It was a long Saturday – that's for sure..

Getting out
I don't think I actually got up until around 9am, and then ate and did other unproductive stuff until almost 10. Once 10am rolled around though, I worked myself up into a massive "THERE ISN'T ENOUGH TIME!" panic and got more packing done in the next hour and a half than I had in the previous 3 weeks combined.

Katie showed up and we loaded my bed, dresser, and bookshelf into the back of her truck. That was pretty uneventful.

It took 3 more trips on my own, loading my car up until it almost burst, to finish moving all my stuff. "3 trips" is a bit misleading, because 2 of those trips were almost half trash that went into the dumpster here right away.

Getting In
Moving everything into my new apartment had to be the worst part out of all of this. I don't know who invented 3rd floor apartments, but I hate them. It would be great if this building had an elevator. But, no. Of course not.

Besides completely wearing myself out, there (once again) wasn't much out of the ordinary here. There was a girl (maybe 4 or 5 years old) standing in front of my apartment door when me and Katie were bringing stuff up. She started the conversation with "Hi. I don't live in this building." and then proceeded to keep talking, and tried to weasel her way into the apartment to pet the cat – even after being told that she would be bit (not making it up – Oscar does bite.)

I've been in here since Saturday night now, and most of my stuff is still in the living room. I haven't built my bed yet. Good times.

Storage
There was some bigger stuff at my apartment (a couch, huge speakers, pressure washer) that wasn't mine, which all got put into a storage locker. That was messy, but when we were done and about to leave (it was like 11pm at this point) some girl in a car with Wyoming plates pulls up and blocks my car. She wanted directions to Madison, WI. I guess she saw me and my dad from the road… Now, if I were lost and needed directions, I wouldn't pull into a dimly lit storage facility in the middle of nowhere. Poor kid.

Cleaning
Ugh. at this point I was so tempted to just leave and let them take the money out of my security deposit to clean the place. But I didn't – it's cleaner than it was when I moved in.

Anyone that really cares how the move went was probably either there, or heard about it already.. so I'll end this post here. 🙂

This Sunday – I'd like to invite everyone to watch what will most likely be an incredibly humorous last-ditch moving effort.

Highlights include:

• Swearing. A lot.
• Advanced Tetris moves in an attempt to cram 5 boxes worth of stuff into a single box.
• Moments of complete stillness as I stare at nothing and repeat things in my head, such as "Why did I wait til the last minute to do this?!"
• Intentionally breaking things just so I don't feel bad about having to throw them away.
• More swearing.
• Driving vehicles that aren't mine, way too fast, in an attempt to get things moved out on time.

As exciting as this sounds, admission is completely free! A little help, or some food would be appreciated though. Tell your friends.

I filled the emptiness.. now what?

Moving is always fun. Or something.

I would love – LOOOVE – to be able to fit all my stuff in one car trip, the only problem with that is that in order to do so, I'd need to throw away somewhere close to 95% of my stuff. But I'm trying hard. I have a bike to sell, a dresser to pass off on to someone else, a desk to throw away, another desk to possibly sell or just trash, one bookshelf I don't need, and a bunch of other "stuff." Stuff. I keep looking at it and wondering when I decided it was a good idea to bring this "stuff" into my life, but more importantly, why a part of me resists so strongly the idea of throwing it away.

I figure that currently I have 4 trips worth of stuff. I'm working hard to get that down to 2. And hopefully for then next move, I can achieve my ultimate goal of a one-car move. I definitely don't want to clutter up the amazing-sounding toy factory apartment with, well, clutter.

Oh yeah, and I hate my bed. It has to stay with me for this move, but when the next one comes around, that beast is filling up a dumpster somewhere.

It's been nearly a year since I moved to my new apartment, and moving day is just a few weeks away. I've been doing a lot of reflecting lately, and I'm less than pleased with the last 11 months. I've made some stupid decisions, some mistakes that I wish I could undo, and for the most part my situation has remained unchanged. I have come to terms with a few more things that have been eating away at my happiness for most of my life though, and that feels like a pretty big accomplishment.

