An Excellent Saturday

Yesterday was an excellent Saturday. The day began with breakfast at Culpepper's Bakery on Cambridge St. The food was good, the service was good, and our waitress got bonus points for giving LL a gentle ribbing about ordering the most fancy-schmancy coffee they had on the menu. The place seems to have a clientele of regulars, and I believe we're going to become that ourselves.

After breakfast, we decided to visit the Ecotarium, which was nice if a bit small and geared largely toward kids. LL fell in love with Kendra the polar bear in spite of my reminding her that nothing over 7' long that would gladly eat a human can truly be classified as "cute." We spent about two hours walking around the place, and on the nature trail I found my first mycological discovery here — a Russula of some sort that had been parasitized by so-called lobster mushroom (Hypomyces). It's the first time I've ever found this particular fungus, but I'm told it's pretty common around here. I'd like to try eating it sometime, though in this instance the underlying mushroom was far too decayed to do so and, in any case, the only other Russulae I saw in the area were R. emetica. Maybe I'll get luckier on the gustatory front next time, but for now just finding something for the first time made the whole trip worthwhile.

After the Ecotarium, we came home to rest up in anticipation of the evening's dinner party at Dr. H's. LL took a nap while I watched an old horror flick I hadn't seen since being a pre-teen, namely Horror High (retitled The Twisted Brain for some reason).
Did that ever take me back! The movie made quite an impression on me when I saw it as a kid, particularly a scene in which the main character chops up his teacher with a paper cutter. I remembered it as being cheesy, but it's still cheesier than I'd remembered. I love 1970's B-horror flicks; I think its the presence of striped and/or checkered pants and those horrific print shirts that were in vogue back then. In any case, the movie itself is very low-budget; the monster/villain is a picked-on science nerd who invents a Jekyll-and-Hyde type potion that transforms him into a murderous beast; you can tell that he's transformed because his hands become hairy and he doesn't wear his glasses. Great fun which I heartily recommend to anyone who enjoys watching the sort of movies that Mystery Science Theater 3000 used to lampoon.

Then it was off to drinks and dinner at Dr. H's, the first time I've seen him since my visit back in March. The (MaBi)² were also present; (MaBi)_f and LL seem to have hit it off, as I thought they would. Dinner itself was excellent and afterward we sang "Happy Birthday" to Dr. H's youngest, who turned 8, and had carrot cake. Conversation was largely humorous discussion of our experiences in the south and with students and the like. I think Dr. H and I have similar senses of humor. In any case, it was a most enjoyable evening. We stayed until about 10:00, which was when LL and my allergies to cat fur started to bother us.

Quite a full and fun day. Tomorrow, I go get my office space set up and have my new ID made. I'm looking forward with great anticipation to the outing on July 29 with the Boston Mycological Club at Purgatory Chasm. I generally feel like things are starting to roll here, and overall I still think this move is going to turn out to be the best one I've made in a long time... probably since I landed in San Francisco in 1991, just in time for the Dotcom Boom.

I have to say, I'm feeling pretty good about life right now.

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It Lives!

Here it is... my first update from Worcester, MA. We arrived here on July 4 and have been furiously unpacking and such since then. My internet and cable service got turned on less than an hour ago. Everything appears to be working.

I have been tremendously out of touch with the world of late. I've had my MP3 player, which receives FM radio, as my only electronic media connection. FM radio in Worcester is largely classic and oldies rock formats; there's one talk station from Boston that I can pick up, but it's fairly right-wing and most of the shows are, frankly, far too stupid to listen to, and I mean that in the most factual sense of the descriptor.

The day after our arrival here, three of my new lab-mates were nice enough to take time out of their day to help us unload the truck. Good guys, the lot of them. After we'd finished, we met at a restaurant where I bought lunch and a couple of pitchers of beer. One local brew, Green Monster Ale, was tremendously hoppy. It started strong but finished pretty weakly, much like the team that calls the stadium in which its namesake stands home. I must be very careful about making such comments here. Worcester so far seems like a town that loves its baseball, and the home team is, of course, the Red Sox. My landlord, in fact, has a Red Sox flag — a full-sized one — hanging from a flagpole in the front lawn. I haven't mentioned what team I prefer lest I find myself evicted! Suffice to say that my Yankees caps are all hidden in the back of my closet until further notice.

