So, I finally found a roommate.

He's not my ideal roommate - he's older than me*, for starters. But he seems nice enough, and wants to rent the extra room and really likes Oliver, and Oliver liked him, and he apparently works a lot and also sometimes goes out of town for long chunks of time. That's fine. I just need someone to rent the damned room so I don't get evicted or eat up my savings or end up on the street in a box.

My roommate doesn't have to be my good friend. I'll just miss, you know, having a roommate who's a good friend.


*Not, like, late twenties older. More like forties older.

Katie has been in town this weekend, so yesterday, Rebekah and her and I went to Muir Woods, and then to the Marin Headlands.

Despite the fact that I've been here for a year, I've never been up to see the redwoods. It was a beautiful day, and we hiked the moderately difficult trail. I actually survived, which is a miracle. What's more, we accidentally overshot the turn-off to the trail that would take up back down, and ended up making it to the top of the mountain, which gave up a gorgeous view of the ocean and the whole valley.

The redwoods are... insane. They're so tall, and funny, and the earth is so lush and damp and everything smells like it's growing and decaying and dying and coming alive again. Birds call from the canopies. Redwood trees that have been felled by extreme weather or age sprout with new life in the form of fungus and animal dens and baby redwoods. A doe and fawn drank from a stream, the baby fawn barely visible in the patches of light and shadow. Some trees have spongy bark, some were worn so smooth the wood glowed like polished resin. A snake writhed across our path. We went a thousand feet up, stumbling over rocks and clutching roots that came out of the earth. And when we reached the top, the dappled shadows gave way to sun, and we were there.

My favorite "in the woods" picture of Katie and Rebekah



( more pictures here! )

After we reached the top, we decided to take triumph pictures. I took a bunch of these when I was coming across the country, always in really beautiful and impressive places. Here we are, having conquered the mountain.









Sore and exhausted, we hiked back down and drove to the Marin Headlands. It was gorgeous and warm and slightly breezy, and Rebekah meditated while Katie and I made a pile of stones and talked about love.



Then I took a picture of Katie leaping up in the air...



... and she took photos of me being goofy.







It was an amazing day. I'm still sore, but happy. :)

A week and a half ago, I set up an appointment with this very cool-sounding girl to come and look at the apartment this morning at 11am. I got up early, cleaned the whole apartment, and was in the middle of straightening my bed when I got a phone call. It was her.

"Ummm... so, I just google mapped the apartment and... ummm... it's not exactly where I want it to be, sooooo... I'm not going to come by. Good luck!"

... thanks. Thanks for waiting until forty-five minutes before you were supposed to show up to bother looking at Google Maps.

I DO NOT GET why it's so hard to rent out this room. The price is reasonable, we're in a decent neighborhood, near the BART station, near downtown Berkeley, near UC-Berkeley, near Berkeley Bowl, the apartment is huge and beautiful... argh. I keep trying to be cool and not worry and trust that everything is going to be okay, but those nagging worrisome thoughts keep creeping back into my head.

Hey everyone,

The second room in my apartment is still available for rent. Ad is here. Pass it around, tell your friends, etc. I'd really appreciate it. Thanks. :)

Last weekend, before Paul left on his road trip, we spent the weekend together having grand adventures. And it was a weekend of pure awesome.

( weekend of pure awesome, commence! )

It was a lovely day, all in all, and an amazing weekend. Here's my favorite shot:

Today is my one-year anniversary of arriving in California.

Wow.

There's a special election coming up on May 19th. One of the issues on the ballot (1A) threatens to cap funding for the developmentally disabled (for those of you who don't know, I work for a supported living agency).

This would mean that IHSS (In Home Support Services, which funds attendants in CA) would go from $11.50 an hour (varies from county to county, but that's the average) to minimum wage, which is $8.00.

My entire company would likely go under. The state would still be required to provide supported living services, but at drastically reduced quality and quantity. It would be a devastating blow to the millions of disabled Californians who currently rely on supported living for basic tasks like getting out of bed in the morning.

This is obviously a tough financial time for everyone, but there is no way that taking money from one of the most vulnerable populations in California is a good decision.

Below is a letter from the mother of one of my clients, given at a state legislature hearing on funding for disability services on April 22, 2009.

Good afternoon. My name is Jody Savage, and I have an adult son with cerebral palsy who uses supported living services in Alameda County.

