Doing Something, Something Doing

Remember when I said I was going to hang my pictures forever and a day ago?  Yeah, it finally happened, to some extent.  I got tired of the bare walls in my living room, but the packed mantle.  In the process of getting hooks to convert the tabletop frames to hanging frames, I found this:

And this:

The We Can Do It sign is a metal lithograph.  I thought it was kinda cool (better than the laminated posters you can find other places), and now it’s hanging on the wall by my fridge, waiting for the day when I have an overflow of magnets and papers.  And the Cute Boys Always Welcome magnet caught my eye, and, since it was the last one, I decided I should grab it.  -___-;;

My Amy Brown print is still leaning against a wall in my bedroom, and I still have all those other pictures on the mantle.  But it’s a start, right?

Wow, It’s a Living Room!

And this is my new sofa and coffee table. What you can’t tell from the picture is that there are four little stools that fit under the coffee table. And that it’s bigger than my television. I’m not sure how well it will fit with having people over playing Wii, but I’ll try it for a week or so to see how it fits. I’ve got 30 days to take it back. But I am glad that the living room looks like a living room finally.

Moving Day

Today was the big day, the day I move into my own place. I had spent the previous couple of weeks packing, writing lists of things I need, getting together a group of friends that can be bribed with pizza to move heavy things... And I was in my new place a lot quicker than expected. I woke up, ran to Target to get a few things I knew I'd need immediately, and ran all of it as well as my clothes to my apartment. Mom came soon after with a few other things and drove me to pick up the U-Haul. I picked up my "new" (gently used) bed from my Aunt's, then proceeded to meet everyone at my house for moving.

I overestimated the amount of time it would take to load my crap into a truck, I guess. Several people were late to the "move out" part of the day, but despite a little hassle with getting the TV out to the truck, it went remarkably smooth. (At least, it was to me. Eric might have something to say about that.)

Everyone then made the cross-town trip to my new place. It took about 45 minutes to load the truck. Took less than half of that to put it into the apartment. We started a little before 12:30, and a little after 2:00, we were having pizza. And about 20 minutes of that was driving, and another 20 was waiting for the pizza. We sat around talking, listening to the Beatles, until I had to take the U-Haul back. Somehow, even without any entertainment beyond my music collection, several people were entertained enough to stay while Lisa and I returned the truck. (BTW, note to self: U-Haul is an unfortunately necessary rip-off. They say it's $20 a day; it's more like $70.)

Upon our return, my poor, neglected Nintendo Wii became the center of attention, where we played a little WarioWare and Lisa made a Mii with the help of the artistically-gifted Matt. Matt and Viv left after a while, Lisa and Mark stayed, and we picked up the third Ben of the day, Ben R., who, to my amazement, actually wanted to play Smash Bros. with me. Even though I wasn't very merciful. Whoops. Lisa ran out to get some food, Smash Bros. lost its appeal (since only half of us were playing [note to self: find two more Gamecube controllers]), so after a democratic vote, I took advantage of the PS2's DVD capability and we watched the first half of Fellowship of the Ring.

So, to sum it help:

• People who helped move out: 4
• People who helped move around my mom's TV: 5
• People who helped move in: 7
• People who celebrated my moving in: 8
• Casualties among my things: my larger jewelry box (door was broken on it), Mah Jong set (not quite a casualty, but the pieces went flying everywhere in the back of the truck; I still need to see if everything's there)
• Pizzas consumed: Three large ones, leaving 1 piece of cheese pizza as leftovers
• Things left at home: iPod (OH NO), TV remote, one glass tabletop
• Things taken from home that I shouldn't have: blanket, camera
• Things I should've thought about borrowing ahead of time: CHAIRS. Thankfully Matt and Viv has folding chairs they borrowed from Lisa in their car
• Next things to purchase: SOFA, shelves for DVDs and games, handtowels, shower curtain (since that cheap liner I bought is bad)

Again, thank you to everyone who helped today. I really couldn't have done this without any of you!

OMG! Not Politics!

My partner-in-crime, Kate-monster, is back in town.  And we've already made cookies of D00M! of deliciousness.  And have plans for the next couple of days, including seeing a movie (either Across the Universe or Golden Compass) and having a spa day (even though we were both pampering our feet tonight while playing Mario Party.  Girls.  Go figure).  Oh, and hitting book stores (since Kate got a ton of bookstore gift cards this holiday season).

Ben's still sick, unfortunately.  And being worn-out by work.    ;__;

The "Check Mii Out" Wii channel had a contest for "The girl with the bubbly personality."  I submitted Annette's Mii just for the hell of it.  And she managed to make it to 9th level (one before the top).  Kate and I were greatly amused by it; Anne was just confused.