There is good ethnic food here. Vietnamese restaurants are especially prevalent, and we've also "discovered" an excellent, family-run pizza place just a block from our apartment. I had the best calzone I've had in years last night... spinach and feta, no less. It's probably a good thing that I've started walking a lot more lately. I can see gaining any number of extra pounds around here. There's a seafood place, again within walking distance, that sells lobsters for $6.99/lb and steamer clams for $3.99. The closest supermarket has entire aisles of ethnic foods from Italy, Brazil, Poland, India, you name it. It's huge and we can get anything from ghee to gefilte fish anytime we want. It's been a long time since I've seen a supermarket like that. It's been a long time since I've seen a city like this, too. The cultural diversity here is amazing. I even got to practice a little Portuguese with the guys who installed our cable today (both Brasileiros).

LL and I did take a little time out of unpacking to visit the Worcester Art Museum a couple of days ago. Great place, and just barely small enough to be completely toured in a single afternoon. They have a very respectable collection, particularly when it comes to Dutch and Flemish paintings, particular favorites of mine. They've also got a very nice collection of Roman era antiquities unearthed during an excavation at Antioch. Once I get my Clark ID, I get free admission to the museum whenever I like. I could see it being an excellent place to get some reading done, particularly in their library.

All in all, I'm happy to be back in the northeast. It feels like I've come home; I don't think I'm having any problem at all getting adjusted here. Everything seems familiar and comfortable so far. I need to get the knack of the roads, but driving here is almost exactly like driving in Brooklyn. Even the accent is close to that with which I grew up. It feels right, and to make it all seem even more homey, I'm going to take a three hour drive and spend my sister's thirty-sixth birthday with her during the first week of August. It will mark the first time I've seen her in eight years, the first time I'll be meeting my niece, and the first time that my sister and I have lived within a 500 miles of one another in 20 years.

I think this is all going to work out well. For now, though, I think I'll go watch TV for the first time in more than a week and maybe play a mindless online game for a couple of hours. We've finally arrived fully, I think.

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That's About It: The Last Florida Entry

We had a great evening last night, starting at Aladdin's. A number of our local friends turned up, including Todabrilla, Izzy23, Kwanboa, and CaSo. We came back to the house afterward and hung out until nearly 1:00 AM, and CaSo and Brett will be back here later this morning to help load up the truck. Today's the penultimate "big day."

LL and I will pick up the truck in just a little while. By the end of the day, everything that's here will be either loaded onto that truck or carted away by the people who bought the last of our furniture. I'm not sure what we'll be sleeping on tonight, since the bed will be gone, but we'll work it out. In just a few minutes, though, I'll be shutting down and taking apart my computer. This will thus be the last entry to this blog that I write from Florida; the next will be the first I write from our new home state, Massachusetts. I don't know yet when exactly that will be, since we'll have to establish service at the new place and that may take a few days beyond when we get there.

The time has come; the five years are really over now. In twenty-four hours, we drive away and put Florida in the rear view mirror, pretty much for good. I don't expect to be back here at least until LL defends her dissertation, and maybe not even then. Who knows.

I could drone on and on here, but I won't. Moving is never easy; I'm excited about beginning the next few years and sad to leave the friends we've made here. I write this entry from a run-down little house named Hobbiton at the edge of the woods of North Florida. Two raccoons are currently sitting outside. It's already getting warm and muggy, as it always is here in late June. The road goes ever onward, and in just a little while we'll be back on it and headed away to begin the next adventure.

Goodbye, Florida. Massachusetts, here we come.

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Ugh. Just Ugh.

