So, the move went pretty well. I had help from lots of people: my roommate, his brother James, his girlfriend Kendall, Kylara, Aron (who is recently married and was just back from his honeymoon in Italy!) and neatly enough my old friend Becca from back home came up for the weekend to help me move. They all did a lot of hard work, so I’d like to thank them publicly!

Now I’m all moved in with all of my belongings in this world, and I’ve lived in a much smaller world for so long that my stuff, even all spread out, still leaves the house feeling sort of empty. I need to get some nails and my level and hang some pictures. I need some plants, or maybe just some fake ones. Kylara is giving me her cat Meow Kitty’s two kittens, I’m not sure what I’m going to name them yet. Maybe I’ll name them both “Station,” like the alien(s) from Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey.

I’ve been settling in. Monday satellite was installed, and the guy had a heck of a time finding the “sweet spot” to put the dish up. He finally put it up on a pole in the front yard. At least it doesn’t look too terrible. Verizon DSL was activated on a dry-loop (no local phone service required) on Tuesday, so now I have internet too. I used our old wireless DSL modem from the last house because Verizon sent me a modem without a built-in router like I ordered.

I’ve got some new pots & pans that I got on the cheap from Wal-Mart for about twenty bucks. They’re non-stick and have a brushed metal finish on the outside. Kylara found me a skillet and a pot at the flea market for a buck or two each, and a nice pillow for my couch for another couple bucks. It’s nice to live within five miles of a huge flea market. I also found a nice serving plate for two dollars at the local Food Lion an exit up the highway from me.

Everytime I walk by the room with my unpacked boxes I wince a little, because I really don’t want to break them all down, but I need to get to organizing or I’ll never feel moved in.

This morning I made sure all the utilities are getting switched over to my name. The funny thing is, my water company’s office is pretty much just one guy, operating out of the back of a Maytag Repair Shop in a nearby town. When I looked at the EPA web site’s record of our water system, it says it supports a total population of 292. That record may not be up to date, but that should give you an idea of the town to which I’ve moved.

The change in my sleep schedule is killing me. I have to go to bed earlier now because I have to wake up at 6:30am instead of 7:18am, so that I have time to get up and get ready and eat breakfast before I leave for work. I also started watching the news in the morning. Did you know they cleared that Jean Benet Ramsey’s parents of her killing, and now the case is wide open again? Crazy.

The drive to work isn’t so bad, it takes about 30 minutes because they closed the left-hand lane on either side of the highway, so it bottlenecks behind people who do 10 under through the construction zone. I imagine when they open that up again my commute will shorten to 20 minutes.

The in-town driving is also crazy – apparently around 10 minutes to 8am, every person with no particular place to go drives through town like it’s a lazy Sunday. At least a morning drive gives me time to listen to my iPod. I think I ‘m going to download some audio books or some podcasts that are about 30 minutes long, and start listening to those on the way to work.