Bandit Queen

pugwalk.jpg, originally uploaded by BodhiDave.

I'm in Portsmouth, as you may have noticed. I was going to wait to post until I had Apartment Pictures, but unpacking has stalled at 90% complete. My walls have just only be de-virginized a few hours ago. Two movie posters and a shadow box, if you're interested.

The last 10% is mostly clothes, a box of cables and other miscellany, and media. I had to chuck Cinder Shelf in the bin. No room.

Let me tell you briefly about the move.

First, I underestimated the amount of crap I own. Even chucking two out of every three possessions I came across (and that is probably a conservative guesstimation) the 5' x 8' U-Haul trailer and back of the truck were not enough. I had to ship five heavy boxes containing clothes, pots & pans, and a gallimaufry of kitchen items via UPS Ground at around fifty bucks a pop. Which arrived at my new doorstop a week later, piled up in the hall.

Every nook and tiny cranny of the trailer was filled. All furniture was broken down into levels approaching the sub-atomic. Items were shoved, coaxed, Tetrised into placed as the days rushed on. My bike, unable to be sold in time, was lashed onto the silver-tarped bulge in the back of my truck with looping rope and desperation. It was the last thing I packed.

The drive took forty-six hours of movement. Twenty hours in we arrived in Arkansas after crossing the tops of New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma through mist and rain and hill after momentum-sucking hill. I slept through basically all of Te-has and most of Oklahoma. I was too tired to sleep and nervous about having The Kasey drive my truck with a trailer through unknown territory, but foresight led to sleeping pills led to sleep.

A night of meeting accented relatives in a tilting house and a morning of chocolate gravy rested us up and we were off again. Tennessee, North Carolina, and the non-coastal parts of Virginia passed by in the dark during the audio version of Diamond Age and other iPod expulsions. We arrived at about 9:30 in the morning and napped at Kasey's old apartment, sleeping in the tiny twin bed for four hours or so before checking into the apartment and unloading the trailer and tarp.

Five people and the reserved freight elevator made short work of the U-Haul. We moved quickly as the trailer had to be back that day, and even so it was turned in two hours and twenty-seven dollars late. The rest of the truck came in the following days. Some boxes are empty and broken down, others filled with crumpled news paper. About four still have all my clothes in them and are resting in the closet. I'm still gliding on the momentum of my suitcase and the new jeans I just bought.

I can't take enough pictures to properly display the immersive beauty of this place. Walking the dogs is a real pleasure; I do it twice a day for at least thirty minutes a session. My building is crowded onto the edge of the water by historic Olde Towne Portsmouth with three hundred year old houses and neighborhoods. People nod to you as you walk by. And the green is everywhere.

I'm going to post more later. It's 4:00 AM and i need to go to bed. A big day of still not being employed tomorrow, gotta get my rest.

- David