Socks, drums and (what else?) gals.
June 24, 2005 @ 10:54 AM
I was thinking this morning about how I used to have this really annoying problem: I was always out of clean socks. Somehow, I just went through them all and would end up having to do laundry before I would have otherwise. However, as I was doing laundry this morning, I realized I don't have that problem anymore. I solved it in two ways:
1. I bought six more pairs of socks, bringing my sock drawer to maximum capacity.
2. I started wearing sandals on a daily basis.
So now, instead of having to do laundry superoften just to get clean socks, I have a drawer stuffed full of socks I never wear (except to exercise). I'm not really sure if that counts as a step forward. More of a lateral move, really.
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I had a doctor's appointment this morning to check on my eardrum. For those that don't remember or are simply new to the fan club, I blew out my left eardrum swimming last summer. Since my hearing never fully returned in that ear, I was worried the ear hadn't fully healed, and since I was hoping to go swimming tonight/tomorrow with the family/friends at the KOA, I thought I should consult a doctor and have my ear consoled.
The good: Even though my eardrum ~looks~ like it still has a bit o' hole in it, it responds well to the pressure test (don't remember what it's called… I mentally referred to it as the earoblowoscopy), meaning there's probably a thin flap o' drum protecting my brain from the elements. Meaning, I can swim.
The bad: My hearing is still… well, my hearing. It sucks. The doctor actually referred to it as "really shitty". I like forthright doctors. :) He also suggested I get earplugs for swimming (just in case) and I'm not to be diving (why tempt the aquagods?). He also strongly recommends I set up an appointment with an ear/nose/throat specialist in August, when my new insurance kicks in.
The ugly: He's referring me to a specialist because my hearing is, apparently, really bad. Like, worse than regular-type bad. The doc said that I couldn't hear him rubbing his fingers together from three inches away with my eyes closed. Personally, I'm not sure how often that particular skill would come in handy, but whatever. :) He also said I should probably look into getting hearing augmentation (aka hearing aids) since, you know, I'm having a hard time hearing human voices these days. On the plus side, I'm getting better at reading lips. He also said I still have cool scars in my ears from whatever was done to them when I was younger.
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Remember Cute Office Girl from post previous? Of course you do! Well, she eventually left (they always do), putting a damper on the rest of my afternoon. Then I got on the bus to go home, and she was there. Yay. I sat next to her, and after about five minutes, even worked up the courage to speak. We had a nice conversation. Turns out she's older than me, though an undergrad. She's a triple!major* in philosophy, sociology, and visual communication. She says she just wants to write novels. I said I was an English major, and that I didn't plan to write novels, but instead hoped to do something with visual communication. It was fun conversation all around. I got off the bus and only then realized I forgot to check her left hand for a ring. Stupid Robbie. She was in the office again yesterday, but she kept her right side to me and I didn't get a chance to talk to her before I left for a looong lunch with SocBuddy Nick (I had a yummy lamb stew at the African restaurant on Lincoln (Oleka Te, I think) followed by happy, hoppy refreshments at Bali Satay).
I'll be leaving this afternoon, Lisa in tow, for the KOA, where I hope to drink, laugh, and be tanning. I wish you a good weekend. You should wish the thunderclouds away from me.
* Exclamatory!Conjunction borrowed from Monica. I love the form.
On how the rec will kill me. Also, I suck at being single.
June 21, 2005 @ 03:48 PM
So I did go to the Rec all by myself on Friday. I decided I could at least practice my racquetball serve, even though playing racquetball by myself seemed like a pretty lonely and loserly thing to do. Didn't happen, though. I got to the Rec to discover there were approximately 1,000 extra people in the building. Admittedly, it's a big huge building that holds lots of people, but 1,000 is a very large number and they were ~ALL~ in front of the racquetball courts. Turns out there was some big wrestling thing that weekend and they decided to hold registration in front of the racquetball courts. Playing racquetball by myself in front of a thousand people stronger than me didn't sound too appealing, but I decided to try anyway. I couldn't even push my way through the crowd to get to the courts. I gave up and went upstairs. I tried jogging for a while, and didn't get very far, mostly because I don't seem to have an intermediate "jog" setting. I have a moderate walk, a fast walk, and a run. I'm not very good at walking slowly or jogging. After that, I rowed for a while, because rowing is nice and fun. Except, after jogging, it seems rowing makes me slightly nauseous. I got home and in front of the air conditioner before losing my lunch in front of a bunch of people with disproportionately large upper bodies.