I'm exhausted. Days and days of packing and it's still not quite done. I hate cardboard boxes and bubble wrap and tape. My hands feel swollen. I think I need to sleep. I may just do that for an hour or two.

I want to open my eyes and find myself in Massachusetts. My people have a saying: the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single shlep. I'm shlepping.

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These Last Hours

Only 36 more hours until LL and I start driving north. Five years in Florida is coming to a rapid close.

We went out for dinner at the Olden Oral tonight (actually the Golden Corral, but the G and C in the sign haven't lit up in three years). Most everything is packed, and after tomorrow everything will be packed, other than the few things we've sold or given away. That's it; done and on our way to the next step.

Tycho seems to know something is up. I'm not sure how this all parses in his tiny lizard brain, but he does seem to be aware that things have changed. He's been insistent on staying close by the humans these last couple of days in particular. I woke up with him practically sleeping on my head this morning, and right now he's passed out cold on the back of a sofa cushion. He's taken to following me around as I pack; I don't know why. It's hard to figure out what a reptile is thinking most of the time, but there's something going on there.

The place looks really empty now. All packing will be finished before 8:00 tomorrow night. We pick up the truck at 8:30 AM on Saturday morning and start loading. Folks will be stopping by to take things away throughout the course of the day; I think the last of these will be HaDe. She should be here at 7:00 PM on Saturday to cart off the living room furniture.

Soon, I'll have completed a great circuit and be back just a couple of hundred miles from where my life began just over four decades ago. I feel a bit like a salmon returning to the spawning grounds.

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Adventures in Moving: Frightening the Churchie

You've just got to love it when things really work out well. Timing, as they say, is everything.

LL has put a bunch of low-end stuff — bookcases, computer desks, etc. — on Craig's List. A woman sent her an email saying that she wanted to buy one of our office chairs for the sum of $15. The buyer was to come over today at 12:30, and since LL had some things to take care of on campus before we depart Florida, it fell to me to take care of the transaction.

The woman who showed up was large. Very, very large... so large, in fact, that she couldn't walk up the short flight of stairs from the first to second floor; easily 350#. Dangling from a chain over her substantial paunch was a very large silver crucifix, at least four inches from top to bottom. Noting all this, I decided the best thing to do would be to simply get her out of the house as quickly as possible. I know that look; she disapproved of the heavy metal music I had playing to accompany my day's packing (at the moment she came in, I had Motorhead's The Ace of Spades blaring). I ran up the stairs to get the chair, and while preparing to bring it downstairs the song changed... to the Lords of Acid's The Crab Louse; click the link to see the lyrics if you dare, but be advised that they're not necessarily... errr... polite.

So I come downstairs and to see this large, religious woman staring at the Indian Madhubani painting of Chinnamasta severing her own head while the Lords of Acid offer advice about the female pubic area and the activities of external parasites. Yeah....

And you know, the woman then says, "Oh, $15? I only brought $10. Can I just give you $10?"

I called LL, knowing that she'd say $10 was fine, just get the chair out of here so we can move... but I wanted to make that massive, pettily larcenous true-believer stand there in front of Chinnamasta-devi and listen to the Lords of Acid for just a few more moments. The synchronicity was just too delicious to let it end any more quickly than it had to if LL was going to be cheapskated out of $5; as they say, ass, grass or aghast, no one rides for free! That facial expression... I wish I could have taken a photo.

We have also donated a huge load of spare computer parts, manuals, and a laser printer to a fellow who reconditions old computer hardware for underprivileged schools. He didn't seem as bothered by the music.

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Finally! An MP3 Player That Works!

I decided to give one more try at buying a new MP3 player today. I went over to circuit city and bought a SanDisk Sansa 4.0 GB, m260 player. It actually does everything it was supposed to and sounds great, too. The manual for the thing is all of five pages long and written in English and the controls actually make sense.

Eureka! Now I'll have music for the road trip. I've already bought this thingamajig that plugs into the cigarette lighter and beams a signal from the player to the radio on any frequency... which is a very good thing, since the truck I'm renting doesn't have a CD player, just an AM/FM radio.

