Jennifer's 365 Project

In the morning I created the pile you see here. Its all items set to go to the storage unit...though upon seeing it I'm wondering why I have so much stuff.... One of those massive boxes is just more kitchen stuff, to go along with the boxes and boxes of kitchen stuff I already have shoved in the storage unit. At this point, I'm not even sure why I'm keeping so much stuff.

After moving all that stuff around I headed to Logan's for lunch with an old co-worker. It was great to catch up and enjoy food other than some of the instant junk I've been eating.

Then I headed over to the other apartment to finish up the kitchen in the afternoon. I brought the roomba with me to do some hard work while I finished up the cabinets and what not. The trusty little bot did a decent enough job, though it tried to eat a blanket at one point...

Class ended early since one of the databases was down, so I went back to the old apartment and did some additional organizing and packing. Leki was excited to see me and was sure to say hello everytime I passed him in the hallway...

Monday night had been spent on the preliminary organization of the kitchen. Shortly after starting I realized that integrating two kitchens is infinitely more time consuming than just transplanting your own from one place to the next.

So much of Tuesday afternoon was spent organizing the kitchen further. There was so much overflow that I started making piles in the living room on the furniture to see how much of each item there was.

By the end of the afternoon I still only had about half the kitchen addressed.

So since I'm moving into Chris's apartment and he has all the furnishings you'd need, some of my things are going into storage until we move to a bigger location. Namely couches, tables, the bedroom set from my childhood I refuse to let go, etc.

Of course, in order to move that stuff you need a moving vehicle (or a truck, which I dont own) and more beefiness than I alone possess. So in the interim I've been packing up various other things I'll be storing. There's the futon frame I've been lugging for a few years, some kitchen stuff from my grandparents, and holiday decorations that aren't really needed at the moment.

While I know its smarter to move the large stuff into the storage unit first and then the small stuff, the 8x10 I rented should still allow for enough maneuverability even with this stuff in there.

It could be tighter packed (thought it is from heaviest to lightest), but I'm waiting on a few additional items to make their way over to stack things better. Still, its about two car loads (not completely full) there, complete with crates jammed behind things.

While parking for school today I noticed a bright yellow sticker on the parking meters. Apparently they now offer pay by phone for the downtown Grand Rapids meters. Nice.

After class Chris and I had lunch and he helped me with another few car loads of stuff. Then it was back to packing, sorting, and shifting stuff around that I haven't decided on yet....

Nothing super exciting happening at the moment - moving usually sucks up a lot of time.

I was supposed to spend a chunk of Saturday finishing up packing and organizing and basically making the transition easy. Pick up box, load in car, rise, repeat.

Instead I started up Trigun, kept sitting down to watch it, passed out for a few hours on the couch with the cat, and eventually packed a few extra boxes.

In the evening I loaded up my car as best I could and brought a load over to Chris's to toss into a closet he cleared out for me.

I had a harder time moving stuff this time versus the past....so I really appreciate Chris helping me with the heavier things I kept insisting I could carry even though I couldnt.

Friday night I headed out to The Score to with Sherry to hang out with Melissa, and old co-worker of mine.

It was a good night and great to catch up with Melissa, but I was pretty tired and didn't manage to stay too late.

I did change up the normal food I order at a bar though - from potato skins to cheese wedges. Neither is healthy...

Much of today I spent packing and organizing more stuff in the apartment. The pile of boxes grows...

Class today was held in the library to get official training on LexisNexis and Westlaw.

Class didnt last too long, only an hour and a half (well it was work at your own pace but the tutorials were pretty easy) so I got out early and snapped a quick shot of one of the bookshelves. Its a little empty cause its the end of a series.

After I got home I took a few hard drives out of some old computers I'm going to toss out, and Leki was kind enough to offer his kitteh tech support skills.

This evening, after Chris got out of work we headed out to Wealthy
Theatre in East Grand Rapids to watch 12 Monkeys.
if you haven't seen the film yet (and like sci-fi), you should. Its made of win.

I was pretty lazy all day Monday. I was going to pack, going to work on my research paper, was going to be productive. Instead I sat around sleepy and cuddled with the cat till about 4:30. Then I finally got up and got ready to head over to the June's place.

Sherry and Dan have been home from the hospital for a few days with the new baby, Emilie, so I was curious to see how things were going. As is the case with an older sibling, Natalie is adjusting but grudgingly.

And, it appears, we have apparently fallen into old habits. I sat on the couch and watched Daniel rearrange his bookshelf, as he used to do every Monday.

Sunday marks the last day of Youmacon. The traffic flow was lighter, the lineup of events less intense, and overall the median age of attendees seemed to drop by several years. I even ran into a Naruto that I think was only 5.

Chris and I originally were going to watch the main event Potter Puppet Pals in the morning, but we waited in line for over 45 minutes past when the event was supposed to occur and finally ditched the idea and checked out of our hotel room instead. I dont know that the event ever occurred.

Later we went to watch Otaku Family Feud as it was pretty entertaining last year. But this year it was was a little lackluster and slow.

We did listen to more of The Spoony Bards for a bit, and even saw a random Carmelldansen circle.

Still, it was a good weekend and I look forward to how it pans out with the event being moved to the Renaissance Center next year in Downtown Detroit. Its a bigger venue, for sure. but how much space exactly will they be taking up?

The second day was the first and only full day spent at the con. Chris and I most of the day doing our own thing; people watching, enjoying elaborate costumes (even Nell in her released form), watching random panels and such.

The three of us spent a few hours in the afternoon watching Live Action Mario Party (based on Nintendo's game, of course), and Amanda even participated in one of the min-games doing a crab-walk.

We watched random audio/video tracks throughout the day, including Video Game Project 5 and some humerous mashups. I'd never spent so much time watching AMV's and it was well worth it. I'd only seen some AMV Hell videos before but some of these others were really funny.

Later Chris and I listened to The Spoony Bards (so named because of a censorship/translation issue from an FFIV game) play for a bit in a hotel lounge area on the first floor. They're always fun to listen to and play a range of geeky musical scores.