Tag Archives: moving

My Move, or An Actual American Horror Story

Posted in NYC Living by

As some of you know, my lease ended in April of this year, so at the end of the month it was time to find a new place, load up, and make the move. I’ve moved most of my earthly possessions multiple times in my life, and so far have found it to be a fairly innocuous process. Maybe a misstep here or there, but overall all accomplished in one day with time and laughter to spare.

However, this time? That was not the case. We had everything planned out in advance, so it wasn’t a lack of planning or coordination that was the problem. Everything was just off by just enough to make it not work, which I think may have been more frustrating than had something been wrong because it was my own fault.

Harry took a day off work to help me, which honestly I could not appreciate more, and I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to do this without him. We rented a U-Haul truck, loaded everything up in it with the help of his roommate and my good friend Michelle, and just when we were ready to leave, I found out that I had crossed wires with one of my new roommates and couldn’t get the keys until later that afternoon, after we had to return our U-Haul. So we put most of my things in Harry and Michelle’s apartment (which is two blocks from my new place, so it’s not too inconvenient) and drove to the storage unit where we were going to put my big furniture. Unfortunately, we then had the wrong key, so all of that had to go back and be put in their apartment, too, and the U-Haul had to go back immediately. So we then cleaned my apartment and got everything out, and then quit for the evening.

So really, we got everything out, but just not quite with the timing we’d hoped for, and most of my stuff is still in Harry and Michelle’s living room, to be moved this next week when we have car access. Not ideal, but it really could have been a lot worse, I suppose.

I’ve had better moves, and even though pretty much everything went wrong with this one, I have to say that it wasn’t the worst day. I still got to spend my day with people I love, and we had a good time, even though I was out of my mind with stress. And the good thing is that now I have six months until I have to move again, so I’ll be able to take this and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

I’m able to take a step back this weekend, though, and relax at Harry’s parents’ house in upstate New York, so I’ll be back with a much more relaxed mind, body and soul after the weekend. See you next week, friends!

How I moved most of my nail polish collection cross-country.

Posted in December by

First, you should know that I have a mildly substantial nail polish collection. It’s nowhere near what you’d see in a salon, but at the same time, it’s not exactly something I’m willing to just leave behind when I move. That seems like a waste of money.

And second, when I realized I was moving across the country, I started looking online for ways to transport nail polish. I already knew that you can’t send nail polish through the air, in a plane or in a box, so the only option there was ground shipping. And that was cool, because I was already sending some boxes via FedEx, so I could just tuck those polishes in one of those boxes.

But then – how do you pack nail polish?

I looked and looked, and couldn’t find a very good blog post anywhere on how to move nail polish. So, naturally, I decided to write one. First, I sat down and separated what I was going to take with me. I knew I didn’t have room for all of these, so I was only taking my favorites (which, as you’ll see, is still a lot).

Then I taped all of my polishes down in an easily-foldable pattern on bubble wrap, as seen here. You can get bubble wrap really cheap at any superstore – I’ve bought it at both Walmart and Target (don’t get it at the post office, it’s super expensive there). In retrospect, I wish I’d left a little more bubble wrap between the polishes, but that’s just a personal preference. They all made it fine, so I’m not worried. Yes, the yellow tape is double-sided – because I ran out of regular. It was fine. Useful later, but not necessary.

Then I rolled that sucker up into this weird-looking log of nail polishes. I had to wrap my base coat separately, since it didn’t fit into the pattern. After I rolled them all up, I got out a roll of packing tape and wrapped it to death in that. Taking no chances here, folks.

Finally, I got two one-gallon Ziploc bags. I stuck the log in one of them and it was too long, so I wrapped that one in a little packing tape so it would stick. Then I stuck that one inside the other Ziploc bag, and as you can see below, taped that one up more than anything I’ve ever taped in my life.

And, to my delight, they arrived safely and without incident. Unwrapping them has proven to be another chore (so much packing tape!), but it was definitely worth it.

Have you moved nail polish – how did you do it? Moved anything else that was fragile?

day 40. future dreams.