Except for my computer and a few articles of clothing, everything I own is boxed up and ready to go. I'll be packing up the kitchen on Friday while LL finishes off her stuff, then we load the truck and finish cleaning up the house on Saturday with the assistance of four of LL's students. Sunday morning we hit the road!

Friday night, we're having our last trip over to Aladdin's Sheesha Café and meeting up with a few friends for a goodbye. It's very informal, and anyone who reads this and wishes to join us is more than welcome. We'll be there starting at about 8:00 PM.

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Packing Progress

More progress has been made, and so there are more boxes. My car is in the shop; I won't even know the estimate until Monday, but I expect it will need significant work to be roadtrip-ready.

7 days to go.

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Preparations

Today, my last outstanding invoice from eBay sales will be paid. In total, I've raised about $4K from sales of my book collection. I only wound up selling about a quarter of it; eBay is just too time-consuming. I may sell more of it once we get to Worcester, though. I do have some motivation for doing that until my stipend starts; the temp agencies I signed up with got me all of 3.5 days of work which paid all of $250. There just isn't much of that kind of work here, I suppose. I may still apply at a couple of them once we get settled in our new place, though.

We had one couple take a look at our bedroom set. Not the brightest folks; the woman's response was that it "looked much smaller in the pictures." Huh? So another person is coming to look tonight. She's just moved here and has no furniture yet, so it's a good prospect. Aside from a few book cases and a couple of computer desks, which will go on Craig's List in the next couple of days, everything is taken care of. We've even got some help loading the truck, which we'll be picking up a week from Saturday. I'm taking the car in for its tune-up tomorrow, and once I get it back I'll get the tired and brakes done, too. If all goes well, we'll be hitting the road early in the morning a week from Sunday.

Tonight, I'm going to my last UFS meeting at Aladdin's. It will probably be my last time there. That place will be one of the things I'll miss about Tallahassee. It's been a default hangout and second home for LL and I since it used to be Sheesha Nights. There's apparently a good-sized Lebanese community where we're going, though, so we'll likely be able to find a new place somewhat like it to call our own.

We've still got a good deal of packing to do, but since today is LL's last day at work we should have plenty of time to finish.

Hard to believe that our five years in Florida is almost over. I'm looking forward to colorful autumns and cold winters again. I don't think I've ever fully acclimated to the weather here, and I know I can live without the swarms of mosquitoes. Nonetheless, I'm going to miss the biodiversity here. The only solution, i suppose, is to work hard, find grant money, and get myself back to Trinidad!

I'm already having wonderful fantasies about taking LL for breakfast (and cheesecake!) at Junior's (the original one in Flatbush). I have great memories of the baskets of mini-danishes that come with breakfast there, in the same way that good restaurants give you a basket of bread with dinner. I haven't been back there in nearly 20 years now — since 1989 or 1990, I think. Aside from everything right in Boston, having relatively easy access to NYC is a big plus. LL and I have never been to the American Museum of Natural History together. You know, I can still remember the smell of the fossil exhibits like it was just yesterday. That museum literally reeks of history.

And I wonder... where in Greenwich Village does Rocky Horror play at midnight these days? I hear that the Waverly is long gone, but I can't imagine that there isn't a showing there somewhere!

Nine days left here in North Florida. Yes, the whole moving thing is stressful... but it will soon be behind us, and I think things are going to get better for us than they've been while we've lived here. Tallahassee is an alright town for what it offers, but it's a bit isolating. There aren't any big cultural centers near here. I think I'm at a point in life where I'm ready to trade some nature in for some culture for a few years... when I'm not helping out with research. It's all very exciting. LL and I really are counting the days. Could you tell?

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Packing Progress

We almost don't live here anymore.11 days to go.