The State of New York recently closed a four billion dollar budget deficit by creating two new tax brackets:
o Families making over $300,000 will be taxed at 7.85%, up from 6.85%.
o Anyone making more than $500,000 will pay 8.97%.

We are told that in the State of California such an increase is politically infeasible. What is totally feasible, apparently, is to cut services for people with disabilities, not once, but over and over. What is quite feasible is to take a system that was built over decades to provide for the health and safety of the most vulnerable Californians, to dismantle that system in a matter of months, and to propose Proposition 1A that would cap spending even when the economy recovers and ensure the system cannot be reconstituted.

We are talking about attendant care for people who cannot get out of bed without assistance, who need help to get dressed, to use the restroom, to go outside into the morning air. We are talking about the tenth biggest economy in the world, a place where judges protect the rights of convicted felons, deciding it cannot provide for the basic human rights of people who are innocent of anything except being born with or acquiring a disability.

The choice by the State Legislature to balance the budget without tax increases on wealthy individuals and corporations shows a failure of compassion for people like my son. So I am here to ask you to have compassion for yourselves. Each member of the legislature, like any other human being, is powerful and at the same time very fragile. It takes such a little mishap to become disabled. A stone in the path of your bicycle could do it, or a bite from a mosquito carrying encephalitis. And suddenly there you would be, just another person with a disability, running through your savings more quickly than you could imagine, and relying on a system of care that won't be there for you if you destroy it.

If not for people like my son, then do it to protect yourselves: Reverse the cuts. Provide full disability services for the citizens of California.

Thank You.

If you live in California - please vote "no" on 1A on May 19th. And spread the word.

Hey everyone.

So, as you may or may not know, my amazing and brilliant roommates Sarah and Ryan are moving out of The Apartment of Awesomeness and Joy fairly soon. Ryan is leaving mid-May, and Sarah is leaving in June.

I am now faced with an insane challenge: trying to replace them. Which is basically impossible. But I have to try.

Currently, my 1-year-lease runs out August 1st. My incredibly nice and sweet landlady has said that I can go month-to-month after the 1-year-lease is up.

I'm looking for someone to take the extra bedroom.

Logistics!

- Rent (for you) is $737.50 per month.

- Landlady pays garbage and water; we pay PG&E and Internet. Internet (wireless) is something like $43 dollars per month, and PG&E ranges widely, from $50ish (in the summer) to $120ish (in the winter). You'd be responsible for half of all utilities (they're in my name, so I usually pay them and then the roommate just comps me for their half).

- Apartment is very spacious. Your room is carpeted and has a surprisingly deep closet. Sounds don't carry between the bedrooms, 'cause they're not connected at all.

- Neighbors (above us and next to us) are quiet and nice. I rarely hear anything from any of them except the occasional strumming of an acoustic guitar.

- Living area/bathroom/kitchen is already furnished and stocked, so you don't need to bring any of that sort of thing.

- We're technically in Oakland, but we live about 50 feet from the border of Oakland/Berkeley (when I walk Oliver, I cross over into Berkeley for about two minutes). We're a very quick walk/bike from the Ashby BART, the infamous Berkeley Bowl, downtown Berkeley, UC - Berkeley, the works.

- Plenty of street parking (and a parking space that I use, but you could also use), no permit required.

- The landlady is sweet and completely chill. She and her handyman get things fixed very fast (same or next day) and are laid back and incredibly nice.

- No dishwasher (I just wash things by hand), but there is an awesome gas stove and (coin) laundry in the complex (just outside our own personal alley and shed).

- Uh, personal alley and shed. The shed can be used to store bikes and whatnot. The alley's just awesome.

- Landlady is totally okay with us painting the walls. The kitchen's already bright yellow.

- If you want to, I'd totally be down for a cooking dinner together a few nights a week situation. This isn't essential, by any means, but I'm down for it if you are.

Stuff about you!

- I'm open to couples, but it has to be The Right Kind of Couple, y'know? I'd prefer just one person, only because it seems to work for the amount of space that we have.

- Must must must must be okay with large, friendly dogs. Oliver is awesome, but it's really important that if he gets excited and bounces around your legs that you won't have a nervous breakdown.

- This is a trans/queer/POC friendly space (in case you haven't figured that out already), so I don't care about your gender identification, sexual orientation, race, or anything else.

- No smokers, please (it's a non-smoking apartment).

Stuff about me!

