The Freckled Diaries

Books and Moving Galore

So it's that time.  Yes, finally after nearly two full months of trouble and strife (and three years of living in this apartment), I'm packing up and moving out.  I still have mixed feelings on the subject but won't linger too long on the bad because honestly I have the night before Christmas feeling about the whole deal--I'm really looking forward to the new place.  I suppose my desire to stay is tied up with a lot of "ifs".  If my neighbors didn't suck, if my landlord wasn't a jerk (I didn't like the neighbors or the landlord for a good long while before all this), if a whole bunch of other things.  Basically, I love this physical space and geographic location but I really don't like all the BS that comes along with it.

So anyway.  Moving.  Sunday is packing day, Monday is moving day. 

Today is a busy day that I'm going to have to get done on no sleep (I'm a difficult sleeper to begin with--stress and an almost totally flexible work and school schedule does nothing to help that fact).  I have to: drop the kitties off at the vet where they will remain until about Thursday (depending on how fast I get the place painted).  I also want to meet with the vet about various and sundry issues I have--namely the fact that she's now terrified me that I've gone and given them heartworm and I'm scared and that they are due for a teeth cleaning but I'm scared of anesthesia which is apparently necessary for the teeth cleaning experience.  Then, I'm off to the National Book Festival which (a) I want to go to because a favorite author of mine is going to be there and (b) I have to go for a class assignment (long story from History of the Book and author-reader interactions and public performances of literary works etc).  That's from 10-2.  At 3 or so, my mom will be in town and we're going to get packing supplies and bring them on up here.  I then plan to attack my desk drawers and my pile of Very Important Mail. 

Then I move, then I unpack and paint, then hang stuff and then my life is back to normal.  Oh and I have two assignments for school due next week.  Joy.

More on books.....

Last night, I went to what I dubbed the "nerdiest of nerd events", the Washington Rare Book Group's "Rare Book Roadshow", which is basically Antiques Roadshow but for rare books and produced for Book Guys--NPR's book show.  I'm not entirely sure I could have made that sentence nerdier if I tried.  We all know that I mean nerd in it's jovial, positive connotation, right?  Let's hope.  Anyway....it was good fun, honestly.  I didn't bring a book of my own for two reasons really:  first, I'd kind of automatically figured that I didn't have anything worth bringing and didn't want to look like the dumb girl who just brought any old or dusty book wanting to hear that it was worth a fortune.  Second, if I had given it a second thought I may have brought a book just in case but was highly distracted because I was busy straightening up for and then making a YouTube video of my (currently dusty and cluttered) apartment.  It's as good as it's going to get--and I even ventured down into scary, scary basement! 

Anyway, about the Rare Book Roadshow--it was really a good time and I met some good people, heard some good stories and got to hang out after-hours in the National Museum of Natural History (which is where we met).  No one else from my class went which was a little surprising because people seemed really into the idea but that's their loss I guess. 

And finally, before we get to the YouTube links, oh! Dear Reader, there is much else going on in my little world and I'm kind of stupidly giddy about the whole thing but I don't really dare write much more because...well I don't know why. But, :)

So here's the apartment in all it's hastily spruced up from the moving mess glory (and scary scary basement):

Some visuals

I took more video at the potential new apartment (midway through the application process, I very well may still change my mind) than photos but here--

The exterior doesn't look so bad, and it's not. It's just on a super-busy corner and is mainly surrounded not by similar houses but by 1980s replacements for buildings that had been torn down. Again, I'll live.

This is the only still photo I have of the interior:
Believe it or not, the carpet actually looked worse in the photos I saw. I also dislike the light fixture and the massive refrigerator, but not to the degree of the carpet. Luckily it's not plush, it's really like the kind you'd expect to find in an office building (I wonder if this building was ever used as office space? Something tells me "probably"). Anyway, that's lucky because I think that that means that Flor carpet tiles will cover it up nicely and am seriously considering doing so. The carpet in the other room is a whole other story though....anyway, I digress.

Here's the video of it. I didn't really plan the video so it's kind of a mess. First part is the busy street, second part is the room you see above, which is what you first walk into upon entering.

The third part (don't worry this thing is all of a minute long) begins in the back room, the doorway to which you see behind my friend Mariah as she jumps out of the camera's way. She jumps into the little hallway you see, which is where the bathroom lives as well as the locked door that is opened for move-ins. Then there's the staircase to nowhere (a locked door to the 3rd floor apartment, open for their move ins and outs only). That's what can be used as storage or whatever.

And finally, I think I'm going to start a little series on things I will miss about this place...here's my first few:

My views

my wee kitchen (and the strange wooden walls and the pop-up counter that was impossible to use). excuse the mess!

Sigh.

Only good thing is that I felt this way (but 100 times worse) when leaving the Northampton apartment and I never even developed those photos (yikes, dating myself) or ever watched the video I took. So maybe I won't care so much soon.