Since I Been Gone

Hello there. I'm back. What we have here is my very first post from my brand new, shiny apartment in Newport. I've been here about a week and a half now, as far as actually living in here, but the new apartment feeling hasn't worn off at all. It still feels very very new and different. Of course, that's because I just spent six point five years living in a little one room shoebox with now kitchen and a pair of community bathrooms. So having a bedroom that's by itself larger than my previous living space will cause some adjustment time. I also have a living room that's almost as big, my own bathroom, and best of all, a kitchen. You have no idea how sick I am of McDonald's, Wendy's, Taco Bell, Subway, and et cetera. One place I'm not sick of, and may never be, is Dunkin Donuts, but that's mostly because I can go into the local one any time of the day and the nice girls behind the counter have the uncanny ability to make my ice coffee exactly the way I like it. West Leb was always hit or miss; Newport gets it right every single time.

My dad came up that Sunday to help me move out my bigger pieces of furniture. By then I'd emptied that little room of everything that could fit into my little Honda, which left only my bed, two dressers, the computer stand, a desk, the bookcase, and my comfy chair here (I'm sitting in it now). My plan was to run a trip out there early and then meet him in Lebanon, but when I called my mom to get a time estimate on his arrival I found out he was already on the way. So instead of making two trips I stuffed my car to the limit. In a nice bit of ingenuity, I sandwiched the dvd player, the vcr, and the PS2 between my pillows on the floor of the passenger seat. I wouldn't have thought of that if I'd had more room, but necessity is the mother of whatever, as you know.

We ended up making three, three, three trips with my dad's pickup to get everythying over there. Some of the furniture just took up more room than anticipated. I'd started working on the apartment at 7 AM, and by the time I brought the last load of the night in from my car at 9 PM I'd pretty much checked out for the day. Dad and I set up the bed, I set the clock radio, and I was done. Whatever was left in the car would wait until Monday afternoon after work. It was pretty lonely that first night here. I didn't have any major appliances plugged in, no cable, no CD player set up, and my clock radio couldn't pull in a single radio station. So I went to sleep in the dark in the quiet, feeling very alone.

During one of our trips back to Leb, Dad and I did a little shopping. We picked up a new computer table to replace the old, heavy monstrosity of my old apartment. That way, not only was the new one better looking and more stable, but we could just abandon the old clunker, thereby avoiding having to carry the frikking thing down the stairs. And that's what we did. I left it there. We also picked up a smallish entertainment center at Wal-Mart, which was essential in my eyes, as the old set-up just wouldn't cut it. Having your tv and related appliances sitting on top of a dresser might work in a one room hangout, but it looks really stupid in an actual living room. I ended up assembling that puppy on Tuesday night, and while it's sturdy and looks fine ... I am *no* carpenter. I'd bet you wouldn't notice the mistake I made unless I pointed it out to you, but I know about it and it bothered me for about 24 hours ... until I decided I wasn't going to be Monk about it and decided not to care. It's fine. It works.

Mom and dad both came up Wednesday. I'd made a spare key for them, as dad suggested they could come up before I got out of work, the better to set my mom loose on things that are her specialty -- like hanging the curtains. I'd have been lost on that if left to my own devices. I'm glad she was able to come up so soon, because she was the person who most of all I wanted to show this place off to. I'm doing all this self-renovation for me, but deep down I really just want to impress my mom. And it was pretty gratifying that she really likes the place.

As mentioned before, there's no Borders here. My plan was to keep my desk free of the egregious clutter that was constantly on top of it at the other place, so that I could turn this joint into something of an office. And I've kinda done that. The computer is right next to the desk, and both are in my bedroom. It took me longer to do this than I thought, but last night I finally broke out the laptop and test drove the new plan, and the plan was a success. I did more work tonight, just before I signed on here. The best part is the freedom I have. I can write a little, get up and make some dinner, or take a shower, and then come back to it. Before Newport, those three things had to be done in totally seperate compartments: writing was done at Borders; dinner was something I picked up somewhere else and brought home; and the shower was across the hallway. Now I can do whatever the hell I want to, and that, my friends, is a tremendous improvement in the quality of my life.

Oh yeah. I really like it here.