note: all images here were taken by the former owners. This isn't my furniture, alas.
So, the move's over with.
Thursday, Misha and I moved over some of the boxes. On Friday morning, I moved over the rest of the boxes that were already packed and then went home and packed what was left.
I didn't sleep that night. I never do, the day before a move.
Saturday rolled around, and I was ready. I tossed the electronics in the trunk of my car, picked up a few things, and waited for people to show up. Lumiere and Velvet arrived and I grabbed Lumiere and went to get the truck. I drove it for all of a block back to where I'd parked my car and then switched with him so we could go back to Madstop to begin the process of loading up the van.
So the five of us (me, Velvet, Lumiere, Cheetah, Misha, and a guy who's Mystery Identity is E) lifted, carried, packed, and got everything I needed to transport in one truckload. That's all my furniture and a good bit of my other stuff. Then Velvet and Lumiere left to go to a class, and we drove over to the new place [where we were joined by the friends I bought the place from] and commenced unloading. And unloading. And unloading. The move took us about three and a half hours total, but it seemed longer.
This was the first move I actually organized all by myself, and it really did go smashingly well. We went over to BWH and had pizza and soda and chilled for a bit.
I took most everyone home, and Chris and Misha helped me put my bed together. After I shooed them out, I crawled into bed....
...and failed to fall asleep.
I don't generally sleep my first night in a new place, either.
The cats were being amusing, though. I brought them all into the bathroom of the new place and let them poke around in there for a few minutes, then opened the door. Juniper was the first out, and he started coming down the stairs before realizing he was in a new place. He tried to go under the stairs and bonked his head, and spent the next ten minutes hissing at the stairs. Kallisti slunk around a while but generally took the move with good grace. Lilith, on the other hand, was pathetic. She's never moved before, and she doesn't deal well with change. My fearless kitty spent a number of hours hiding behind the cat carrier and then in the closet, making herself as small as she possibly could and howling as if her heart were broken.
And yesterday, I unpacked and unpacked and unpacked. Amazingly enough, it appears that my kitchen has enough cupboard space for everything. More than enough, even. And my closets will hold all of my stuff, when all is said and done. There's even space for me to expand my book collection.
860 square feet, mine all mine.
Lilith was feeling better yesterday but she stuck close to me as I unpacked, making sure that I was within earshot all the time. Every time I went upstairs or downstairs, I had the *thump thump thump* of cat feet behind me on the stairs.
I'm not all the way unpacked, but Misha came over yesterday and helped in the evening (and dragged me out of the house and made me eat ice cream! oh, no! twist my arm!). So I'm doing pretty well, there, so far.
I left my broom behind. and my shovel. I'm going back for my shovel but I'm leaving the broom.
The entire first floor of Madstop is eerily empty right now.
I want the storage area to be cleared out so I can put this table that I don't need right now down there.
I think I actually do want a hamster.
I definitely want some more bookshelves.
I need to set up the computer.
Random clearing of thoughts in my head.
You know, I find myself empathizing more and more with gay people who marry people of the opposite sex. When your social circle is made of of people who are in het-style relationships, it's awfully difficult to hang out and wait for another gay person (or bi person who is actually *comfortable* in a same-sex relationship) to happen along. You end up wandering into a het-style relationship, almost by accident.Of all the people I'm good friends with, only three identify as gay. I hang out with none of them on a regular basis.
you'd think such a little thing as sexual orientation wouldn't make that big a difference, but it does. The truth is, bi people tend to end up in het-style relationships, for whatever reason.
And so I feel oddly lonely, sometimes. Wondering is there no one here like me?
I heard on the radio a profile of a hundred-year-old lesbian, who is being supported and comforted by this huge group of young lesbians. And I wondered, Who are they and how can I meet them?
Then again, maybe I don't want to get involved in a lesbian social circle and that's why I've not found one yet. I seem to be not queer enough for the gay girls, and I'm certainly queerer than the bis as a group are really comfortable with. I still remember attempting to join an email list for bi women right after I'd gotten out of a relationship with a guy. I got email back saying, "Do you identify as bi or lesbian? This list is for bi women only, you know."
I identify as a lesbian. I just got finished dating a guy. Do you think that just because the label's different that I don't have something useful to contribute?
And I seem to be welcome on lesbian lists...until I mention that I used to date guys. not, of course, that there are any email lists for lesbians in Seattle. I've looked, and they're just absent.
Maybe it's time to start my own.