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Packing Progress

The dining room is packed, including all the murtis I own. I've disassembled the hutch, but I need to figure out the best way to pack the glass shelves. Tomorrow, I'll get all the paintings and photo prints packed away. I also need to take the car in for work. It's going to need a couple of new tires, new brakes and a tune-up. It means I probably won't have a car for a couple of days, so maybe I'd best wait until Friday to do that because I need it for Thursday night.

I'm tired out from all the packing. I think a shower and a nap are in order.

Tycho is not happy about this. He doesn't like change much. He climbed out of his cage and watched me packing. He looks very confused and at one point decided that he wasn't going to let me at my tools anymore. He sat on top of them and turned his beard black, a sure sign of dissatisfaction. He keeps wandering around the room as if he's looking for something now that I've stopped working. Somewhere in that tiny lizard brain, he knows something is going on and he doesn't approve of it at all.

On the other hand, Tycho loves to ride in the car. He likes to climb up on the dashboard and bask in the sun while we're driving. He'll like the long road trip; he just doesn't like his territory changing.

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Last "Date Night" in Tallahassee

Since February, LL and I have set aside one night every month as a "date night." No matter how busy we've been with other things, we make sure that this one night is reserved for us and for spending time together.

Tonight will be our last such date night in Tallahassee. Our next will be in our new hometown in Massachusetts. For tonight, we're going to dinner at Samrat, one of Tallahassee's two Indian restaurants.

Tomorrow, I have to put together the last order I sold on eBay for shipment and generally pack up anything non-essential. Two weeks to go.

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First Furniture Goes Out the Door

The first piece of furniture we've sold ahead of our move has just left the house. It was an antique dining table that LL and I picked up in a little antique shop we found during a weekend getaway at a bed and breakfast in Napa. It was made by hand in Mexico in the late 1930's.

Next weekend, our bedroom set will be on its way with a new owner who is taking it back to Orlando. The week after that, our living room furniture goes with HaDe, whom I know from UFS, to her townhouse, not too far from here. Other than that, there are just a few bookcases, a couple of computer desks and chairs, and the entertainment center to deal with, none of which are of great concern. Because of some unexpectedly favorable circumstances, I've decided not to sell off my entire collection of Indian art (just a few pieces) and the hutch on which I display much of it. All of that can be taken apart easily enough to make moving it feasible.

It's strange going through this; the last time I gave up all my stuff was when my ex and I split. I gave her everything but my clothes at that time. That was eleven years ago. Watching all the furniture LL and I have accumulated since then is a good reminder that I shouldn't get too attached to stuff. It is, after all, only stuff. Last time around, I divested myself of all my possessions because keeping it would have entailed too many memories and too much emotional turmoil. This time, it's happening for a good reason; I'm moving again to continue upon a path with a great outcome. I'm bringing with me the two most important things I have in this life: hope and LL.

Still, this time around there are good emotions attached to the stuff. I have photos of the going away party our friends threw for us when we left California in which everyone is gathered around our coffee table. LL and I spent the last 8 years sleeping in that bed. We snuggled through thunderstorms on that couch. I remind myself that the loss of the furniture does nothing to the memory of those things... but there's always that little mystically-thinking voice that wants to believe that things become imbued with some sort of energy, and that's what we're losing. It isn't true, of course; that's all just a relic of the same infantile thought that creates security blankies for toddlers. Nonetheless, I don't deny that it does exist and it makes me feel a little sad.

A trade, then. We couldn't afford to move all this stuff, and in exchange for not moving it, we get to move on ourselves. If we didn't do this, all this stuff would just become an anchor. Soon, we'll have new stuff and new plans and good, positive changes and progress... and always, always one another. This little emotional sacrifice will have big payoffs in the end.

And if I may be excused for giving into that childish voice that wants to believe in the imbuing of inanimate objects with emotional energies for just a moment, I only hope that those energies are imbued upon the people who will now be carting away all this stuff. May those people themselves benefit from all of the happiness and love that has passed into so much wood and fabric over these past years in which they have been in our possession. If that were to be the case, then our selling it will have been a good for more than just ourselves.

Two weeks and two days and then we, too, shall be loaded onto conveyance and on our way to a new home.

