Winding it Down

Spring semester: day forty-nine

So, I'm already well in the stages of gettin' shit done that I like to be in around this time of year. Remember, this time last year I was freaking out and panicking because I had my comps in a week, and the results of said comps would dictate whether I was going to be able to, y'know, graduate with my Master's degree.

This time around I don't have that hanging over my head, and I've planned ahead for the end of the semester. I just posted my lesson plans for next week -- yes, at least two or three days before I normally do -- and printed out all of the handouts I need for copies for next week. I don't normally do this stuff until Saturday or Sunday.

This is another one of those quite rare weekends where I don't have anything to do for my students, but that's because I'm collecting and/or workshopping papers in my classes this coming week. My classes themselves will be really easy, as my 011s are simply conferencing with me and doing nothing else, my 102s are turning in their papers and are getting their next assignment, and my 210s are turning in drafts. This next week is basically autopilot for me. Autopilot and grading, really. The rest of this semester won't be this simple or easy, but things are starting to wind down a bit -- even when that winding down, in some cases, is really winding up (with last papers being assigned and the like).

Daisy and I have been making more plans, moving plans -- such as the rental of the moving truck and the timeframe for the move. We are going to be on a fairly tight schedule for that, so we have to make sure everything is...well...plotted on specific days and times. It's going to be about $400 for a moving truck for a three-day rental, which covers mileage but not gas. I'll more than likely have to pay for that myself and put it on my credit card. We also need to be able to plan this stuff well in advance so that if anything happens or changes, we can work around those obstacles. As for apartments, Daisy's also found a place about ten blocks or so from her parents' house (read: in a good, nice part of town) that's somewhat affordable/do-able, and she and her parents are going to go look at it next week. I assume it's in a complex or development and that there are new openings all the time, otherwise she wouldn't put it off. This place, if we get it, would give us a good base of operations for around Omaha for the wedding and afterwards, and is (of course) quite close to her parents' place -- which is a plus for both of us. Of course, none of the moving plans can be put into action until we actually get a place up there, which is going to be expensive enough as it is. As our goal is to be completely moved and completely settled before the wedding, this may be easier said than done.

In my own house here in Kansas, I sent out the rent check today and I got paid today (less because of the health insurance thing, but I still got paid), and currently have no other bills that have come in yet. All of my other bills have already been paid or they will arrive over the course of the next few days/week or so. I did my grocery shopping on Monday, as mentioned before, but will more than likely have to go out to do a little bit more either tomorrow night or Sunday night, as the cats are on the last of their litter now (a jug lasts them about two weeks or so, roughly) and I don't have a ton of food in the house. I have some, but not a lot.

The rest of my weekend? It will be spent diving into the job search. Daisy has referred me for several positions within her current company, positions that I could do and/or wouldn't make me want to come home after work and drink myself to death every night were I to work them. I also have found a few other positions to apply for, including at least three more teaching positions and some other academic positions I've seen in different postings. At this point, I'm very much of the mindset that I should just say fuck it and roll the dice -- I need to find something for the summer that's reliable and can keep us in a house and food. Daisy can't do it all by herself and I wouldn't want or ask her to, so I need to get a job that will help support us and will help pay our bills. After all, I'm an adult, and I'll be damned if I'm not going to be a responsible provider and husband to her.

Call it "spring cleaning" if you will, but cleaning is also going to be a large part of my weekend. Or, at least, "spring uncluttering and rearrangements." While it's barely fifty degrees outside today, that's because it's overcast and a cold front has swept through. For the foreseeable future, the temperature is supposed to be in the mid-60s to mid-and-high 70s. Yesterday afternoon it was 73 here before I took a nap in the late afternoon/evening hours. That means, finally, it's time for me to go through my clothes and switch out my wardrobes -- and in doing so, figure out what needs to be kept and what needs to be donated to charity. I live in a decent sized house now, but wherever Daisy and I end up is not likely to be as big, and we won't likely have as much space. Because of that I need to pare down my clothing yet again (as I do about, oh, every two or three years) and decide what I need to keep and will actually wear on a regular basis as opposed to what I won't and no longer need. Of course, every time I do this sort of sorting I get a little wistful over the past -- some clothing of mine has great sentimental value, whether I wear it all the time or not, and some (of course) doesn't -- but six months after I donate it to charity, I wish I hadn't. That's just me being a packrat, I suppose. I don't need a lot of the stuff I have -- it's better to give it up and let someone else have/use it.