Posted in February by

Can you believe we’re already 40 days into 2011? Seriously? Eleven percent of this year is over. I don’t even know what to say about that. Just typing all of that makes me feel like I have a lot less time to accomplish what I want to get done this year – better get on it, I suppose.

I’ve had kind of a change of pace today. It’s another snow day (not that I have class on Wednesday, but whatever), and I’m just chilling at my parents’ house, getting some reading and other things done. Right now, I’m sitting in the living room, eating a small bowl of baby carrots and looking out at the snow on everything. I haven’t gone outside today, and to be perfectly honest, I’m fine with that. I love looking at the snow, but I really don’t like spending time in it.

That’s not what I wanted to talk about.

When reading skimming thinking about my archives, I realized I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the past. Specifically, the past year of my life, which I think we can all agree was not the highlight of my twenty-two-and-a-half years here (the half is always the most important part, right?). That’s really not something I want to dwell on.

I want to think about the future. I want to think about all of the exciting things I have lined up for my future. Specifically, the next year of my life. Where will I be six months from now? A year from now? I’m crossing my fingers that I know the answer to that question.

I’m sorry that’s, like, the worst picture of all time. But whatever, the spirit is there.

My main goals right now are as follows:

  1. Graduate in April
  2. Move to NYC in August

And…that’s about it. I mean, I have other, smaller goals to make those two happen, but those are the two major events happening this year. Maybe I should start a countdown.

Yes, I’m totally pulling a Carrie Bradshaw. I think she grew up in New York. Maybe. I’m not sure – bad superfan moment.  Moving to NYC to write and live it up and maybe even fall in love while I’m at it? Who wouldn’t want that? Most of you probably know this, but I’m definitely a city girl. I can’t imagine not living in a city. I have a sneaking feeling that once I get to NYC, I might not ever leave. And I might not totally hate that.

And I’m going to be real with you right now: my dream of moving to NYC to be a writer and a big-time entry-level-bottom-of-the-food-chain editorial-somebody is the only thing keeping me going. Well, how melodramatic of me. Of course there are other things. But this is what I really want, this is what I’m really striving to achieve. Everything I do in the next six months is building up to this.

Six months? Is that it? Really?

February. March. April. May. June. July.

August.

Yes. Six months.

Time to get it into gear, I guess.

What do you plan to do this year? What are your big dreams?

 

day 23.

Posted in January by

I’m working on back-posts for the past few days. I have a few drafts started but nothing concrete. I know how sad that is. But I’m determined not to give up, and not to spend too much time on this.

Today was the day I started my New York Stuff box. I found a Target giftcard I got for Christmas that I completely forgot about, and I immediately sat down and started thinking about all of the things I could buy. At least one whole season of TV! New dishes! Most of a dremel!

And then my eyes came to rest on my New York sign sitting on top of my dresser, and I realized that a giftcard could buy me a new set of bedding. New dishes. Storage supplies, like shelving or cube storage. Part of a new desk. Part of a new bed.

Anything you can buy at Target, really. And I realized that I really want to save my money. If I just hang on to this card, don’t spend it for the next six to eight months, I could use it to get things I really need.

And instead of carrying it around in my wallet like I do with most of my things, like most people do, I decided to start a box of things like this. That way, they’ll all be there together, waiting for me when it comes time for me to move.

Yeah, yeah, it’s a Francesca’s shoebox. Maybe I’ll upgrade boxes once I get a more concrete idea of what I want to go in it, but right now, this is good enough.

I know that one little giftcard looks kind of sad in there by itself, but I’m going to try to add it to as much as I can. Anything that I get that I think would be useful to save will go in this box.

And that made me really happy today. I’m trying to take steps every day to make my dream a reality, and when I can look at something and call it a tangible step, something I can really see and sink my teeth into, it makes me that much more resolved to get things done.

The one thing that’s really holding me back is not being very good at managing my money. I’m trying to put away money in a savings account, but, somehow, I’m just not very good at keeping it there. Any tips?