Whew! What a crazy last few days. We finally got internet up and running this morning, so now you get to hear about it. As always, you know the drill: pictures on Flickr.

Thursday and Friday morning was a flurry of packing and cleaning. We got a mushroom UHaul :P Ryan's old property manager was impressed with how clean the place was- I guess most people are lazy and forefeit their security deposits because they don't want to clean thoroughly. We drove south and stopped at Ryan's mom's to pick up a couch and end tables, and also introduced Jibblies to Ryan's childhood cat, Mozart. Mozart hissed like the grouchy old bastard that he is, but Jibblies just backed away slowly and didn't freak out or run away.

Then we continued our drive to Po-Town. Jibblies had been going crazy for the first half hour of driving, but mellowed out after a while and actually spent most of the trip curled up on my lap. It was very cute, but also a bit uncomfortable because I couldn't fidget normally. After getting to Ryan's dad's house, we loaded up a dresser and bookcase, then went out to dinner. Then we introduced Jibblies to the poodle, Crystal. Crystal wanted to play, but Jibblies wasn't interested. He backed away slowly, just like with Mozart. I was impressed with how maturely Jibblies handled the unfamiliar creatures he encountered during his voyage.

In the morning we took off heading south. There was a lapse in communication between Ryan and his dad such that they doctored together two sets of Mapquest directions and the end result was nonsensical. Well, they got us there, but required us driving through the Bronx and over the George Washington Bridge (hello, traffic), when the smart thing to do would've been to drive straight down through New Jersey. Anyway, the 3.5 hour trip took more like 5 hours.

When we got the new apartment, the property manager realized that our apartment hadn't been fully cleaned yet. She recruited her friend to help while we went out for pizza. It still wasn't great when we got back, but we were eager to just get the move over with. It was miserable with the high humidity and lugging everything up a flight of stairs. Moving the stuff probably took 3-4 hours, then we returned the UHaul and went out for dinner before Ryan's mom and stepmom left. We were exhausted, so assembled the couches, bed, and went to sleep.

Sunday we unpacked, cleaned, and went out shopping for essentials. The Wegmans down here is off the hook! It was twice as crowded as the Ithaca store, but had even more amenitites. I had lunch from the Wokery, as usual, but there were three times as many dishes. Yay!

Monday Ryan started work while I finished (well, almost finished) unpacking and cleaning. We went for a walk in the riverfront park that's right near the apartment complex in the evening. And today I'm catching up on my internet business and may go get a haircut later. I'm starting to finally feel settled in, but orientation starts tomorrow! Eeek!

Tuesday and Wednesday proceeded according to plan. It was exceedingly busy at RL, so I earned a tidy wad of cash. That will be what I miss most about waiting tables- the instant gratification of cold, hard cash. I did get hit on by a sleazy drunk guy, which I will not miss but it was kind of funny:

Me: "Would anyone like some coffee or dessert?"
Guy: "No, too full, no dessert. Well. . . I would like some dessert, but no dessert."
Guy sitting next to drunk guy: *elbow's drunk guy's ribcage*

Sometime when I'm not exhausted, I'll leave a summary of life lessons learned from my RL experience. But for now I need to get some sleep before the barrage of cleaning and UHaul-loading tomorrow.

The Plan:
Tuesday: work lunch at RL, have a low-key night at the apartment.
Wednesday: pack and clean during the day, work my last-ever shift waiting tables at night.
Thursday: pack and clean like a mofo, load most of the UHaul, meet RL coworkers for drinks in the evening.
Friday: last-minute cleaning and packing. Ryan's dad takes a train up and drives the UHaul down while Ryan and I drive our cars to PoTown (I get kitty in mine!). Get more furniture in both Cortland and PoTown. Spend night in PoTown.
Saturday: Drive from PoTown to C-Wood (Collingswood, NJ, our new town). Unload everything, return UHaul, start unpacking.
Sunday-Tuesday: unpack, settle in, learn to navigate new area.
Wednesday: Begin orientation at Penn!

Whenever I'm on the compy trying to get something done and the cat gets up on the desk, I feel like this.

I put some random pics on Flickr tonight, because I can.

Ryan skipped out of work a little early yesterday and we went on another bike ride. I could still feel Saturday's ride a bit, but was still vastly improved. The hill that kicked my butt on Saturday was no problem. We went 21 miles in all. I am looking forward to improving enough that I don't feel like I'm holding Ryan back. It's nice to be included in his hobby.

