Packing

Started: 2002-08-12 08:32:50

Submitted: 2002-08-12 09:09:14

Visibility: World-readable

Since an absurd amount of stuff has happened since I last sat down to document my life, I'm going to break it up into something that I will pretend are manageable chunks. This first chunk will start at the time Gem and I pulled into the epic driveway (which most of the Content Solutions crowd has experienced now) of 88 Alpha Drive at 1800 PDT Friday evening. This will, surprisingly enough, cover the period after our honeymoon.

(I would like to take this moment to point out that Longview, Washington exists on the western side of Washington, which means that it is between the Pacific Ocean, which sends vast clouds full of water eastward, and the Cascade Mountains, which wring all of that water out of the air like a sponge. This means that Longview, like Seattle to the north and Portland to the south, gets an absurd amount of rain. Not nearly as much as Olympic National Park (12 feet per year in some places), but much more than Walla Walla, on the dry eastern side of the state.)

At this exact moment, jägerfesting might look a little strange. That's because I'm exporting content from Ziyal's database into a whole bunch of html files, which are being served by Defiant's webserver. That's why new content appears sporadically. It's far from what I would consider to be an optimal solution, but I think it's as good as it's going to get for the moment.

Friday: Gem and I arrive at the Stone Estate just in time for supper. Tristan brought his girlfriend Jessica along for the weekend. Gem's mother (who, I suppose, is now my mother-in-law) made doughnuts, which were rather good. After supper, Gem and I opened a whole bunch of gifts, most of which I'm sure will come in handy at some point or another but I can't really figure out when. Notable, though, were several Cutco knives from Yanthor and Anya and his parents. My mother kept her kitchen well-stocked with knives, so I have become dependent on superior cutting implements.

It was kind of strange to actually be expected to sleep in the same bed as Gem at her parents' house. But I'm not going to complain. :)

Gem's mother enjoys waking everyone in the house up for breakfast at 0800, although she does give the option to not actually wake up should that be desired. Gem's standard procedure is to wake up, catatonically eat breakfast, and return to bed for several hours until a more normal hour of awakeness. I thought this was an excellent idea and followed suit. Church was rather empty because of the church campout this weekend; most people were off at it, or took the excuse to not show up to church. As is standard procedure, dinner followed church, and sitting around aimlessly waiting for the sun to set followed dinner. I eventually retreated to my room to read Cryptonomicon, which is my current reading addiction.

When direct solar illumination finally left Longview, Washington, we were free to choose our activities as we pleased. Gem and I went through all of our wedding gifts received so far, with her mother's advice and assistance, and figured out exactly what we wanted to keep and what we wanted to return. (Unfortunately, some of the things that we would have liked to return came without gift receipts, dooming us to hang on to them for ever.) We got an absurd amount of crystal, about a third of which we will attempt to return.

Sunday: I couldn't drag myself out of bed in time for early-morning breakfast, so I slept for a while longer and eventually decided it was time to make an official appearance. Gem and I attempted to make appointments with the appropriate bridal registry people at Meier and Frank and The Bon Marché but failed. Gem packed our wedding gifts into various boxes while I pretended to occupy myself reading Cryptonomicon and taping the boxes shut when Gem was finished with them. This took most of the day. After supper, Gem declared herself done packing, which I was more than happy to agree with. We turned our sights to the pink room (rooms in the Stone Estate are named after the colors which make up the wallpaper; Gem has occupied the pink room consistently since Vanessa vacated it a year ago; I now get to share this room with her) and cleaned it up enough so that I could move Ziyal in so we could watch Dick. (A recent Netflix acquisition.) This move also gives me the chance to feel less anti-social when I'm sitting at Ziyal, since Gem is currently behind me catching up on post-breakfast sleep.

The general plan is to return stuff to The Bon Marché (specific to the Pacific Northwest) and Meier and Frank (part of the epic May Company department stores network, which conveniently includes Foleys in Boulder) today or perhaps tomorrow while we continue packing. On Wednesday, we get a Penske truck and will cram all of Gem's stuff and all of my stuff that managed to make it here (basically, everything that was in my dorm room) and head to Boulder, arriving by Friday. Next Sunday is the greatly-exciting Boulder reception, which will likely involve a whole lot more gifts I get to write thank-yous for.

I need to locate employment, and housing wherever I manage to secure this employment. I'll have to make a couple of calls today.