oromendur

Good gracious. What day is it? Monday? No, wait, what week is it? Despite indications to the contrary, I live. I made it to Reno last Friday just before midnight. The trailer incident was only the start of a cascading comedy of errors that ended in some pretty epic stress crying and multiple bad decisions, but once I got on the road and into the audiobook things started to look up. Last week I soldiered through my Core Writing Instructor orientation training (which somehow managed to be dull and overwhelming at the same time) and did my best to get at least partially moved in, and then I changed my travel plans to allow for driving back to SoCal instead of flying -- mostly because said bad decision-making resulted in me bringing a lot of big things I didn't need and forgetting to load a bunch more I did. So now I'm back in San Diego, (where I actually have internet in the place I'm sleeping, hence this update) and the movers are coming on Wednesday... At this point I have a shoebox apartment in Reno that is at the stage in a move where I have to push things out of the way in order to open the door to leave, and a ramshackle house in north county San Diego that looks like it's been ransacked (because let's be serious, it totally has). And we had a hurricane (and an earthquake, apparently) because of course we did, and even though I was already on the road I had to ask a friend to run up and cover all the boxes in the living room with a tarp because there's a hole in the roof but it ISN'T [BLEEP]ING SUPPOSED TO RAIN IN AUGUST and ugh But did I mention the movers? The ones that are going to cost more than twice what I had originally planned because I *still* haven't managed to get everything packed? The ones that are now coming on Wednesday after a quick phone call today? That all ended up moving a lot faster than I expected -- I certainly didn't anticipate they'd come in a day and was planning on having to fly down over Labor Day -- but for better or worse I'll get the big stuff moved and have them pack as much as I can in the four hours I can (not really) afford. If it all doesn't fit (it totally isn't going to fit!) there will be some stacking and piling and donation before I leave on Thursday afternoon, but there is actually a possibility I *won't* have to come down at Labor Day, which would be awesome considering how much else I'm going to have going on by then. Anyway. I'm not even thinking about the spreadsheet right now. If I survive Week Four and get back to Reno with sanity mostly intact, I will try to adjust my patterns enough to get back on the challenge wagon for the last week. I honestly feel like I'm going to enjoy this Reno adventure into the life of the mind. I haven't even thought about my own classes as a student, which is kind of concerning but a lower priority than other things right now. I am a little nervous about teaching. I was quite literally twice the age of all the other new instructors in the orientation, though, and I have a feeling I'm not likely to have any trouble once I get over the scary beginnings of a new game I don't really know the rules of yet. It's going to be great. If I can ever get there Anyway anyway. Good luck everyone in Week Four!

Well, the trailer procedure ended up pretty much exactly as I expected it might Spoiler for the situation I got myself into this morning: So the situation is now resolved but it ate up THE ENTIRE MORNING and now I'm pretty much [BLEEP]ed. Now it's time for rushing around shoving crap into the trailer and hoping nothing important gets missed. It's a safe bet I won't have any energy left tonight, so here's my report for today (as I shovel in some lunch and get ready to work on not panicking). Thank you for stopping by the continuing edge-of-your-seat drama of Oromendur's bad decision-making circus

This is such good advice. I've tried to follow it in the last day or so, but there is just So. Much. Crap. in the way that I'm now a little too far behind the curve Thanks for saying this. I am. Life really [BLEEP]ing sucks right now but it's temporary, and as @DrFeelgood mentioned, even the very worst isn't so bad. If there weren't so many zeroes involved I'd probably have already followed your earlier advice to do this (and in that case it probably wouldn't be quite so close to too late). But I'll take the week I'm doing orientation and run a bunch of numbers and if I have to sell some stuff to make it happen, well, them's the breaks. I think I'm still in denial about it all. My sister said my eldest nephew might be interested in coming this fall with a few of his friends to trade work on the house for a few months of cheap rent and a chance to see how they find Southern California; if this happens (and he and his friends pay me enough to cover the mortgage, which is significantly less than what I could get if the place were livable) that kicks this can well enough down the road for me to have a better idea what I'll be dealing with. But you've said this before, and you're still right, and if I can just get my brain chemistry to function well enough for long enough to process it sensibly maybe I'll do something about it Thank you I hope things are well in the Shire. I'll check on your thread too when I get a chance, I promise... You guys are the best! Thanks for stopping by!

