2004-08-07 - 12:27 a.m. - memory fragments from the last 2 weeks

Wow – where to start???? I think I’ll make this a random set of memory fragments.

The thing that has set these past two weeks apart from all others is the rampant use of my credit card. I’m not much of a shopper save for the holiday season when I join the masses in pure consumerism, but these past two weeks I have been doing my part at keeping this economy pumping.

My biggest and best purchase is my 3rd generation 20 GB iPOD that holds up to 5K songs! And the best thing is that I have two awesome friends that are helping me download my CD’s onto it since I haven’t upgraded my Mac to OS10. We have a similar taste in music and thought that they might have a lot of my CDs burned already on their computer (which is a necessary step before downloading onto a iPOD), but when we went through my load of CD’s, there were maybe 15 out of 150 or so. We had three computers going last night burning CD’s and my friends were going to continue doing it over the next few days. Basically they’re saving me a TON of time which I need to do errands and pack. The thing that blows my mind is that I brought over my CD’s in my former kitten carrier (cardboard box from Humane Society) and a large grocery bag. All of that music will soon be in the palm of my hand – absolutely amazing!!!! My entire CD collection will be at my disposal. And I’m going to connect the iPOD to my old AIWA radio/cassette player with these cables so I can have decent speakers and listen to my music in my apartment.

I have also recently discovered Target as a choice place to get bargains. Given that I’ll be a walking medicine cabinet, I got a bunch of first aid and medical stuff there in the health and beauty section. And of course, Home Depot has seen me more than once to get necessary house stuff to get things up to par for my renters. Basically I’ve been running around doing all this shopping since I have my car for exactly 1.5 more days!

A moment of silence, please…..

Yes, I love my car. It’s a ’96 Toyota Camry with 98K miles, and I put 80K of those on it myself. I posted it a week ago on Craigslist, and within 10 minutes of posting I had phone calls! I was asking the Kelley Blue Book value and not negotiating for less despite the first couple of callers wanting to give me cash that day for $750 less! Nope. Later that morning a woman called who has owned Toyotas and knows their value. She came after work with her mechanic boyfriend who checked it out. I’ve taken great care of this vehicle and they saw the evidence of that. We all went out for a drive and she bought it that night. She picks it up Sun. at 1:30 p.m.

Another moment of silence, please – or better – a toast to my car – a very reliable vehicle that has served me well. May you have many more great miles ahead of you….

The funniest thing about the whole car selling thing was an email I got from a guy offering to buy my car for $250 more than I was asking for it. He said he’d take care of the charges for shipping it…where does he live, you ask???? West Africa! I just had to laugh – if you only knew the hassle it was for me to pack and ship 5 measly boxes to Venezuela, and he wants me to ship my car to West Africa!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Other memories…..having AK halibut with a friend who caught it fishing in Homer – one of my favorite places on this planet. It was delicious, and the evening with him and his family were very enjoyable – the first of a string of West Coast good-byes….going to an outdoor concert at the zoo with another friend to hear a great performance by Youssou N'dour whose last song (before encores) about Africa sent chills up my spine – absolutely gorgeous voice, and these dancers he had accompanying him were phenomenal.

Then there was the beach escape on our 100 degree + weekend – perfect timing to escape the heat. I stayed at a friend’s house with him and his wife, and unbeknownst to me, he had planned a surprise BBQ at which some other members of our department showed up on the Sat. of that weekend. It was a lot of fun to chat, relax, walk on the beach and just enjoy each other’s company outside the realm of school! We watched these amazing kite surfers (picture a surfer with a rectangular parachute attached to him or one of those kites you control with two handles and strings) – they use the wind to ride against the surf and then jump off these waves as a snowboarder would a cliff and catch some big air as they do 360’s! Unbelievable! They also had some kite boarders who have the same kite apparatus attached, but instead of being on a surf board, they’re on a skate board and going up and down the beach. And my friend had a sand sailor – it’s like you’re sitting in a bucket seat attached to three wheels (one on each side and the third in front). Attached to the apparatus is a sail and you zip around the beach via the wind. It’s a blast and when you tip over like I did, you die laughing because it’s hard to unbuckle the seatbelt. You end up hanging with your butt in the air, one hand down on the sand, and your body buckled into the bucket seat. Despite growing up in RI, I never did learn to sail, so this was my first experience with it, and I was being taught by a person from Kansas! Go figure… He’s really good at it and gets the thing going up on 2 wheels. I prefer to keep all 3 wheels on the sand.

Last Sat. two of my friends threw a going-away party for me. Given that the host wasn’t available this weekend to have a party and I didn’t want one the night before I left next weekend (although I just found out today I’m not leaving until the 18th), we had it last weekend. 25 friends came and I felt truly celebrated and honored that they took the time to bid me a farewell. I knew I’d see a number of them over the next week, so I didn’t shed any tears (yet). I did, however, shed some on my drive home from the coast the weekend before since I wouldn’t be seeing those friends again or the coast for that matter until another year or two.

Tonight I had some friends over for dinner who weren’t able to make it to my party last weekend. My house is a fantastic disaster at this point in time with my packing piles everywhere, but they were gracious about it and didn’t mind eating in the living room as to avoid the calamitous dining room area. It makes me realize I really need to entertain more – I guess it’s easy for me to say and do in the summer, but if I can do this when I’m in the midst of moving away for a year, certainly I can do it during the school year! It’s just so enjoyable to have friends over, and I really need to worry less about having my house just perfect before having people over.

I’m exhausted and need to sleep. Hasta la vista.

30-something - 2005-03-01
the holding back the the flow of tears - 2005-02-20
song survey - 2005-02-15
song for the day...or perhaps the year... - 2005-01-25
something new - 2005-01-24
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