I haven’t said much of anything anywhere for a little while now. Things have been rather hectic around here. I was busy doing some final testing on Anirah 1.2 in Linux and Mac and took a short break to do all the layout for the print version of my novel. I also had to create a website for the universe my novel takes place in, as part of the promotional material (and boy do I hate web work, there was some serious cussing and beer drinking going on there). And then I got a letter in the mail from the company I rent an apartment from.
I forgot that my lease expired April 30th (yes, tomorrow).
Right now, Paul and I have separate apartments across the hall from each other. I’m sure you can already imagine how wasteful and expensive that’s been. Our plan was to either move to a 3 bedroom apartment in the same complex or to try to rent a house. So I asked about 3 bedroom apartments first, since that’s the easiest option. Their response was that yes, they had one open. So Paul and I went to see it.
Problem #1: The apartment is small. I mean like 1,000 sq ft small. The bedrooms are about 9 by 8. We’re going to have to pile stuff in a corner somewhere and sell a lot of things.
Problem #2: My washer and dryer don’t fit. The 3 bedroom apartments require stackable units… so, um, I’m going to have to sell my washer and dryer.
Problem #3: Time frame… I mean, I’d have to move in one week? And get rid of a bunch of stuff at the same time?
Well #3 was solved, sort of, because the people who run this place rented that apartment out over the weekend. But there was another in the same building… that they also rented out. I was starting to get upset, but then apparently there’s another building that has a recent 3 bedroom vacancy. She supposedly pulled it off the market until it’s ready for me to see and decide on. But the first two problems still remain.
So I’m in a holding pattern, going to stay here at least one more month, and then I’m moving. Somewhere.
In the meantime, I’ve been taking this as an opportunity to clean up some things around here. I started with old family 35mm slides. I had ten boxes of them things, complete with 1960s era plastic slide wheels. I pulled out the slides, numbered them, and lined them up in ziplocks. Now the whole collection takes up 1/6th of the space it used to and fits in a single box. Then my old mostly-broken computer chair got the axe next. It actually finished breaking as I was disassembling it for the trash bin; the welded bottom completely sheared off. If I had sat in that thing one more time I’d have been on the floor, or worse. Then I went through all my books and set aside the ones that were pointless to keep. And all my VHS tapes (count em: 81). I took all of those down to the library and donated them for their Friends of the Library sale.
Feels rather good to get rid of stuff. I have things I’ve been lugging around for years. Like those VHS tapes; yeah those are useful (ironically, the lady at the library said they sell well at their annual Friends sale, so hopefully the library gets some cash for them). I already replaced most of the damn things with DVD versions. And yet I’ve been moving them with me for years. I have books and magazines my brother gave me when he moved to Colorado (in like 1993 or something). I’ve been lugging those things around all this time too. Seriously, what’s the point? I also had some ancient mimeographed collections of writings from my 8th grade class. Not really worth keeping that stack of papers; most of the pages are almost illegible now anyway. I typed up the text and scanned the pictures, then tossed the originals in the ol’ recycle box.
Next to go were video game boxes. I was reluctant at first since I had a nice little collection of boxes from games I’ve bought over the years (like Starcraft, Half-Life, Duke Nukem, etc). But as I started to break them down, I began to feel relieved. Now I just have a short stack of game manuals instead of more than two shelves on my bookshelf. And most of those manuals won’t last long on my shelf since you can just download them from http://www.ReplacementDocs.com in PDF format. Next to go will probably be computer stuff. I don’t really need two of my seven computers. And then my Xbox since it’s probably close to being another ex-Xbox, and most of the games I have suck anyway.
I guess this is technically spring cleaning. I’ve never actively tried to reduce my footprint before. But, quite frankly, I have too much stuff. I was worried that moving to a smaller apartment would feel cramped and restrictive. In a way, it’s more liberating than anything.
So I’ve been busy, and quiet, and this is why. I want to try to do the Anirah 1.2 release this weekend just to get it off my plate as I continue cleaning out things. Then I have to figure out Craigs List and Ebay and start selling off the things I no longer want that still have value. I think I’ll remain busy with this until at least a week or two after I’m done moving to wherever I’m going to end up.
