This Side of Lost

And so begins the first of many, many titles of blog posts with popular culture references to California in them.

My road trip to our new home in Northridge was successful. I saw a lot of America along the way -- much of it boring, but much of it very beautiful as well. But needless to say, it was a very long trip and I'm glad to be here. What I have accomplished thus far:

• Checking into our new apartment. It is of a decent size and for the most part well appointed.
• Purchasing a new mattress. Expensive but comfortable.
• Getting a new bank account at local ubiquitous financial institution.
• Hooking up rudimentary Internet access. I'm using AOL. Don't laugh at me. Okay, fine, laugh at me -- I'm laughing at myself. It's only until Samantha arrives with the DSL modem.
• Picking up our cats from the airport. They made their travel unscathed, and have adjusted surprisingly quickly.
• Exploring the surrounding area a little. It's basically suburbia, endless suburbia, in all directions. How exciting.
• Buying a refrigerator. This actually only happened today.
• Almost going broke. Moving to California is a lot more expensive than I thought it would be.
• Housing the peerless Peter Pearson whilst he attends the SCBWI conference. And it's really only been housing -- I haven't been in his presence and conscious for much longer than 4-5 hours in the past two days due to the extreme intensity of the conference. But it's been fun nonetheless.
• Not eating well.
• Missing Samantha a lot.
• Going to work.

My initial impression of California is such: The weather is very nice. There are a lot of people here. Many of them are nice too. There is a lot more radio diversity than in Bloomington. Everything is really far apart. But much of it is the same as the rest of America.

I'm still feeling pretty discombobulated. This is assuredly due to the fact that I am still missing 1) most of our worldly possessions and 2) my wife. And most likely the latter much more than the former. I cannot wait until she arrives. Everything will be right with the world then.

You may have noticed that I didn't talk much about work in my last post. That's because, as of today, I'm making it official This Side of Lost policy not to discuss work here.

One of the least exciting things about getting a "grown up job" is politics. If I am concerned about my career, I need to be concerned about the things I say about it, because people care. And people can easily find the things that I say here with a simple Google search. In fact, I already know that people at work read this blog.

So I'm just going to keep it simple by avoiding it altogether. Better safe than dooced. I have gone through the archives and removed any references to the job that are more specific than "academic librarian in southern California." I may end up starting a work-related blog that will be anonymous. If you are interested in that (should it ever be created -- no promises), drop me a note.

I promise I'll blog more frequently and get you more True Internet Weirdness™ (like this!) soon. Right now we're still trying to settle in, but that's hard to do, for one major reason.

Allied said that our stuff would arrive sometime between the 9th and the 19th. A call to them last Wednesday revealed that all our belongings are still in a warehouse in Indiana. Yeah, awesome, huh? The story from Allied is something about a driver shortage. Their new estimate is leaving Indiana on the 23rd (that's four days after it should have been here) and arriving on the 31st (twelve days after it should have been here).

My friend David mentioned that this is an exercise in seeing what we really need -- in the most literal sense -- to live. Samantha has already said that while there's a lot of things that we aren't immediately missing, there is a lot that we really, really are missing right this moment. Things like pots to cook in. Clothes to wear. A table to eat at. You know. Things. Have you ever tried looking professional while living out of a suitcase for three weeks longer than you planned? Trying to prove you're married without your personal files? Eating leftovers without a microwave to heat them up? (Don't answer that one, David.)

The very nice lady at Allied has sent me a "delay claim" form to use to get reimbursed for expenses, including half of our meals. While this is very nice, it just doesn't solve many of the previously mentioned problems. Yeah, we bought a pot, okay, but what do we do with it when the six perfectly good pots we own finally arrive?

And yes, I know this is the busiest time of year for movers and our little 3000 lb. shipment isn't a priority. But they knew that just as well as I. If they had an inkling they couldn't do their job, they should have told me so, and I would have figured something else out. We're paying them to make this move less stressful and they've done just the opposite, to the tune of my entire relocation stipend and then some.

I hate moving.

End rant.

Good things that have happened since I wrote last:

• Samantha arrived, safe and sound. I surely would be insane by now if not for this.
• Our cats seem to be settled in, healthy and relaxed.
• We're enjoying the apartment so far.
• We have yet to find the "boho area of the Valley" as Samantha puts it (you know, the area with indie record stores, edgy clothing places and lots of hipsters wandering around), but we've had some good eats and such anyway
• Samantha had an interview for a part time job at the same place I work. No word as of yet, but we have no reason to be pessimistic, either.
• Work is great. Honestly the least of my worries.

Completely random: I just received a call on my cell phone from this number: 800-000-0000. Out of sheer curiosity, I answered, and was immediately told to "hold for the next available representative." Of course I hung up, but I can still only wonder: What can it mean??

That's all for now. How are you?