May 2001 archives
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Thursday, May 31, 2001
Moving day revisited
A rundown of yesterday's events...
1:00 a.m. - fresh off scrubbing both bathrooms and the kitchen spotless (and using more Pine-Sol than the law probably allows in the process), set my alarm for 7:30, and finally get to sleep.
5:00 a.m. - pop wide awake. D'oh. Toss and turn for a little while, realize that I'm just not going to fall back asleep, and reluctantly get up. Clean out the refrigerator, freezer, and microwave.
6:30 a.m. - go to McDonald's for breakfast. It'll be the first of two trips to Mickey D's today.
8:15 a.m. - go to a local storage facility place. I had called yesterday afternoon after business hours inquiring about a 10-by-12 storage area for rent. They told me to come this morning and look at it. Find out that after I called, someone else rented the area. D'oh again.
8:30 a.m. - talk to another storage company on the phone, asking if they still had open the 10-by-10 area that I looked at yesterday. They do not, but they tell me that one might open this afternoon and that they will give me a call if it does. I will not receive a phone call from them today.
8:45 a.m. - talk to another storage company, asking about a 10-by-15 area. They have one. The Hallelujah Chorus plays in my mind. I tell them I will be right over to do the paperwork. I go by U-haul on the way back and buy some picture boxes.
9:30 a.m. - just getting back to the apartment, I am getting some last-minute things together when my dad arrives. He's an hour and a half early. This turns out to be a very good thing.
11:30 a.m. - the first load of stuff (including my couch, recliner, dishes, and books) is loaded into my car, his truck, and the trailer he brought, and is unloaded at the storage area. We look at the size of the 10-by-15. My dad thinks we'll have plenty of room for all the stuff. So do I.
Noon - lunch. By this time, I am already pretty tired, and my breakfast is long gone.
1:00 p.m. - we start loading up again. Big items this time include all of my bedroom furniture and my mattresses. I lament the fact that my bedroom furniture is made entirely of wood. All of my weights go during this time as well. I lament the fact that I haven't lifted them more recently.
2:30 p.m. - we finish unloading this load; we note that it's going to be a tight squeeze to get the rest of the stuff in. I am thankful that the other two companies rented their areas.
3:00 p.m. - third and final load (including my dining room table and chairs and entertainment center) is loaded in. I note the amount of stuff that is left in the apartment. I will be taking all of it home. I wonder if I can get it all into my car. By now, I'm getting tired enough to possibly give the new tenant housewarming gifts if I can't get it in on the first try.
4:30 p.m. - we finish what we thought would be a three-hour job in roughly six. The storage facility's door will barely close, we have packed things in so tight. I guess optimism runs in the family.
4:45 p.m. - we drive down I-59 and I turn off onto McFarland Boulevard's exit. My dad drives on to wherever he's supposed to go on location. We exchange waves. I think how much I love my dad.
5:00 p.m. - I start loading things into my own car for the trip -- where? I think about going over to Birmingham and staying the night there before I come home. It's been a long day, after all. I decide to make the decision on the road, at the last possible moment.
5:30 p.m. - everything's loaded into the car except for the vacuum cleaner, which I use to vacuum the apartment one last time. I pick the vacuum up, turn off the living room light, and step out of what was my home for two years. I close the door.
5:45 p.m. - I throw away the day's trash and head to the apartment complex office to turn in my keys. I talk to the manager for a couple of minutes. I pull out of the apartment complex for the last time. I put in Caedmon's Call and forward to track 12: "I'm Coming Home".
6:00 p.m. - I turn left onto I-59 and leave Tuscaloosa for the last time as a student.
6:50 p.m. - exit 15 on I-459 looms, and so does my decision. Go home tonight, or stop in Birmingham? I am exhausted. My muscles ache from more use than they've had in a long time. Beyond that, I'm tired just from not having much sleep. My decision is easy. I turn on my right signal light and pull into the lane for I-65 south. I'm going home.
8:00 p.m. - somewhere around Montgomery, I realize that I left my shower curtain in one of my bathrooms. I wonder if this will adversely affect my deposit.