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The Trip is Planned

Our trip route is ready and our hotels are booked. We've got a buyer for the living room set and a strong potential buyer for the bedroom set.

We're almost ready to go. My emotions are still a mixture of excitement and anxiety, but more excitement. LL is terrified of the idea of having to drive through NYC, even briefly, but I think she can handle it. It's just a half hour's worth of time on the George Washington Bridge, really.

Soon we go.

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Massachusetts Musings

LL receiving a bunch of maps and info about Massachusetts in the mail today. Technically, they were addressed to Tycho, but he's unlikely to read any of it. It's marketing stuff, sure... and it worked. Looking over the book of events and attractions generated a bit of excitement. We also pinpointed the place we'll be living on the map of Worcester, and it seems quite a good location. There are a couple of old cemeteries nearby (I'm a historic cemetery buff), restaurants, etc. The MBTA station is either a long walk or short bus ride away, and that can take us to either Boston or Providence and points in between. There's so much there that will be accessible to us, much more than there is now. We're seriously looking forward to the change of venues.

Planning for the move is going well enough. Our car needs work, of course. A tune-up, a couple of new tires, and the brakes are all necessities, as is replacing the left tail light, which decided to go out yesterday. On the other hand, I've now raised about $2000 in eBay sales and, if all goes well, I've found a buyer for the balance of my book collection, and that would bring in better than $4500 more. We'd be in very good shape indeed if that works out, so my fingers are crossed. LL will be getting a couple of paychecks from teaching and her graduate assistantship, too. Everything is going to work out fine, I think. The plan is that LL will drive the car and I'll drive the truck. We'll each have a set of directions and drive about 400 miles each day, meeting at a motel at the end. We'll have cell phones to keep in touch should any problems arise.

I wish we could take a couple of the raccoons with us. We're going to miss them a great deal. Strange as it may sound, we've gotten to be good friends over the past two years. We've gotten used to their company. There's at least one here starting at 2:00 every afternoon until about 7:00 the next morning. It's going to be odd not having them around anymore.

But... wow, Boston. We can take a train to Fenway and root for the Yankees when they're in town. I guess I'd better make sure my insurance is paid up before that!

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Musings on eBay

As I prepare for moving from Florida to Massachusetts, I am in the process of selling off a rather sizable collection of books and works of art on eBay. I don't mention this in the hopes of finding buyers, but because of my experience with it over the past couple of weeks.

eBay has been both boon and bane for me. Due to the sheer number of items I'm selling in going from a small house to a small apartment, the process of listing items, answering inquiries, boxing things and shipping them off eats up far too much of my time. I find it a rather tedious process, truth be told.

Then again, I'm amazed at the amount of money eBay buyers are willing to fork over for the sundry books and artworks I'm auctioning. Two examples: one book that I bought for about $40 back in 1995 sold for over $500 and a second, which I bought for $15 and which one could purchase elsewhere (with some minimal research) sold for over $200. When all is said and done, the money I raise on eBay will pay for my U-Haul truck, all of the gas needed to drive it 1300 miles, and probably my first month or two of rent at the new location. It's as if some divine being were standing in the sky above me and casually dropping $100 bills on my head.

An old roommate of mine some years ago described eBay as "a service for people with too much money and too little brains." I don't necessarily agree with that 100%, but still I do feel a little guilty at times for raking in as much as I have been, and then reminding myself that this kind of spending is voluntary on the part of my buyers. Of course, the armchair psychologist in me wonders if there might indeed be some kind of compulsive behavior involved.

Then I remind myself that this money is making it possible for me to reach a goal I've wanted to achieve since the age of 5 — to become a scientist. The people who are buying what I list on eBay only think they're paying for books and statues and such. Unbeknownst to them, what they're doing is investing in my dream and, if it all works out, contributing to fundamental research.

I wonder what would happen if I simply listed that as an auction item. Would people invest in this manner if they knew right up front what it was they were paying for? Hmmmm...

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