If I could go back and do anything differently though, I don't think I would. I mean, there are definitely things that I regret, but to undo any of those would put me in a different place than I am right now.. and I'm really digging my current situation. Beautiful girl that loves me almost as much as I love her – got it. Decent, albeit boring and sometimes ridiculous, job – got it. Possibility of moving to Australia or some other awesome place with the before mentioned girl (I don't really care where, as long as I'm not chased by pitchforks.. and it's with the girl) – got it. A blog where I can keep referring to Faith as the "beautiful girl" and no one can do anything about it – got it.

I may not be living an exciting life right now, but I've found my happiness.

Oh yeah, and sometimes I sing. And people seem to think that I don't suck.

My "to do" list is pretty long right now.. or it would be if I didn't keep putting off making the list of things that I'm putting off doing.

The first thing I need to get done? Cleaning my apartment, or rather, cleaning it out. I've got too much junk, and it needs to go. The last two times that I moved I ended up just throwing a lot of stuff away, things that I've held on to for no good reason. It made packing easier, but I still ended up hauling a lot of useless stuff around. By next weekend I plan on having my second bedroom completely sorted into "trash", "sell", and "keep" piles. By the end of March I'll hopefully have only the "keep" stuff, which should be packed and stored in my closet. The same procedure needs to take place in my bedroom.

Right now I'm really big on the idea of becoming a Chicagonaut. I need to scale down my stuff, and scale up my life a bit. I'm currently stuck in a rut where I'm just working to pay off bills, and at the current rate thing like going back to school are pretty much impossible. So, if you have any leads on a decent paying job in the Chicago area for someone with an associate degree in Computer Information Systems (preferably something to do with programming, networking, web design, etc.).. send it my way. It'll make my search much easier.  🙂

I really don't want to imagine "President McCain"… please make this nightmare go away!

Anyway, the last few days have been quite interesting – here's a "quick" rundown.

Wednesday

• "Helped" Kelly pack
• Slept

Thursday

• More packing
• Waited for the movers (were supposed to be there 10-11ish.. showed up at 2)
• Rode along to Chicago in rush hour traffic
• Got to hold an iPass up the the windshield
• Got stranded at a Walgreens in Chicago when Kelly's car decided to stop cooperating
• Geico was helpful and found a repair place to take the car to and called a tow truck
• An hour later Kelly had to call back about the tow truck
• 10 minutes later the truck showed up
• Rode around Chicago in a tow truck
• Heard stories about how great it is to be a tow truck driver
• Got to the repair place and their was no overnight lot.
• I had to parallel park a car in Chicago (I can't parallel park very well, but Kelly was watching, so I had to do it, and do it well)
• The car was running fine by this point, so after eating and booking a hotel room I drove around in Chicago for the first time in.. ever. (I tried to pretend I was a taxi.. I need more practice at it, but I'm off to a good start)
• Walked around, took pictures, saw the building where spudart work
• Drank
• Slept

Friday

• Met the movers and got things moved in
• Drove to Wisconsin Rapids
• Slept

Saturday

• Ate breakfast with Kelly's family
• Drove to Stoughton and introduced Kelly to my family people
• Kelly pet a chicken.. and a pig.. and dogs.. and horses
• Kelly watched me get choked by a cat, and cause the corgi to run around in circles while growling with a toy in his mouth
• Drove back to Fort and ate
• Drove to Whitewater and drank
• Slept

Sunday

• Drove through more crappy weather to drop Kelly off at the train in Harvard
• Had flashback of really old movies
• Tried not to cry
• Drove back to Whitewater and did absolutely nothing
• Slept

So.. things have been busy. Stressful. It would have been nice if things had gone more smoothly, but I wouldn't trade it in for anything.