Here's the deal: I'm a great roommate (seriously - I could give you references), and I'm chatty and fun and always down for adventures and photo shoots and getting lost in strange places and cooking food and watching movies and having political discussions and my roommate needs to be, at the very least, okay with that and honestly, I would love it if they came with me. I've always lived with folks that I've grown very close to, and I want my next roommate, if possible, to become a good friend.

I'm also neurotic and will clean all public spaces compulsively. You have to be okay with the fact that I will do the dishes, and straighten the living room, and scrub down the bathroom with quite a bit of regularity.



Pass this ad around. If you, or anyone you know, might be interested in this room, shoot me an email at carmen dot machado at gmail dot com and put "Roommate" in the subject line.

The place where I live - the apartment, the neighborhood, the town, the state - is so surreal sometimes.

I woke up this morning to this.











Happy New Year's Eve.

Sarah and I had plans today to go to Monterey, but they were thwarted by us realizing that it was much further away than we had previously thought. So we pulled out a map and put our finger on Half Moon Bay.

We burned a mix CD appropriate for the theme of the trip (Your Ex-Lover is Dead featuring prominently in the lineup... I mean, with lyrics "There's one thing I want to say, so I'll be brave / You were what I wanted / I gave what I gave / I'm not sorry I met you / I'm not sorry it's over / I'm not sorry there's nothing to save," how could we go wrong?) and took off. We crawled over the winding San Mateo Bridge and then up into the mountains, coming down into a valley where people were selling flowers and fruit and metal dinosaurs the size of a house. The air was fragrant and we bought strawberries and drove all the way to the shore.

It was divine. We sat on blankets and took off our shoes and smelled the water and ate rice cakes and apples and watched the windsurfers and talked and I took pictures and every few minutes one of us would say "We're at the beach. In November."

As the day progressed, the fog that was so far out over the ocean came closer and closer. By the time the sun had vanished, the fog was creeping up onto the shore. It was eerie and lovely.

Pictures, most of them below the cut. Enjoy. :)







( more )

We stumbled back to the car, covered in sand and freezing, but incredibly content. On the way back up the mountain, we realized that we could see the sun setting over the fog.



At home, Oliver greeted us happily. We made a delicious dinner and watched Ever After.

Tomorrow, I have to take Sarah to the airport at 4:45 am. I also have a Perspective MFA Graduate Event at Mills College. Ahhh, I can't believe that I'm actually applying to grad schools. It's so surreal.

I have not been as productive in months as I have been this weekend. I wrote, managed the Emergency Pager for work, bought sneakers and a few sweaters at ridiculously discounted prices, went to Half Price Books and had gelato with Sarah, went grocery shopping, saw Kat AND KC AND Chris Patrick Morgan AND Frances AND Jonathan, and also... painted the kitchen.

This is what the kitchen used to look like:



And this is what it looks like after Sarah, XP, KC, and I tackled it with two gallons of paint:



I'm incredibly proud of all of us. I also can't wait to tackle the other rooms in the apartment. :)

Last night was stressful. Sarah and I picked Oliver up from the vet and brought him home. He snapped at the vet when she tried to put the plastic collar over his head, so I had to do it. We had to sort of carry him up the front steps. We took the cushions off the couch and laid him down on them. He was shaking from the anesthesia and breathing weirdly. I called the vet emergency number about four times. Each time they assured me that the shaking was normal, and just to keep an eye on him.

Sarah and I spent hours laying next to him, rubbing the silky bridge of his nose and gently massaging his muscles. This was interrupted by a thunderously loud noise that turned out to be someone crashing his vehicle into the building next to ours.

We ran outside in our socks in time to see a man emerge from the smoking wreck. The wheels were shredded and the music was blaring. A woman also got out and picked the bumper up. The guy looked around at me and Sarah and the other apartment residents who had emerged.

The guy got back into his car and began to drive. I waved my arms and shouted "Dude, your tires are shredded!" but he backed up back onto MLK and then took a sharp right on 61st. Sparks flew from beneath the car. The woman ran after him, shouting something I couldn't hear, carrying the bumper.

Within minutes, police, firetrucks, and ambulances were everywhere. They concluded that there were no injuries or structural damage to the building, and they managed to find the guy. So, in the end, everything was all right, except that the plants that had been along the building were all smashed.

We went back inside. Oliver was still laying down where we had left him. We tried to give him water and small pieces of food, but he just gave me a "You are the meanest. Mommy. Ever." face. We took him over to my bed and put him down on the mattress. I snuggled up with him and we all watched Milo and Otis.

