So tired of boxes and packing paper and tape and mislabeling and they lost one of my bookcases and broke another.

If any of my 873 books are missing I shall throw a fit of massive proportions.

Bedclothes gone awry (you'd think they'd be in one of the LINEN boxes, but those only seem to hold picture frames and office supplies) but at least I'm not sleeping on the floor anymore.

Mission San Juan Capistrano! Roll those Rs!

I applied for another job today. Also finished reading As I Lay Dying and liked it, increasing my book snob factor by six points. Whoop whoop!

PHOTO DAY!

On the spur of the moment I drove off to see two of San Antonio's five-count-'em-cinco missions. They were GORGEOUS. And because it was 106 degrees outside, there weren't too many other people around and I could photograph to my heart's content. So not only did I get great shots, I lost 15 pounds just from perspiring! Or glistening. Whatever it is ladies do.

This photo is of the handy model Mission San Francisco de la Espada with the real church in the background. The rest of my Espada photos are in this Flickr photoset. Please take look!

After this mission, I drove to the aqueduct they built to keep the crops a-growin' (still working!) and finished up with Mission San Juan Capistrano, which is very fun to say aloud. That church door was half open, so I went inside and said a few prayers and just sat. It was quiet and very cool. Both missions I saw today are working churches. Still sacred places.

I'll post other photos soon -- took 123 photos total today! Not all of them are much good; frankly, some suck, but I'm very happy with a few and am still getting to know my camera. I also finished my latest Holga roll and just need to find a lab...

I came home in the middle of rush hour and felt completely wiped, but I'm really excited to see the other three missions -- including The Alamo (!). I'll wait until Bruce can come with me for that one. And next time, I need to get out before noon so the light is better.

That's from "Half the Truth," a poem by Jack Gilbert. Kind of a nice way to say, "Get off your ass!" With all this moving over the past three years, I feel like I've spent more time getting ready and less time being. Getting ready, getting there, going through the shock of readjustment (some panic involved, usually), then get ready to be something else. It is exhausting -- mentally, emotionally, physically. Everything.

The transition to Texas -- and I don't know exactly why -- has been so much easier. Despite having to find a house, spending weeks without furniture or all my stuff (still!), and dealing with the same unemployment issues, I've been okay. No crying, no lying awake at night worrying about my career. I'm watching too much television, but Bruce has been flying all over the country and I need the noise. Maybe I'm getting used to this. Maybe I just like Texas. Maybe the fact that I can buy Tillamook cheese at the local grocery store and make delicious grilled-cheese sandwiches is the difference. Maybe it's that I don't have to deal with idiot bookstore customers anymore. (If you have not checked out the Customers Suck! group on LiveJournal, you are missing out. Those people made me not feel so alone in my slaving.) Maybe it's that this is new and fresh and the worst thing that's happened is Keaton puking on the kitchen floor. No deaths, no car accidents.

So.

I've started another of my 2006 Required Reading books, As I Lay Dying, (thanks for the suggestion, Jo) and am enjoying it way more than I expected. In truth, I didn't expect to like it at all. (Should never have doubted, you Jo!) It's my first Faulkner and while I can't say I understand everything the characters say, think and do, I get the gist of it and am intrigued by the writing style. Intrigued, I tell you!

I stopped reading another book on my list, Lessing's The Golden Notebook. I couldn't take it anymore. Don't know if I will pick it up again...the story is not what I expected -- for one thing, it's political (at least, the beginning is), and politics = SNORE. I always feel like a bad American when I say that; I shouldn't (it's a free country), but I do. But the main character is/was/who knows? a Communist and it's all this post-war stuff and oh, men are this and women that and, and, and...

All that and 672 pages.

Okay, I probably won't pick it up again. I can always use it as a sleep aid.

After the Faulker, I've only "Aurora Leigh," Things Fall Apart and Anna Karenina left for the year. Definitely doable in four months. My 2007 List is under construction and open for suggestions. Most of the book already listed are ones I own and have owned for years and want to get off my unread bookshelf. But if there's a classic you've read and enjoyed, let me know! I'd like to read key genre books -- like I put Hammett's The Maltese Falcon on there for classic dectective crime noir, and Clarke's Childhood's End for S/F. The Pevear-Volokhonsky translation of War and Peace will be on that list as soon as Amazon has a link.