The Newton City-wide Garage Sale is on Saturday, May 3. I am very seriously considering taking out an ad for it this year, arranging everything I don't need/want in the yard and driveway, and just selling/giving away what I can. It will provide some extra money and will let me get rid of a lot of useless shit that's just been sitting around my house for years. I have all sorts of things that I just need to be gone, and a lot of it is too big or bulky to be put in the trash bins on pickup day. The rest of the unwanted stuff, if I have to, I'll put on Craigslist for free just to be rid of it -- or I'll have to call for "large item pickup" from the trash guys. I'll probably have to do that anyway for some of the stuff that just needs to be thrown out, such as my broken futon and broken recliner. As I told Daisy, there's so much shit in this house, and I don't have a need for about 80% of the extra stuff. I just don't. The stuff I need, obviously, will be kept. Everything else needs to go away. And if I can make some cash by selling a lot of it at a garage sale, even if it's not that much, it's worth it to me to make it be gone.

For the stuff I will be keeping and taking with me when I move, I need boxes for it. I need a lot more boxes for it than I currently have. Most of the boxes I have now have already been used for glassware and dishes/other kitchen stuff that I've already boxed up, even the big boxes. Over my next few visits to Walmart I'll have to to up to the service desk and request that they save boxes for me from their truck nights (which, at Walmart, I think is basically every night). I'll probably need about 30 or so boxes just to be able to pack up the majority of my stuff, and well, the more I get the better -- even if I end up with too many and have to recycle some of them. My clothing alone, even after I donate what I don't need to charity, will probably take up a good five or six boxes. My man cave upstairs, another three or four large ones. Kitchen/living room/spare room? About another six to eight. Bathroom? Two more at least. Pantry? Probably another two more. I mean, it's going to be a lot of packing, which is why I'm doing what I can of it right now just to be done with it. The spare room is already half-full of boxes I've packed over the course of the past year.

I really just want to get it all done and be done with it. That's also a big part of why I'm a bit antsy about the wedding -- it's not that I'm nervous or anything like that, because I'm not. I absolutely want to marry Daisy and want to start our lives together. I can't wait for it. And that's the issue. I just want to do it. I've said this before, but we've been engaged for over a year and have been doing nothing but planning and planning ever since. I just want to get the show on the road, so to speak, and execute. Even though we're not, it feels like we're treading water. Time is as time does -- it moves incredibly quickly when you don't want it to, and when you want it to, it won't. It also doesn't help that a fair amount of our expected guests and even members of our wedding parties are dragging their feet and hemming/hawwing over what they're going to do or what their travel plans are, and as such Daisy and I cannot get an accurate number for catering for the event because nobody knows how to RSVP anymore. That's on all of those people, obviously -- come or don't come, but the wedding is still going on regardless, and they have to figure it out if they're coming. Daisy and I have enough other stuff going on between now and then.

As for the "second reception" my parents wanted to do back home, neither of them have said anything about it to me since, oh, January or so -- and who knows when or if it will happen this summer, mainly because in order to be able to survive, Daisy and I will need to be working as much as we can and may not be able to get away from our respective jobs to fly back to West Virginia for it. If it's going to happen, it needs to be set up sooner rather than later. As much as I'd love to be able to go back home for a few days so that the rest of my family and friends there can meet Daisy and have a nice little get-together for us, I'm not sure it's going to be logistically possible, and may be much more trouble than it's worth -- especially if we're both really poor after the wedding and are fighting to pay what bills we have once we get into our new place.

Soooo...yeah. That's what's going on right now. The rest of my afternoon and most of my evening will be spent working around the house and taking care of those aforementioned tasks of packing, cleaning, dividing my wardrobes, and anything/everything else that pops up in the meantime. Fare thee well, folks.