This will take an hour to post.

After I hit ‘publish,’ I mean.

I feel like I am trapped in a time warp. No internet access for a week? I lose all touch with chronology. Add the time change (what daylight are we saving again?) and days of trainings and talking to people I don’t know about things I don’t understand completely yet, and whee!

Serendipity, so generous with the free fridge (see previous posting made from Friend’s house), has left me in the lurch. I am only now recovering, and slowly. The power was turned on Monday after a whining phone call to Huge Corporate Utility Company, and my cat, after two days and nights in a cold empty apartment alone, was absolutely worshipful when I deigned to actually sleep in my bed. She purred for two hours straight - I am actually underestimating this, probably, as I wasn’t timing her and she was purring when I woke up the next morning too.

The phone company said my service was on, but alas, no dial tone - so they blamed inside wiring, which lets them off the hook. I just waited til today, when the dude was supposed to physically show up and get me DSL. Dude must have noticed no actual phone service and hooked me up, as I expected he would. But, still no DSL, which is why I’m on dialup trying to pay the bills online before my cell phone provider repos my phone and my credit card adds a late fee. I came home to an actual phone message on the machine that’s been plugged into the wall since Monday - the phone company, telling me there’s a problem with my cabling so DSL will have to wait a while longer. I’m already sweating the loss of Lost, which has re-engaged me only because of the plight of Desmond and the endless curiosity about what the frak will happen to Locke, who totally made me angry last season but has now become something of a tragic character to me - if only because he’s so in need of serious therapy. I hope DSL happens in time to catch BSG. Of course, I’ll be driving to Fresno tomorrow night, partially to pick up items such as my microwave, which conveniently got left in the apartment when we loaded the Uhaul…

…which precipitated a whole week of eating out for breakfast, lunch and dinner, because… my stove doesn’t work, which I didn’t know over the weekend because the power was off, and with no way to heat water for tea/coffee? reheat leftover chinese? boil pasta? Heh. My kitchen is where I go to be frustrated by all the dishes I’ve kept in storage and need washing.

Becaaaaaause, my dishwasher didn’t work, either.

And at this point I nearly blew a gasket and left a message on my property manager’s voicemail. Holes in window screens are to be expected. Not being able to shift dead spiders and white filmy gick out of my glasses in a single run of the dishwasher was just icing on the I-hate-moving cake.

I realized while typing all this just how much emotional turmoil I’ve been going through. It’s difficult to move from an environment where no one pays any attention to you to an office where the support staff knock on your open door, approach you with respect and snap to it when you ask them for something — just a few months ago, I was support staff. It’s difficult to be in a town where you don’t know how to drive or which lane to be in — that sounds trivial, but if you get in the wrong lane, you have miles of stop and go traffic just to find a u-turn opportunity, because it’s bumper to bumper here all day. And, my car is slowly coming to pieces. Neither of the back windows work - I have the feeling the motors are disconnected from the whatever-holds-them-up, and one of them slides downward while I’m driving. The coolant tank idiot light comes on all the time. It’s full, and the car’s fine, but it flashes like I’m running a disco on my dashboard. I took it to a mechanic who said it was a sensor and I’d have to have the reservoir replaced to fix it, which isn’t a big deal. Except, where it used to run with the needle right between C and H, now it gets really hot and the fan comes on every ten minutes, where it used to never come on at all.

And, no furniture. Nothing on the walls. Just me, the bird, the cat, and lots of books. On top of everything I miss my roommate.

The laundry’s piling up. My washer and dryer come on Sunday.

The good news? Well, I still like my job. I’m calling to set up appointments and finding some parents who will actually bring in their kids. I have another friend who’s interviewing for jobs in NewTown as well. My new apartment is quiet at night. My renter’s insurance actually dropped in price with the move. (My car insurance went up - go figure. Probably due to fender benders, which I’m betting happen all the time around here in stop-n-go city.) And I figured out the dishwasher didn’t work because the hot water was turned off under the sink. They’re bringing someone in to fix the stove soon, and I’ll have a microwave by Saturday night.

I feel like I’ve been gone somewhere forever and ever, and it’s only been five days since my last post. I think I need to start keeping an actual journal.

ETA: The salad stuff is frozen. The milk is frozen. My fridge is too efficient and again with the nothing to eat.

And, well, now I have to drive to Fresno, but there’s DSL.