He's better this morning. The shaking and breathing issues are gone. I took him for a short walk and his cone kept catching on plants and fences and things. When we got back, I had to pick leaves and blossoms from the inside of the plastic. When I left, he was sleeping on the carpet.

***

Thoughts on working the polls: very interesting. Insanely long day - they really need to give people shorter shifts. By the end I'd developed a raging migraine from lack of sleep, fluorescent lights, and general exhaustion.

Most of the women that I worked with were super cool. I was the youngest by easily thirty or forty years. One in particular I spent hours talking to when it was slow. She was super interesting and funny. The Methodist church we were in was very funky and old. The voters were, by and large, kind and understanding and gracious and excited.

The rough part of the day was that the woman in charge (the inspector) was a first timer with zero sense of time management, organization, or how things worked. What's worse, she was a condescending micromanager who kept calling me "young lady," which I don't respond to very well.

It was clear, after about an hour of setting up, that not only did she not know what she was doing (which is fine, since it was her first time), she also didn't understand how to make everyone work in the most efficient manner possible. For example - there were four separate tasks that needed doing. Instead of giving everyone a separate job (there were five of us), she had all five of us attempting to set up one machine. When I asked her if maybe one or two people should work on the machine and three others do the other tasks that needed doing (setting up booths, posting signs, etc.), she snapped and said that we were doing it her way, and that I needed to "respect" her. After another ten minutes of NOTHING GETTING DONE, I took initiative and just started working on signs. After twenty more minutes, every other task was done, except the machine - which was still not set up.

The sort of ineptitude continued throughout the day, including her constant minute corrections of everything I was doing, which were almost always incorrect. She'd tell me that I should stop doing something like I was doing it, and then tell me what I needed to change, and when I looked up the information and showed her that I was doing it fine, she'd turn away and start on this lecture on how no one was respecting her. I really, really can't stand people who obsess over the idea that they're not being respected when there’s no reason for it. But despite her ridiculousness, I found the experience to be rewarding, overall. I’d do it again, as long as I could work a shorter shift. Fifteen hours is exhausting.

Also, I’ve discovered that all Methodist churches smell alike.

The best part about working the polls is how excited people were. How excited people were to be involved in the process, to have a voice. It was really neat to watch the cogs of democracy turning.

I’m really upset about Prop 8. I’m really excited about Obama. Sarah and I drank champagne and danced and I cried as we watched his acceptance speech three times and we walked down MLK and people were screaming and cheering and I felt very uplifted and hopeful. That’s a good sign, I think.

Sarah just texted me – Oliver’s eating some food! Oh good. I was beginning to feel like a lousy mom. At this rate, I can never have kids. I'd die from worry.

I guess embedding isn't working. Video is here.

Same-sex marriage ban wins; opponents sue to block measure

After a heated, divisive campaign fueled by a record $73 million of spending, California voters have approved Proposition 8, which would change the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. Opponents promptly filed suit to try to block the measure from taking effect.

With 96 percent of the vote counted, Prop. 8 was winning by a decisive 400,000-vote margin, 52.2 percent to 47.8 percent. It piled up huge margins in the Central Valley and carried some Democratic strongholds such as Los Angeles County. The measure lost in every Bay Area county but Solano.

As the vote counting continued this morning, opponents of Prop. 8 filed a lawsuit directly with the state Supreme Court - whose May 15 ruling legalized same-sex marriage - asking the justices to overturn the measure.

The suit argued that Prop. 8 would change the California Constitution in such fundamental ways - taking important rights away from a minority group - that it amounted to a constitutional revision, which requires approval by the Legislature before being submitted to the voters. The case was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Lamda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

The same groups asked the court before the election to remove Prop. 8 from the ballot on those grounds. The justices refused, but left the door open for a post-election challenge.

"A major purpose of the Constitution is to protect minorities from majorities," said Elizabeth Gill, an ACLU lawyer. "Because changing that principle is a fundamental change to the organizing principles of the Constitution itself, only the Legislature can initiative such revisions."

The suit was filed on behalf of six unmarried same-sex couples and the gay rights group Equality California.

Passage of Prop. 8 leaves more than just the future of same-sex marriage up in the air. Questions have also been raised about whether the marriages of the estimated 18,000 gay and lesbian couples who have wed since June will be recognized as valid.

Supporters of the ban have said their measure was intended to be applied retroactively. "We're confident voters did go to the polls to vote 'yes' to protect traditional marriage," said Chip White, a spokesman for the Prop. 8 campaign.

