DMV Bureaucracy Sucks.

Ok, so when I got married, I changed my name on my license. I took on my maiden name as a second middle name. The DMV was fine with that.

I tried to change my name on my vehicle registration, but because I'm not the title holder (that'd be my bank), they wouldn't allow me to change it. I had to go through the bank. So when I went through the bank, gave them the forms already filled out (along with the address change cuz I'd moved to northern california by then), the DMV sent me a new registration with my new name.

But they didn't put my maiden name as a second middle name. Instead, they squished it together with my last name.

I went in to the DMV to request this be corrected. They said the issue was merely a spacing one, and that they were unwilling to fix it because of that. I growled, went back to the bank, tried to get it fixed through them, and the response back was that the vehicle registration system apparently wasn't set up to handle multiple middle names.

So I let it go. Until DH and I moved and bought a new-to-us car and registered it in person. As the title holders, we could do that. The lady behind the counter was so nice and when I told her about the annoyance of the last attempt to get my name right, she explained about the Only 3 Name thing again, and I understood but was still frustrated -- but she was happy to squish the two middle names together. I much preferred that.

Because of the move, I changed my address with the DMV again (as required). I thought I also changed it on the registration via the bank.

The other day, I received my registration renewal notice 3 days after we received the one for our owned car. They're both due the same day (what a stroke of luck! feh), so likely were both sent on the same day.

The problem? Mine had been sent to our old address. It had my second middle name and my last name squished together, and I'm sure the post office didn't have fun trying to figure out whether I really was the person they were supposed to be forwarding mail for.

So now I get to try to deal with the bank and the DMV to update my name and my address on my vehicle registration, all cuz the car's not paid off yet (and won't be for a few more years yet). As proven with our owned car, if I could do this all at the DMV myself, it would work beautifully. But because I'm required to go through a third party, and they merely fax the forms in to the DMV (maybe the DMV would let me walk in with notarized forms? I'd be ok with that...), so any errors aren't discovered until way too late...

And to top it off, I'm feeling like I've been run over by a ton of bricks today. I no wanna deal.

Fun times.

I'm Back!

That's right, I'm back online. We've moved, and all our utilities have been connected (internet and TV were the last, and those came in today), and most of the boxes have been unpacked... all that's left is reorganizing, moving around some furniture, and settling into a groove. It feels like home. Even the kitties love it. ... though Graham has found it difficult to smell or hear dinnertime approaching. I had to call him no less than 5 times for dinner tonight, and usually the sound of the dishes clinking will bring him. Once he made it to the kitchen, I had to direct him to his food dish -- it took at least 3 attempts! Poor guy. He'll get used to it. He's just not used to having such a big, soundproof house. :)

My knitting has been put on hold -- haven't knit anything since Wednesday -- not even a single stitch! And my new 'craft room' is completely in disarray right now... all the yarn shoved into the closet, with the exception of a couple large boxes filled with yarn that wouldn't fit into the closet... the floor is covered with magazines and patterns and books... and I have no shelves or any sort of organizing stuff in that room. I'm going to get to claim a bookshelf from Silas' Game Room / Office, but that's really only going to take care of the books. I have no idea what will become of my yarn... but at least I've been emptying binders recently so I should be able to organize loose patterns better than I had been...

I've suddenly discovered an ability to toss out some of my old magazines and newsletters! It's amazing how much space I'm gaining by recycling old periodicals from bar associations I'm no longer part of or that don't have articles of interest to me. Amazing. Don't worry, I'm not getting rid of any of my (very limited collection of) knitting magazines yet. I have yet to actually knit anything from any of them that I can recall (I'd have to check my ravelry project page to be certain of that, though... I'm so disorganized without my external organizational tools!), but the reason I bought each of them was because I wanted to knit at LEAST one pattern from each... so I'm definitely holding on to them all for now. And if I do get rid of them, it'll be by letting them go to someone else who'll appreciate them -- NOT recycling. ;)

OK... enough typing... back to organizing. Moving is oh so much fun. ... la la la

Can't Sleep

... so tomorrow we're moving. It's really happening. It's been confirmed with the movers and everything.

I'm freaking out that important stuff will likely be lost (cuz we left lots of the important stuff to pack absolutely last, due to needing it in the meanwhile), and that I won't be able to sleep at the new place due to the toilet in the master bathroom constantly running at an astonishing decibel level, and that we'll never be able to use our new garage because the owner and the property management company still haven't managed to cut the padlock off the outer door (the key they gave us didn't fit the lock)...

Not to mention all the other numerous problems with the place discovered after we signed the lease... or all the problems we knew about BEFORE signing the lease that we were assured the owner would take care of within a couple days (this was weeks ago) and that are still problems...

But we'll figure it out. It'll work out. It's got to.

DH now has books on DIY plumbing and electrical stuff, so things like the exposed outlet in the closet should be easy to remedy, and maybe he can learn how to stop the toilet from constantly running as well. Or at least how to fix the water shut-off valve to stop the water from getting to the toilet in the first place...

