My MIA FYI.

What is up, The Internet?!

So I have not posted here in like several years or something. I have a good excuse though! I am moving this week and it has taken quite a lot of time and energy to get everything squared away and packed up. (See!)

You might ask: what the hell has taken so long?

Well the truth is that I have been using packing as an excuse to go through everything I own and get rid of more stuff. And did I succeed in getting rid of stuff? Yes, yes I did. Just the other day I took eight boxes of stuff to the Goodwill. EIGHT BOXES! Among other things I have gotten rid of nearly half of my books. That was one of the hardest things I have thus far done. I’m trying to be all nonchalant about it, but I totally cried like a little girl the whole drive to Goodwill. I tried to explain to them, “It isn’t that you are bad books and it isn’t that you aren’t worthy of being read and loved, I just want to release you out into the world so that OTHER people can discover you and read you and love you.”

It didn’t matter what I said though because I still felt like the mother in A.I. and the books didn’t believe any of it. By the way, if you’re looking to rescue some books, the Goodwill in Northridge on Reseda is lousy with them now.

Alot of life editing took place as I packed, but I still own WAY THE FUCK too much stuff. You know, for awhile I was feeling as though I had done a very good job narrowing down what I own to the (more or less) essentials, but this past week or so - with most of my stuff already packed - I have been realizing that the things I actually use are very very few compared to the amount of things I actually own.

About a million years ago, when I started reading about this whole ‘minimalism’ thing, I remember coming across a post by one of the guys at The Minimalists about how he once organized a “packing party” and had all his friends come over to pack up his stuff. Then he only unpacked things as he needed them. It was his way of learning what he really used.

There is a part of me that wants to do that. I’m not going to do that, but it is extremely tempting. I’ve done enough backpacking to already know that virtually everything I own is a waste of time and not exactly necessary for living. I guess I could unpack slowly just for fun, but the more OCD aspects of my personality aren’t going to allow me to live out of boxes for more than a couple of days. So I guess that what that means is that as I unpack, I am going to keep editing. I haven’t even moved yet and I’m already 50/50 as to whether or not I really need this TV stand/entertainment center. Do you want an entertainment center???

I will likely be without the internet for a few days as I move, so don’t expect a lot of posts in the next week, but after that, get ready for a super awesome July! Among other things I am going to be in both Las Vegas and New York and you know how much of a whore I am for writing deep thoughts while on the road.

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Apartment.

I love the apartment I live in right now because I think this is the first time I have lived alone and been able to build a home that feels like me. It looks the way I want it to and it feels the way I want it too. And I spent a lot of time thinking about those things.

If you’ve never been here (call me and come over and I’ll make you dinner!), it is minimal and sparse but not empty. It is clean but not austere. It is covered in books, but those books all fit into simple black square bookcases. There is a thing I remember reading in an article once about the plethora of minimalist restaurants popping up (I won’t bother with context other than that):

Ryan told Louie, “People love restaurants because the kitchens are practical and simple but even better is the sense of plenty; lots of wine, lots of candles.”

That is what I have tried to engineer here. That feeling of plenty.

I tell you all this because I think that when my lease is up I will have to move and/or find a roommate(s), which will mean that this apartment I love so much will go away. That makes me sad. Sad face.

What will make me happy though is when you email me and tell me that you want to come over for dinner. Most of you reading this have actually met me, so it won’t be weird. But South Korean Guy (yeah I know about you) and come over for dinner too.

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Moving.

I am very slowly moving into my little apartment in Northridge in anticipation of starting my grad program at the end of August. I will give you lots more mundane and thoroughly gut wrenchingly boring details about this in the days to come.

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Robots! Ham! Moving!

So, big exciting news! For me, I guess, not so much for you.

I have moved! Not far or anything. But still!

My roommates and I have moved into a new little place across town. It is a nicer complex and a nicer part of town and I like it!

But it is not all upside, no sir. I used to have a GIANT room, but my new room is much smaller. And having a smaller closet is forcing me to confront my clothes and backpack buying problems.

However I’m still coming out ahead in this deal because the new apartment is literally across the street from this nice big shopping center (how yuppie do I sound?) and so I can finally WALK to places! Which is something I like a lot. It has a grocery store and a really good local burger joint and a Mexican place with (slightly too) awesome margaritas! And there’s a place to get my hair cut (yes, even bald people get their hair cut ... because it makes them feel pretty, okay?!) and there’s a bank and a dry cleaners AND there’s even a Honey Baked Ham Store! Who wouldn’t be willing to go through the hassle of moving just to be closer to a Honey Baked Ham store?!

Also, this part of town has a system of “paseos” (which are basically just pedestrian walkways and bridges and stuff) that wind through the surrounding neighborhoods. This is super cool for when I go running because now there are all kinds of new and interesting places where I can trip and fall down! I went for a run last night and didn’t even get too super lost. Although I did see a skunk. He was not out for a jog, he seemed to be on some very important errand so I gave him a wide berth.

I’m very pleased with myself right now and I think I’ll be very happy in this new place. Not just because it has a Honey Baked Ham store next door, but mostly because it allows me some more walking-to-stuff. For some reason I can never quite figure out I almost always end up living in suburban situations even though what I would really like is to live someplace like Manhattan or San Francisco where it is more possible to live your life on foot (or mass transit). The truth is that I don’t really enjoy driving that much and would much rather take a nice stroll when I need to go run errands or got buy some ham, you know? So this new apartment offers about as much of that as I can find in the upscale, suburban, LA-adjacent wonderland in which I have found myself living (I’m not making fun of the burbs or anything. There’s a reason I moved up here and it is because living in Los Angeles can make for a very frustrating go of it; the traffic everywhere! The absolute lack of parking anywhere! The parking tickets!)

Well … that’s it I guess. I have moved! And now I can walk to get ham!

Oh, here is a picture of a robot I built out of moving boxes (because I'm a fricken' wizard!):



Jealous?
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The Sacrificing of Virgins.

So I have come to discover that this delightful little apartment complex that I live in is mostly populated with church-going folk. Now I have nothing against church-going folk (necessarily) but these seem to be the type that are very white and go more than once a week (always a bad sign) and so just now I was sitting on our second story balcony and listening to a conversation going on in a doorway below and I heard them say something about “I asked the church elders how long to wait before the laying on of hands” and then a bit about “I asked the Pastor how you know when to leave a church” and I do not presume to know what exactly it was that they were talking about, but - because I know little of their ways - I will just assume that it has something to do with the sacrificing of virgins.