27 December 2007

depressing of new city

I know. I just all disappeared. Stuff was happening. Stuff like Christmas, which everyone knows about, and celebrates or not according to faith tradition. I celebrate. It was nice, mostly. Nice-ish.

Also, there was a wind storm that knocked out the power lines in our city. It didn't knock out our power, but it knocked out lots of other power, including that of the cable companies who issue the cable lines from whence emergeth the internet connection that our neighbors channel into wireless signals that we poach. My parents rushed around dialing up to the internet, but I just shrugged and went internet-less. It was an interesting turn of events, and one I would not have imagine possible even a year ago. Me, calm about lack of internet? My parents, frantic about lack of internet? The world is officially on its head.

The good news is that the wind storm also knocked out the power at church, which meant that services were canceled and I didn't have to make the speech I was scheduled to make. Normally, I like speaking at church. I like speaking in general, and I like speaking at my church even more. Problem is, as it turns out, that I like speaking when I have something to say. I was feeling ominously blank last Sunday, having heard about four different explanations of what they wanted me to talk about, none of which meshed with anything I had to say, and I had nothing prepared. (My sister tells me that I am MUCH BETTER at speaking when I prepare in advance instead of extemporaneously, which is hard when you have nothing to say and therefore nothing prepared. She kept asking me if I had practiced yet, and I had to say, "NO! I have nothing! NOTHING!") On Sunday morning, I drove to church early to prepare SOMETHING based on the sermon plan, and on my way, I noticed downed branches and then a few stoplights out and a faint murmur of hope - that I promptly banished - began to grow in me, and then the scrolling sign at church was out and then! Canceled! I was happy. I went home and wrestled my sister for the couch that we both wanted to use for napping purposes.

Another reason I haven't been around is that I moved to my new city. Now is not a good time to ask me about the New Home City, because I've only been here for 33 hours and I'm overwhelmed and I can't find an apartment I like and I got yelled at by a lady in a wheelchair for hitting the door button on the train at the wrong time. "HEY! Don't DO that!" she said, "I want to get OUT!" - I have pursed my lips up like hers, just writing that - and I said, "I'm sorry," but what I should have said was "SO DO I." After that I cursed New Home City under my breath for about eight blocks. And then I stopped cursing it just in time for my shoes to fill with water from the blasted everlasting rain. I could feel the water squishing around my toes. My feet were so numb that when I finally got to the store where I was going to buy new shoes, I had to walk around barefoot for twenty minutes before I could feel them again.

Fortunately, my new boots are good to -25 degrees F/-35 degrees C. Also waterproof. Even with wet socks, my feet were toasty warm for the rest of the day.

I have a nice list of apartments to try tomorrow. I really hope one of them works. A friend from college is very kindly donating couch space to me, but I get extremely benought (is that even how you spell that word?) when I don't have my own place to belong. Antsy, itchy, irritable. I need a space of my own.


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