And the last two weeks have kind of been A LOT.
We pick up our hero the Sunday after the last post, making relish. In fact, I took a recipe for peach, nectarine and tomato relish, substituted plums for the peaches (since I had a bunch in the fridge slowly going soft), and handwaved certain elements of the recipe, but ended up with three jars of relish (which tasted pretty good at the time, so I'm sure will be really good once I crack into one of them).
As far as DnD is concerned, the two Mondays were much the same as always, the Wednesday before last I ran a game that I've run a number of times before, and one that I love... and while I've done various voices for the final NPC, I usually err on the "little old lady" route, this time when I opened my mouth a soft "Southern Belle" voice just happened. Which was great and creepy and gave me a lot of leeway for putting my players on edge in the best possible way. And a number of them have since told me that the voice made the character super creepy.
Achievement unlocked!
We only had one Wednesday evening game, the week before last, and my character got to have a full on proper paranoid freak out, which was great, because really he's been through A LOT thus far.
And Thursday games have been pretty good... but not overly dramatic.
Although I drove my friend home after the week before last's game and we ended up sitting in the car having a long discussion, which somehow turned into a three-way conversation between the two of us and another DnD friend with both of us texting her and having a weird hybrid conversation until 3am. It was odd, but also something I think we all needed.
Also, speaking of Thursdays, I came home after DnD this Thursday to discover my slightly creepy, older male neighbour standing out on the landing in the dark, in front of my apartment, smoking... which is bad enough... but also I'm 99% sure, absolutely bare ass naked.
No. Just no. What even are you doing, you creepy fucker.
I had already been intending to contact my land agent about the fact that he smokes around the apartments (which I'm pretty sure isn't allowed), but now this fresh weirdness makes it a certainty.
Last Saturday Ma had her haircut happening, and we really didn't have anything we needed to do. Plus she was still packing up her place in order to move (more on THAT shortly), so she came down briefly and then headed off.
Which was good, because last Saturday turned into the "everybody wants Yani" afternoon, in the best possible way. Lets just say that there are times when you put yourself out there and spend a lot of energy getting nowhere and other times when you're just minding your own business and people come running to you. I like the latter times much better, but they're also so much rarer, but I enjoy them while they last.
So, yeah, basically I spent Saturday afternoon entertaining not one but two gentleman callers (consecutively, not concurrently). Yeah, I'm bragging... but it's such a rare occurrence I feel I'm allowed.
Then we get to early this week, when Ma finally confirmed when she was getting the keys for the new place (Wednesday), and then moving (Friday). If I had known then what I know now, I would absolutely told her to tell them that she couldn't move until next Tuesday at the earliest. Because she was not ready.
But it happened anyway.
So this Thursday she and I went on a trip to IKEA to get her a wardrobe (since the new place doesn't have built-ins for some reason) and a chest of drawers (for essentially the same reason, and the exact same set that I have).
Which was all well and good... and we basically got in and got out relatively quickly all things considered (also, first thing on a week day morning is both surprisingly busy, and the absolute best time to go). The wardrobe we couldn't get into Ma's tiny car, so that got delivered, but we took the drawers straight to the new house.
And I proceeded to drop one of the two boxes, corner first onto my foot. Not enough to say, break my foot, but enough to make me regret all of my life choices.
Ma's new place isn't bad... although I always hate when landlords or housing authorities choose to paint walls that light beige colour instead of just using plain white. White is ALWAYS the right answer... and would have made the place feel a little less... I don't know... "old lady" I guess. I mean that's what Ma is, and the types of people who get put into these houses, but still.
But yeah, it's not bad... as I said to someone today, there are less rooms, but more room, if that makes sense. It's also only a hop skip and a jump down the road from the old place, which is only really relevant during the moving process. And no stairs, which is a blessing.
Then we went back to Ma's current place. And I got a look at how absolutely NOT READY to move the following day she was. I mean I'm hardly an expert (see also January 2014 and February 2016) but just walking into her house, I knew that moving day was going to be a complete and total pain in the ass.
And I wasn't wrong.
But we did some packing and some reorganising (my top moving tip is always: pile all your moving boxes in one area so you can still move around... second only to: put everything the movers are taking in the same room and/or part of the house) before I had to head home... had it not been for the case that my Thursday night DM was running a game specifically for myself and another player who had been there for a number of previous sessions I might have stuck around... and I might have organised it that way if I'd known. But also if I'd known where she was at, I would have made her put off the move to be honest.
And I will be honest, that everything about Thursday just did my head in... we all know I hate moving and I hate change... but as I messaged one of my friends during the afternoon, in response to the question "has it been one of those days"...
"sleep deprived, hot, feeling vaguely ill, dealing with moving stress, dealing with my mother dealing with moving stress, dealing with change... dealing full stop"
Also, thank the gods for that particular friend for keeping me sane over the two days of moving, he was a lifesaver.
Anyway.
Friday morning rolled around, I rolled out of bed, into the shower, realised I didn't have any milk so made cereal using Iced Coffee (weird, but not terrible) and headed down the road. I left a little later than I wanted to, so the movers were already there by the time I showed up.
