Week 2: ...and Amy

1. How are things going???
Pretty well, all things considered.  The dominant exception to that, of course, is that my grandfather died two days after I arrived.  I say "died," but really, I think that's inaccurate.  I think he decided to stop living.  He was just shy of 94 years old, and up until 6 months ago or so, had rarely even been ill.  Of course it's sad that he's gone; but he had an incredibly full life, and he died, as he lived, on his terms.  I can't begrudge him that.  Below is a picture of him and his first wife, named Dot, my biological grandmother.  She died when my dad was just a teen; I never met her.  He is survived by his second wife, the woman I consider my grandmother.  It's a little confusing, and led to my having uncles that are the same generation as I am (8 and 11 years older, respectively), but I suppose few families are truly "normal" these days.  Anyway, I love this picture (this is a picture of the picture, since I didn't take the original home with me).  Below that is a more recent picture of him.  He was an institution for me.  I'm going to miss him.

Jimmy and Dot Jones, my grandparents.  I like to think they're together somewhere now.  I don't know that I believe it, but I like to think it nonetheless.

My grandfather and my then-youngest nephew.  At the time of the photo, they were the oldest and youngest Joneses in the family.  This was on my grandfather's 92nd birthday.

...So that led to me flying back to Houston and driving to Monroe this past weekend, and arriving home this morning at 4 AM.  Which was absolutely necessary, of course, and I'm exceedingly glad I did it -- but also not the most fun thing ever.

Other than that significant 'but,' life is good.  I'm loving the winter, and the internship is, so far, as awesome as I had hoped.

 2. What's the most absurd thing that happened during the move? (getting out of the Austin apartment counts as part of that) 
Getting out of Austin definitely ranks.  You were there, but for our adoring audience (Hi, mom!  Hi, Jess!):

First, I was vacuuming,  as one does when one moves out.  I had previously taken the cover off the vacuum to check the bag, because it didn't seem to be clogged, but also did not seem to be 'vacuuming' so much as 'going over the dust and kitty litter, driving it into the carpet.'  And then of course I couldn't get the cover back on, which made it all the more dramatic when the bag exploded, getting dust and kitty litter all over me and the surrounding environs.

So we bailed on that project, and moved on to the kitchen. You did an admirable job of cleaning the fridge;  I tried, and failed, to clean the oven.  I've never cleaned an oven before, and also I occasionally lack common sense.  So I skimmed the instructions on the Easy-Off, and it seemed to suggest that one should line the bottom of the oven with newsprint.  I did so.

A few moments later, you pointed out that the newsprint was catching fire.

Of course it was, it was essentially on top of the element, which was on.  We (you -- I think I was still insisting that the directions said to do it that way) quickly removed the smoldering paper and extinguished it.  A closer inspection of the instructions clarified that the  newsprint is for the floor below the oven.  Oops.  The Easy-Off wasn't so easy, anyway, in that it wouldn't spray.  So I abandoned the project.  I had joked before about lighting a match and throwing it over my shoulder while I walked away, but I really didn't mean to burn the apartment down!

There are some other stories, but you'll have to ask more questions to hear them.

 3. A four-day drive with cats: as bad as you expected or not? 
Not, shockingly.  I'm sure the drugs helped considerably.  They mostly hung out silently in their carriers.  Towards the end of the drive every day Clay would start telling me about how he didn't like this so much.  That was it.  And they were surprisingly decent in the motel rooms.  The worst part of it was that I didn't think to put the kitty litter scoop where I could find it, so I had to throw out all of the litter each time, and clean the box and such.  This is not so easy to do in a Motel 6 room.  I left large tips for the cleaning staff and hoped for the best.  They've been surprisingly decent in the new place, too (the cats, not the cleaning staff.  The staff, so far, has not tracked me to my new home).  Partly I think they're still traumatized, but this is also a larger space than my Austin apartment, and I think them having more 'territory' to split between them helps considerably.

Clay had some crazy reverse tolerance with the sedatives -- at least they hit him more quickly than I would have expected.  He was loopy within 20 minutes the first morning, and 5 the second morning, of dosing ("dosing," in this case being me trying to get him to swallow it, and him spitting it back out, enough times that it turned to powder, at which point I smeared it on his face.  Not the best approach, maybe, but it seemed to work).

 4. Have you met any new friends (or potential friends)? 
Given that the unexpected travel means I've been here less than a week at this point, no.  Except that some of my co-workers seem nice.  One of them gave me a great tip about parking in Boston that saved me quite a bit of money over parking at the airport.  I'm hoping she'll be my friend.

 5. What do you like best about your new apartment?
It has a bathtub!  You didn't ask what I liked least, but here it is:  thus far, there has not been enough hot water for me to take a bath.  I'm hoping this got rectified today.  Apparently it has something to do with the...boiler?  Furnace?  The thing I had to pay an assload of money to put oil in.  There are whole apparati involved in this winter thing I'm unfamiliar with, it seems.