I went out Friday night with my roomies to a bar on Main Street called Sporty's. I had a pretty good time, and even got hit on by a cute girl named Erin. I then wandered away from Erin to hang out with my roommates and watch them play shuffleboard. About five minutes later, I realized this was a Very Stupid Move. I gotta work on this whole flirting thing.
I didn't do much this weekend besides homework, webwork, and Summer Things (which includes, but is not limited to, tanning on my roof). I didn't even see my dad on Father's Day because I am a Bad Son. I figure I'll see him Friday, though. My little brother will be turning 19 on that day and I assume there will be some sort of a party at my parent's house, as they seem to hold them until you forget to attend your own, as I did on my 21st (and I didn't even get to drink (well, much) because I had a final the next morning). I'm right about the party, right, mom?
Yesterday I went to the Rec with Lisa. Turns out she doesn't like racquetball, so after a short while we got bored of that and rowed for a while instead. I have no idea how far I went, though, because my machine's display wasn't working right and Lisa managed to mess up hers. I rowed at what I thought to be my usual pace for what I thought to be around 17 minutes, though, so that should put me at a little over two miles. I'm not sore this morning, though, so I think I should push myself a little harder next time.
Speaking of pushing myself harder, I'm supposed to play a guy named Doug in racquetball sometime this week. I'm nervous, as I'm pretty sure he will hurt me. He was complaining Saturday night that the last time he played, he and his partner broke three balls ~before~ the writing wore off (which happens after a couple hours), and that isn't supposed to happen until after several hours of play. I've never broken a ball. Not playing Lorenzo, or Katie, or Debs, or Quinn, or Lisa. Not even playing Bob, and he's been playing regularly for longer than I've been alive. I'm hoping Doug is willing to teach me a few things instead of just killing me. Should be educational, regardless.
In happy news, I'm planning to stop by Triplett after work, sign my lease, and put down the deposit. I'll take possession on the 22nd and start moving in heavy stuff on the 23rd. My roommates also informed me that they're planning to have a party that weekend to celebrate Sammie's 21st birthday, so it should be an interesting time.
There's been a cute girl in the office most the afternoon, which was a nice change of pace. I stupidly assumed she was a grad student getting lots of help. I just recently realized she's probably the daughter of one of my coworkers, judging from snippets of conversation I've overheard. Sumvagun. I really know how to pick em.
Food suicide or sandwich porn?
June 17, 2005 @ 03:52 PM
Today's been a pretty decent day thus far. I woke up around 8am, had a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal (I've been trying the "breakfast" thing this week), downloaded some MP3s of questionable legality, and then went out to the roof to tan for an hour and a half or so. I don't know that I got much darker than I was, but it means I'll still be darker than Lisa, and really, isn't that what matters?
After tanning, I took a quick shower and headed to work. I spent my first 45 minutes at work generally frustrated because my boss asked me to update a form, and I couldn't find it anywhere. I've noticed that's one of the biggest annoyances in taking over an administrative-ish job such as mine: you've no idea how the previous person organized things. I finally found the form, saved as an uneditable PDF, on someone else's website. Turns out my boss had forgotten to mention that part. :) She put in a call to the people who originally created it to see if I could get my grubby lil palms on an editable version.
Despite that little setback, I've been generally productive here today. Did quite a bit with the website behind the scenes. A lot of my work is like that. If I'm doing my job well, you won't notice. I also made three new signs for my cubicle, as it was looking rather impersonal and bare. Now it's probably too personal, but I'll wait to see if anyone complains before I take anything down. Sign One is of this picture, which cracked me up the first time I saw it and still has good snicker-enducing qualities. It was also my desktop background at home until last night, when I decided to see how much I could make my desktop look like a Mac. I get bored. Sign Two is of this unicorn, which made me laugh aloud at work, which made me figure it'd be a good way to ensure I'm in a decent mood when I come in, so I posted it where it'd be the first thing I saw when I walked into my cubicle. Sign Three is of Stabby McKnife, of Threadless fame. That one's probably the most controversial, so I hid it around the corner a bit. You have to be leaning over my cubicle wall or sitting in my chair to see it.
I'm hoping to find something fun to do this evening, but I've no leads so far. I've gotten myself mostly talked into going to the Rec by myself after work, but that'll only eat up so much time. After that, I've nada. I think Lisa's got a date tonight, and my roommates pretty much ignore me these days, so that means I'm stuck finding my own entertainment. I hate having to do, you know, things. For myself. Argh.
Racquetball, Row v. Wade, and the militant wing of the Peace Corps.