Oh, the joys of home ownership without the benefits of actually owning. Sigh. If we owned, we wouldn't be hesitating about fixing this stuff at all... but because we don't own, we're not authorized to make the fixes (or hire someone to make the fixes even), so we're having to put up with them and it really really really .... yeah.

Anyway, maybe I can get back to sleep now that I've done a little more packing of the "I need that tonight, but I'll need it tomorrow night too..." stuff... And stopped the TiVo from recording a random Paid Program that it hadn't been told to record and wasn't listing among the "now playing" items, even though it was actively recording and the receiver even listed the name of it on its display (which it only does when it's recording something we told it to -- the suggestions being recorded merely have the red-light dot thingie... no name...)... but anyway...

Yeah... Anxiety... causing mania... causing anxiety... deadly cycle.

Procrastinating on... ... er... nothing? how's that?

So the movers came yesterday. We hadn't even nearly finished packing, so the movers spent the next several hours completing the packing for us. Which is good, cuz we both basically collapsed on the floor from mental and physical exhaustion. Once the movers were gone with all our stuff, we started realizing things we'd need access to that had been loaded on the truck not to be seen again before Saturday at the earliest... oh well.

We cleaned the place up, then slept in the apartment one last time, then this morning took several trips down to the car and dumpster to pack and trash everything remaining. About 3-4 hours after we'd intended to be ready to leave, we finally hopped in the car and got on our merry way. Sheba's a delight -- she was riding along quite happily outside her carrier, with a harness and leash preventing her from going anywhere that'd be really bad. At the first rest stop, Silas tried to get Sheba to go out for a walk, putting her on a separate leash, and I let Graham out of his carrier and put Sheba's first leash on him. I was quite impressed that Graham actually came out of the carrier (usually once in the car he doesn't want to leave the carrier for anything), and he actually rode for two legs of the trip (non-consecutively) outside of his carrier. He was looking rather calm and relaxed! Unbelievable. Of course, once we arrived at my parents' place, he promptly hid behind the couch and got stuck. He's doing better now... considering we pulled the couch away from the wall and he now has room to go back there and turn around if he wishes. :)

I have no idea how we packed so much stuff into the car. We almost couldn't close the trunk (it's a liftback), and the cats were on so many layers of blankets that they could quite easily see out the windows without any effort whatsoever... yet I had a completely unobstructed view out the back window and couldn't see the cats unless I turned around. Of course, Silas was rather packed in -- bags and packages under his knees, on his feet, on his lap... Should've gotten a picture. It will be a long time before we're ever that packed into the car again -- IF we're ever that packed in again. Now that we're just a couple miles from our new place, we intend to take things over to the new place in more sane carloads.

Anyway, time to go spend time with the kitties waiting for my parents to return from their night on the town... haven't seen my parents yet this trip... glad they gave me a key last time I was here. ... and don't worry - they know I'm here. I wouldn't descend upon them with husband and kitties without warning or invitation... especially when I knew they wouldn't be home. ;)

Wait... how long until the movers are here?!?

As anticipated, it's moving day and we're not even remotely ready.

Most of our stuff that was on shelves has been packed, but anything in drawers or cabinets hasn't. This includes dishes, etc. ... oh, and the closets. I wasn't counting the shelves in the closets. Those haven't been packed either.

And the movers will be arriving anywhere between 8am and 10am. They're trying for 8am, but if traffic doesn't permit, they'll be here later. ...

...

one hour.

EEeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

oh yeah, and my husband is still asleep.

Procrastinating on packing...

This move has turned into what I can best describe as a Fiasco.

New information learned about our new apartment made the apartment completely undesirable, so we have canceled that lease prior to moving. This meant I had to call back all the utility companies and cancel the installation of such utilities. I accomplished that yesterday.

Also yesterday we got approved for a new apartment that's significantly nicer but also significantly more expensive... ... and we haven't seen it yet. But even worse than that, it won't actually be available until Saturday (24 May).

... the movers are coming to pick up our stuff on Tuesday (20 May) and were scheduled to deliver to the former new apartment on Wednesday or Thursday. ... I called them yesterday but the service department had already closed for the day, so a message was taken and I was assured they'll call back today. I certainly hope they do. This move is stressful enough as is.

We cannot delay the move-out as our existing place has already been re-rented and needs to be available for the new tenant by 1 June, which means the landlord needs the time after we've left to clean up the place. We're good tenants so there's not a heck of a lot of cleaning to do, but as they'll probably want to steam-clean the carpets and repaint the walls, they'll probably need the whole time just for getting workers into the apartment...

So what do we do between 20 May and 24 May? Rather than the planned Unpacking and Settling In, we'll be staying with my parents. Our poor kitties are going to have to deal with what will feel like 2 moves in one week. Sheba will enjoy the adventure, I'm sure. But Graham seems to distrust change. He may not come out from under the bed in the new new place until mid-August.

... I was already having trouble motivating myself to actually get some packing done. This little fiasco has simply multiplied that difficulty tenfold. Sigh.