I live in Timonium, MD, which is just north of Baltimore. I'm in my fifth week of working for an Information Tech consulting business located in Bethesda, which is just north of the northwest side of Washington, DC. In addition, I recently started a part time job a few nights a week at a bookstore in downtown DC. How downtown DC? Dick Cheney's stopped in before, and Secret Service agents come in regularly on their breaks. Laura Bush and one of her kids is doing an event at another store nearby this week.
I'm moving at the end of June. I'm hoping to find a place on the Connecticut Avenue corridor: Cleveland Park (the Uptown Theater!), or Woodley Park (the National Zoo!), or even Tanleytown (American U.) or ... well, really, walking distance to the Metro is all I want (so I can sell my Matrix). I'm heading into the area Thursday afternoon -- enroute to a happy hour in Arlington -- to hopefully talk to some realtors. DC's a bitch: everyplace offers a month-to-month lease once you've been there for a year, so no one knows far in advance when places will open up. I'm playing this one right to the fucking wire.
My days begin at a quarter of five when my alarm goes off. Nights that I work at the bookstore, they don't end until after 11, when I finally get home and fall into bed. It's rough, but it'll be worth it when I'm living in DC and don't have a commute that's an hour if traffic is light, or two to two and a half if I don't leave by 5:45, or someone gets in an accident, or there's foul weather. I don't even get to sleep in on Saturdays: got to be in at 10, which means I'm out the door and enroute by a quarter past eight at the latest. It isn't bad: I get an hour for lunch, and there's a great -- albeit expensive -- bar across the street with a great cider on tap.
My feet hurt. My back aches. My heart is cracking at the thought of taking down Hogwarts. My apartment is filled with boxes from liquor stores, now packed full of mementos and books and DVDs and my whole life. Some will come with me, some are being given away -- a friend stopped by tonight and took most of my VHS tapes, including my Highlander season sets -- some will be going into storage.
My cats miss me. They mewl at the door when I leave and when I get back. They feel neglected, and all I can think about is moving them down to DC and listening to them cry for an hour in the car. Well, that and wondering when I'm going to have time to run past the pet store and pick up more litter and food. I'll be out of cat food by Sunday, and litter by the middle of next week.
I'm wondering which of my framed posters I'll take with me -- Indy Doom? Raiders? Fierce Creatures? Black Cauldron? Big Trouble? Star Trek 25th? -- but that train of thought is frequently interrupted with the persistent thought that I should find an apartment first, and worry about wall space second. I pay $762 for a two-bedroom in Timonium, I'll be lucky to find a studio for a grand in DC (and if I'm lucky, they'll throw in my power and water and ass-rape).
Scratch that: with three and a half to four gallons a day on my commute (and my commute is six days a week), it's my car that's ass raping me. But my whole incentive for moving to DC was to take advantage of the mass-transit capability and get rid of my car.
I delivered my last pizza a month ago today. I've got money in my checking account. I get a 33% discount on books from my part-time job, and paychecks from both on Friday. The day job is a really great place to work: next Thursday, I get to drive all the way to Bethesda just to jump on a bus and get shuttled back to Baltimore for an O's game (and beeeer)!
It's 8:09 EST. I'm going to be in bed and out like a light by 9:30. I'm about ready to start making dinner: the grocery store brand of mac & cheese, with a Natty Boh for liquid sustenance. If I can find my Netflix amongst the mess that is currently my apartment, I might watch DEADWOOD while eating. Otherwise, I'll probably wind up listening to NPR.
So. That's what I've been up to.
(Oh, and I've lost fifteen pounds since starting this job.)
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
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Remember to kick Dick if you get the chance. Right outta the store.
-------------------- "You are a terrible human, Ritten." Magnus "Urgh, you are a sick sick person..." Austin Powers A leek too, pretty much a negi.....
Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
Good luck with the move and all that - though I hope you don't drive yourself to exhaustion! Sounds like you're in a good place, though. I myself am moving across the country in less than a month's time.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Jeff, your PM inbox is full. Delete some crap so I can send you something.
-------------------- "A film made in 2008 isn't going to look like a TV series from 1966 if it wants to make any money. As long as the characters act the same way, and the spirit of the story remains the same then it's "real" Star Trek. Everything else is window dressing." -StCoop
Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
Remember, Lee, when I joined here we had Bill Clinton as president. Worst thing he did was be a giant scumbag.
Now W is President.
Perspective is a wonderful thing.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Time to cut the apron strings Lee, he grew up on us.
-------------------- "You are a terrible human, Ritten." Magnus "Urgh, you are a sick sick person..." Austin Powers A leek too, pretty much a negi.....
Registered: Sep 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Omega: Remember, Lee, when I joined here we had Bill Clinton as president. Worst thing he did was be a giant scumbag.
The more I hear his wife, the more slack I give the giant scumbag.
When you get up to making religous jokes, your training will be complete.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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-------------------- "You are a terrible human, Ritten." Magnus "Urgh, you are a sick sick person..." Austin Powers A leek too, pretty much a negi.....
Registered: Sep 2000
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