I'm trying to pack up my stuff, and finally getting rid of 24 years of rat-pack collecting. Bye bye, collection of stuffed cows. ;)
BUT I can say this - how many people do YOU know that have to decide on what to do with their "Principles and Techniques of Electrofishing" manual?
(My decision: Recycle the manual... but keep the instructional CD, just in case!)
I have a new hobby:
Selling my stuff on ebay and Amazon.com. (Click the link to see what I'm selling)
Yes, in light of the fact that I feel like I've spent my money frivolously lately, and that I am moving into an apartment on Wednesday, I've decided to "simplify" my life - and recover some of my assets in the process.
For example, I sold an old book about environmental issues recently for about $9. Today, I sold A Perfect Circle, eMotive for $8. Yeah, I love A Perfect Circle but that album just didn't do it for me. So, buh-bye CD! Off to New Jersey with you!
Fact: I am a pack rat.
But for all this crap I sell, I still manage to buy something else off of eBay. Currently trying to get a greatly reduced luggage bag for my motorcycle, along with a windshield. So in essense, I'm trading in random crap for motorcycle crap.
And this time, I really am moving (how many times have I said that?! Let's see... working on Mt. Mansfield in Vermont... working in Baxter State Park in Maine... Working at a ski resort in Virginia... working for the city of Aspen... oh, and my 1 day excursion to South Carolina for fire... and then my flat I moved into and out of just last week... yeah, I "really" move a lot, huh? <sarcasm>). I got an apartment in Royal Oak. Nothing fancy, not like these beautiful condo/apartments around Novi, but it suits my needs. PLUS - no pet fees! Wooo hooo! I can't wait to adopt my new best friend soon. :)
I started moving into my flat on Sunday, but I was a bit irked when Steve, who had offered to help me, did not return my phone calls all day.
Ironically, by blowing me off, he made my life a lot easier when I started REPACKING my stuff into my car today. Thank you for ignoring me, Steve! :)
Yeah, I just can't live upstairs from a chain smoker. Even from just having my stuff there for 2 days, it smelled of smoke. Yuck. Oh well, guess I'll just keep fishing...
In the meantime, I have a gazillion books on my plate. Beth turned me on to the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton, and I've read all of them except the newest one, Incubus Dreams. 12 books in 3 months? Addictive, like the bite of a sexy vampire. Hee hee.
What next?
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Savage Summit: True Stories of the First Five Women who Climbed K2
Kick Start: Cosmic Biker Babe's Guide to Life and Changing the Planet
Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills
Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains
And taking a short break from Looking for Alaska
Yes, I love to read. ;) That, and watch as many movies from Netflix as possible! Currently on my plate: Mean Creek and Apocalypse Now
While I'm on a roll, here are a few dogs I would love to have, if I could only FIND A DECENT PLACE TO LIVE!
(If these pictures disappear, it hopefully means they have been adopted out! Click on the pictures to link to their adoption pages)
Oh, and I just thought of something so cool: you could call a mastiff and labrador mixed dog a MASTADOR! So how cool is it that Steve's dog Bear is a Mastador!
Here is a picture of the mighty mastador, Bear:
Ever see a dog like this? A greyhound shepherd mix! It just doesn't look right... cute, but like a sickly, skinny shepherd alien dog!
I'm still crossing my fingers that they might bust out a fire at Red Rock Lakes and call me back from intermittent status. Yeah, right.
So, I moved. Err... well, not exactly. I got the keys to a flat this weekend in Ferndale. Thing is, is that I'm freaking out about it. The dude downstairs is a chain smoker and all that crap floats up to my flat, and smoke makes me SICK! That, and I am a bit anxious about moving out by myself to that area. I've lived by myself before and love it... but that was in smaller towns with low crime, and there wasn't some random DUDE living downstairs. Not sure if I'm just having jitters or if I should really back out of this deal. I guess I'll decide tomorrow.
Had a great evening hanging out with Steve and Jenna last night! Long islands, breadsticks, and fantastic conversation. They really cheered me up, since I've been in just a horrible mood for the past... 3 months? ;)
What to do, what to do...
Me tying into the tree
So I bought a house. Sortof.
I signed the papers and, pending a satisfactory inspection, the house would be mine. I was on my way to domestic bliss and the American dream!
Yeah, right.
The house needed everything replaced - electrical, plumbing, furnace, standing water in the basement, just to name a few things. On top of everything, when the inspector measured the height of the upstairs, it wasn't tall enough to technically qualify as "living space" - making the house only 650 sq. ft. instead of 900! Needless to say, I backed out of that offer. They promptly relisted it and still have it advertised at 1000 sq. ft. (which we measured and it wasn't right in the first place) and are trying to rip somebody off. But it's not gonna be me!
So now, my cut-off date for buying a house is here - I gave myself until August 1st before I just said screw it and went for a rental. I don't know that I would live in a house long enough to make it worth while at this point - still wanna get back out west in the next couple years!
Who was I kidding anyway? I've always lived the life less ordinary, and I think it says something that my friends were more surprised that I was trying to buy a house, than the fact that I've moved 3 times with less than 2 weeks notice over the last 3 years! Me buying a house and settling down just wasn't meant to be; you can't domesticate a wild vixen like myself!
Hopefully in the next week I'll be moved out into a nice flat or house and get a dog and bide my time climbing trees until I'm ready to go back out west!
Speaking of climbing trees, here are some pictures of me and Joe at that tree climbing class a few weeks ago.
I did a pub crawl in Livonia last night with Jess and a bunch of friends, 100 people crammed into 2 big yellow school busses. We drank. A lot. ;)
Now, time to ride my motorcycle!
Joe in the tree
Me doing a limb walk
