New Home

I'm halfway moved into my new place so now I can at least post about moving. First, I want to plug Two Men and a Truck. I hired them and they were awesome. They were so fast, they took great care of all my stuff, and nothing broke in the move. It was fantastic. I am so glad I hired them; it was way better than trying to do it myself. Especially because it was hot as hell again on moving day, so that would have sucked to do it myself. I'm about halfway unpacked now. My kitchen is together, the bathroom is done, most of my bedroom is done, and clearly I have internet (the most important thing, lol). Memo is home too, after a short stay at the vet. When I picked him up, the nurse said that she found Memo and another cat all snuggled  up together that morning. I thought that was really adorable, and it makes me happy that he could interact nicely with another cat. Once we're all settled in, I think that I'll start looking for a friend for Memo.

Argh anxiety

I am already so nervous about starting to work in Bobik's lab. I am afraid that no one will like me, that I won't get accepted to the lab, that I'll get thrown out of the program and I at least want to get this stupid MS so I can say I have an advanced degree and get the hell out of academia. I know this is the anxiety disorder talking, but I am so antsy right now. I've already packed my bag, made a lunch, checked the map of the Molecular Biology building so I know where Bobik's office is and where the bathrooms are, and now I'm just drinking tea and trying to relax so I can sleep. I will definitely need to make coffee in the morning because I have no idea how well I'll sleep tonight. I'll feel so much better after this first day but right now I am freaking out.
In other non-related stuff, it stormed and the internet went out for about an hour. That was the first time it actually went down and I couldn't fix it by turning the modem on and off. It was out for about an hour and then came back on. Annoying, but whatever. When I called the provider, the lady on the phone said that all of their lines in Ames were down. The weird thing was that the storm lasted about ten minutes and that was it. It was silly.
And now I'm watching an interview on MSNBC of Jeffrey Dahmer's parents. Why? I have no idea. I like that kind of true crime and psychological stuff. Maybe I should have gone into criminal justice and been a forensic evidence technician person. Maybe I'll do that if I can't get my microbiology MS. It will totally be fine and I'll grind through this MS, but just in case, I'm already looking at various and sundry options.

Random Collection of Things

Yeah, I don't have a whole lot going on to blog about, because for the past couple of weeks have just been going to class, seeing Dan, and my usual procrastination regarding chores. I did get my first biochemistry exam back and I got an 82.5%, which was way better than I expected. There's another exam on Monday so hopefully I keep doing that well. The class is so obnoxious. Virology started and that is a really cool class, and the professor is really good. I'm starting my last rotation soon, I just have to meet with Dr. Phillips again and then I'll start. I'm really looking forward to this rotation because this is the lab I want to be in. I'm hoping it turns out well. I signed the lease for my townhouse today. I really wish I could  move now instead of having to wait until August 1st. It's going to be such a pain hiring movers and carpet cleaners and doing the move-out inspection when everyone else is doing the same thing. The carpet cleaning thing is such a pain, I wish Hunziker would just keep part of my deposit and do it themselves. Ugh. As it is I'll probably have to move all my stuff out on July 30th, get the carpet cleaned either then or early on the 31st, and then have the move out inspection on the 31st, but I can't move in to the new place until August 1st, so I'll have to be able to keep my stuff on the moving truck for two nights, and I'll have to find somewhere to sleep. Hopefully Dan and I will still be together then so I can stay at his place, but who knows. I'm really hoping this is the last time I move for a while because it is such a pain in the butt!

Townhouse!

Last Saturday afternoon I checked out a townhouse that's for rent. The apartment I'm in now is okay,  but there are too many undergrads and it's too loud. So I looked around and this townhouse came up. It's in a residential area and is surrounded by single family homes. It's really quiet, which is what I want. Then I got to see the actual unit. It's on the end so I only have neighbors on one side. AWESOME. There's a washer and dryer in the unit, the kitchen is nice, there's three bedrooms, and a big bathroom with a linen closet in it. There's also a garage!!! My poor car won't have to sit outside all the time now. And I also get two parking spaces so I can have visitors over without worrying about parking. It's cat friendly obviously because I won't leave Memo behind. Today I got the call that I got it and I'm signing my lease on Thursday! Then I get to move in on August 1st! Somehow I have to figure out how to hire movers and get the carpet cleaned at the old place before my move-out inspection. I have a feeling I'll need a couple of days so hopefully I can find movers that will let me store my crap on the truck for a day or two, and I'll have to find somewhere to crash for a couple nights. Worst case is that I get a hotel room, but maybe I'll be able to crash somewhere. Anyway, I'm getting the place!! YAY!!!

