Archive for September, 2010

Almost there

Published at September 29, 2010 in Kitties, Life with pets, Vanity and Travel. 4 Comments

Just 185 miles to go until we reach my new hometown.   Won’t be able to get into my new apartment until Friday morning, so we’ll be waiting at the current hotel until nearly checkout time, then taking our time to reach the new town and checking in to another hotel.  I’ve picked one that will allow me to get on and off the highway easily, and won’t require me to take very many local streets to get to the apartment (which is pretty close to the highway).

Zuzu has a moment every day when she suddenly realizes she’s in a cage and starts trying to get out, meowing loudly the whole time.  I call it her “Cattica! Cattica!” moment.  And then she goes to sleep.

Travels with Junebug and Zuzu

Published at September 26, 2010 in Kitties, Life with pets, Travel, Junebug and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

I’m a little more than a third of the way done with my cross-country trip.  I’m driving a 14-foot U-Haul; I was originally going to get the smaller truck since I’d gotten rid of so much furniture, but I took a look at my boxes, then at the five-foot-wide, not-very-high truck, and decided against taking my chances.

The move-out had some issues.  First, I showed up at the U-Haul facility shortly after 8 am.  Movers were coming at 9:30 to load me up, so I should have had plenty of time.  There was nobody there, however.  Except a guy who was also trying to rent a truck.  Several calls to Regional later, I had a new truck at a nearby facility where the staffers actually showed up to work on time, and was late to meet my movers.

Make that “mover.” Only Hector had shown up on time; the other mover (whom I started calling Skippy because he was so white-college-boy, and never told me his name) was over two hours late.  But Hector got started right away, moving boxes and one-person items down the stairs.  He told me he got paid from the time he showed up, but I wouldn’t start getting charged until the whole crew checked in.  Plus, Hector got Skippy’s pay as well for that two hours.  So it all worked out well for both me and Hector, at least in terms of money.  In terms of time, U-Haul and Skippy put me behind schedule.

To get out of Brooklyn, I had to take the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel to the West Side Highway and then the Holland Tunnel to the Garden State Parkway (Rte. 78).  On the map, and on all my directions, it sure as hell looked like you could get in the left lane at the Holland Tunnel and then take an immediate left to access 78.  Except for the part where you first have to, if you are driving a commercial vehicle such as a 14-foot moving van, go the long way around to the special checkpoint entrance to the Brooklyn-Battery and show your rental agreement and license (after messing up and having to have the Port Authority cop who just sent you around and is surprised to see you in the same place he just sent you away from move the traffic cones and stop traffic to let you into the right lane) and then, at the Holland Tunnel, get out of the van and open up the back for the cop, who is not very happy to be there, and is certainly not happy your dog is barking at him.  Oh, and except for the part where they’ve closed that left-hand turn and now, even though you’re in the extreme left lane, in order to get 78, you have to be five lanes over to the right really fast.  In a 14-foot truck which you’ve been driving for less than an hour.  In heavy, heavy traffic.

So I got lost for a while in Jersey City.  In parts of Jersey City I don’t know at all.  In parts of Jersey City with hills and narrow streets and no signs telling you which direction 78 might be in.  I drove over the curb in a few spots, even, since I had no sense of where the end of the truck was.  I finally stopped for gas and asked for directions (but the guy was no help), and then got the maps feature on my iPhone to cooperate.  I found 78, then found my way to Pennsylvania.  I’d hoped to get to Pittsburgh before I stopped for the night, because I had to be in Lafayette, IN the next day, but I’d gotten such a late start that I got no further than Carlisle, PA before I had to call it a night because I just couldn’t see.

The next day was a long drive followed by meeting Lauren and an unfortunate incident with Junebug and a waitress who had picked up the bag of food she’d just brought out and set down to make sure we had our whole order.  No skin was broken.

Junebug has not been an easy traveling companion.  Tolltakers are out to get her.  So are the Port Authority cops and the poor waitress.  I’ve gotten her a harness which can be strapped down by the seatbelt.  I thought this might be a good way to keep her restrained when I got out of the truck, but the first time I left her belted in while I pumped gas, she chewed partway through the seatbelt.  She’s also put a small hole in the vinyl seat, though that could have been me, too.  Good thing I took out the super-duper damage policy.  After the first day, when she was terribly, terribly anxious about driving, I have given her tranquilizers, which make her a little dopey and slit-eyed like a stoner After the drugs, she’s been pretty content to spend most of the ride with her head in my lap, though she has chosen some inconvenient moments to start nudging her head under my elbow to get me to pet her.  Like construction zones.

Zuzu’s been tranquilized the whole way.  And while she had a few scary moments the first day — it is NEVER a good thing when a cat pants open-mouthed — that could have been due to having a high anxiety level from the whole move experience.  Also, it was hot.  But she’s been better since then; she’ll have a few minutes of meowing and trying to climb out of the crate about an hour after we get underway, but she settles right down and naps.