June 16, 2005 @ 03:25 PM
I'm proud of myself: I went to the Rec yesterday for the first time in a couple of weeks (or at least a week, I don't remember) and got myself a rather good workout. I spent the first hour or so teaching Lisa the basics of racquetball. We'd tried to play racquetball once before, and though I don't remember any specifics, I do remember thinking we probably wouldn't play again. *grin* She was better this time, due mostly to a change in enthusiasm. It's no fun to wear yourself out chasing a little blue ball unless your opponent is also willing to move and swing. She ran as much as me, tried for tough (even physically impossible and therefore hilarious) shots, and really seemed to want to learn. Made it fun, even if I didn't get quite as much of a workout as I would have if I were playing someone who could kick my ass without trying too hard. I hit her with the ball once (softly, but still made me laugh) and hit myself once pretty hard (off the back wall from too close). It was fun in general.
After racquetball, we went upstairs and I introduced her to the joy that is the rowing machine. I love rowing machines for whatever reason. The repetitive, regular motion is really soothing, and hey—I get a workout at the same time. I was a little nervous, as I hadn't had a chance to get on the rowing machine for probably five months. I was proud of myself in the end, though, as I made it 3100 virtual meters (almost two virtual miles) in 15 real minutes at one of the harder settings, which is better than I thought I'd do. I figured I'd be sore as hell today, but other than a slight tightness in my shoulders, I'm fine. I'm definitely going to be making the rowing machine a regular part of my summer, unless someone were willing to donate something rowable to my cause. And a lot of water, because Ames isn't exactly known for its large bodies of water. I don't even have a wading pool. But anyway, the rowing machines at the Rec rock. If I were to take my MP3 player with me, I might even be able to go ~alone~, which I've never been able to convince myself to do before. Of course, rowing would only take from 15-30 minutes. What else am I supposed to do while I'm there? Half an hour seems too little a span of time, and I'm worried I'm still too self-conscious to jog alone. I really gotta work on that.
I've been thinking a lot about joining the Peace Corps the last couple of days. I'm thinking it's probably just the hippie English grad student equivalent of the running away and joining the circus fantasy. Of course, I had a hippie-ish English grad student friend drop out of school and join a traveling carnival, so I suppose both are viable options for someone with as auspicious training as we. Now she's teaching English in rural Japan, if I remember correctly. Regardless, I keep thinking the Peace Corps might be fun for a couple of years. It's probably just a faze.
A Tiny, a shorty, and a mini-rant.
June 15, 2005 @ 02:03 PM
It's Justin's 24th birthday today. Happy birthday, Tiny! The file photo to the right isn't exactly current, but it's close enough. As a matter of fact, it's probably almost exactly a year old. If I remember correctly, Debs took that picture (or I took it with her camera), which pretty well restricts it to the month of June, assuming my memory isn't entirely shot. We may have even been celebrating his birthday, but I don't think so. I think we were just celebrating a weekend. I really like still being at an age wherein it's somewhat acceptable to celebrate such a mundane occurrence as "Friday."
I still haven't bought Tiny a present, mostly because I have an idea as to what I want to get him, but it's been quite difficult to get a hold of. I found a shirt which seems very appropriate, but the largest size it comes in is XL. Tiny, as his name suggests, is around 6'3" with broad shoulders and a barrel-esque chest. Also, he likes baggy clothing. I have an email floating around out in the æther that is cyberspace awaiting a response from the creator (not Creator) to see if I can get the shirt special made in a larger size. If that falls through, I'll have to come up with something else. Luckily, 1) Tiny is in Seattle, and probably doesn't expect a present to arrive on time (especially from me), and 2) if other years are any indication, he probably doesn't remember it's his birthday, unless his mum has called to remind him. He's kooky that way.
In un-Tiny related news, VeryCuteGirl (represented as such to protect her (and me, if her husband happens to be of the large and vicious variety)) has a 15-month old child in addition to a husband. Which suggests some sort of permanence there, eh? I actually got the chance to talk to her for a bit today, and was proud of myself for not being either pointlessly awkward or pointlessly flirty. I was instead pointlessly myself, which is all I could really hope for. She seems very nice, but I was happy to notice that, during the class-induced conversation, I was able, without any sort of difficulty, to think of her as Classmate as opposed to Crush. It's important for me to be able to make that distinction.