It's seriously one of the most stressful things I've ever had to do. I feel like I take a heavy sigh's worth of deep breaths at least every ten minutes But you're absolutely right -- at the very worst I'll be inconvenienced and have to deal with (more) financial stress. But nobody's dying here and the reminder is welcome and important, so thank you. Also: DFG!!!1!1!! SO GOOD TO SEE YOU!! I hope you're doing well! And @Sylvaa, too, I see you scattering reactions around here, and I see you have a thread up, and I swear I'm going to go read it one of these minutes! It's like a Waffle reunion or something Seems like lots of people are returning to the forums this time around, and it's awesome. Thank you all so much for stopping by my little pool of insanity here

I don't know what day it is and I'm honestly not sure of my name but I do know this: it's going to take an act of powerful magic by someone other than me (thaumaturgic or theurgic, I'm not picky) for me to get everything I need for Reno into that trailer tomorrow There remains to pack one Contico box (of three) for clothes (plus shoes, which haven't yet been sorted through), all the dishes and cooking gear and coffee/tea paraphernalia, all the computer and tech gear, all the massage/back pain kit, all the music stuff, all the fountain pen stuff, blankets and pillows, and food and supplements. Oh yeah, and I have to be up an out early first thing to go fetch the trailer and navigate it down my driveway. I am unreasonably apprehensive that I'll be unable to maneuver it effectively and get stuck and destroy it and the container and my car and my deck and my house and the entire Universe and no it isn't rational but ICAN'THELPITAAAAAAAUGH <bzzt> <ahem> I'm just going to have to do my best, and stay focused on the continuous triage necessary to get the things I *can't* put in two checked bags and a carry-on into that wretched trailer. The rest of it will sit where it's fallen for a week and a half or so. Can I call roadside assistance if I run the trailer off the edge and it falls into the canyon? At least the spreadsheet green boxes are going well? (sigh) Onward.

Ugh. Missed a daily report -- and a weekly update, but that will probably have to wait until next week. I woke up very sick yesterday (because of course I did). Horrible headache, fever/chills, extremely weak and unsteady. The HRV monitor was *very* concerned I'm blaming a combination of stress and mold exposure (I was literally scraping hunks of mildew off some old military wool blankets and shaking them all over the deck). Past me had looked after future me by packing the car, though, and I was able to drag my degraded self through the post office/donation/car drop off plan. I walked a very slow ten minutes (spreadsheet green box, well done me!), caught a Lyft home, and then had to have a good long lie-down... In the afternoon I started to recover somewhat (the fever went away anyway) so I plugged away at the clothes for a bit until it was time to go get the car. $400 I don't have later, hopefully the UHaul people won't turn me away for having wires dangling out the back of my hitch.* Better this morning. Worked ALL day on clothes. Clothes are still not done. Holy Mother Forking Shirt Balls do I have a lot of clothes All the excellent advice upthread is excellent. Tomorrow I will stop sorting and finalize the packing for Reno (I have been working on it in passing so it hasn't been exactly neglected, but it will become the focus). I pick up the trailer on Thursday morning. Assuming I manage not to destroy my impossible driveway getting the thing close enough to my door to avoid rolling furniture uphill, I'll spend Thursday shifting and loading. Friday morning I'm driving north; whatever gets left behind gets left behind I've bought plane tickets back to San Diego for Week Four of this challenge (with credit card points the cost was about the same as driving but 6 hours of travel vs. 20 was worth the inconvenience of airports). That buys me another four days. If I can find movers for the third of those four (specifically ones whom I can pay without going over the limit on my credit card) I probably will do so. With only a few weeks until school starting, the academic machine is starting to rev up. Emails, texts, plans flying about. I'm trying hard not to be jealous and/or resentful of my (all much younger) cohort: chatting easily, asking about meeting up for coffee and writing, speculating on texts and professors, excited about the apartments arranged for (and guaranteed by!) their parents -- sigh. It's not their fault I'm such a mess right now. And, although it's nearly impossible for me to imagine at this point, I have a feeling I'm going to be SO much happier a human once I actually make it into my new life. Anyway. I'll respond to everyone's kind words tomorrow. Onward. *Is this a euphemism? It sounds like it could be a euphemism. I don't actually know at this point.

