This morning the bell rang and, when I answered it, there were two packages waiting outside the door. I looked down over the balcony and saw the mailman walking away. I called to him, and told him that I had ordered tickets to a show and was told by the box office that they had been returned, and the envelope marked that the apartment was “vacant.”
I explained to the mailman that I had gotten a lot of mail in the last week, but there were two important things I was waiting for, which I had not yet received. One was the tickets; the other was our insurance paperwork – for the RV and the PT.
He told me that our names weren’t inside the mailbox, and we hadn’t notified the post office that we had moved in, so our move wasn’t “official.” I’m so oblivious, because every time I opened the mail box I failed to notice that the names of the two previous occupants were still there. I told him I couldn’t understand why I was getting ANY mail, since I hadn’t notified the post office. I just thought if people started mailing stuff to you, they would deliver it! I quickly typed up a label with our names on it and put it into the mailbox while he was still there.
Part of the problem is that there are a lot of different mail delivery people on the route, and not just one person, so it’s very confusing. At least he knows we’re here, It would have been nice if the building manager had put our names inside the mailbox, or at least told us to do it.
I’m happy to report that my insurance information was in the mail today. It had been returned to the post office, but then they must have seen that I was getting other mail, so they redelivered it.
The mailman told me that I had to go online and change our address at the USPS website, and now that I did it, we shouldn’t have any problems anymore. I did that when we moved from the house, but we changed our address to our friends, Geri and Larry’s, because we knew we were going to be traveling for a few months and didn’t know what to do with our mail. They’ve been collecting and shipping it to us ever since (great friends that they are!).
I was hoping we could leave the address as theirs, since we’re not sure if we’re staying here or not, and – even if we do stay – we would eventually be buying something and moving again anyway. It just seemed SO complicated to start changing our address again, but I went online and made it “official.”
The complicated thing is, some things still have our address in Whitestone, some have Geri and Larry’s, and some now have our San Diego address. I don’t know how much of a problem having three addresses can cause, but I can just imagine! I have to start working on that. I’m sure by the time everyone starts getting it right, we’ll be moving again. Sounds like fun, right?
The good news is I got packages today, and a bunch of cards, so at least they’re delivering the mail! Our friends, Andrea and Mark, sent us a gift card to PIER 1 IMPORTS. I’m glad I didn’t get to use the one from Brian and Elaine yet, because now I can REALLY go crazy!!!! I really appreciate their generosity. We got a lot of holiday cards and some “good luck in your new home” cards, which really made us happy. It’s so nice to know people are thinking of us, we are eternally grateful for our lovely friends and family!
So, the cable guy came for the fourth time today. (It’s been four different guys – no repeats). This guy was really nice, but – believe it or not – the machine started working! I spent about 20 minutes on the phone last night with a technician, trying to fix it, and it didn’t seem to work, but I guess it did, because today it was recording everything! He couldn’t figure it out either (and I was able to show him the error messages I was receiving), so he just told me if it acted up again to call again. I’m not looking forward to that, but I’m hoping it’s all fixed now (and I did it myself!).
Neither Eric nor I left the house at all today. Eric installed all the shelves – the rest of the ones in the master bedroom (there are now 8 – three on each side of the bed and 2 above the mirrored closet) and the ones in the 2nd bedroom, which will be for his tools and stuff. They look GREAT!
He worked on that all day long. We were both in the apartment, but I hardly saw him! I was working in the master bedroom and living room, and he was pretty much in the 2nd bedroom all day!
I was putting stuff up on the new shelves and opening lots of boxes of artwork. I was SO thrilled that absolutely none of my collectibles were broken when I unpacked box after box last week, but when I opened the first box of artwork, the frame was broken and the glass was cracked on the largest piece of art I shipped. I’m grateful that the artwork wasn’t damaged at all, but the framing was $300 about 10 years ago, so I know it’s an expensive frame to replace.
I called the moving company and they said they’d send me a claim form. I don’t know what the next step is, but I took pictures of the damage and will try to open every other box before I send in the claim form.
I opened all the boxes of artwork (about 6) and everything else was fine. We repacked a few of them, because I can’t possibly hang them all up here, and I just kept the ones I like best, or which mean the most.
This is a picture of my grandmother's mirror as it looked hanging in our living room in Whitestone. In the mirror you can see the Marilyn litho, which was damaged in transit.
We opened the box containing the giant mirror that hung in the living room (which belonged to my grandmother). The mirror is framed with mirror, which is surrounded by thin gold molding, and then has a black frame around that, with gold Asian figures painted on it. The mirrored “frame” around the big mirror had fallen off in two places but, luckily, hadn’t broken. It just needs to be reglued. We packed it back up, because we’re definitely not hanging that up here. It’s huge and heavy and is a major project (even though it would look fabulous above our new couch!).
My friend, Susan, called me this afternoon. We talked for over an hour. She is SO funny and really had me laughing, which I really needed. She is actually very stressed and nervous, because her mother is ill and is having surgery on Thursday, so everyone say a prayer for her sweet Mom’s speedy recovery. Thanks!
Late in the afternoon I started a new at-home typing job. I have an old friend, who lives in LA, and I used to type things for him years ago. I haven’t heard from him in 3-4 years and last week he emailed to ask if I had the time to type some stuff up for him. His timing couldn’t have been better! I am charging him by the page, and it’s not hard at all. I love to type, and can sit with Eric and watch TV while I do it. I don’t have to absorb anything I’m typing. I just need to make sure I get it all right. I’m typing from books, but not complete pages – just sections that he has highlighted. I have three books to work on, which will probably take me a few weeks.
The last project I did for him, which was about 10 years ago, I typed an entire book. It was actually easier, because I just went from page to page, instead of having to search for the highlighted pages, which causes me to start and stop a lot. I still type over 100 words per minute, so I finish a page in about 10 minutes. It’s not going to make us rich, but at least I’ll have some cash coming in until I get a regular job!
I stopped long enough to throw a frozen pizza in the oven and that was our dinner. It was really good – deep dish. We both didn’t eat much today – cereal for breakfast and just a snack-style lunch. I gave Eric a bunch of grapes, a cut up pear (from our friends’ gift basket), some cubes of cheese and some chips. He loved it! I had some of the same.
I’m going to go to a temp agency this week to sign up and see if they can find me some real work. I temped for years when I was younger, and always enjoyed it. A lot of times it would lead to an offer, so it’s a great way to “test the waters” before taking a full-time job.
I thought you'd like to see a pictures of my buddies, Alf and Gossamer, whom I spoke of yesterday:
Tomorrow I have a bunch of errands to run, so I’m glad I’ll get to spend some time outside, enjoying the weather. After all, that’s really what it’s all about here, isn’t it?