The move is complete. More or less. Last weekend was largely spent packing – interrupted, very welcomly albeit briefly, by a LAN party at Chris & Ryan’s – and the move itself happened on Monday. I had ML Movers do all the heavy lifting and hauling. It was expensive ($325 + $100 tip) but I feel okay about it; it went smoothly, nothing was damaged that I’m aware, and it was a hell of a lot easier than if I’d try to pack everything into a U-Haul.
Today I was back up there for about five hours cleaning, along with Ross, F1 and Tom. I was surprised at how well they’d done; the 2nd floor bathroom was actually pretty good by the time I got there, and Ross spent hours attacking the shower glass (with mostly success). Now that the place is all clean and shiny again, it looks good. If only it could have been like that for any of the eleven months inbetween.
There’s still some other odds and ends, and more cleaning to be done, which’ll probably happen later in the week sometime.
So the new place is only a few blocks east of where I was a year ago; once again just off Stevens Creek. It’s quite handy to work (especially now that I work in Alaska, rather than on campus), and it’s quite a nice place; a kind of two-bedroom flat in amongst a quadplex, where the four flats are kind of piled all over each other. From the street if you weren’t paying attention, as I wasn’t when I first came out to look at it, you’d assume the whole conglomeration is just one big house.
My new roommate is Milena, a personal assistant in her early thirties or so. She’s very personable and chatty, which is a welcome change, but also quiet when necessary, like at night. Though in the tradition of U.S. housing construction, this place has the sound insulating properties of a tissue, it’s been pretty peaceful thus far. The first night all I could hear was the guy downstairs talking to someone – his girlfriend or wife, seemingly, for hours.. that was a terrible coincidence, to have that on the first night. But I haven’t heard much from him since, so, I’m optimistic for the long term.
It’s warmer though – I’m glad summer is kind of winding down at this point, as the 40+ degree days would have been quite brutal here. Not that they weren’t uncomfortable at the old place (again, insulation of any kind is pretty extraordinary here).
The room itself is in fact slightly bigger than my old one, though square, and comes with a walk-in closet and a storage closet, so I in fact have quite a bit of room. I like the new layout, though the bed is up against the wall which I’ve never done for a queen size before, and thus am just now discovering the joys of trying to levitate myself in order to apply the fitted sheet to it. Mattresses should come with fitted sheets built in. That’s just common sense. And should be machine-washable.
Which reminds me that the minor annoyance – potentially, anyway – is that the laundry is shared amongst the four flats, which would be fine in itself, but is coin operated. Urgh. Where the heck am I going to get coins from? I’m going to have to go into a bank and actually buy money with other money. This is ridiculous. I hate cash, or at least any places which accept it alone, like the so-called cafe at work.
Oop, out of time – I’m off now to go see Funny People with Matt (and Josh, afaik). Followed by TGIs, so I can shake my head with jealous amusement and fake wisdom as Matt picks up every female waitress there. At least, the ones he hasn’t already.