So things are worse than I thought Today I got through less than half of the clothes. (More than a third, but definitely less than half.) Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday remain, and I MUST leave for Reno on Friday morning. At this rate I'm going to leave whole rooms (*cough* looking at you, kitchen and laundry room *cough*) in various states of complete half-packed disarray. I now regret ordering the container at all, because I started paying for it on 3 Aug and may not actually put anything in it until the next time I come down I could have piled things in my bedroom and saved myself a couple hundred dollars. (sigh) Anyway. Water under the bridge (which I haven't yet decided to burn, but it's not out of the question). Tonight: finish this report (spreadsheet green box! well done me) and get to bed as close to 10 as I can manage. Tomorrow: up early and out, drop off two boxes at the post office (things sold on eBay, yay pocket money), do last gigantic book and first gigantic clothing donation run (car is already packed! well done me), drive to car dealership for service appointment, walk from dealership at least to mall to get my 10 minutes of exercise in (and try to get out of the premium zone for Lyft), cough up for a Lyft home, call around to determine cost of movers in case I can solve the problem by throwing money at it I don't have, possibly arrange for junk haulers on Wednesday, pack clothes all day, *hopefully* cough up for a Lyft back to the dealership to pick up my car. We'll see. I'm skeptical. I always knew this was going to be a disaster, but the scale of it is starting to become clear and I'm kind of struggling to stay motivated But, as is the case with many things in life, the only way out is through, so there's nothing to do now but keep going. I'm actually considering repurposing the week I have free (after the instructor orientation and before the start of classes proper) from 'sorting out apartment and living situation in Reno' to 'coming back down and un[BLEEP]ing as much here as I can.' It will mean starting my new school year and new life stressed and unhappy -- but will it balance out how stressed I'll be with things undone in the old place? Needs more thought, and Im all out of thought juice tonight. (shrug) Onward.

You're not lying You know, I have handled some pretty [BLEEP]ing stressful shit in my various life adventures, and I have to say this ranks up there! 0/10 would not recommend. Well, you're not wrong, but as Samwise Gamgee might say "there's progress, and then there's progress, if you take my meaning." Thank you so much! I really appreciate you stopping by to add some encouragement - it really helps. I hope your challenge is going well!

Well, [BLEEP]. So a friend very kindly gave up her Saturday to come help me pack today. We worked a solid seven hours, and together we got through three and a half of the five BookcasesOfDoom™ and almost everything remaining in the upstairs rooms. That's the good news. The bad news is, after some hard planning math based on two people working (and facing the fact that it will be only one again from here on out) I can no longer lie to myself and pretend I'm going to have everything done in time. It's just too much stuff, too many rooms, and too few hands. (sigh) But the good news is, this isn't a deployment or anything. Nobody is moving in right away. I'm going to be in the same timezone. I can come down at Labor Day and keep working. If I don't finish then, I can even come down again after that if I have to. (I mean, each trip will involve twenty hours of windshield time -- but some things are their own punishment.) With all that in mind, I have just canceled the movers (I had only booked labor, not packing, and there's no point in paying money I don't have for people to come move crap I don't have ready). I'll explore possible last-minute full-service movers on Monday morning, but if it turns out to be as prohibitively expensive as I expect, I will plan to cancel the container pickup on Monday afternoon. This means there is some plan-adapting and priority-shifting to do; instead of MUST GET STUFF PACKED FOR CONTAINER, I need to switch to MUST GET STUFF PACKED FOR RENO. Probably the remaining bookcases won't make the cut until I go through clothes and kitchen stuff (both of which involve significant quantities of crap and neither of which has been touched). So tomorrow: all clothes, all day, all the time. And then maybe some dishes just to make a change. Oh yeah and I need to book a junk hauler. And take the car in because I discovered the towing harness wiring has been eaten by rats. And go get a trailer to pack for Reno. And figure out how to get the trailer down the driveway without destroying it, my walls, my house or my car. And... G&)*$>#DEOU?{* J>OEHHU><"LHHTEUHL<>U <break> <reset> Uh, onward?

