All work and no play makes me a dull girl

Finally, all of our stuff is into the house. The apartment is clean and now we can start actually going through stuff at the house. This was the worst weekend ever. We started moving at 7 AM Friday and finally stopped at about 9 PM today. I have never been so sore and exhausted in my life. Dan had to work all day yesterday so I did some work with his parents before I went to work. After work, we loaded up more stuff and brought it to the house. Dan had to work all day again today so it was me and his parents. We got the rest of the stuff in 2 truck loads and then I went back and cleaned the apartment all day while I waited for Dan to get out of work. Doing so much of this stuff alone has sucked the life out of me. Our schedules conflict so it's always one or the other of us but mostly it's been me as my schedule has been a bit more kind lately. That's about the change as I've now been upgraded to full-time instead of part-time and I'm a manager now. Yay? I just want all the clutter to go away right away. I want to have a nice-looking home and I want to hang out with the few friends I have left.

I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. Well, I'm not sick...yet. It might get to that point if I don't catch a break soon. I've been going non-stop for the last 2 weeks between work and moving. Yesterday was the big move day. It sucked worse than any move I've ever made. It's not even done because we really had no help. The in-laws got into town Wednesday and they've been doing things around the house to help get it ready. They also helped us lug boxes and furniture up and down, up and down, up and down all day yesterday. Yes, it helped but it seemed really slow and because they're not young, they couldn't do a whole lot. I appreciate what they did but at points I just wanted them to go back to their hotel and get out of my way. My parents and brother also made an appearance for a couple of hours but left after we got the first truckload to the house. Yes, we filled up a moving truck, unloaded it and went back for more and we still don't have everything out of the fucking apartment. Now Dan has to work all weekend, I have to work today. We still need to get the rest of the stuff out of the apartment and get it all cleaned out in 2 days. Our friends Pat and Suki were kind enough to come over for a while and help us load up the second trip and unload it. They also bought us a case of beer. Before they got there, I was on the verge of tears, Dan was ready to just give up completely and we were both ready to murder anyone that upset us. When they showed up, it kind of gave us a second wind and we wouldn't have been able to continue without them. We started at 7 AM yesterday and finally went to bed at 2:45 this morning. I still haven't slept. I tried. The combination of being in a new place, worrying about getting everything done in time, worrying about how the cats were going to adjust and wondering if they were getting into anything they shouldn't, worrying that Dan's alarm wouldn't go off so he could get to work on time, etc. I have so many stupid things on my mind. I just want to sleep all day but I have to try to get some stuff done here and then go to work. Dan's parents will be here too. They are going to fill up their truck a couple of times with stuff from the apartment and bring it to the house. They have been the most help through all of this. I still feel really overwhelmed. I'm used to living amongst a ton of stuff and boxes but now there's a ton of stuff and boxes that are spread out all over a giant house. I'm not sure how to approach everything. I feel let down. At one point in my totally exhausted rage last night, I wanted to just disown everyone I knew for not helping us. I hate to ask for help and I rarely do but sometimes I still feel as I have many many many times that I'm always willing to help a friend in need but when I'm the one in need, nobody's there for me. I've gotten over it. Right now, there's just too much shit going on for me to think clearly. I need a break.

Home is where the heart is...or some such nonsense

I'm sure mostly everyone is tired of hearing about the fact that we're so close to buying a house but it's a huge step. We close on Friday and move in next Friday. I'm going to be spending probably every waking moment that I'm not at work in the next week over at the new place cleaning, scraping, priming, painting, tearing up carpet, etc. It's going to be a lot of hard work but in the end, I'm sure it will be rewarding. I do have some strange ideas that I haven't really shared. As far as I know, this house was built in 1920. I love it because it's so old. It has so much old charm and character. I've got a thing for old craftsmanship. I probably don't seem like it, but I'm such a sucker for this stuff. This house is gorgeous, except for some rooms that have ugly paint and carpet but nothing that we can't fix. We're going to be re-painting everything and while it's exciting, I'm afraid that it won't look as good as when we originally fell in love with it. Then I think about changing something so old. I feel as though it's going back and re-writing history in a sense. A house that's 90 years old has got to have some interesting tales to tell, if only I could hear them. I always feel as though I have to preserve old things but now I'm going to be changing it...a lot. I know that a home is where one should feel comfortable...a haven. I know that we need to make it such. It will be exciting to start our own history. I just wish I could know the original history before I go changing it. This is rambling, I'm sure. It makes sense in my head. Oh well. I'm pumped. I'm finally going to have a place to call my own. Home sweet home.

