better I'm feeling tonight than I was during work today. Part of that might be due to my decision to take part of tomorrow to paint before the masses come for the paint party.
Funny thing though, when Kathy came over she met some of the neighbors - the ones I met last night. Well, it turns out that the woman was Kathy's spanish teacher at some class last year and when she'd heard a young woman engineer was moving in she'd thought of Kathy. Stranger yet is the fact that Kathy's been trying to find a Spanish tutor...now she won't have to go very far.
Slightly overwhelmed. I got the keys to the house today which has made for quite the day. The movers come on Friday so between now and then I want to get a few rooms painted so much of today was spent contemplating color. In the end I came out with sample quarts of Agave Blue (bathroom), Mission Tile (office), Neptune Blue (kitchen), Ripe Wheat (spare room), Relaxing Blue (Kathy's room), and Rejuevenating (master bedroom). So if you are near a Home Depot you can run on over and check out my paint colors. I'm still hesitant on some of the colors or at least whether to paint the entire rooms or just certain walls. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll have a better feeling on it.
I also had the pleasure of meeting some neighbors today. Just funny to me, after living in this apartment for 4 years that I really don't know any of my neighbors but here I am, not even moved in and I already know that one of their daughters plays piano, she was glad to know I had a roommate (rather than being a single woman living in the house), and the guy across the street is a noisy college kid.
