Walking In Wuhan

It's Saturday afternoon and we came up to Nevada to see Amber and Randy for a short weekend. They're on the boat and Courtney and I are getting stuff done around the house. Tonight we'll join some of Amber and Randy's friends for a progressive dinner, which we're both pumped for.

During the past week we've moved into the apartment, gotten unpacked and somewhat settled in. The neighbors are definitely nice and helpful and we're getting a hang of Berkeley and the East Bay area. Some highlights from the past week:

We hit Lake Tahoe with Amber and Randy. The lake was beautiful and I enjoyed watching A&R use the sky ski, which is basically a seat on a rudder type thing that allows you to get huge air. I did a little tubing and had a good day.

-- We arrived in Berkeley on Monday morning, checked in and called the moving company to get our stuff. Problem was, they were saying we used 7 feet of truck, when we'd barely used five feet. Not a huge deal except for the fact the price difference is about $400. So, in order to get our stuff, we needed to drive to Heyward, CA, which is about a 30 minute drive on the freeway. We get down there, measure the truck and lo and behold it's five feet, five inches. Problem is our stuff looks like it's been worked over worse than Rodney King. Our plywood was moved and the guys says, "was it like that when you packed it?"

Not only that, but several boxes had gotten mixed in with ours, including a box with 12 bottles of cat litter odor remover (see picture below). Our TV was cracked and we hoped that stuff made it OK.




-- How big is 425 square feet? Surprisingly comfortable. We got our stuff moved in (with a big assist to our neighbors) unpacked and set up and things are really comfortable. The weather has been perfect and we haven't had to use heat or air since we've been there. We made one trip to Ikea -- it's so cool to live in small apartments with cheapily made furniture!! -- and spent the rest of the time trying to find out where things are.


-- The hardest part of being here? Finding cheap groceries. The only thing I've found comparable so far were 32 oz. bottles of Gatorade for $1 each. 20 oz pops? $1.59. I also saw a box of Wheaties for $6.49. I damn near fainted. Ground beef at this other store was $7.49 per pound. I checked for little pieces of gold in the beef, but didn't see any. I decided at that moment that I need to find employment quickly.

-- I've gotten a few positive replies to jobs so far. Target, Bed Bath and Beyond and other grocery stores are all hiring. It used to be the only reason I looked at the classifieds was to chuckle at the personal ads. Now I'm looking to see if there are jobs that fit my skill set. I've welding is not one of them.

-- Before we left, my dad said he was afraid for us to go to California -- this coming from somebody who lived in Bakersfield -- because of all the weirdos out here. Yes, there are plenty. I got yelled at for walking near a wet floor sign in a Safeway and offered speakers that were likely stolen while driving in my car near the UC-Berkeley campus. It's like being in China. You never know what's going to happen to you on a given day, except now I can understand what people are saying.


That's all I've got for now. I'm applying for more jobs this week and hoping for the best. Hopefully we'll have Internet this week.

I just need a job. Earlier this week I thought I had mono. Turns out I'm just bored.