I’ve gotten much more comfortable with the truck as well, which I find kind of amusing since I haven’t owned a car in 17 years, and I don’t really drive at all.  I’ve figured out the mirrors, which make lane changes much easier, and I rather like being up high.  Tractor-trailers bother me less when I’m looking over at the cab doors rather than at the tires as they go by.  They do cause me some problems when they come alongside me, since their air currents push my back end.  The truck’s a little light since I don’t have all that much stuff back there, so it does some fishtailing.  But it’s not awful.  And I’ve even gotten fairly comfortable with it at gas stations and on local roads — as long as I don’t have to back up or do much in the way of lane changing.  And somehow, it’s not wearing on me to drive eight hours a day, as long as I break it up.

Also?  The iTrip is the best thing ever.

I’ve got four more full days on the road, and four more nights in hotels, before I reach my final destination.  Right now I’m in Iowa at a hotel which provides free wi-fi.   I’ve downloaded the first three seasons of Mad Men and plan on watching a couple episodes before I crash.

It may be time to admit partial defeat

Published at September 18, 2010 in Money and Home improvement. 0 Comments

I’ve got multiple items up on Craigslist.  Some have sold, some have not.  I just sold a camera today, and two of my three bookcases have gone, as well as my TV.  My dining chairs and a matching armchair have somehow managed to generate great interest, down to scheduling appointments to pick them up, but no actual follow-through.  They’re still here, even though they’ve been listed three times, with multiple people responding each time.

I didn’t manage to even list a couple of things, such as an old Kenmore sewing machine I bought off eBay and never opened, and my desk, which is pretty much just a tabletop and legs from IKEA.

I may wind up bringing a bunch of stuff with me and trying to sell it there.   While it’s a pain in the ass, at least I have a garage out there to store this stuff in, so I won’t have to have people in my apartment when they come pick it up.

Packing sucks

Published at September 16, 2010 in Domesticity. 0 Comments

Especially when you prolong the agony by procrastinating.

Oh, mercy! It gets better!

Published at September 13, 2010 in I will die alone eaten by my pets, Terrorists ruin all my fun, New York Fugging City, Anxious masculinity and Dipshittery. 3 Comments

Continuing the saga from OK Cupid:  I responded.  Yeah, probably shouldn’t have, but the Wingnut Christmas thing really pushes my buttons.  So here’s what I wrote to him:

Well, now I’ve seen it all. 9/11 as a pickup line. Though you’re not the first member of the Giuliani administration to be macking on the bodies of the dead.

Even if I didn’t find that offensive, your spam approach, not to mention your association with that authoritarian asshat Giuliani, would have killed any chance you and your blank profile would have with me.

I see some grammar issues.  Probably should be “macking over” instead of “macking on” (as “macking on” implies necrophilia) and “would have had.”  Nonetheless.  His response [misspellings his own]:

You know, I often wonder if framing my relationship with a political figure would be a mixed blessing, or for that matter, wise. The land in which I come from, obviously not liberal-land as do you, character means a great deal. I’m proud of my association with Mayor Giuliani and proud of my character and the way I have conducted myself thoughout my life and with others. Obviously, these virtues are meaningless to you. So be it.

I dont know what rock you have crawed out from under in answering my reply to your profile the way you have, but most assuredly it is to my benefit. A good dinner and better glass of wine would have been otherwise wasted during a dreadful encounter that potentially we would have had.

Oh, and one more thing, when you have engrained in your mind the experience of having pulled parts of people out from under debris and rubble, yeah, you have a right to talk about it all you like…

Because shut up, that’s why!

I suppose “I was there on 9/11″ as a pickup line was inevitable.

Published at September 13, 2010 in I will die alone eaten by my pets, Anxious masculinity and Dipshittery. 5 Comments

I just got this email from someone at OK Cupid [redacted for privacy, emphasis mine]:

My name is P[], I’m 45 and an attorney from New York City. I was browsing the profiles and came upon yours and thought your photos were just incredible. I’d love to learn about your personality.

As you can see, I do not place much info about myself online. I do Love to travel within the States- especially the great south west, am into fine dining, good wines, producing (TV documentary) entertainment and charitable events. - I worked for Rudy Giuliani for 14 years, 8 of which as a NYC Agency Bureau Director while he was Mayor of New York. I was with him on 9-11.

If you’re interested in saying hello or are curious about what I’m like, let me know and I’ll get back in touch with you.

I’m [] on AOL and MSN instant messenger & []on yahoo. com for email and Instant Messages.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Oh, let’s count the ways this message offends me, shall we?

First, it’s clearly spam from someone who hasn’t actually read my profile.  He opens with a generic “loved your photos,” and that’s as far as we get in terms of showing me that he’s interested in meeting me.  The rest of it — odd capitalization, random punctuation, and all — is all about him.  Mind, you should let the person you’re trying to pick up know what’s in it for them, but you also want to make sure they know that you’re interested in them, and why.

Second, his “I do not place much info about myself online” is rather an understatement — his profile is blank except for a few pictures, his age and hometown (listed as Boca Raton).  FFS, man, put up a little breezy twaddle.

Finally:  HE’S USING RUDY GIULIANI AND 9/11 TO PICK UP CHICKS.

