Here it is, 9:30 on Sunday morning, I'm dead tired, yet I can't sleep. I'm about 99.999% finished with the move, getting the last of the difficult loads over here to the new place around 8:30 last night.
I checked with the poker room to see if I was free for the night, and they'd already called in another dealer at 9:00 pm, so I was off the hook. That made me happy--I worked on Friday night, a full eight hours, made ridiculously good money, but I was wiped out. I rolled out early in the morning on Saturday, went and grabbed some pancakes for breakfast with one of my buddies who was also stuck there all night, and then I went back to the old house to use the bed for about nine hours.
Once I got up, I scrubbed the bathroom, packed the closet up, and started the endless trudge up and down the stairs. Of course having three dogs underfoot added a degree of difficulty to the process, so I'm damn glad that experience is behind me.
Anyhow, once I finally got over here to the apartment, I unloaded pretty much everything, and when I was wrestling with the computer desk, one of my new neighbors came outside and insisted on helping me get it out of the truck. That was very nice, and made me feel like I've moved into a good place. Then, a couple of minutes later, as I was wheeling it around the building towards my door, another neighbor was walking by and asked if I needed any help to get it into the house. I thanked him, but declined--I was close to the door, and once it was across the threshold, it was easy--no stairs to climb. But those two encounters make it seem like I've moved into a friendly neighborhood, and that I made the right choice when I was looking for a new place to live.
I pushed a few boxes around, then took a shower, tempted to just collapse on the floor with a bottle of water and a Bourdain book. But, being the poker degenerate that I am, I figured I needed to go out and raise a little bit of cash. So I headed over to the casino, secure in the knowledge that I wouldn't have to work last night.
I had fun, a couple of my friends were in the room playing at the same time, but it was kind of a grind. I didn't really win any huge pots or have anything interesting happen, and by the time 2:00 am rolled around, I was up $55 so I called it quits, exhausted.
I drove over to the all-night Walmart SuperCenter with the intention of buying an inflatable air mattress, but the Coleman ones were $25 and didn't include an air pump. And although I *think* I might have an air pump somewhere in that collection of plastic tote boxes stacked in my living room, I wasn't sure. And I didn't want to pay another $20 to buy another one, especially if I only needed the air mattress for a night, or two, max. (My bed is currently standing up against the wall in my otherwise empty bedroom at the old house). Hell, for $45, I could just check into the hotel--actually, I could get a free room with all my points... But then I remembered that I had my queen-sized egg-crate foam mattress pad at the apartment, along with about three comforters, a couple of blankets, and a sleeping bag, so I could put together a pretty serviceable nest on the living room floor. So I skipped the air mattress. And the hotel room.
Instead, I got a few other essentials--a new oscillating fan for my bedroom, some more cleaning supplies, and a toilet plunger. Not that I needed one at the time, but purchasing one at 2:30 in the morning conveyed a sense of urgency to the otherwise unmotivated cashier who was moving at half-speed until I showed up. She was careful not to touch my hands when she handed me the change...
Anyhow, I got home, thinking I'd fall right asleep, but it just didn't happen. I felt like a line from Soul Asylum's Runaway Train was written for me personally--So tired that I couldn't even sleep...
So I stayed up, did a couple of loads of laundry (Nope, I didn't get it all done over at the old place, and I now have confirmation that my washer is brand-spankin' new--it was hooked up, but nobody had turned on the water faucets on the wall behind it), I took down the sheet and hung up the shower curtain and liner, set up the computer desk and side tables, surfed the net, and oh yeah, built my nest on the living room floor.
I also called back to Nashville and talked to Mamasan for a little while, thinking that maybe updates on the dog, cats, and weather might lull me to sleep, but no such luck. Now I *have* to sleep, because I need to get over to the house sometime later this afternoon/evening and pick up the last four totes from the garage, my groceries from the pantry, and oh yeah, my bed. I'm wishing Angy was here with her stash of sleeping pills.
If worse comes to worse, I guess I could raid my medicine stash and take a Benedryl, but that might knock me out for like 12 hours. I need to be up by six or seven at the latest...
Oh well, I guess I'll just have to cowboy up and deal with it, and hope that the last table breaks early tonight. If not, I guess I can spend all day Monday sleeping. Hopefully in a bed this time.
Mikey
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