The class has already taught me a lot. For instance, it taught me that I suck at remembering the various parts of grammar (i.e. lexical categories), dividing words into their appropriate morphemes, and thinking of words phonetically (despite the fact I'm a big fan of word-sounds as opposed to word-meanings). Thus, the class is doing an excellent job in pointing out all the ways in which I am deficient as an English graduate student. Dr. Burnett always said it was important to know your weaknesses as well as your strengths, but I'm still not completely comfortable with the idea that all of my weaknesses are represented in a single branch of study so closely related to my own.
I want to learn Spanish, as I think it would be very beneficial in this region of the United States (and by the time I'm middle aged will be even more beneficial). I also watched Lola Rennt yesterday, and now want to learn German. Lisa's a big fan of that idea, as she speaks German, but usually simply to insult me these days, which is ironically why I originally wanted to learn Spanish. Debs used to call me several things in Spanish which probably weren't nice. Her favorite was Bendejo, which is funny, as I'm usually also called the English equivalent. :) I also discovered, after being distracted by (and subsequently from) my Linguistics homework last night that I am a big fan of Tok Pisin, which is one of the languages of Papua New Guinea. Seeing as how it's largely English-derived, it makes a lot of immediate intuitive sense to me, and I like the sound of it. Now, if only I weren't atrocious at learning languages.
Am I allowed to talk about people in class who piss me off? I'm always afraid someone will stumble upon it and be offended. Of course, they offended me ~first~, so I don't know why it bugs me so. I'm too nice a guy. Well, here goes… it really annoys me when people contradict the professor in the middle of lecture, and hold a debate in which they don't really offer any substantial evidence. Please please please, if your best evidence is "I think" or "I can do it," then defer to the guy with the degree and empirical studies backing up his argument. For the sake of my sanity. And also, do NOT (thank you) use my class time to show off. I don't care if you speak Spanish really well. When the vast majority of the class does not, there's no reason to show it off, and it doesn't count as supportive evidence anyway, seeing as how nobody has any idea what you just said and couldn't tell an American Spanish accent from a South American one regardless. Also, the guy sitting behind you speaks five languages (including Swahili), and you don't hear him showing off, do you? I'd legitimately rather learn how much I suck at linguistics than how much you rock at Spanish.
Notice how it went from general and third person to specific and second person? Weird. Felt kinda nice, though. Hope I didn't piss anyone off, including you, Dear Reader.
Perfect days, pretty girls, and nuts.
June 13, 2005 @ 02:28 PM
I had a fantastically fun weekend which felt very much like the way summer is supposed to. It was great. Really, only Saturday had that truly magical summer feel to it, but that was enough. Even though I didn't do a single thing of consequence, it shall go down in my history as one of my favoritest days ever.
I woke up shortly before noon after a night at the bars without an iota of that nasty after-bar feeling, which was awesome. Around 12:45 or so, Lisa and I decided to tan, so we went out my bedroom window and lay on the roof for an hour and a half or so. It wasn't so hot that we got all sweaty, but it was sunny enough that we tanned well, which was nice.
After tanning, we decided we were hungry, so we meandered to the Downtown Deli (perhaps called the Main Street Deli… I can never remember) and had reallyhappyplus good turkey sandwiches, which we took to this nice faux-park benchy place on Main Street. Then we walked up and down Main Street, looking at all the cool stores and stuff. We even found a little shade garden area between two buildings that I didn't know existed. Apparently, it was planted in the spot where city founder Cynthia Duff (Drink Duff! (responsibly)) owned a restaurant which opened in 1886.
After Main Street, I got a hankering to see my new apartment again, so we went around the block and took the stairs to the inaccessible roof and hung out up there for half an hour or so, seeing what we could see and talking about how it was too bad there was no roof access, because it'd be neat to be where we were. I was going to start the grill up there, but it turns out I'm afraid of propane. I'll probably make my dad try it to see if it works.
We then decided to walk to Lincoln Way to see if there was a Laundromat. There wasn't, but there was a Dairy Queen, and Blizzardy goodness was enjoyed. After that, we walked back to my house and played in the yard for a while. First, I noticed the gate to the preschool playground was open, so we walked around in there. Then, I decided I wanted to lay in the grass in the front yard and watch the clouds, which was far more fun than it should have been. We saw a baby rabbit playing in the yard next door, and had a lot of fun watching the cuteness that is any small furry animal with the possible exception of my mom's "dog". We both went "awwwwww…" when the bunny climbed into a flowerpot to nibble on the flowers.
I then decided we needed to play a game, so we made a competition out of who could kick their sandals farther across the road. In other words, we were kicking our shoes across the busy street towards the police station and running barefoot across the road to collect them. :) You can't pay for that sort of fun.