Same-sex marriage bans won easily Tuesday night in Florida and Arizona. It was a rematch in Arizona, which in 2006 became the only state to ever reject a ban on same-sex marriage.

The campaign in California pitted those who argued that a same-sex marriage ban was nothing more than outdated discrimination against gays and lesbians, and conservatives and Christian groups who countered that the state and the courts have no right to unilaterally change a definition of marriage that has existed for centuries.

The flood of dollars that poured into the state from every part of the country made Prop. 8 the most expensive social issue race the nation has ever seen. And behind every one of those checks was someone desperately worried about what the election result could mean to them and their state.

To San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and other opponents of Prop. 8, as well as to religious groups that backed the measure, the proposed ban on same-sex marriage was the second-most-important election in the country Tuesday.

The Prop. 8 battle, born in San Francisco, came eight years after more than 61 percent of California voters came out in favor of Prop. 22, which banned same-sex marriage in the state. But supporters had little time to savor the victory.

In 2004, Newsom set off a political and social explosion when he ordered marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples in the city. Gay and lesbian couples flocked to the city, showing up in wedding dresses and tuxes for the chance to be legally married. Despite outraged reaction from across the state and nation, Newsom didn't back down until a court ordered the city to stop issuing the same-sex licenses.

In 2005 and 2007, the Legislature passed bills that would have allowed same-sex marriage, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed them. In 2006, the state Supreme Court voted unanimously to hear several challenges to same-sex marriage and rule on them.

Opponents of same-sex marriage were ready with a challenge that became Prop. 8.

Worried that a governor after Schwarzenegger would sign a same-sex marriage bill or that the court would rule against them, Prop. 22 supporters began putting together another initiative drive to make the same-sex marriage ban part of the California Constitution, beyond the reach of either the Legislature or the courts. They raised the money and gathered more than 1.1 million signatures by this spring.

On May 15, the state Supreme Court cleared the way for same-sex marriage. The court voted 4-3 to overturn Prop. 22 and the same-sex marriage ban, ruling that the state Constitution provided a right to marry that extends to same-sex couples. The three dissenting justices argued that it was up to the voters or the Legislature, not the court, to permit same-sex marriage, a view quickly taken up by opponents of the ruling.

"Four judges ignored 4 million voters and imposed same-sex marriage on California," Prop. 8 supporters said in a TV ad. "It's no longer about tolerance. Acceptance of gay marriage is now mandatory."

It was an argument that continued all the way to election day.

But with same-sex marriage legal in California, opponents of Prop. 8 could run a totally different campaign from the type that had lost virtually every election over the issue across the nation.

Rather than arguing for same-sex marriage, opponents took the moral high ground atop the Supreme Court decision and argued that a vote for Prop. 8 was a vote for discrimination. They got another bit of help when state Attorney General Jerry Brown ordered the Prop. 8 ballot language changed to say that it "eliminates the rights of same-sex couples to marry."

Prop. 8 backers charged that politics, not legal rectitude, was behind Brown's decision. They went to court, but lost.

That allowed Prop. 8 opponents, worried that many voters were not enamored with the idea of same-sex marriage, to run a TV campaign that almost never mentioned gays or lesbians or showed them in an ad. Instead, the ads charged that Prop. 8 supporters wanted to take away rights from a single, unnamed group of people, which opponents said was not fair.

So, I'm actually home in Allentown right now, but only for one more day. It's been an insane couple of weeks - I got a new job, took an impromtu vacation home, found out via phone that I would have lost my old job starting Wednesday if I wouldn't have taken the new one (not by my own doing - things are changing with my old boss and she wouldn't need me anymore), went to DC for a couple of days, and now I'm just relaxing near my parent's beautiful fish pond with teeny tiny Greta in my lap (my parent's schauzer-poodle mix, who is possible the best tiny dog ever) getting some work done before I head home tomorrow.

The flight home was pretty interesting. I always have this mental image of the pilots actually being my parents - my dad driving, hand behind the passenger headrest as he checks behind him to back the plane out its parking spot; my mother next to him, slapping together ham sanwiches with mayo and passing them back to us. Sitting in that economy class seat, I can almost hear my dad roaring "If you touch her ONE MORE TIME there will be NO POOL for ANYBODY at the hotel!"

