The housing search goes poorly. Sure, if I raised my monthly rent to 950 I could find somewhere very quickly and easily, but then I'd probably have to get a 9-5 40 hour a week desk job again. I'm avoiding that possibility like the plague. Instead I'm lowering the requirement of a 1 bedroom to also include studios, filtering down to a maximum of 850$/month, and increasing the range of my search area to include slightly more remote yet still feasible places in the Capitol Hill area. Instead of a 3-4 minute walk to the store it might be a 5-10 minute walk (... just realized that 10 minute walk is still a little long... we'll see). I've got a few places open in tabs now to call once I'm done with my lunch meetup plans.

I also need to get an Orca card for the public transit system while I'm in the downtown area. I like the idea of using 1$ coins to pay for fair, but the fare is an uneven 25¢ so I'd also have to carry around quarters. If they're going to provide a convenient value card that also automatically handles transfers and works on several of the area systems, then why not.

The first day of searching for a place near the north end of Capitol Hill is coming to an end. There haven't been any major updates for about 6 hours now. As my search starts I'm being very picky about what I'm looking for. I'd like a 1 bedroom unit with about 400/sq.ft. within quarter of a mile walking distance of the QFC (grocery store) for about or less than 800$/month. So far most of the units are running toward the 900$/month or more range (emphasis on "or more"). I could, in theory, do 900$ but that's pushing it and doesn't include utilities.

There are a couple of places toward the north end of where I'm looking that are around 825$/month + 50$/month for water/sewage/garbage. They're reasonably sized and well located, but not available until June 4th.

Unless I'm willing to breach my upper monetary limit by a major amount, or leave my targeted area, that's all that's available right now. I'm hoping more will become available over the next few days. Tomorrow or Monday I'm going to do more walking around and calling up places with "For Rent" signs that don't list a website or price. There were a few I saw today just walking around too.

I've managed to get everything that I want to take with me packed into the storage container. It was "only" 7am by the time I got down. I was sore, and physically fatigued, but I wasn't sleepy. I tried to soak in a hot bath, but failed to get a sufficiently hot temperature at first. I did eventually start to nod off so I decided it was time to pull out the emergency blankets, made a pillow out of a spare towel, and slept for a few hours in the closet. Yes, the closet. It's the only place other than the bathrooms (with tile floors!) that can block a sufficient amount of light to let me sleep. It was also warmer than most other parts of the apartment too.

Today... I'm being lazy. I'm just so mentally tired and physically spent. But, I have no food left in the apartment so soon I will have to wander out and find a place to eat eventually. I've finally placed the ad for someone to take the washer and dryer off my hands and have already gotten a few leads, but nothing solid yet (waiting for one of their spouses to get off work first). I've also made an appointment with a junk removal service to take the excess boxes, computer desk, chairs, and ton of household garbage off my hands.

Speaking of eating, one of the strange things I noticed while packing and moving everything around is that I was constantly hungry. I would want to stop for a quick bite or two between every other activity. The more effort I put in the more I wanted to eat something. Sometimes I made do with a glass of water (I have no more glasses, by the way; I did pick up some disposable plates and utensils) or a muffin, but others I would eat a plate of leftovers or a grain bar.

I'm probably one of the lightest movers you're likely to know, short of living out of two suitcases, but I think I need to trim it down some more. Maybe live out of the boxes so all I have to do is fold them up and tape them shut. Ugh, my back.

Seriously, though, I could get rid of most of my books, for starters. I don't need some of my mugs (not that I have many; just don't use them), the coffee maker, and at least a few other things I can't think of off hand.

I still have 3-4 boxes to move down to the garage, the dining room table to take apart, board games to box up, and finally take apart my desktop computer and desk, and move all of it downstairs. Oh, and vacuum everything. Finally I have to move everything 3 yards from the garage to the storage container for them to pick up tomorrow afternoon. That's going to be fun; the adult version of Tetris.

Thursday I clean the fridge and oven. Then I wander around, or something, until Friday afternoon.

My internet service is supposed to be disconnected on the 11th, this upcoming Friday. When I woke up on Saturday my internet had been disconnected and the technician discovered my account closed. It took about an hour but they figured out what needed to be done and got me up and running again.

This morning I went to sleep around 5am, woke up around 8:45am, and discovered my internet once again disconnected. I called their billing department directly, was on hold until a couple minutes past 9am, and confirmed that it had been once again disconnected. It took until 9:15am to get everything under control, although this time the technician copped an attitude about simply resetting the modem.

I wouldn't be surprised if I have to go through this every morning until the 11th now.