JJ and Kami called around 7pm to see if I'd eaten, and since I hadn't, I headed to JJ's place for really good chicken and mashed potatoes with JJ, Kami, Clucky, and Dani. When it got dark, we roasted marshmallows and made smores. Much later, we headed inside to watch a movie. I made it back home around 3am.
As I was going to bed, I realized that was the best day I'd had in a really, really long time. I spent the entire day being myself, hanging out with friends, smiling, and enjoying the simple pleasures of being alive and having no immediate obligations. It was spectacular.
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My summer linguistics class started today. I was quite surprised to discover I knew less than half of the class. I was pleasantly surprised to see a very, very cute girl I didn't know. I was jarringly disappointed when, two hours into the class, she mentioned her husband. Sure enough, her finger was ringclad. I really need to learn to look at fingers before developing crushes. Anyway, in order to make myself feel better, I looked for the other two girls I'd thought of as cute. Both had rings on their left hands. Damn. Of course, VeryCuteGirl mentioned her husband by saying that he liked to eat nuts, so perhaps I have a chance. Nuts, as in rocky mountain oysters. As in pig testicles, for those of you fortunate enough not to know. For the record, we were talking about how words such as "nuts" could be very ambiguous when decontextualized, so it was appropriate to the conversation. She doesn't suffer from the same overshare problems I seem to. In a fit of irony, I wrote "Nuts!" in my notes when I realized she was wed. I like that I can still make my self laugh when I'm busy being sad.
The apartment interview.
June 09, 2005 @ 04:01 PM
I met with the owner of the apartment this morning. I expected the meeting to take around ten minutes or less. I was there nearly an hour. I expected the meeting to cursory and rather superfluous. It felt like more of an interview process.
In the end, I think it went really well. The lady renting the place is very nice and obviously well-educated, and I think I came off well in that regard (believe it or not, I can talk smert when necessary). She seemed to like me well enough to rent me the place, at least. In fact, there was only one reason we both didn't sign the paperwork while we were talking: I need to decide on a move-in date. The apartment is vacant currently, meaning I can take possession starting whenever I like. I'd really like to get it a couple of weeks before August so that I could move and clean at a less frantic pace, but that would also mean paying double rent for a couple of weeks. I personally think it'd be worth it, but Justin might be a tougher sell. He'd be paying rent on two places he's not living in, and I don't know that he'll like that idea. I'm hoping to come off sounding just pathetic enough that he'll be amenable. Sides, rumor has it he's making more money than he knows what to do with (meaning he'll probably buy another guitar in a week or two, if I know him).
I've been doing a lot of leisure reading the last few days. In fact, I should finish my third book in as many days on the bus ride home from work today, meaning I've read roughly 1,000 pages in the last three days at my usual snail's pace. Had it not been for my recently poor sleep pattern, I wouldn't have gotten through nearly as much as I have. I really need to take a speed reading course at some point. In fact, that's one of my goals for when I'm done taking classes for degrees and can start taking classes for the fun of it. In all, though, I'm really glad I've started reading for leisure, because I've just remembered that my summer class starts this coming Monday, meaning I'll have to start reading theory again in a few days. My recent habits are doubly beneficial: on one hand, I'll be re-accustomed to reading for hours on end by Monday. On the other, I'm glad I read for leisure this week, because I'm bound to despise the written word again by July. :)
Time to bolt. Adieu.
The happy end to apartment hunting.
June 08, 2005 @ 02:02 PM
Lisa and I, along with cool Triplett guy Andy, spent a good half an hour in the apartment at 308 1/2 Main last night. Lisa was not doing a very good job as my foil; the first words out of her mouth were, "Wow, this place is BIG." And, in fact, it was a bit bigger than I remembered, which was a nice surprise. I did a bit of measuring, and the living room (if I remember right - I left my paper at home) is 10'6" x 22', or roughly 220 square feet (click the picture to make it bigger). Considering we've two living rooms side by side, that's a lot of space. Additionally considering the ceilings are 10' tall at their lowest, and I'm suddenly considering installing a basketball hoop. :)
I measured the bedrooms and was happily surprised to find they were around 10'4" x 9'6", which is slightly larger than I had expected. I should be able to put my bed and dresser in the bedroom without a problem, and both bedrooms have a small closet. My bedroom, pictured, also has homemade ceiling-high shelving, which I plan to use for clothing on one end and books on the other. Not room enough for a desk, of course, but I'd have a 220 square foot office in this apartment. I've been doing quite well with a 40 square foot office in my current bedroom.
