Relief!

So I got out of my apartment in Cheyenne last night. The landlords happened along just as I was finishing the housecleaning and were good enough to do the walkthrough then, saving me a trip back up to Cheyenne today. Apparently they liked what they saw, because I got my deposit back 🙂

If any of you have reason to go apartment shopping in Cheyenne, Athelphia LLC and the Pappas family are great landlords. Concerned, involved, and definitely a good choice to rent from.

So now I’m about to embark on my interim career as Plasma Donor! Dan’s (my brother’s) wife works at ZLB in Greeley and I could use a little income this week so off I go. Sort of feel like a sellout after all the years I spent working for non-profit blood collections joints (Am. Red Cross, United Blood Svcs.) but oh well. I am fully able to reconcile myself with this conflict by thinking “Just a couple ‘donations’ and I can afford to ship a bicycle or a guitar down there without using any of my saved money.” It’s a strong justification.

 I’m convinced that Colorado is trying to keep me from leaving. The weather here has been marvelous.. It’ll haunt me when my arms are sticking to my chest with pit sweat and I just fell into a nest of fire ants. Be that as it may, I’ve heard there’s some pretty stuff to look at in Hawai’i and the weather is reported to be fairly nice, even in winter! I did not pack my snow shovel, but it’s hard to let it go..

More later, as I have nothing much to do but donate plasma and rearrange my boxes of crap that I’m leaving here. I’m thinking tomorrow will be Shakedown #1, so stay tuned!

Almost done with Cheyenne

Well, after dinking around with the apartment for the last week straight I’m almost done. Turned in my cable modem (currently blogging out of my brother’s basement), cleaned the last two days non-stop. Got all my shit out of there but the vacuum cleaners.

I promise that this blog will start getting more interesting once I get moved out of there.

Last night I actually got a little nostalgiac and weepy about my good ol’ apartment. So I set up my laptop and had one last Mystery Science Theater on the couch night and thought about the good things that came from the Cheyenne period.. It was good, all things considered, but I sure didnt dig any roots there. I learned how to live alone, honed my bachelor skills (Dishwashing avoidance etc.) and watched a shit ton of MST3K.

Welcome new readers! Thanks for the comments and keep ’em coming. Like I say, I swear to you the content of this thing is going to get a lot more interesting in a couple days. Heck, I might even include pictures and whatnot.

Of course all my readers are welcome to head to Hawai’i.. The more the cheaper the split rent!

Gotta head back up to Cheyenne and finish cleaning. After that it’s just hanging out until I get on the plane.

Another day of the same old..

Packed up a bunch of shit and brought it to my brother’s for storage today. Rather than freaking out I decided to just take action. I’ll have to do it sometime anyway.. Main problem right now is how to manage my couch and how to load up my home bar into the van. The thing’s a monster and I can’t lift it by myself. Hopefully my brother will be around to help me move it, or I’ll just have to herniate and go.

I think I have an idea for packing, but I have to try it out. Since I’m leaving here the 29th and leaving the Mainland the 8th I have a week where I’m going to be living on the good graces of others. So I can’t really pack all the stuf I’m taking to HI and leave it since I’ll be needing it during the intervening week. Gotta check it out, but I think I have a solution.

One of these next few blog entries I’m going to have to photograph a shakedown and get advice from my readers as to what I need and what I don’t. Not the next few days though. Gotta scramble to get my apartment ready to leave.

New readers, thanks for checking it out!

Minor freak out underway!

So I’m packing my bags as though I were leaving, trying to get all the stuff I had hoped to bring with me in the (very!) limited space allowed on the plane. It’s not going very well and I’m sort of freaking out. I have relocated many times and you’d think I’d be good at this by now. Might just be that I’m trying to bring too much stuff. But a backpack, a suitcase and 2 small carry-ons doesn’t seem like I’m overpacking for a new life in Hawai’i..

Bah. Gonna do the old-fashioned Boy Scout style shakedown. Probably the first of many before I actually go. All I really need is clothing, computer gear, and bedding (in my case a Thermarest pad and some light blankets. Was going to take a sleeping bag and just do this like a camping trip, but it appears to be taking too much room).

There are a few nostalgia items I’d like to bring along, but I’m not sure my limited space affords the room for them.. I acted all smart and told my mom when I was there to visit before my trip that “Memories are in your head,” I guess I have to live by that.

The last week

Here’s the deal. I’m moving from Cheyenne Wyoming to Ewa Beach Oahu Hawaii March 8th, 2008. If the truth were told I’m doing so on a whim, but I’m committed and will make it work. I am not wealthy. Poor might better describe me. I am blogging this to document the viability of a move of this nature and to get advice from others who have made the move. I’ll be posting often, especially after I get to the islands.

My tickets (one-way!) were about 250 bucks. That was cool.

An unexpected difficulty for me is “What do you take?” I spend a lot of time sizing up my stuff and deciding which things are necessary, which would be nice, which are too big, which would be cheaper and easier to replace when I get there.. It’s probably the hardest part of the move so far. Moving that far away with a carry on, laptop bag, and two checked bags.. You want to make sure you’re maximizing the utility of the things you’re bringing. Coupled with the fact that I’ve never been there and have no real idea what to expect it’s extremely difficult to make decisions like that.

I’m almost done packing, but it’s getting pretty frantic at this point. I’ve set up for the apartment cleaners to arrive on the 29th at 1300. Suppose I’d best have all my stuff out of the apartment by then.. My friend in Hawaii has lined up a really nice apartment for us. He and his girlfriend and I sharing a 2 bedroom 2.5 bath townhome at 1450/month.

Hawaii is really expensive. I hear that from everyone, and am perfectly willing to believe it. It’s intimidating to be making a move like this without a job lined up (I’m talking to a few places but one of the great catch 22s is that its difficult to make employers believe that you’re actually moving to the islands until you’re actually there) especially given the legendarily high cost of living. I am a highly employable guy, but without any kind of feel for the job market there it’s gonna be tough diving in blind.

I worry a lot, but try to come off like I have my stuff figured out when I’m asked about the move. Here in this blog I will be giving the straight dope on what I’m feeling, doing, and experiencing both before and after the relocation.

And right now I’m stressing hard.