I am glad today is over Spoiler for whinging: Anyway. I got through it. It's over. I'm going to sleep in tomorrow, heat or no heat. Tomorrow's focus is the upstairs guest room -- I need it packed and empty and ready to move the bed on Saturday. If I get through that I'll clear that wretched bathroom closet and take a stab at the easiest of the remaining BookcasesOfDoom™. (sigh) Onward.

Found them: https://www.smokingdragons.co.uk/ I have the baby Zolar (with red eyes instead of blue -- I think I like the blue!) but they are all ADORABLE

So, I did the thing. It was a hard thing. To put a number on how hard it was: my normal 10-minute elliptical sessions usually earn me between 11 and 16 PAI. Today, doing only chainsaw-and-hauling work, I earned 66 PAI. (Out of curiosity I went back through my spreadsheet; I earned 57 on 23 May, 55 on 1 March, and I have to go all the way back to 6 December to find a daily PAI score higher than today's. For reference, the max one can earn in a single day is 75.) It was a HARD thing but I did it. I didn't do anything else As could have been predicted with absolute certainty, that hard thing took THE WHOLE DAY and all the energy I had (and then some). I did make a halfhearted attempt to move some boxes from upstairs closets down to their respective piles this evening, but I was only partially successful. The 16' storage container which will shelter my entire material convoy for the next unknown number of years arrives tomorrow at 0630 (!) and I am not even remotely done packing But I'm going to bed early tonight. Hopefully, after they get the container settled, tomorrow I will be able to do the wretched donation run I didn't do, because I have a serious need to make some room so some friends who are coming to pick up some big things will actually be able to get at said big things. Onward...

OK, so I did *not* do the donation run today. Neither did I empty the closet. I woke up feeling utter crap (and the HRV measurement supported me so it wasn't pure brain chemistry shit) and it was SO hard to do anything at all. Still, it wasn't a total loss of a day. I did go through two of my seven BookcasesOfDoom™ (the easiest two, to be fair) and managed to survive the trial and discard all but two boxes of books. I haven't yet boxed up the ones I decided to donate, but considering the size of the pile it's going to be at least three boxes...and five bookcases yet remain... I think when all is said and done I will have donated a few thousand books. It's astonishing how much crap a person accumulates Tomorrow's early necessary task is an awful one I can't flake on: I have to go dig out and fire up my chainsaw and cut down some tree branches and trim some shrubbery to make a path for the container to be delivered on Thursday. (Yes, the steep driveway is that overgrown. No, I don't want to talk about it.) Since Thursday morning is trash day anyway this works out fine -- I'll be able to put the slash right in the green bin and haul it right out tomorrow. But that means I *must* be up and working early, whether I feel like crap or not, because [BLEEP] ME it's going to be hot If I survive that all right maybe I'll have a go at the bathroom closet again. Most of it is holiday decorations (and in the triage of shit that must be done, going through them is not going to make the cut I'm afraid), so all that needs to happen is I have to schlepp about eight boxes down to the 'going into the storage container' pile. I have no idea how it's all going to happen but there's nothing to do but keep going... Onward.

Nice job in Week Zero! I am in a position currently to recognize how much of a win this really is -- well done you! I bet you could get someone to meet you at the museum café if you wanted to squeeze in some friend time without hauling yourself all the way across town This adorable little guy came home with me from a shop somewhere in Wales, the last time I was visiting Shropshire. He's hollow and has open nostrils so he breathes smoke if you light an incense cone underneath him I can try and track down the source if you want. I mean, in case you need more inspiration, of course... Love this SO much Good luck with the travel planning, library quests, and management adjustment. Week One here we come!