I did work on the manuscript for a couple hours yesterday and today. It will get done, just at a snail's pace.

RL continues to be "riteous," so to speak. Tonight was slow, but I had a couple generous parties so it was still worth my while. One more week there. I will miss it a little- the other servers are fun to hang out with, and it's always nice to have an influx of cash into the wallet.

It was a good weekend. I worked Friday and Sunday nights, and did pretty well each time. On Saturday Ryan and I went on a 28.7 mile bike ride. It was a great improvement over last week, for although I still whined about the hilly parts, I only needed two breaks as opposed to three during last week's 21 mile jaunt. I think that a couples bike ride should become a fair-weather weekend tradition for us. Saturday night we grilled dinner then saw The Ant Bully and Talladega Nights at the drive-in. The Ant Bully wasn't that great, but at the drive-in it's a flat rate no matter how many movies you see. T.N. was worth seeing. And today we went for a walk in the park.

So it's been quite pleasant these last few days. Now if only I made some progress on the manuscript. . . Well, it's best not to be perfect or there'd be nowhere to go but down.

Catsumer Reports. Thought I'd give out some props/referrals to companies/products that I use and think are great. Word-of-mouth advertising is the most informative kind, I think, but it isn't as prevalent in the post-television/post-internet age.

HSBC Direct online savings: kick-ass yield for a savings account. Since it's all online, they save money on personnel and pass the extra on to you. The current rate is 5.05% APY. If you have any appreciable amount of money sitting in a normal savings account at 1% or so, you're actually losing wealth because inflation is around 3%. I only recently persuaded Ryan to get an account, but I just know he'll be thanking me as soon as he gets his first interest payment.

American Express Blue Cash: There are plenty of rewards credit cards out there, and I haven't tested them all, but have been all smiles with my AmEx. After Ryan's exasperation with the poor customer support at Chase, I persuaded him to get a Blue Cash in 2004. No problems after the switch, and his reward last year was $170. It pays to have a money-grubbing girlfriend.

Geico: I haven't had to submit a claim, so I can't speak for that, but their rates are excellent. No complaints here. And pretty much everything can be done online. Avoiding human interaction is a plus for me. And of course I referred Ryan to Geico as well and he's been satisfied, too.

Nikon Coolpix Digital Camera: I love my camera. It's very easy to use, I just wish the kitten would hold still long enough to get more cute shots.

Ryan Dickerson: Ryan is very dependable and I rarely have problems with him. He has been known to cheer me up, endure long stretches of irrational moods, and value my input concerning decisions such as cell phone use, car purchase, bank accounts, credit cards, car insurance, and kitten purchase. He also gave me the above camera and the laptop I'm on right now for Christmas. I remain a loyal customer.

Softpaws: They're little rubber nail caps that you glue onto the kitten's claws. They last about 6-8 weeks, and we only put them on the front paws so he can still scratch himself with the hind ones. They've greatly reduced the damage he does to the carpet and our skin.

Future installment: things to avoid (ahem, Dodge Neon).

I am feeling better today. Went to the "gym" at the apartment complex and burned a ton of calories, and may or may not have grooved to the sounds of "Ryan's iPod." :) Scheduled utility hookup for the new apartment, which makes it seem more believable that we're moving. And of course played with the crazy Nibblin/Jibblin/Jibblies.

The weather was perfect today- the heat and humidity broke somewhat, so it was about 75 degrees and 50% humidity with a nice breeze. It almost felt like fall. I think that in the Northeast, fall is my favorite season weather-wise. The summer is too oppressively humid, spring is too rainy, and I won't even go into winter. Fall here is most similar to summer in Washington, but maybe a tad cooler. Unfortunately summers will be even more hot and humid in Philly, but oh wait, I'll be in Maine most of the time!

Wrapped up the day with a dinner shift at the Lobster. It was a really slow night, but oh well. I also put in my notice. I heard from another server that they really cut back on your hours during your last scheduled week. Eh, would just mean more time for me to pack and clean.

I'm brooding again. Perhaps it's a mix of boredom and anxiety about moving and starting school, but I keep feeling dissatisfied with my life in general, for absolutely no reason in particular. I hope the feeling goes away once I get down there and get busy with school, but for now it's "there has to be more to life than this."

