On and On

And there it is. I'm finally a home owner. I closed a week ago, and moved in this weekend. The move went off spectacularly. I ferried some boxes in my car on the eve of the move. I had 3 friends help me on Sunday for the move. They'd all helped me move over the last 2 years and were probably sick of the whole process. We picked up the u-haul and started moving stuff at 1 PM. The van was all loaded by 2, and we had plenty of time for jokes in between. The last piece of furniture was in place and the bed assembled in the new place by 4 PM. By all standards, that's a phenomenal achievement. I'd like to imagine it's due to my finely tuned packing prowess. The last time I moved I put stuff from every room in 1 big box each. While this reduced the number of trips we were all dog tired by the time the van was loaded and that made unloading a big pain. This time around I split the load into nearly a dozen small boxes and I think that sped the whole process up.

I spent all day yesterday getting my address changed and having all services moved. Still need to get my license and plates updated. Hopefully, this is the last I've to deal with all this for the next 5 years. My car insurance went up by $120!! That's after a hefty discount I got when I bought insurance for my house (a sweet $300). Fuckin A, joys of home ownership.

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I drove into work 3 hours late yesterday. The general consensus was that I was exhausted from the move and had slept in. The last part is true, but the circumstances somewhat different. After we finished moving I took the guys out for early dinner and a few beers. Given that I was sleep deprived (the dozen boxes didn't materialize out of thin air), 2 beers had me buzzed. On the way back I picked up a bottle of the driest Chardonnay I could find to "celebrate". I downed the whole bottle in an hour all by myself. I was still drunk when I woke up at 7 am. The hangover lasted till 2 PM. So much so for a responsible home owner eh?

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Being a homeowner now comes with it's set of lifestyle changes. I now have a million doors to lock, re-lock, check and double check because I'm paranoid like that. There's a lot more cubic footage which makes it seem the house was build on top of a glacier. I hate keeping the heater on (old miserly habits), and am faced with the situation of having to wear clothes while at home. Not cool man, not cool. On the flip side, I can crack the garage door open and start the car 5 mins in advance and that makes for a nice warm ride to the car pool. Ah well, trade-offs trade-offs.