In non-book news, I applied for a job yesterday. In publishing. That's all I'll say about it. Hopefully an interview will result...

I'm off to check out the local Farmers' Market and Animal Shelter for 1) food, and, 2) volunteer opportunities. IN THAT ORDER. I am not looking for food at the Animal Shelter.

Here's the new house, home for the next two years. I am not a fan of suburbia, preferring living IN a city or out in the middle of nowhere, but this was my favorite house out of all we looked at. It also leaves Bruce with a five minute commute and puts me right by the freeway, meaning better access when I DO find a job.

It is in a gated community.

But not that gated; the gates are left open all day and only close at night. They are a pain in the ass, really. The guy who lived in the house before took the gate remote with him so we have to punch a code in to open it after hours.

The cable guy finally came, ten minutes after his four-hour window closed, and I'm solidly online. Bruce and I trekked down to the laundromat yesterday to wash and wash and wash; our washer and dryer don't arrive for another week and a day.

Really, I don't have much to say. I feel very uninspired and temporary. I should schedule a Photo Day this week.

Regular internet should be up and running tomorrow. I found another free coffeeshop, but it is not close. I'm stealing the neighbor's wireless again. I should be grateful, but it is only one tiny blip on my scanner and cuts out intermittently. Like it just went out.

And now it is back.

This here's a computer photo of me RIGHT NOW and here is what I saw out my window last night:

oooh.

(see above)

I have added another library card to my collection!

***Written Sunday, posted Monday on wi-fi stolen from neighbors.

Argh. Bruce and I spent hours driving around today trying to find free wi-fi -- or even cheap wi-fi. S.A. was found to be sorely lacking!! The FREE WI-FI! list I'd printed out a couple weeks ago was out of date and/or inaccurate. My usual wired coffeeshop is not open on Sundays, so the search ended in defeat. Tomorrow I'm going to see about getting online at the library. Hopefully the lease will be enough for proof of residence.

In other news, today's newspaper revealed next to no possible job opportunities, I really regret not packing the toaster and Keaton got his nails trimmed.

Although I am quite familiar with the surrounding neighborhoods, subdivisions and suburbs, I have very little knowledge of the other bits of S.A. Yesterday we checked out the very nice Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum (I think she and Isabella Stewart Gardner would have gotten along swimmingly)(and there were a few traveling Sargents!) and found used-book bliss at Cheever Books.

(I took some Holga photos at the museum and will develop them once I find a lab.)

So, good stuff. There is a handful of other bookstores to check out here and THEN there is Austin.

Oooh.

It's nice to be back in the land where two episodes of "The Simpsons" run every night. Not that I watch them all; it's just nice to know they are there. Ah.

None of the neighborhood wireless networks felt like letting me on this morning so I am back at the coffeeshop. Official change of address and forwarding order change forms to fill out for the post office, magazines/journals to notify, bank and credit cards to login and change, and a new quote on my car insurance, which is going DOWN, thankfully. I'll email everyone my new address when I get my new phone number, probably later this week.

The refrigerator arrived this morning so we can start eating real food. I get so sick of eating out.

I do regret not bringing the toaster. I can live on toast. Toast and cereal and coffee and I'm happy. Ice cream is also helpful.

Things about Texas:
CON: There are lots of Hummers here.
PRO: Everyone (even Hummer-drivers) almost always use their turn signals. This is shocking and wonderful after all the "read muh mind" Alabama drivers. (I developed a theory that if you ever saw someone in Montgomery use their turn signal, it was because they were from out of state. Almost always true!) San Antonio freeways with their one-way access roads and short, overlapping on/off ramps require lots of merging and mirror-watching but people are nice about it.

CON: San Antonio is hot.
PRO: It isn't as humid as Alabama and there is always a breeze. Plus, the weather reports are more interesting because they do the WHOLE state and the Gulf gets involved. In Alabama, they just passed on Mississippi or Georgia's weather depending on which way the wind was blowing.

Hmm. I can't think of any more cons. There's a great big grocery store near the house -- they have Tillamook cheese! And you weigh your own produce and print out a label to save time at the register! Yes, I'm a dork!

I wanted to link to a photo of the man who helped us find the house. Don't you like his mustache? It is longer in person and curls up at the ends. He was awesome and encouraged me to visit Big Bend National Park while I'm in Texas.

Okay!

Found a house!

Moving out of the hotel right now!

