Packing | What Up, Vienna?

28Sep/092

too late for second thoughts

Well, I am here. He is here. And I am here. We are both here. Here is here. There is there. Here and there. There, there. Did I mention I was jetlagged?

Okay, so let me recap my last week in Los Angeles before I bring up my first coupla days in Vienna. First off, Judge Judy was cancelled. Her show wasn't cancelled, mind you. If my Grandpa is reading this, I hope I didn't just give him a heart attack. Hi, Grandpa. (He likes it when I mention him.) Rah, rah Obama and the public option! (He doesn't like it when I talk about politics). But I digress...Judge Judy's taping was cancelled. She shares studio space with crazypants Judge Joe Brown and he needed it so they pushed her taping back to October 3rd. Such is life. (By the way, I have connections so it is on good authority that I refer to him as crazypants.) It was too bad. I have had bad luck with my bon voyage events. First, I have Beastie Boys tickets and that gets cancelled (Get better, MCA!) and then this. However, my mother had the best perspective..."Well, they aren't going to close Disneyland, Michelle." And she's right. They did not close Disneyland. And my friend Stanley and I Disneylanded the shit out of that place on Thursday. Both parks, 9 hours, tons of family fun. If you ever need a Disneyland partner-in-crime, I offer up Stanley as the best candidate. He showed this lady a great time.

I have to give myself a big high five. I did a great job packing. Wednesday, I made one last pass through all my stuff which yielded a final offering for Goodwill. Thursday, after I got back from my big day, I mustered up enough energy to start putting things in suitcases. Somewhere during this, I went on the internet to see how much it costs to check a third bag. In my head, it seemed like it should be $50ish. Uhh, check that. Scratch that. Reverse it. It's 200 clams. Really, United? So I had to do something that I hate doing... carry on a suitcase. I know I'm in the minority here. Everybody carries on now to avoid that $15 to $25 charge. Not me! I check. I think of that fee as me paying to not have to carry anything around while I'm traipsing through the airport. And I consider it worth it. I like to be unencumbered. However, color me encumbered... I'm carrying on this suitcase. Not only am I carrying on a suitcase but also a laptop bag filled with laptop. Encumbered times two. So anyhow, I get everything packed up and I'm ready to go. I'd say I was done by early evening. When does that happen? I'm a write that 15 page paper the night before kinda gal. Guess it's a new beginning. It was nice though. My friend Cesar came over for a few hours and when Jim came by after work, we went to my favorite restaurant Cube for my last Los Angeles meal. If you're in Los Angeles, do your mouth a favor and go there.

Okay, I have to take a break now and nurse my jetlag. Stay tuned for the beginnings of my Vienna adventures. It'll be soon, promise.

Tagged as: beastie boys, carry-on, cube, disneyland, food, goodwill, grandpa, jetlag, jim, judge judy, los angeles, obama, packing, pitfalls, suitcase 2 Comments

1Aug/090

i don’t know how he did it, but he did it.

Well, Alex is in Portland. That means he managed to move out of his place and do a semi-respectable job of cleaning it and still making it to the airport on time. That is impressive. You might feel it is impressive just by reading this post. But as somebody who was encouraging/nagging Alex to begin packing for the last two months. And as somebody who could see this last-minute marathon packing/cleaning panic bearing down. And as somebody who was there the night before he had to be done and out and who really thought the best idea was to just move the flight to Saturday because there was no way in hell he was going to get this done.... I am very, very impressed.

Of course, now I have about twenty boxes lining my dining room wall. Twenty boxes from about three carloads that were driven here. Twenty boxes that have to magically turn into one carload to drive back to the East coast in a couple weeks. We'll see what happens. It's a cakewalk problem though compared to moving out of an apartment. I'm just lucky that my friend Jim will be staying in my place with all my stuff watching my cats so I don't have to worry about all that business before I leave. I'll save that stress for next summer.

Tagged as: alex platt, boxes, move, packing, portland No Comments

29Jul/091

somewhere there is a man frantically wrestling with boxes…

That man's name is Alex. Or Dr. Alexander Platt. Whichever you prefer. And these aren't just cardboard boxes, mind you. These are cereal boxes, shoe boxes, basically anything that has five to six sides that he can cram stuff in and transport. The clock is ticking, world. He is out of town to the great city of Portland on Friday so he has about a day and a half give or take to move out of his apartment and into mine.

Okay, I just talked to him. He was bringing a carload of stuff to my place to store. I am a little apprehensive about him doing this unsupervised.

In summation, I am taking over unders on when Alex will get done and how much sleep he will get in the process.

Tagged as: alex platt, boxes, move, packing, portland 1 Comment