The last hour of my descent into Philly, I struck up a conversation with a woman next to me who was on her way to Ireland. We talked about families, and I was struck by the realization of how unusual my own family is. It's something worth exploring in its own post, I think.

Allentown is beautiful. It's hard to believe that I'm saying that, but it is. We drove to Penn State to visit my brother and the leaves were all gorgeous and fiery and amazing colors, and the weather is perfect, and it makes my heart ache. I can almost guarentee that I'll be teary upon coming home to California. I mean, I love California, but I only now realize how much I missed Allentown/Pennsylvania/DC/my friends/my parents and siblings/grandparents. On Wednesday, I saw Jon and Kelli as they drove up to New York for Jon's brother's wedding. On Friday, there was a party at Neal/Anne/Sam/Amy's house, where I saw lots of people and gave lots of hugs and stayed up until three in the morning talking about how complicated straight girls can be. On Saturday, I went and saw the Rude Mechanical's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and saw some old RM people and then went and saw my old boss and coworkers at All Fired Up and then just walked around DC for a bit, feeling teary and sitting on benches to read Rubyfruit Jungle.

Before I left DC on Sunday, I spent time with my grandparents, who introduced me to their friends at the American Legion. We had brunch and then went back to their house and talked for a few hours. On the way home, gas was $2.99 in the middle of nowhere, PA. I filled up the tank.

Today is just a day of hanging out with my family. Tomorrow I fly home again.

I miss everyone already.

I'm going to leave you with two songs that I heard on the radio on my trip home yesterday. The first one is No Handlebars by Flobots, and the second one is Undewear Goes Inside the Pants by Lazyboy. Both are rap songs, but even if that's not your type of music, I'd recommend that everyone give them a listen. I really enjoyed both of them, especially the first one (and the art in the first one is great - the second one is just a user-made video, I think). Both aren't very safe for work, so I'd wait until you get home. Enjoy.

BEATRICE HAS CALIFORNIA LICENSE PLATES. I AM SO SO SO OFFICIAL CALIFORNIA-Y OFFICIAL IT'S NOT EVEN FUNNY.

WOO-HOO!

YAY!

I feel so official. :D

(This is also the first horizontal license I've ever owned.)

I just paid $1.29 for a carton of organic raspberries, $0.89 for a huge bunch of kale, $2.50 for ten servings of salad greens, and $1.00 for four kiwis.

... yeah. This is the best state ever.

It was a fantastic weekend. Casey came over Friday night, and Saturday was spent adventuring in Urban Ore (and picking up a pasta pot and a lid for my frying pan for, like, $4) and checking out San Pablo Avenue, including Good Vibrations and this really neat store that had used pianos for $99.

We went to Berkley and had dinner, and then drove back up to the North Bay. Have I mentioned that the North Bay is incredibly beautiful? Casey took me to the Marin Headlands at midnight and we walked on the beach and it was lovely and adorable and and we saw the Milky Way.

Sunday, I met up with rebellibrarian and her husband bigmeaniejerk (who, incidentally, recently lent me practically half of the graphic novels on my list) for dinner. We were going to go to their favorite Cambodian restaurant in Oakland, but it was closed, so we drove to Almeda and had delicious seafood in a restaurant on the Marina. There were peanut shells on the floor.

On the way home from the restaurant, we drove past a yard sale that was about ready to close up. Sitting on the sidewalk was a lovely black couch.

We stopped and I got out and looked at it. It was $30. $30! ZOMG! The problem is that their car was far too small for it. We decided to go and get Beatrice, and hopefully the couch would fit inside and we could tie the trunk down with twine and whatnot.

So we left bigmeaniejerk sitting on the couch with a pretty throw that they threw in for free and a book that he just bought.



And went and got Beatrice. And twine. And pantyhose.

When we came back, we discovered that the couch was too wide for Beatrice. Uh oh. But I was absolutely, positively convinced that we could make it work. "I'm the daughter of an engineer!" I announced, to no one in particular. "I will get this couch home."

We ended up using the twine and pantyhose, as well as rope and wire, to tie the couch to Beatrice's roof. I had to crawl in the driver's seat through the window, and drive with my hazards on at 15 MPH, but we got back and got the couch in the apartment with relatively little difficulty.

It's perfect. And amazingly comfortable.



Did I mention how much I love California, and how lucky I am to know such fantastic people here?

*edit* Here's the living room as it looks now:

I'm alive! After a week and a half of no internet access, my new apartment finally has wireless. So yay! Big long update coming - it's been a crazy ten days.