Jen in the City

The move has been a bit frustrating…no internet, as promised that first day ~~ almost a week without, which means no Netflix or Roku access.  And when you don’t have satellite or cable, the internet is your direct connection to many things.  As much as I don’t want or like to be technologically-dependent, there are times when it is absolutely necessary.  I have been able to sporadically get online when I can make it to one of the local coffeehouses.  I am trying to get a job and I need both my Hotmail access and the job search sites to accomplish this particular task! 

 

This apartment is the smallest place we have lived since the apartment in Tallahassee.  We owned our home in Hobart, which had a one-car detached garage we used for storage.  We had 3 bedrooms, one we used for us, one we used as a dining room (tho we usually ate in front of the TV in the living room) and one was a guest room/office.  We also had a very large media room in the basement, where Chris was able to display a lot of his favorite collectibles.  When we sold the house, we shed many things, to include Halloween decorations, knickknacks….a hodgepodge of stuff collected over the many years we had been together.

 

The rental chalet in Ogden Dunes had space in the laundry room and part of the attached garage for us to store boxes, totes and whatnot.  We only had one bedroom, but the closet space (in one of the bathrooms, actually) was spacious.  We made it very homey for the year we lived there.  We then sold almost every piece of furniture we owned before moving from Indiana to Colorado.  We also let go of more “stuff”.

 

The townhouse in Longmont was plenty spacious, with an unfinished basement allowing us to store our totes of holiday stuff and the boxes of everyday décor that we didn’t want to display for the year.  We also were able to hold on to every single unpacked box, storing them under the stairs!!!  Utilizing a wood shelf already up, Chris made his workshop down there, too.  (I wished he didn’t have that hour long each way commute for work b/c I think he would have been able to finish projects he had started back in Hobart!!!)

 

Now, we are in a one-bedroom/one-bath apartment trying to figure out how to arrange not only our clothes and bathroom things, but also the remaining pieces of furniture and the decorations.  We paid a little extra for a storage space in the basement of one of the other buildings and it is just about filled to capacity!  We were hoping to hold onto our moving boxes, but it looks like we may have to put them in recycling as there are still more boxes, with things we want to hang on to, that will need a temporary home!! 

 

I don’t mind if Chris keeps most (or all) of his creative stuff in the dining room, which we will use strictly as an office and gathering space.  When it is within arm’s reach, he is more apt to work on a project (or two or three, more like, as he always has several going at one time!).  While we plan to enjoy city living, we have also discussed making & selling things to generate income. 

 

Chris is an amazing artist, of so many mediums, and I want to share it with the world!  We both have our talents and I think we could use them to our advantage, rather than just a hobby.  This way, having and collecting items for creative purposes won’t seem like we are just hauling stuff from one state to another, one place to another. 

 

We have let go of plenty for the bigger goal of moving, expanding our horizons, having experiences over things.  I am a big proponent of simplicity and I suspect Chris is feeling burdened by a few things.  I know that he is planning to unload some of the things that made the cut since Hobart and I hope that some of it he tries to sell before simply donating to Goodwill. 

 

So, a few other issues post-move, besides the lack of internet, are: having to wait on DirecTV technicians on two different afternoons to have it determined that there is no signal access in order that we can be relieved of our contract (we still have 13 of the 24 months left); the calipers for my rear brakes are shot and are burning my brand new brake pads and I am told that this problem was undetectable when my pads & rotors were replaced less than three weeks ago; although we gave plenty of notice (3 weeks to be exact) of our place being empty, the property management didn’t replace the vanity in our bathroom until after we started living here full-time (as of today, it is done!!); and the people above us are extremely loud when we are trying to sleep (yes, we knew that living in an old building would come with noises, but I guess we hoped/believed that people would be more considerate), which may prompt a polite knock on their door to ask for the quiet hours to be observed (from 10P-7A per our lease agreement). 

 

Did I mention that we were stuck for over 2 hours with a moving truck that wouldn’t start, once we had it all unloaded?!?  It had a bad battery and needed a jump, which took all of about 2 minutes!!!  We were double parked in front of the apartment and one of us had to be with the truck at all times.  Our moving-in day was completely thrown off b/c we were so late in getting rid of the truck that we had no desire to do anything beyond getting our bed together for sleeping! 

 

Oh, and it rains weirdly here….almost like Florida, where it is sunny and then rainy and then sunny again ~ except here it might just start to hail, too!  We walked to dinner last nite, Annie’s Café, and felt some raindrops (no big deal), but by the time we got the two blocks to Colfax it started to pick up and then, yep, we were being pelted by hail!  We weren’t injured, no welts or anything, but cuh-razy, nonetheless!    

 

I wish I could say I had my workout mojo, but I am faltering a tad.  I did run 4 miles on Monday, around the lake at City Park.  I did do a strength training workout on Tuesday in the apartment.  We were busy at the Longmont place on Wednesday (and then unloading our cars here with the last of our things we had left behind last Friday).  I had every intention of running this morning, but I didn’t get out the door while Chris was getting ready for work and then I decided it was important for me to get online before my appointment, which meant I had to leave early to stop at a coffee place for free wifi (today, because it was on the way, I chose Panera).  Tomorrow, I am watching Hushpuppy all day, beginning at 7!  So, unless I can get a run in this evening (tho, it is raining right now and I don’t know the weather for the day as we have limited TV access with the digital antenna we are trying out) or tomorrow evening, I might not get any good, sustained exercise until Saturday morning.

 

I’m tired in the mornings, even sleeping later than in Longmont, partly b/c I am not getting sound sleep (thank you apartment A6) and partly b/c I am not getting my regular exercise needs met.  I know I can & should cut myself some slack b/c we are in the midst of all this moving hubbub, but that is hard for me.  Now, the stress over my rear brakes will add to the mix, weighing heavily on me b/c of the financial outlay (and b/c I believe Midas is at fault and am going to contact the owner to seek restitution).  My To-Do list continues to grow for each item I checkmark completed!  Ugh!  And thinking about grocery shopping…well, add it to the list!!

 

I am doing my best to keep it together ~~ this whole move is a full-time job for me, so it’s rather a good thing I am still observing my “sabbatical”!  I hope that with the long weekend ahead, we (which means Chris b/c he is the brawn) will have our wall décor hung, including a shelf in our bedroom and the shelves for the office.  That said, I think I might have a seasonal job come next week…..more details to come as they unfold.  BWAHAHAHAHA!!!