Wait, Monday? How did that happen? Where did Sunday go? <checks> Oh, right. Sunday. Sunday kind of fell apart on me. Basically what happened is I let myself get tempted into accepting a Zeel appointment starting way too late. I've tried to set some boundaries with myself, but when they increased the pay to $95 for an hour's work it finally got me to bite, even though the client wanted to start the session literally after my target bedtime I mean, I do need the money... I did manage to empty my entire master bathroom closet in the morning yesterday, but otherwise I failed at sensible time management, and ended up after the appointment without enough willpower energy to offset the opportunity for some poor decision-making involving carne asada fries (and tequila and lime in grapefruit soda, mmm, Paloma, I *love* me a Paloma and I had a nice bottle of reposado tequila and a few bottles of the good FeverTree grapefruit and proper orange bitters and fresh limes and...well...yeah). So anyway, that was Sunday. Which means it's Monday. Which means it's time for the [WEEK ZERO REVIEW]! Spoiler for spreadsheet screenshot and discussion: Today's (Monday's) activities included tilting at the windmill that is my living room for a while to make space to store all the boxes I optimistically hope to have packed soon, as well as spending a good chunk of the afternoon calling about to arrange for some help next week. (They also included a coughing fit at the cost of said help. $700 for three people for two hours was the best I could do considering the piano and the giant wardrobe I could probably go to Narnia in if I wanted. Ouch.) Tomorrow's first hard task (to be done early while it's still cool and I have the brain chemistry and physical energy to handle it) is loading the next big bunch of crap to be donated into the car and taking it over. I've learned my lesson about particleboard, but there's still plenty of crap in piles taking up space I desperately need. It's GOT to go. If I have anything left in the tank after that, I will work on emptying the upstairs bathroom closet. Good luck everyone in Week One!

Today was MUCH more productive than has been the case for a good long while. I don't know whether the ashwagandha-rhodiola-theanine supplement* I took this morning can be thanked, or if it was the fact that my back finally stopped hurting quite so badly, but my brain actually seemed to be working reasonably well for once, and continued doing so for more than a few morning hours. I got the guest bedroom closet of Doom two-thirds of the way empty, sorted through and tossed a bunch of dead projects, and even had energy to list a bunch more things for sale on eBay. I did not get to listing the bigger items on FB though Tomorrow is another day. A few more days like this and I might have a chance of finding myself in a position to be able to direct movers around this disaster *This one; I've been a little afraid of it because nootropics are so squirrelly, but my brain chemistry has been horrid for months and I don't have time to sort out medication at the moment. I did a twenty-seconds-of-courage thing and tried it. I haven't crashed yet, but we'll have to see what the sleep situation looks like tonight before I'm willing to from a proper opinion . Initial indications seem positive. If anybody has any experience with this sort of supplementation I'd love to hear about it.

Today? Today was by any measure better than yesterday. (I mean, that's not setting the bar all that high to be honest, but let's celebrate progress where we can get it, shall we?) This morning early I emptied the final living room bookshelf, selected fewer than 10% of the books to put in the 'keep' pile, packed all of the rest into two enormous 'donate' boxes, and then came close to throwing my back out again attempting to move said overpacked boxes to a position by the door That bookshelf is not particleboard and will be going into the storage container, but I ran out of steam before I could move it into the appropriate pile, so it's standing empty in its corner like a toothy grin, adding to the dislocation of the space. Early in the afternoon I accepted my first Zeel appointment and rearranged my expectations for the day, only to have the appointment cancelled about half an hour later So, since by then I'd used up the cool hours and it was too hot to live, I retreated to my tiny (barely air-conditioned) office with a pile of valuables. I took some pictures and listed a double handful of items on eBay. (This has been on my to-do list for AT LEAST three months, perhaps more, so I feel there should have been celebrations and fireworks and applause that I did such a mundane thing. There wasn't, of course, but I got a good 'well done me!' dopamine hit out of it regardless.) The bulkier items will have to go for local pickup on another site (probably [shudder] Facebook Marketplace) but those require serious moving of large amounts of crap in order to get photos and so will have to wait for tomorrow. Fingers crossed that some of this crap will sell. At least these small steps may help me have a bit of money to throw at movers, and that's all to the good. All of that and some delicious sourdough pizza rounded out the day. Sum total was, like, three and a half boxes all in... In exactly a fortnight I leave for Reno. <PANIC ENSUES> Onward!