Here's a picture of my cat playing in my kitchen with a golf ball

Moving In Is Hard Work

So I thought that the hard part was done Monday, when we moved everything out of the truck and into the apartment in 100+ degree heat. I think that was the hardest part, but the rest of the week hasn't been much easier. It took me two days to render my bedroom and kitchen usable, and then today I tackled my books. I have probably close to a thousand books, and that made about 30 boxes worth sitting in my front room. I had managed to get two bookcases up in my office, so I filled those first, then maneuvered around and got the other two bookcases up in the living room and filled them. Then I patted myself on the back because I thought I had managed to fit every book I owned into these four bookcases.
Then I noticed the two boxes sitting off to one side labeled 'books.' Ugh. So I drove to Target and bought another bookcase. It was cheap but all my bookcases are cheap. I don't make enough money to get fancy shit yet. I got home at 4pm and dragged the box into my bedroom to put this bookcase together.
At 6:30 I was finally done. What a nightmare. I knew this thing was cheap, but geez. It had the requisite instructions not in English, but every single hole where a screw was supposed to go was too short and too narrow. So I had to re-drill every single hole. Then to top it all off, I finally got this thing together and up and realized that I had put one of the top sides on wrong, meaning there were no holes for the pegs that hold the shelves to go. I was not about to take the entire bloody bookcase apart to fix it, so I just drilled through the side and put the two holes I wanted in. It looks a little weird but I don't care because it works and it was a twenty dollar bookcase to begin with.
It's done and all my books are now really unpacked, but what a pain in the ass! I do not want to do that again anytime soon!

I'm Here!

Woo, this is my first official post from Iowa. I finally have a couple of minutes to type. I've been busy! On Sunday I left Michigan for good and drove all the way to Ames. Yesterday we spent the whole day unloading the trailer. It was awful, because with the heat index it was about 110 degrees out. I have never been so sweaty in my life. It sucked. But we got it all done and had dinner at Hickory Park and the ice cream made all the hard work acceptable. Today was putting a bunch of furniture together, and then realizing I needed more furniture, and then buying it and grocery shopping, and that's where I'm at. Oh, we also ate lunch at the Machine Shed in Des Moines, because I went there once with a friend and enjoyed it, so I took my parents there. Now we're going to shim some of my bookcases and my pantry, go visit my great-aunt Barbara's grave, eat dinner, and try to put together my recumbent bicycle. It should be interesting. But now I'm here!

Programming Note the Deuce

I'm moving to Ames this weekend! And, I need to pack my whole life right now. Which means that as of today, my desktop computer will be packed up. I still have my netbook, but my internet time will be restricted for the next week or so. Hopefully I will have internet soon when I move. My apartment has internet as an included utility. It's awesome not to pay extra for it, but I have no idea how setting it up works. I may just be able to plug in my cable modem and get on the internet, or it might be more complicated. I have no clue.

I keep spending money

The past week or so has been expensive. I'm buying a bunch of the stuff I need/want for moving, and of course it costs money. Thankfully I have all this money plus some, but I don't like seeing my money go away. The most expensive thing I bought was a new bed. I've been sleeping in a twin bed for way too long, so I bought a queen size. Yay! The next most expensive thing is a stationary recumbent bicycle. I want to keep up exercising, but I know that especially the first semester, I probably won't be doing much fencing or going to a gym. Plus I can read while I use a recumbent bike, so I can study while exercising. I like to multitask. Then it's just small stupid things like kitchen stuff, a region-free DVD player, floor lamps, stuff like that. I'm glad I've been budgeting for all this stuff for a while.
I've only got fifteen days of work left! I'm really excited to be done. Technically I get paid through July 8th because I'm using all my vacation days, but it's really only fifteen days left to show up at work. I'll miss my supervisor because she's completely awesome, but I am glad to move on.