Saturday, July 30, 2005

Blending lives

I always heard that when two people who have lived independenly move in together, they have an excess of towels and silverware and 9 x 13 cassarole dishes. Not so with Patrick and I. We have an excess of books. Books upon books upon books. 7 boxes of books. A couple of exerpts from finally getting around to unpacking them all:

Him: Where do you want to put philosophers?
Me: Ancient or modern?
Him: 17th centrury French.
Me: Hmmm... Just put him with my French philosophers for now.

Me: Do you have The Good Citizen? Wait, don't answer that. Of course you do. Yours or mine?
Him: What edition is yours?
Me: Third, revised with intro by Eduardo Medieta.
Him: Ha, Mine is 250th anniversary edition with content notes by Leienne.
Me: Fine, we'll keep your Citizen, but I want a reverse ruling on my Plato- I've marked it up the way I like it and I dont want to start over with another.
Him: Fine. Where do you want to put biographies?

You get the idea. I knew that Patrick and I were dorks, albeit high-functioning ones, but I didn't think that would be how we spent a Saturday morning. We only had three cups between the two of us, but have filled three bookshelves. And that was after we weeded out copies we were going to take to the book exchange. As soon as we find one, that is.

Monday, July 25, 2005

Holy Smoley I live in Boston

I moved to Boston last week and into a great little apt. It's still sinking in that this my new home, and not some vacation. I guess it won't really hit me until I start paying the bills for this place. I have already noticed that a BigMac meal is almost $5 around here. Crazy northerners. Anyway, now the dear kitty Tobey (who, by the way, has not had an accident since I moved to Boston), the ever-faithful Patrick and I live in MA. We are still getting used to where we paahk, and the best way to get to Haahvaahd, but so far we are enjoying the adventure.

Today, Patrick and I decided to set up new checking and savings accounts since AmSouth doesn't really exist above VA. We planned to get our accounts and then go to the DMV for new licenses. Well, silly me thought that the bank would be a breeze and then we would really get to test our patience at the DMV. That is, after all, how God ordained it. But, heathen town that this is, we spent 2 hours at the bank. Let me clairly. The bank. And the real kicker was, we were the only ones there. As in first in line. As in, the first available person could help us. But for 30 min, there was no such available person. Just a couple of tellers gossiping about another teller and the lobby greeter and us. Finally, the lobby greeter directs us to a desk and begins the process of opening our new accounts. This woman had such a thick Asian accent that we had to ask her to repeat herself two or three times, and in a couple of instances, write down what she was saying. Another fun aspect was that she couldn't type. She just finger-pecked the keys, and said every letter out loud as she went. As in, "ok, you want a c-h-e-c-k-i-n-g account. You said regular, right? R-e-g-u-l-a-r. " Now, I have a 26 letter name. Do you know how long it takes to finger peck 26 letters out loud? And I couldn't even be sure those were the correct letters she was saying. You know its bad when you have trouble identifying your own name. After 2 hours, I was ready to hang myself. Patrick and I agreed to save the DMV for tomorrow and go home to regroup.

More adventure to follow tomorrow when I obtain my very first non-TN license. I have to provide them with everything but a letter of recommendation to get it. Seriously. MA requires something like 6 documents that you have to bring. I think there's a lie-detector test and everything. But of course, John Kerry got his license, so how accurate can the thing be?

Seems no one in this blue state ever finds that funny.