It's crossed my mind. There are a few things here (including a ridiculously enormous wardrobe that is one of my very favoritest things EVER) that I *definitely* can't move by myself, so I was already planning to throw a bit of money at movers -- but the idea was I'd have everything already packed for them, and they'd just come in and do the (literally) heavy lifting to shift everything into the mobile storage container. At this rate I may have to reconsider that and bring them in a day or so beforehand to finish whatever packing I fail to do. But hundredthousandfamilyGODS there is a lot of sorting to do before I can in good conscience bring someone else in and be able to give them any functional direction Still, thank you for the eminently sensible suggestion. It is under serious advisement

Today... (Spoiler for unattractive whining) So at this rate I'll be ready to move by, like, December This executive dysfunction is breathtaking. I seriously don't know why I can't seem to do a single [BLEEP]ing thing but it's really going to be a problem here soon... Anyway. At least I'm doing well on the green spreadsheet boxes. I even went back for a handful of cherries as dessert when I sat down to type this out and realized I hadn't actually eaten a freggie today, green box, well done me! The things I did do today were things that needed doing. They just weren't helping the packing move forward in any significant way. (For the umpteenth day in a row.) (sigh) Tomorrow is another day. Onward.

Today was another day. It was slightly less of a DAY than yesterday. It wasn't exactly more *productive,* mind you, it just wasn't as downright bad. Unless you count the fact that it got up to 93.6º F/34.2 ºC here today and my house has no AC The day really wasn't a total loss. Another particleboard bookshelf got trundled down to join its brethren in the pile of ignominy in the carport. (It'll cost ~$200-$300 for a junk haul run, apparently. Cheaper than a dumpster as long as it isn't enough to fill a dumpster. I could actually use the incentive to toss some crap, so this is my tentative plan for now.) I loaded couch cushions into vacuum cubes and turned them into fluffy-but-solid pancakes, which was oddly satisfying. I disassembled a few little things, poked at a few half-packed boxes, and wandered aimlessly around the house allowing myself to be distracted by any number of anklebiter tasks -- that both started and remained unfinished. Bleah. In the afternoon I got booked on a Soothe* call, though, so I hurried to get my green exercise box before lunch so I could shower (for the first time in a long enough time that it's kind of embarrassing) and get there on time. That took all the rest of my oomph for the day and I barely had enough left to push the trash and recycling up to the road for collection tomorrow morning. (OMG the paper. So. Much. Paper.) So dinner, NF, and bed it is. Sigh. Tomorrow I WILL accomplish enough that I can post a decent before/picture here, I swear... Onward! * Soothe is a mobile app for on-call massage, sort of like Uber or Lyft but instead of a ride to the airport you get a person showing up with a massage table. I really don't have time to be doing such things if we're being honest, but this was a repeat client (who is VERY put out that I'm moving away) and more money is always good. But I'm not going to lie, 90 minutes of deep tissue massage wipes me out.

I know we've talked about it before, but it really is helpful to have a challenge on the go. So well done both of us Here's to challenge (and life!) renewal!

A mile is a great place to start. I've found that a small task trivial enough I'll actually do it always trumps a grandiose one I won't do. Good luck with this! IF has been huge for me, even if I don't always do it perfectly. If you don't have an issue with artificial sweeteners, a drop or two of liquid sucralose in the coffee (I use EZ-Sweetz) is a nice non-caloric way to scratch the sweet itch. No joke! Good for you. Maybe let us know if you feel any different after a few clean days? This looks like a very well-thought-out challenge. Welcome back!

This is an excellent point. Just knowing there's someone out there reading and cheering me on makes it feel a little less like I have to face this all alone. Thank you very much! I hope you are deriving as much benefit from your return as I am

Oof. It's been a day. Spoiler for length: In the end the only real thing I accomplished was nailing down a company and a date for a storage unit delivery. This is not nothing. But considering it came at the cost of one whole day, and I only have sixteen more to go, and I can't even see where the stuff I got rid of has made the slightest dent in the mess, that is scant comfort. Anyway. Tomorrow is another day. Time for some more green boxes and an early bedtime, so I can get up early and do it all again Onward!