Maxwell Terrace 47401

The apartment complex is called Maxwell Terrace. I think this sounds terribly ostentatious and overblown until I realize that the street it's on is actually also called that. Then I sort of like it, and almost want to start writing a prime-time soap opera named after it. The sum total of my knowledge of the other residents of Maxwell Terrace is that at least one of them has a public wifi network. Sounds like fertile ground for convoluted tales of drama and deceit, doesn't it?

In the three days that I wait for my stuff to arrive, I help Will terror_firma and Maggie magsterama move their stuff into their new house, paint their new living room front room "parlor", install trim in their new bedroom, and scrape everything that is not wood up off their new wood floor. They also take me out for ice cream, Cajun food, and Chinese food, although not all at the same time. On Saturday, I help Maggie and her friend Stephanie make pickles from the cucumbers in Maggie's mom's garden. It is awesome.

On Monday, my big crate o' stuff shows up, mostly unscathed. Maggie, Will, and Will's co-worker Nathan help me move everything into my place in the 90-degree heat, and then we go to Sonic for slushies, which amuses me. Who goes to a drive-in fast-food place in a car that runs on straight vegetable oil? My friends, that's who.

We then go to a furniture rental establishment where they're selling off furniture that's apparently no longer new enough to rent. I get a fairly new-looking couch and loveseat, delivered, for $445! I'm going to have furniture just like a real person! We also stop by Goodwill, where I find one excellent item for 99 cents. You see, one of my favorite moments from Schwern xwrn's "Skimmable Code" talk at OSCON was when he said, "Having a variable called 'array' or 'list' is sort of like having a box and putting a label on it that says 'box'." Well, at Goodwill I find a nice little hinged silver box with, sure enough, a printed "Box" label on the side. I want to send it to Schwern, but it's so great, I may be forced to keep it.

After a brief toilet-paper-and-cleaning-supplies-for-Lindsey run, Will, Maggie, and Nathan finally drop me off at home. Home. I sit for a long time, recovering my energy -- and then I jump up and start working. I put both of the wheels back onto my bike (my first time doing that without help!), I unpack all the dishes and put them in the kitchen, I make the bed, I move the keyboards into the correct room, I put away lots of bedroom and bathroom stuff, I set up temporary trash and recycling areas, I organize the closet, I give the Roomba a thorough cleaning and get it all situated (it's sleeping peacefully in the corner of my room now), I...just work really hard on my apartment. For seven hours.

When I'm done, I take a shower in my shower, which is located in my bathroom. And then I walk down my hallway, and I do it naked, because I can. And now I'm going to go to sleep in my bed, so that I can get up in the morning and work on my apartment some more.