The kitchen, although still very small, struck me as more serviceable than I had originally supposed. The three of us were comfortable standing in the room together, so it wasn't altogether unusable. Also, as you can see from the picture, there is sufficient room for plates and bowls in the cupboards, and pots and pans can hang from the rack above the sink. There's still no dishwasher, but I'm confident a small portable dishwasher would fit beside the fridge. I'm hoping to find one cheap in the next couple of months. Alternatively, I've become a little fond of this model here - it's small enough not to take up too much room, but big enough for two bachelors whose diets consist largely of frozen pizza, salad, and canned soup.
I took twelve pictures in all, and sent eight of them to Justin last night. He called around 9pm my time (7pm his) to say he'd looked at them very briefly at work, but hadn't really gotten a chance to think about it. I told him about all the other apartments I'd looked at and that my recommendation was we take the one on Main. After half an hour or so of talking, he agreed, though he didn't sound all that excited (he says it's tough to get excited about an apartment 1,700 miles away) He hung up, and then called back about 15 minutes later. He'd downloaded the pictures I'd sent him at home and was suddenly a little more excited. He asked me to describe a few things, and in the process, grew to like the place more. Things I'd forgotten to mention: the bathrooms are accessible directly from the bedrooms, the ceilings are 10' tall, the apartment has central air, the room which used to be a second kitchen would make a great storage area, and the apartment is almost directly across the street from Keeper's Music (Justin is an obsessive guitar player, owns five guitars, and plans to buy more). It's all in how you describe it, I guess. Justin hung up much more excited the second time, and I filled out my rental application. I turned it in this morning. :) Barring the unforeseeable, I should be putting down a deposit and signing a deposit in the next week.
Yay!
More on apartments.
June 07, 2005 @ 03:22 PM
So I looked at an apartment yesterday evening, at 320 Stanton. Lisa even came along to offer a supposedly unbiased opinion. We were both a little biased from the exterior of the place… it honestly looked like a long horse barn or something from the outside. The inside was significantly better, as you can see from the tiny pictures I've graciously provided. I'll outline the good and the bad below.
The Good: The price, for starters. It was the cheapest one I've looked at yet. Also, water, cable, and high-speed internet were included in the rent, meaning it'd be overall cheap to live there. It's in a good location, just a couple of blocks from the Welch Ave bars. In fact, it's directly behind the tiny house-apartment I looked at on Knapp. Their parking lots are connected. I also love the fact that it's a loft-style apartment, with the bedrooms overlooking the living room. The living room was decently big, as was the kitchen.
The Bad: There's no dishwasher in the kitchen. The bedrooms are too small (I measured this time… they're 9'2" by 8'5") and have no closets. Since the bedrooms are too small for desks, we'd have to put them downstairs, but there honestly isn't enough room for them. The bedrooms have folding doors that don't even reach the ceiling, meaning privacy would be a thing of the past. The landlord also made a point to mention that they aren't fond of partiers or excessive noise, and while I doubt Justin and I host many parties, we are rather noisy tenants what with my nine speakers and two powered subs and Justin's daily electric guitar practice on his huge amp.
Overall, it was a nice place… for someone else. If someone were coming straight out of a dorm and possessed dorm-sized furniture, it'd be perfect. However, Justin and I have both frequented houses over the last couple-three years, and our furniture is sized to match. There's no way we'd fit in the apartment.
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I also looked at a place at 3222 Lincoln Way this morning, but the batteries in the digital camera ran out as I tried to snap the first picture, so I've none to share.
The Good: The location is decent; it's nearly due south of the place I looked at on West, meaning we'd be a couple of blocks closer to the Welch Ave bars, but still within easy walking distance of the Sams' place on Franklin. It was a split-level, with the bathroom and bedrooms upstairs, which was nice. I'm a fan of stairs any time I'm not moving furniture up and down them. One of the bedrooms was acceptably sized at 10'6" by around 11'6". The other was occupied by sleeping persons so I didn't bother to measure, but it looked smaller. There were lots of closets everywhere.
The Bad: The stairs are cool, but they have a 90 degree turn a couple steps in… I doubt we could wrestle a queen-sized bed up there. The smaller bedroom wouldn't be big enough for a desk, and the bigger one would only support a small desk. The living room was way too small to offer any deskular overflow. Also, I recognized the apartments when I got there, and I think I remember once promising a girl named Abbie I'd never live there. I'll have to message her to ask.
