It's been an... interesting 168 hours (or, you know, week)...
But things are looking good... so let's go for something a little playful for this week's DnD Character Colouring Book... Zephyr.
Zephyr is an NPC for an upcoming campaign I'm running for the Friday crew... specifically linked to Fluffy's character for the first part of the adventure. He's a knife throwing, knife juggling, knife tricks essentially. But he's only about 10"/25cm tall.
I haven't really pinned down his personality as yet... I think he's going to be very outgoing and very much a showman when he's performing, but more parental and warm when he's backstage. Like I said, I haven't thought it out fully yet... and it will also kind of just happen at the table when I open my mouth and words come out.
Anyway, he was fun to design and go over the top with his makeup and hair and costume all based around the colours of his wings.
Moving on...
So, I had two apartment inspections on Monday, one in North Adelaide, which was a shoebox and one in Glenunga, which was lovely from the outside (a very green courtyard, small number of units) but inside it was... weird. I wasn't digging it.
Tuesday was the first place I looked at where I thought, yeah I would put in an application on this place. Again the block itself was green and shaded and quite nice, and the apartment was... okay. Okay enough to put in an application anyway.
So Wednesday morning was... a giant fucking headfuck. Because fuck electronic/online rental inspections in every uncomfortable orifice. Also, but the time I was finished with pulling all the dates together and photographing a bunch of my IDs and pulling all the other documents I needed and working out how the fuck I was going to make myself not sound like the worst possible tenant in the world, it took me like an hour and a half and I hated myself and I hated the application and I knew I wasn't going to get it and my application was going to go straight in the recycle bin.
But I did it anyway.
Then Wednsday afternoon I went out to Norwood to look at a place. Again, it was cute enough. Less interesting block, but on a good street, and big enough for my purposes, and also on the second floor, which is fine. Also giving it marks in the plus column was the current tenant's belongings (also, could you be more of a hipster, sir... with your vinyl turntable and your lack of a television... well, I don't remember seeing a TV anyway), which made it look like a home rather than just a box with windows.
I have realised that one of the flaws that I have when I'm looking at apartments... is that I don't actually SEE a lot of the details. Like, I see the space. I see things that seem to make sense to me at the time. I get the vibe of the place... but I don't LOOK properly. In this place I never looked at the kitchen. I think the stove is electric, but I'm not completely sure, and I know it has aircon, but I don't remember actually seeing it.
So Thursday morning was filling out the paper application for that place. Which took 15 minutes. Seriously, it took so little time it was actually disconcerting. I thought maybe I did something wrong. And I only needed to add a photo of my driver's license, AND I was able to actually attach a cover letter explaining my circumstances. So, suffice to say, I felt a lot better about that application. Doubly so because I looked up the land agent and while it should have been weird, because it's a very, very small company, the information on the site made me feel like if anyone would give me a chance, it would be this company.
And even better still when I got a phone call from the Land Agent on Thursday night saying that it was down to me and one other person, she just had to talk to the owner. Who also owns the whole building. And lives there.
Yay.
Of course, I had a nervous night, got up earlier than I otherwise would have done and couldn't really settle to anything.
I also had my chiro appointment. So that at least got me out the house. And of course I fully expected to get a call or a message while I was flat on the table. That didn't happen, but I did get a message right after I sat down in my chiro's office. And I thought that was bad news, because usually they just message you if they're saying no. But no, it was just the agent keeping me updated on the fact that she still hadn't spoken to the owner.
Chiro appointment was business as usual.
Wandered around town for... a tiny bit... came home, and less than a minute after walked through the door, the agent called me. And took me on a roller coaster ride of "ooh that's bad... ah that's good... ooh that's bad... the froghurt is also cursed, etc"... only to say that if I could match the extra rent the other guy was offering (also, fuck that trend... let's not line the pockets of the fucking landlords any more than we need to, shall we?) then it was mine. So of COURSE I said yes.
And then immediately called Ma and when she answered the phone I was just saying "yes, yes, yes, yes...".
So, I have a place to live.
But that opened up a Pandora's Box (no pun intended... because, moving) of... other things I had to then do.
Firstly I called my current land agent to say... "hey, got a place, but you know how I'm supposed to move out at the beginning of February... nah bitch, how's three weeks later, because that's when I can move into the new place... 'k?". Of course it wasn't that easy... he had to talk to the other woman, who was theoretically on leave... so, yeah, call me back bud.
Then there was drama with paying my first two weeks rent, because internet banking decided that you need to download a fucking app that has nothing to do with your bank in order to do some stupid security thing in order to add a new payee to my own fucking account. How does GET FUCKED sound.
And I have been incredibly lax in updating my phone in the last... I dunno... seven years. So I hadn't updated my iOS, which then meant that I couldn't download the app. So I went to the bank. And the woman was, frankly and unsurprisingly, unhelpful and dismissive. Not enough for me to decide to go to a different bank... but, you know... enough to further frustrate my already frustrated and overheated ass.
In the end I withdrew the money from my bank and walked down the street like a peasant in order to pay it in at my land agent's bank. URGH.
But I got it done...