Never try to collect on a bet until the game’s over

Published at September 11, 2010 in work work work, Vanity and Travel. 2 Comments

I was out on a househunting trip this week to my new town — found a gorgeous, huge vintage place with three exposures, a garage, laundry, fireplace (working!), wood floors, formal dining room, built-in china cabinet and linen cabinet, etc., etc., etc., all in a really great neighborhood about two miles from work for almost $500 less than I pay for my studio in the worst part of a good neighborhood in Brooklyn, cut off by the expressway and a real haul from the subway.

I also visited the library and shot the shit with my new coworkers.  Apparently, they’ve had a betting pool on whether I’d break down and get a car.  When I mentioned I was considering it, the guy who’d bet that I would started acting like he’d won.

Except the car’s not bought yet, and after driving around town for a couple of days, I’m not entirely sure I really do need one.  I have laundry right in my apartment, and there’s a big Safeway two blocks away; I walk farther to the grocery store now.  There are bike lanes all over, and most of the nightlife is about 12 blocks right down the street from where I’ll be living, so very easy to walk (and reasonably safe as well).  There are car rental places right downtown, and lots of bike and motorcycle/scooter parking areas.  Even the rain isn’t that bad; it rained while I was there, and my boss* said it was fairly typical of the winter rain — cold, but not very hard.  And then it doesn’t rain all summer.

To be honest, what I probably have been balking at is having a car loan, rather than having a car.  If I don’t buy one and save my money, I could get a good used car — and it’s dry in the west, so rust won’t be as big a factor in a used car as it is in the Northeast — and pay cash for it.

____

* I don’t think I’ve mentioned this, but I just love my new boss.  It certainly helps that he was recruiting me hard and has moved mountains to get my needs accommodated.  But everyone I spoke to during my interview volunteered that he was a great guy.  Even the people who were acting as my references told me so after speaking with him, and they’d never met him.  And I certainly saw that during this trip — he took me out to dinner and then drove me around trying to see if there were any houses for rent in his neighborhood, which is adorable.  I also love that when I met up with him for dinner, he had me meet him at a gay bar and introduced me to his friends.

Fat and Health: A Response

Published at September 6, 2010 in Health, I see fat people and Dipshittery. 17 Comments

I swear on a stack of pancakes that I didn’t read Atheling’s piece before I wrote this.

    First Things First:  What’s It To You?

I’ve been living in New York a long time (and am reluctantly about to leave it).  One of the most useful sayings I’ve picked up here is, “What’s it to you?” *

That handy phrase pretty summed up my first reaction to reading Monica’s post about fat and health.  Why, if she doesn’t experience any kind of weight-based discrimination at the doctor or elsewhere, does she get invested in defending the BMI against feminist criticism?

And then I got to the donuts, and all became clear.  Monica appears to have fallen into the trap of conflating weight and health, and attributing moral laxity to the overweight — who of course couldn’t have gotten that way had they just eased off the donuts.  Donuts being the go-to shorthand for the moral failings of fat people.  Oh, sometimes it’s pie, occasionally it’s cake, but it’s usually donuts, those tasty little rings of deep-fried sloth.

While I don’t relish having to address such misconceptions again, it’s worth doing the pushback.  However, I don’t want to do a point-by-point fisking of Monica’s piece, partly because comments are closed and I missed the window when they were open.  Partly because it’s somewhat jumbled, and there were some points raised in comments that throw a different light on the original post. Also?  The commenters did a pretty damn good job of refuting particular points.  I also don’t want to make this about Monica.

Instead, I want to talk a bit about fat and health and why fat hatred is a feminist issue.

Continue reading ‘Fat and Health: A Response’

Whee!

Published at September 6, 2010 in Real estate. 2 Comments

I just discovered a feature of Google Maps I hadn’t known about — when you click on the Google Maps link from a real-estate ad (I’m doing this from Craigslist) that gives the exact address, it will show you “Real Estate Available at This Address.”

The really cool part is that you can then click another link when you get that that will show you all the available real estate in the area, which you can then sort by for sale/for rent, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and price range.  I’m finding a lot of stuff I hadn’t known about, including a three-bedroom house a half mile from where I’ll be working that costs $350 a month less than my studio apartment.

Hunh.

Published at September 5, 2010 in Vanity. 4 Comments

I might actually wind up spending about the same to send my stuff via moving van as to drive a U-Haul.  That is, if I can get myself a car for little down.

I’m selling off or just abandoning a great deal of my furniture and clothes, which means I’ll pay fairly little with some of the major national moving companies who charge by weight (others wanted to charge me $3K and up, which is one reason I avoided using them).  But if my stuff comes in at less than 1000 or 2000 pounds,  I might be able to bring it in under $2K.  The van rental is $1500, and that doesn’t include gas or insurance, which will probably add $1000 to that.  And then there are movers to hire to help me load and unload.

I’m getting reimbursed for my allowable moving expenses, which is great, but I still have to upfront the money.   Fortunately, I’ll get a paycheck at the end of my first week at work, so I won’t have to white-knuckle it until my reimbursement check arrives.

The big thing I’m not happy about is the having to get a car thing.  But I have to bow to reality — I’m leaving New York, and that means I’m gonna need a car.  Now I just have to figure out which Honda to get, a Fit or an Element.