Growing up and knowing that my family was not "normal" in the sense of family cohesion and activities, I guess I always identified television and movies as normal. But television and movies are full of action, drama, romance, comedy, horror, and occasionally foreign. College life lined up a little bit with the depiction of college in movies. . . of course I was doing more academically than socially, but that was my choice. Now that I'm in real life, though, the monotony is killing me. The most interesting thing that happened today is that the power was out at the grocery store and they were on backup power.

For a while I've been blaming it on Syracuse and its lack of things to do. Working a ton always sapped my energy, too, so I never had the pep to do anything interesting. But now I have time and nowhere to go. Ryan is busy with work during the days. There should be more to do in Philly, but I'm still brooding for now. I guess my life is in a rut, and should be shook up vigorously in two weeks, but I'm already going nuts. Whine, whine, bitch, bitch.

On the positive side of things, how about the flickr badge thingy off to the right? I think it kicks ass.

Three days in a row! Am I turning over a new leaf?

Ryan and I went for a bike ride today. After me not having biked more than five miles at a time this year, we did 20 miles total. Saw one Delorien for sale and got one cat call, which is permissible because I am a cat.

Now we're going to try a new recipe for dinner, Pork & Apricot Salad. It looks like it should actually be called Rice and Apricot Salad with Pork Medallions. Whatever it is, I bet my life that the kitten will be on the table sticking his nose and tail in it.

I'll follow up Jen's comment with a post. I'm in NY until August 25, at which point we move to NJ. If you want to map our future town, it's Collingswood, NJ. There's a train station there where I'll catch the train into center city Philly, then switch trains to take me to West Philly, where the university is located. I estimate the commute will take about 50 minutes, so hopefully I can get a little reading done on the trains.

While the apartment we have lined up is okay, the rental market is very tight down there and rather than throw out a big rent each month to an apartment that we only like a little, we could pay a mortgage on a decent house in a good neighborhood for the same price. So unless the housing market tanks, we'd come out way ahead financially, not to mention it'd be nice to have more room for Jibblies and future kitties to run around. And I'd have free reign to do domestic things like paint, garden, and whatnot.

And for more on Maine, it's not a research station of any kind where I'll be working. It's an island where my advisor has a vacation house and permission to go onto people's beaches. The only "lab" is my advisor's garage. The ferry to the island departs about 15 minutes away from Bar Harbor, though.

I was feeling rich yesterday so I bought Ryan an iPod Nano (in black, of course). It's so small! I will probably borrow it occasionally. I got a car adapter, too, so it'll be good for road trips.

Here I am. In the grand tradition of my blogs, in this first post I will explain the title. "Chapter Three" regards the third stage of my blogging life. Chapter one was undergrad, chapter two was the technician years, and now chapter three is grad school. Chapter three is estimated to take at least five years, so here's hoping that I enjoy it!

I am a little conflicted over the candidness level here. I don't want to hamper my future professional life, but I don't want it so sterile or sugarcoated that it's not interesting. I will walk the fence and try not to fall either way. I also feel like the last blog degenerated into life updates without any reflection or insights. I'm in an especially introspective mood tonight.

This morning I packed up the last of my things and moved them all to Ryan's apartment, so we are officially shacked up. He's asleep because he has to work in the morning, but I've been getting into the habit of staying up late and sleeping in again. It helps for working dinner shifts at Red Lobster. And you know, you stay up late by yourself and get thinking. I am going to have a lot more time to think these next few weeks. What do I think?

I think life moves too slowly for me. I was cruising people's myspace pages and at a glance, everyone's life looks so interesting. But played out, everything just takes so long. I get bored so easily. Aside from the personality mismatches and lack of recognition for work well done at the field station, the work itself was just too fantastically boring. I know it was supposed to be my "time off" between undergrad and grad, but I guess that I just can't handle having an idle mind. I need competition and challenges in order to be happy.

I also think that my new roommate (ha) Ryan is extremely patient, and that quality contributes to my opinion that he is the best. I was looking back at a calendar of the last year and it's astonishing how much couple time was lost to Red Lobster. I'm rationalizing that it will put us in a much better position to buy a house next year, but it's still time that can't be recaptured. And now even that we're living together, I'll still be working four or five nights a week until the move, so we're not really seeing each other any more than when I was working two jobs. But he remains patient, and I love him for it.