No internet at the house (yet)!

Refrigerator arriving tomorrow!

ALL OTHER HOUSE STUFF COMING THE LAST WEEK OF AUGUST.

augh

3.19pm
ETA: There are some fifteen wireless networks around the house and not all of them require passwords! I'm online!

I'm at that coffee shop again, trying to look for a job. I've checked a few websites, but what with LOOKING for a house to rent and LOOKING for places to eat and everything else one needs for day-to-day life, I'm tired of LOOKING.

The above photo is from an abandoned drive-in theatre I passed yesterday. Poor thing. I didn't see a screen from where I was, but didn't really look around, either. Must go back.

The other day I entered a LARGE CORPORATE BOOKSTORE in search of a map. This was not the same LARGE CORPORATE BOOKSTORE that I worked at in Alabama; there are none of those in San Antonio, thank goodness. But it reminded me of a list I wanted to post here.

THINGS I LEARNED WHILE WORKING AT A LARGE CORPORATE BOOKSTORE:

+ Don't buy Sexuality books at a LARGE CORPORATE BOOKSTORE. In fact, don't even touch them unless you have disposable gloves on. If you want to purchase a title, find one that is wrapped in plastic and still sealed or go online. This greatly decreases the chance of your book having bodily fluids on or inside it. The same goes for any Art books that have nudity inside. Come on -- would you check a Kama Sutra out from the library? These books have been manhandled in the worst possible way. Some have been taken home, tried out, and then returned. At my store, books that were found in the men's bathroom were thrown out; I don't know if this is true everywhere. Regardless, many customers did not bother to remove themselves to the restroom (no resting going on there) and instead took the book(s) to a comfortable chair or just stood and enjoyed themselves. Such customers had no problem exposing themselves to fellow shoppers or employees, one even taking a moment to order a coffee whilst indisposed.

+ Don't buy stuffed animals, Beanie Babies, etc. Understand that every toy in the store has been on the floor, under/on top of the shelves, in grubby, sticky kid-hands and their moist mouths, and sat in on stuffed animal tea parties. Why? Because many parents treat LARGE CORPORATE BOOKSTORES as playgrounds with free baby-sitting services.

+ Use seating with caution. You don't know what is stuck in the nooks and crannies. You don't want to know.

+ Don't sit on the floor. Try not to even touch the floor. The store I worked at had been peed on, spit on, thrown-up on, spilled on (every food and drink under the sun) and cried on. People left used kleenex, old drinking straws and other items that hold bodily fluids inside. Also, don't allow your children to go around barefoot.

+ To close, remember to wash your hands when you get home.

I'm in a coffeeshop/cafe in New Braunfels, Texas. It is one of the coolest places I've evor been in and I hope to come here lots and lots, even if I don't live too close. Wireless, fresh-roasted coffee, delicious espresso, and overall excellence. They make their own bread! They have tea! I'm all gooey inside with comfort.

So I'm sitting here on my snazzy computer, drinking giant coffee #2 (first was a cappuccino, which is always the best test of a coffee establishment: what sweet, rich espresso! A partial packet of raw sugar and I was set.) and looking for houses. I'm quite obstreperous about house-hunting. Also about job-hunting and hunting hunting. Bookstore-hunting I enjoy, but that's it.

Earlier today I took a look inside a house I was pretty excited about -- it was in a cul-de-sac, affording some privacy. But the inside disappointed me -- the carpet needs cleaning, not just vacuuming as the owner was doing. It smelled funny. Though there were four bedrooms, they were small, except for the master with the ridiculously enormous walk-in closet and huge huge his-and-hers bathroom, which looked to me like a lot of poor planning: wasted space. And despite being only five years old, it looked completely unstylish. There was one room that I really liked, upstairs with lots of windows.

So, that was disappointing, though I told the owner I'd bring Bruce in on Saturday. I may not, as I'm going to see a whole lotta places tomorrow. I've been sitting here surrounded by maps and notes, searching websites, emailing property managers and receiving calls to schedule viewings. I've become one of those annoying people in coffeeshops who talks on the phone. But it just wasn't happening in the hotel room; I needed to get out.

Anyhow. I really like what I've seen of Texas so far. I just want to get things settled so I can stop stressing. Hopefully I'll see some nice places tomorrow and Bruce and I can move in next week. Sigh.

Question:
Would you buy a house from this man? What about him?