ugh...moved some stuff into the apartment today. microwave, phone, bedding, towels, cds, books, food. it's starting to look lived in. actually, my brother is crashing there for a few days, so someone is really living there.



i am sore right now...



josh & lielle made it safe to new york. it was weird calling him at 9pm and having him be so tired since i'm used to him being on pacific time--it's was usually me who was tired all those times it was 1am my time and only 11pm cali time. well, i'm going to have to get used to the eastern time zone; it's quite a change since i've been operating on pacific time since june. oh, well. east coast time will be good for me because i'll need to start going to bed earlier to catch the train in the morning for work.



alrighty then...to bed must i go.

i was just going through my mail, and would you believe that i have received a complimentary copy of ARTHRITIS TODAY?? i have to admit, i think i'm gonna feel like i have arthritis in the morning, but i'm not sure i need an actual subscription at this point...i think i'll send this to josh cuz it's got 30 ways to get knee relief, and he can use all the ways he can get.

i just got home from helping josh & lielle pack their cars and drive off to new york without me. :( i can't believe we got everything in those cars. there was just enough room.

we all did a lot of driving around today (well, lielle & i did at least; josh will be for the next 6 hours) and carrying bunches of stuff (you know, someone really needs to think of a way to make tvs and computer monitors out of a lighter plastic--not necessarily styrofoam but something along those lines maybe a bit more friendly to the environment and to the backs of those carrying the objects) and oh, the stairs, the stairs!!!! i counted exactly 53 steps between their apartment and the ground, which means i did like a LOT of stairs today, more than i normally do. let me tell ya, i never want to look at green carpeting ever again cuz that's what i stared at for a good hour or so.

don't get me wrong--i don't mind at all; josh & lielle are the type of friends you'd fly to the moon for. i'm just glad i was off work today and available cuz it would've been hard on josh's messed up knee, all those stairs. and i don't have to drive 850 miles in the next 24 hours.

i did get a box of my clothes packed which is like a 10000% improvement from the day before, when i got like 0 boxes packed. turns out my brother's going to stay in my apartment for a few days anyway, so i'm not going to really move in to stay there until probably this weekend. it's all good--now i have time to pack for the big move on saturday. i'm sure once i get started, i'll get it done quickly. or i could just throw everything out the window...

sunday afternoon was spent moving josh's stuff out of his folks' place. connolly, oscar & joe helped out. it was kinda fun going through his old things. i got to save a piece of the berlin wall from being thrown out. josh didn't know that the plastic bag he'd put in the trash pile had that in there, but of course, me, i have to rummage through it all just to be sure there wasn't anything that I didn't want, and i found that piece of concrete, and i'm like "are you sure you want to throw this away?" and of course he didn't.

we hung out with josh & lielle at their apartment for a little bit, and then we dropped off joe at his house, & then connolly, oscar & i met olarn at hubs, had dinner then drove to my apartment. it was my first time there since i officially got possession this morning. i still totally love it! misty (the previous tenant) even left me her bed in addition to all the other stuff, so i literally do not have to buy any furniture whatsoever. the guys really liked it too, and they started planning my color scheme for painting the place. they were coming up with all these ideas because i've got the slanted ceilings, which provides more opportunities for being creative. they've volunteered to help me paint, thank god, cuz i can honestly say that i would never get it done if i had to do it myself. i'm soooo happy about having a yard!!! with gardening space!! i wonder if my landlord will mind if i plant a prairie...i prefer to grow native plants, and i like 'em wild as possible. i can't wait until the weather warms up!

so josh & lielle are leaving tomorrow afternoon. they're going to spend the night somewhere in pennsylvania and then drive the remainder on tuesday. i think it hasn't really sunk in yet that josh is leaving. it seems that people i care about are always leaving, and i'm always the one to stick around. one of these days, though, i'm going to leave, maybe to california, maybe not, but i'm gonna leave. i mean, i really love chicago and everything (except for the humidity in the summer and the topography or the lack thereof rather) but i feel like i've had it safe all my life because things have been so predictable and familiar for me. i know that changing locations doesn't necessary change a person, but i think the process of moving to a new place and having to put down roots again and being in an unfamiliar unpredictable place can bring out some qualities in a person that they may have never known they even possessed. well, we'll see what happens...

oh, these photos in today's post (except for the hubs picture) were taken last night on my way home from joe & trish's st. paddy's day party. i love taking shots at night while driving--ya never know whatcher gonna gyet.

well, good morning, y'all! oh, wait. it's afternoon already...time to get busy...get josh's stuff from his parents' house, start packing, blah blah blah...yeah right. no, really, i've decided to do my big move next saturday, like with a real truck or van or something else large rented from u-haul.

last night before i went to bed, i was listening to music with my headphones on and i had programmed a bunch of songs for the playlist. i ended up falling asleep before the first song was even over (that's what 9 hours of sleep during a 72 hour period will do to ya--i should have gone to medical school). every now and then throughout the night i would wake up and i'd hear the music, and the strange thing was that i always woke up to the same song. i figured the playlist must just be repeating and i happened to be waking up at the same point every time. by morning, i came to the realization that i had actually hit the repeat button for JUST THE FIRST SONG, so basically i had listened to that same song over and over and over again in my sleep for SEVEN HOURS!!!! that would be like 130 times. and a song called ROLLERCOASTER no less. no wonder i still felt tired everytime i'd wake up. i wish i could remember my dreams to see if there's a correlation...i think i might have to do some research into the effects of the music you listen to during sleep and your dream life, how rested you are in the morning, etc.