Time...where does it go and what does it change?

Lately I've been thinking about changes. I've been going through a lot of them recently but I don't want to talk about me. I've been thinking about technological changes a lot and the impact they've had on society. I've briefly discussed some of these with a couple people but I wanted to put a list together. This list is going to be mostly based on changes that have happened in my lifetime (the last 26 years). This is probably going to be an ongoing post. Here's what I have so far:

A major change that occurred when I was a kid was the change from cassettes to CDs. I used to sit in my room and listen to my boombox, record favorite songs off of the radio, etc. Cassettes had a lot less space than CDs and you had to flip them over to listen to the entire album. I didn't mind though. Kids nowadays don't even know what a cassette is. It makes me feel old. CDs are more expensive but much more versatile. You can load music, photos, documents and whatever else onto a CD.

Along the same lines, the change in movies. We had VHS. There were also laser discs which didn't last long. Now we have DVDs, HD DVDs and Blu Ray. Again, we see that these forms offer more versatility than VHS. We used to go to the video store and rent movies. Now, we download them or get them in the mail from Netflix or watch them instantly on our computers or video game consoles. A friend of mine mentioned to me that soon, kids are going to ask what a video store was.

Libraries...does anyone really use them anymore? When I was a kid, we had a class in school on how to use the library. I haven't set foot in one in years. If you wanted to read a book, you either bought it at the store or borrowed it from the library. To do school work, you had to go to the library and look up information in books. In order to find those books, you had to look in the card catalog. Remember the Dewey Decimal System, people? The only reasons people go to the library now are to use free internet or for a quiet place to work. The internet has pretty much replaced the need for libraries. You can find any information you need from the comfort of your living room and you don't have to pay late fees. I had to take a research class in college...the class was held in one of the computer labs in the library. I'm pretty sure the class didn't mention using books at all.

Here's one that I've recently discussed with a couple different people: writing. Handwriting, to be exact. When I was young, we had to learn how to write in cursive as well as printing. We had handwriting books with practice exercises. Now, we type...everything. I'm not even sure they teach handwriting in schools anymore. The only time I ever write in cursive is when I sign my name. I will shamefully admit that I no longer remember how to write everything in cursive. There are some letters that I don't remember. I know that I'm not alone in this. Kids used to write in diaries or journals and hide them under their mattresses safe from the prying eyes of parents and siblings. Now type everything and save it on our computers or post it on the internet...just like this.

Cell phones...they're not what they used to be. When I was a kid, we called them car phones because that's where they were used. People had them in their cars to use for emergencies. My dad had one...it was in a leather bag and plugged into the cigarette lighter. You couldn't use it if you weren't in the car. Now cell phones are more prevalent than actual landlines for homes. Everyone's got one. I see kids in elementary school wandering around with cell phones. It kind of makes me sick. Most people don't even use their cell phones for speaking either. We text, we send photos, we browse the internet and visit social networking sites. Rarely do we speak.

Video games. My first one was an Atari. I don't think I need to dive too deeply into how much these have changed, do I?

The internet. I remember when it started to gain in popularity. It's taken over pretty much everything. We use it to communicate via e-mail, chat applications and social networking sites. We do our research, our shopping and even find love on the internet. I could go on and on but I don't think I really need to. It's changed everything.

This is getting long so I'll pause for now. I'll probably come back and add things later. I just want to drive home the point that there are so many things that have changed as a result of technological advances just in during the time I've been around. Imagine what our parents and grandparents think. They've seen so much more. We've all become lazy and anti-social. I wonder what it will be like if I have a kid. Feel free to comment.