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Lisa and I talked Triplett into letting us take another look at the one on Main street this evening, so I'm hoping I'll have pictures to share. I'm also taking a tape measure with me and plan to see whether everything will fit. Honestly, the second living room may be the deciding factor. Otherwise, I have no idea where we'll get our study on. It's been the leading negative factor in almost every place I've looked at so far.
Last night, Lisa and I decided to take a look at the rear of the Main street building and on the way we ran into JJ and Kami at Jimmy John's. We stopped to talk and while sitting there, several other people I knew stopped to chat. Lisa and I got sandwiches and sat outside eating, and I realized I really, really love the Main Street area. Probably even more than I love the West Street area. It's cleaner, prettier, larger, and the populace is slightly older. The West Street area feels more like an undergraduate neighborhood, with parties raging three or four nights a week. I don't know if I'm really in the mood for that anymore. Really, I think I just have to decide if it's worth the money and the distance from campus and Welch Ave.
How to consume 30,000 calories in 48 hours.
June 06, 2005 @ 03:22 PM
I got to see my baby niece again this weekend, which was nice, even though she was in a slightly crabby mood (still not bad as far as babies go). She didn't seem as terrified of me as I anticipated, which was an unexpected bonus.
In other news, I think I ate worse this weekend than any other weekend in recent memory. My weekend menu was as follows:
Friday: I didn't have breakfast or lunch, and I think I had something decent like a tuna sandwich for dinner. Then Lisa came over and we got chocolate cravings. For desert I had a bunch of dark chocolate M&Ms and several double chocolate cookies, washed down with Sam Adams Light.
Saturday: M&Ms for breakfast. Chocolate cookies for lunch. Homemade pepperoni pizza for dinner. M&Ms, Bud Select, and modified Jagerbombs (technically a shot of Jagermeister and half a can of Red Bull, but we were doing half and half Jager and Red Bull) for desert.
Sunday: Still hadn't made it through the M&Ms, so I had some more of them for breakfast. Lunch consisted of nachos at Willie's graduation party, with chocolate cake as desert. Wash, rinse, and repeat for dinner. I probably had a pound of nacho cheese, 30 jalapenos, and three pieces of chocolate cake in all. Had some more M&Ms when I got home. Discovered I wouldn't be playing racquetball today after all. Went to bed on a sugar high.
In all, I had a fun and relaxing weekend. I saw family, hung out with friends, littered the police parking lot with berries from a tree in our yard, wandered Main street, went grocery shopping, decided to sell my car, and climbed a tree. All in all, it'll be a tough weekend to beat.
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I've been surprisingly productive today. I woke up at 8am, had some coffee, called two realtors to schedule viewings, called my loan peoples to check my balance, tanned on my roof for 1 1/2 hours, started re-reading the Crystal Singer series (I dunno what it is about them, but I like em a lot), turned in my POS worksheet (grad school thing), checked out a digital camera from the English department, and now I'm at work being decently productive.
I'm looking at an apartment on Stanton Ave this afternoon, and another on Lincoln Way tomorrow morning. I asked to look at six in all, but four were already filled. I'm also hoping to take another look at the one on Main either Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning because I hope to use the digital camera to take photos of the ones I consider viable options. I figure I can send some pictures Justin's way to see if I can get him to offer an opinion. I might even post a couple, if anyone is interested.
Apartment hunting results
June 03, 2005 @ 01:21 PM
I looked at three apartments today, which was one more than I was expecting. I'll offer some initial thoughts on each below. Let me know what you think.
3309 West Street: Good location for the West Street Deli area and campus, though it'd be a bit of a walk to the Welch Ave bars. Ground floor in a 4-plex, and I could hear neighbors above, meaning the walls are a little thin. New dishwasher and an average sized kitchen. One bedroom of decent size, the other rather small (course, I get first choice). The bathroom looked large and in good condition. The living room was okay, with decent carpet, though it'd be cramped if we needed to put desks there. Overall thoughts: good location (a bit quiet for my tastes), not much light, place seemed a little small. Not sure we'd get all our stuff in there.
2327 Knapp Street: Great location for Welch Ave bars and also parties, judging from the smell of old beer in the hall, though the walls seemed really thick so neighbors wouldn't be a problem. Currently occupied by three cute girls that seemed twice as friendly and half as clothed as I would have expected. Rather cheap at $535. Thus concludes the positives. One bedroom was tiny, and the other wasn't much bigger. The whole place seemed too dark except for the kitchen, which was rather large, but reminded me too much of ours (permadirty and archaic). Living room was tiny: I don't think we could fit all our living room furniture in there, let alone desks.