For the most part, I've been good; bored, but good.  My room's one step closer to completion -- next up is light switches, the last 3 picture frames, and/or shelves.  But man, it's nice to not have to use a converter for grounded plugs.  ^___^

Room Update #I-Lost-Count (Now with Pictures!)

I've finally gotten a mirror to hang in the corner above the vanity/makeup counter.  Now Mike and I need to coordinate how/when to hang it up.  I'm figuring that'll be when we change the two-prong power outlet in that corner to a grounded/three-prong too.  So that means another trip to a hardware/home improvement store for wall plates, anchor screws (maybe), and possibly replacement register vents(!!).  Pictures when the mirror's up, probably.  Pictures!!

I didn't get my butt out of bed early enough to get Mike to help me, but when I did get up, I went to Home Depot, got a pair of hooks that hold up to 50 lbs and some wall plates (pretty ones too; too bad they're probably going to be covered up -__-), and hung it up myself.  So, yeah, I'm feeling a little proud of myself.  Hopefully it doesn't fall down right after posting this.

Do Vitamins Make You Forget?

I was going to post something here besides the anniversary post.  But I seem to have forgotten.

Well, it's cold here.  I do like cold weather better than hot, but when you have to do things besides lay in a warm bed with lots of blankets, it makes it hard to like the cold.

I'm finally starting to put things up on my walls since painting them.  Currently up is the message board.

It's going to be a busy Thanksgiving, since Kate, Annette, and Kate's boyfriend are all going to be in town in the same week.  Along with a good portion of Kate's family.  And we keep thinking of more things to do: watch anime, watch Eddie Izzard (courtesy of Annette), watch Across the Universe, play Mario Party 8, play a game of Fluxx combining regular Fluxx, EcoFluxx, and Zombie Fluxx, eat turkey, (possibly) have a double date thing going on with me, Ben, Kate, and Michael (Kate's boyfriend), go swing dancing, try to hit the usual haunts of the town, ditch the boys and terrorize the town as the Terrible Trio once again, drink fancy champagne (wow, I don't even know how to spell champagne.  How sad of a 21 year old am I?) that we didn't get to at Kate's 21st birthday party, try to figure out what everyone wants for Christmas in the span of a week, play Mahjongg, (in Kate and Michael's cases) keep up with National Novel Writing Month...

Was that what I wanted to post?  I don't think so, but, well, there it is.

Room Makeover: Hanging Pictures

It's been over a year since I painted my room, and the walls are still bare.  I don't know what got me into it (maybe cleaning up my room?), but I decided tonight to kinda "block" where the pictures, shelves, message board, and (hopefully!) mirror would go.  I have most of the pictures one the north wall, over the bed and short dresser where I have my makeup.  Two other shelves (which are actually old shelves from my bookcase where the front trim came off [wow, look at the dates!]) are above the head of my bed and the dresser.  Two smaller pictures are hanging between the east window and the closet.  (Although, it looks kinda weird with just two there; it feels like there should be a third.)

And I have some plans for the two smaller, metallic pictures.  I originally got them from the SAC museum forever ago, and they were in cheap, plastic frames that I plied off a few months ago.  The black part on the glass in the pictures?  It's paint.  So right now, I'm wondering if I could instead get them framed nicely 8"x10" or 11" (since they're odd sizes) with black matting.  I still don't know what material the frame should be.  (Oi, Anne!  You do framing work now.  You got any ideas?)  Maybe I should do something similar with the odd-sized dragon picture (seen at the bottom).  Even though it does look nice against the green wall.

Also, not pictured (because I forgot), is an old key and a small porcelain mask that I want to put in shadowboxes.  And I really should think about putting something together with my high school graduation stuff (photo, tassel, and diploma).  And I was also thinking about my letter from choir, framing that with the certificate and a picture of A Cappella that I have.

The shelves will likely be used to move some of the book series I have off of my bookcase in order to free up room.   I'm thinking that the one over the makeup mirror would have the Harry Potter series (and maybe Cardcaptor Sakura or something), the one over my bed would have things from high school (yearbooks and maybe the graduation stuff), and the one over the dresser would have some knickknacks or something.  Maybe more books.
The only problem area is behind my door.  It's just empty, and I don't know what to put there.  Maybe one or two of the pictures currently planned for behind my bed would get moved there once I figure in the shadowboxes.  But it's still a lot of empty space.  And I really don't feel like moving one of the old movie posters back (they just don't fit, really).