Why is it always the case that when one half of any two man trademan type team is in their late 50's, early 60's, the other one is always barely 20 and built like a stick insect? I genuinely want to know.
Anyway, I started filling up my car with things that we knew the movers wouldn't be moving (or that Ma didn't want them to move) and did a couple of runs before the movers finished up, then when they were on their way, I stayed at the new house and waited for them. And then when Ma rocked up, I got back in my car and packed up a load of stuff at the old place again.
I did faff about the old place for a while, trying to move as much stuff as I could downstairs to make our lives easier later in the afternoon, but there's only so much you can do when it's a) not your stuff and b) you keep thinking "why the fuck wasn't this already in a fucking box so the fucking movers could have taken it".
So by the time I got back again, the movers were mostly done, I unpacked the car again, and we sent the movers on their way. We also needed to wait for the IKEA delivery guy, who was supposed to show up between 11am and 3pm... and I fully expected him to be there at 3pm... but Ma got the message that he was on the way shortly after the movers left just as we were thinking about lunch options... so at least we didn't have to reorganise the rest of the day around waiting.
We went and grabbed some Oporto for lunch, then back to the old house to work out what the fuck needed to happen next.
The answer was carry a bunch of bullshit downstairs and pack the cars up, repeat until dead.
But we got there eventually.
And after work, one of Ma's coworkers showed up and helped out, which turned out to be somewhat of a godsend, even if he did have a front row seat to the tired and sleep deprived version of the Ma and Yani show. Which is a great show, don't get me wrong, but yeah...
Everything that was left when we finished packing up the cars was either cleaning stuff to be left behind, random shit and probably needed to be chucked and a very small amount of "still need to pack that up" detritus.
We got back to the new place, unpacked everything and then I settled in to build Ma's IKEA wardobe, so her clothes actually had a place to live.
Anyone who has been around should know that I'm pretty fucking good at building IKEA shit. I built 3 Billy bookcases, 3 of those narrower cases that should be Billy but probably aren't, a "cafe/bar" table and two stools, a kitchen workbench, a small chest of drawers and a large chest of drawers. I'm pretty decent at this shit.
The wardrobe kicked my ass more than it should have. I claim complete and total exhaustion... but I had to take the sides off and put them back on the correct way up at one point. And while the doors close, they don't line up and there is a huge gap between two of them that may or may not have been part of the original design (if not, then I have NO idea why it's there). And the nailing the back on was a decided clusterfuck. But it went together and didn't immediately fall down when we put clothes in it, so I'm calling that a win.
Ma pottered around while I did that, and her workmate had to leave for a little while, but came back at a certain point (helped me stand up the wardrobe so I could finish it) and reorganised everything that the movers had put into places that Ma didn't like (mostly the box placement). And he rearranged the furniture in the living room (to the room design Ma and I came up with on the fly) and got things a little better organised so that the "oh god, oh god, oh god" feeling that always accompanies the day after a move when you see the chaos of your life spread across the floor of a new house.
Weirdly one of the topics of discussion was all the possible places we could put the Christmas tree in December... and there were a surprisingly large number of options, which is good.
And it was about 11pm by the time we all called it quits.
I was pretty damn shattered by that point... and driving home was a bit of an adventure... as was the simple act of walking from the car to the house. But I took a quick shower and fell into bed.
And my body pretty much gave up at that point. Everything just hurt. I also think that every time I would have just rolled over in my sleep I woke up because my body went "nup, can't do that boo, hurts too much".
This morning was... an adventure. I was convinced that my back was going to render me a useless lump, and the first steps out of bed were inconclusive. I could walk, but I was basically a little old man. Plus there was the lovely cough, from inhaling all the dust that comes along with a move.
A hot shower and some general movement helped, and I headed out to do my shopping an hour late, but still able to move, albeit a little slowly.
You know how they say "never go grocery shopping when you're hungry"... I would add "or the day after you've helped somebody move house" to that as good life advice. I basically bought frozen meals because I couldn't be bothered... and if I ended up flat on my back, I could at least feed myself to a degree. So the trolley looked a little sad, and I probably bought some comfort foods to just make myself feel better.
And carrying groceries up the stairs at my place was something of a challenge, but not horrible.
But then this afternoon I had a friend's engagement party... which mean I had to dress like a "grown up" for the first time in almost two years, and most of the people I knew at the party had never seen me in anything but nerdy tshirts, so that was amusing.
I basically hung out with the people I already knew, which is usually what happens at any kind of party, especially one where it seems like it's mostly family. But it was nice to be their for the pair of them, because while I mostly know him, she's lovely. I also got to meet his mum after hearing a lot about her, and she's fantastic.
So we hung out, ate some really good food, then made our leave when it seemed like the correct time do to so. I think the standing around was probably better for me than just sitting around the apartment, but I may pay for it tomorrow.
And I came home and had a nap, because I just couldn't even anymore.
But here we are... all caught up.
Now I really need to sleep... and hopefully I'll be a little better tomorrow.
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