9:27 p.m. - I pull up into my parents' driveway. I need a shower, food, and sleep desperately. The shower feels wonderful against my aching muscles. The food is good, plentiful, and is cooked by a mother who is extremely happy to see me. The sleep comes quickly as I drop into my waterbed.
Tuesday, May 29, 2001
Looking back...
Tonight is my last night in Tuscaloosa.
Have I really been here almost six years? That's a quarter of my life. It's amazing to me, really.
Tonight, I'm going to go out to my porch and sit in my chair and look out at the trees and the stars for awhile. Just like I did the first night that I moved into the apartment. Just like the night that I turned 22. Just like all those other times that I've done it. I don't know what I'll think about. Probably reflect on what has been and what's to come. Just like all the other times that I've done it.
Except it will be special, because it will be the final time.
Monday, May 28, 2001
Playing defense
In the immortal words of Popeye, "That's all I can stands, 'cause I can't stands no more!"
After being deluged with spam mail for much too long, I've done something that will hopefully limit the amount of it coming into my inbox. If you'll notice on the e-mail link in the "contact" section (and, for that matter, every e-mail link in the site), my e-mail address has been changed. It's pretty self-explanatory as to how to manipulate that address before sending me mail. The nice thing about it is that spam programs have trouble with these manuevers.
Otherwise, carry on per the norm.
...
We remember.
Friday, May 25, 2001
Junk mail justice...
This is quite funny to me, and it actually would work, too! Let's save the postal service.
Graduation perk
Interesting. The CEO of Monster.com is finally getting a degree himself. He'll even be the speaker at his own graduation. That's gotta be a first...
Thursday, May 24, 2001
Old words
Six years ago, she meant a lot to me. I've never been in love, but at the time it was the closest that I'd ever been to being in love. We talked for hours on the phone about everything and nothing at all. I went over to her house often. We'd talk over there, sometimes walking hand in hand up and down the street that she lived on. I'd never experienced that before.
But I was just about to start my life at college, and I had to go. I told her that I'd write her when I got there so she'd have my address to write back. She promised that she would.
The first semester that I was at college was filled with letters. Even though I came home often, her words were always a source of comfort when I was here. And apparently mine to her were as well; she once mentioned falling off the couch laughing at my description of a bad day that I'd had. She'd had one the day she'd received that letter, but my words put it out of her mind, she wrote. I wonder what I wrote.
But of course time passes on, and distance is a hard thing to overcome. The feelings between us changed to that of good friends, and then to friends with time and distance between them.
Tonight while sorting through my life, I came upon all the letters that she wrote me. Old words that meant so much to me back then. And they still do today, because they give me hope that one day there will once again be someone out there that will think thoughts about me like those that she wrote six years ago.
Bin packing problem
I think that I'm fighting a losing battle.
I'm attempting to pack my stuff up in preparation for moving day, which will probably happen this Saturday. The problem is, every time I think I have enough boxes, something else pops up that needs to be packed.
I've already made two trips to Wal-Mart, and while admittedly I didn't get many storage bins either time, I chalk that up to foolish optimism. I've already decided that if I go back again, I'm buying the entire storage bin section out.
You'd think that someone who once researched algorithms for the "bin packing problem" would be better at something like this, but no... :)
Wednesday, May 23, 2001
Obligatory test
Testing, 1, 2, 3...
Welcome to version 7.3!
Welcome to version 7.3 of pressing on! The big change here is the addition of greymatter to the site. This is software that allows, among other things, commenting on entries and searchable archives! There will be some wrinkles to iron out, of course, but hopefully everything will be running smoothly soon enough.
As a consequence of this change, I had to move all the entries that were on this front page to the updates section a little early. But they're there. :)
Enjoy! And if you find something that doesn't seem to be working properly or that doesn't look right, please e-mail me.
Friday, May 18, 2001
lousy false advertising
You remember all those milk commercials where the shrimpy little guy is talking to the "cool girl" who doesn't know that he exists, and while he drinks milk and talks about all of its benefits, morphs into some model-type guy?
Well, I've been drinking milk all my life, and I haven't seen that happen. The American Dairy Association will hear from my lawyers about this...
Tuesday, May 15, 2001
convenience of plastic
I think that credit card companies should start sending all of my credit card applications already torn into strips. That way, they can still feel like they're doing their jobs, and it'll save me a step.