And on the drive home, not only did the Online Banking Call Centre call me back (after an hour and a half vs the 26-45 minutes they claimed when I said "yes, please just call me back so I don't have to sit on hold for forever") while I was driving, but also the other land agent for my current place I think tried to call me, and then messaged me with a frankly incoherent message. So I was just thinking to myself... "fuck, can I just drive home in peace for five minutes"... is that a thing I can do after having essentially yelled at the bank bitch. I mean, I didn't... but I was yelling on the inside.
Got home, ignored the Online Banking People because fuck you, you can't help me, and I think you try and call back three times and then give up anyway. Called the current land agent... did a little sweet talking and YAY... I can stay here until my moving date.
Because, honestly, I am slowly trying to move any potential moving date further and further away from Christmas and New Years one move at a time... somewhat accidentally given the first move (in 20 years) was like 6 January, the next one got pushed out to 6 February and now we're most of the way through February. Because fuck trying to find something while Christmas and New Year is happening.
Not that I'm going anywhere for a while, honestly.
So, after that I called Ma and ranted for a little bit. And then though... well, fuckkit, let's see what I can do about this iOS issue. So I plugged in my phone, hit some buttons and before I knew it I was leaping about four iOS versions and my phone was chugging away downloading an update when Fluffy turned up. Because I'd asked him to come down a little early, but didn't know when he was actually showing up. So he surprised me.
Wow... sorry... not that you would have noticed, but I kinda got distracted there by reading the two overly long moving posts. Yeah... those are... definitely two different moods. And my feelings about this place now and this place when I moved in are... kind of the opinions of two different people. I mean, I definitely know that other person. But some of those issues got resolved and were, I think, mostly related to having to move at all rather than having to move here.
Anyway, where was I?
Ah, Fluffy. He helped me take all of the art that has been stored in the boxes in my bedroom for the last 6 years out of said boxes, retape said boxes to ensure they will stand another move, then repacked said art into said boxes. So that's done.
Which then led into a) me showing him the photos of my art collection, since said collection is wrapped in bubble wrap in said boxes and b) reminiscing about Burger Theory in all it's glory. Good times.
Then bread cooking, and off to Friday night DnD.
For any number of reasons, not least of all because we haven't seen each other for two weeks, there was lots of chat before we finally got down to the game.
And we set foot into the Belly of the Beast as it were. By which I mean the lair of a goddess... that used to be the home of a tribe of frost giants. So, you know, a regular Friday. We did meet the sweetest talking walrus though... who just happened to have the same accent as my character, which led to my character's accent getting a LOT thicker. Because of course that's what would happen.
So now we just have to go through four trials for the tenets of the goddess... cruelty, endurance, isolation, preservation. Won't that be fun.
Today was... tiring.
We did the supermarket thing as usual this morning, after I detoured past the new place so Ma could see it from the outside/see the location.
After shopping we came back here, and I unpacked my shopping and also unpacked the collection of extra cardboard boxes Ma brought down (thank goodness).
And then it was packing. I wanted to get the apartment "tidied" as best as I could, because it's been a total mess for the last week, much like the inside of my brain. So, with the help of the boxes Ma brought, I managed to pack some things that I tried to pack during the week and couldn't because the boxes I had were entirely too big. Or possibly I didn't think of that particular box. I'm not sure which anymore.
We also ended up pulling the big artwork out of the big box that has been living along side my pantry shelf for the aforementioned 6 years. Retaped the box, put some of the art pieces that used to be in the box back in the box and also added in a few other bits and pieces that fit in the space that I had left.
Ma also displayed her super power.
I was trying to stick a large number of things that were already in boxes into the big box I'd already put together, and they just wouldn't fit. No matter how I tried to put these five or six boxes inside this bigger box, they just wouldn't work. And I was basically "fuck this". Ma wandered over, turned one single box 90 degrees and suddenly they all went in the box pretty much perfectly. Fucking Human Tetris Machine. It's useful, but man, the number of times I tried and failed before she did one tiny thing.
In the end, we cleared 90% of my dining table, packed like seven other boxes, made some decisions about things and got my apartment in a much more organised state.
It's almost as though once I got my head straight after securing a new place to live, I can then get my physical surroundings organised in a way that I couldn't before that point. Who knew? Well, you know, I knew... it made perfect sense to me, even if I kind of made it happen by randomly throwing the shit on the table into a box just to clear it so we could use it to wrap some additional art. Then took it all back out and repacked it. Shit got done basically.
Fun fact: I also have a box entirely filled with tea and tea making supplies. I have too much tea.
We took a couple of breaks, eventually I showed Ma the photos of the inside of the place (because I showed all the properties to her... last week, I think... but that was a whole week away and I don't this she retained all that much of the information. Plus this is the place she actually has to remember now that I'm moving there.
But finally I was absolutely done... and my entire body is still all kinds of sore. Tomorrow will be fun. Plus I worked out while working on this post that I'm going to need to move my chiro appointment next week, because I accidentally booked it on the same day as the move, so that's not going to fly.
Having an appointment the week after the move definitely isn't the worst idea though.
So, yeah... as much as I'm sure I will complain about very specific things once I move into the new place, and if I make it through the process without wanting to murder various utility company staff members it will be a miracle, but right now, everything feels positive.
Just keep your fingers crossed for me if you wouldn't mind... because, you know, one can never have too much extra luck during the process of moving.
Current mood:
No comments:
Post a Comment