email to my Mom

Hi Mom,
So crapola, I forgot to bring my bike rack back with me, and this is the only week to bring things in for the bike swap. I'm still going to check out the swap/sale to see if I can buy a roof rack for a reasonable price.

I think I like my plan of staying until September then heading west. That will give me the opportunity to build up my savings again (with the car maintenance expenses my bundle took a hit), enjoy the summer in Burlington, and have a more solid timeline to work towards. As we know, I'm an expert at finding ways to entertain myself, so even though I won't have the guys to fall back on, I hope I can make it a good summer. For example, I am totally IN LOVE with biking to work. My time is improving already! This plan also gives me plenty of time to get an apartment, job, etc set up in CO.

Just out of curiosity, I requested furniture moving/relocation quotes from a website. The one quote I got in so far was like $1,500...so, that's a bunch. Not that I have any point of reference yet - that might be fantastic. That's for door-to-door service from the Bur to Denver. The deal with this site is it'll send me up to 6 quotes from different companies so I can compare. Of course the best would be to fit everything intoy own car, but that clearly rules out my bed and chair...and I would probably have to leave much of my fabric. Of course it's just an IKEA bed and I could probably get the same one out there if I really missed it. I'll ask Meg, but just looking at the mileage it would be over $200 in gas for the trip, not counting food and lodging. So that brings the cost of just the move itself to $2,000. That's pretty much the extent of my savings at the moment.

On a brighter note, I did a little apartment hunting last night on craigslist Denver. Rents are a LOT lower in Denver. I know VT - Burlington in particular - is disproportionately high, but they had condo-like places twice the size of what I'm in now in the mid $500 range! Cool! I found several more house-like apartments on Capital Hill in Denver, the area I loved so much.

I guess my current issue is that I really love Burlington, like a whole lot. Last night I went out with Rachel to the Radio Bean, a bar/club a block from my apt for "Honkey-Tonk Tuesday." She goes every week, and introduced me to all her friends. There was a girl there I had met at Courtney's party, and a member of Mike's band I had met Friday at the Hot Buttered Rum show. Not that I think I'm destined to be life-long friends with any of these people, but I'm starting to find a network, make the connections among my friends, and friends of friends.

Why do I call this an issue, why do I see this as a problem? Because I want to give the Bur a fair shake. I want to fully enjoy my time here, and get all I can out of it. I guess I almost feel guilty for leaving too soon. That's how I feel about Boston - I can hardly say I lived there, because I was only there for...three months? And most of that time was spent in our apartment job-searching and researching compost. If I had known I would be there for such a limited time, I know I would have gotten out more, y'know?

So that's just some stuff that's on my mind these days. UVM has finals this week and next, then Johan's gone. Cliff is around for another week I think, then he's gone too. I guess that'll be the real test of...something.

Okay...back to work. I hope your day is going well.
Love
Lou