308 1/2 Main Street: Oh, damn damn damn. This place isn't anywhere near where I want to move, which is why I wasn't planning on looking at it. In fact, it's about three blocks southeast of our current place (and I want to move a good 15 blocks west). It's also a little pricy at $625, and parking would be $35 a month per car (yikes!). The kitchen was absolutely tiny (and no dishwasher), and the bedrooms were really small. That having been said, I absolutely love it. It's got hardwood floors, high ceilings with ~skylights~, two huge living rooms (used to be two apartments) which would mean plenty of room for desks and bookcases, and two full bathrooms. It's half a block from the Main Street Deli and Olde Main Brewery (Ames' only microbrew), and only a block from all the downtown bars. It's above a bike shop, so we wouldn't annoy the people below us with music at night. I'm told there's no roof access, but considering there are no screens in the windows facing the roof and the last occupant left a gas grill there, I think it's more like there's "no roof access."
In short, Main Street is my first choice, with West Street an apathetic second and Knapp a distant third (though I may have to visit again just to be sure ~grin~). I don't know how Justin will react to the idea of moving slightly further from campus, even though we really like our current neighborhood. I think I'll talk to him tonight. If he's not keen on the Main Street idea, I think I'll call a couple other realtors and look at some more apartments.
Flying Burritos and Amateur Cartography
June 02, 2005 @ 03:30 PM
I think I consumed roughly half of my own body weight for lunch today. I went to the Flying Burrito with Sociology techs Lorenzo and Zack and got myself a burrito that weighed manyseveral pounds. I'd estimate 3 or 4 pounds in all. I wasn't quite able to finish it, but I got within a few ounces. When you figure the burrito cost $4.85, It's really cheap food per ounce. And good, also. Very good. Yums.
I'm going to go look at a couple of apartments tomorrow, one on West Street and the other on Knapp. I got a little bored at work today and made a map of all the areas I'm considering viable apartment locations with all of the Areas of Import (campus, Welch, West Street near Campus Ave, etc) shaded in red, and then charted all the apartments I'm hoping to look at in order to figure out the most centralized location. It has a key and everything. I got a little bored, in other words. Basically, I'm looking for something within five blocks of campus either due west or due south. Ideally, it would be within walking distance of campus, the Welch bars, the Flying Burrito on Lincoln Way, the house parties on Franklin, and the West Street Deli. According to my map, I should be looking along Lincoln Way between Hyland and Howard or maybe Campus Ave.
In cool news, Sam, Sammie, Amanda, and Elliott should be the new proud renters of a house on Franklin (202 Franklin, to be exact) within the next couple of hours. The best part? I've partied at that exact house probably half a dozen times within the last two years, so I can find it easily while inebriated. The worst part? I have no idea what it looks like in the daytime. Also, parking is usually a pain in that area and it's sorta at the far west edge of my map. Otherwise, I'm happy.
Stupid Harod.
June 01, 2005 @ 03:24 PM
I forgot to mention yesterday that I had a nightmare-type dream Monday night. It was the fault of my roommates, near as I can tell. I went to bed around midnight, while they were still at the bars. They came in around 2:30am, while I was somewhere between sleep and wake. I heard someone come up the stairs slowly, stumblingly, and then they banged on my bedroom door, which was enough to scare the shit out of me because it was really loud because I have a big metal sign hanging on the outside and I sleep right beside the door. I yelled "Yo!," which seemed like an appropriate enough response. They ran back downstairs. I realize that doesn't sound very scary, but then I fell asleep a few minutes later, and my brain was nice enough to translate all this new information into dream-form.
In my dream, I was driving somewhere with my 9 year old daughter. I have no idea where that part came from, but stick with me. She was sitting in the passenger seat reading a book she'd gotten from the school library. It was big with lots of diagrams. Turns out it was a book on witchcraft or something like that. She found a spell of invocation or some such and started chanting it. It made me a little nervous, so I made her stop before she finished, but it seemed to have partially worked anyway.
Later that night (in my dream) I was in bed (still in my bedroom at my current house) and my door popped open. My door has been known to do that, so although it made me a little uncomfortable, I just closed it and dozed off again. It popped open again. I closed it again and secured it with the deadbolt. It opened by itself again, and I heard the name "Harod" being whispered in a really quiet, creepy voice. Suddenly, I could sense someone in the room with me. It was Harod, and he wanted my hair.
Stupid Harod. I woke up in a cold sweat, and it didn't help matters when I reached for my head and "found" most my hair missing.