I'm sat listening to trance/house music. It's not really my favorite music. I can tolerate it for Halloween or at Rachele's house but it's not to my taste. Then again, neither is (horrifically bad) clarinet playing. I still listened to it at 8:30am this morning however.
This, shock horror, is due to my upstairs neighbors. My upstairs neighbors are awake at all hours and listen to trance music for most of these hours. Make your own conclusions about what this implies about their habits and intake of medication. That aside, it is obviously problematic since I am not on any special medication that ensures I stay up 24 hours a day and require trance music to make me happy.
When I first moved in, I would politely ask them to quiet down the music. This rarely worked and it would just happen the next night anyway, so I quickly gave up. Out of frustration, I called 311 one night. Someone paid them a visit around 5am, when their music was still playing, but only weeks later, it's still happening.
Unfortunately there's an unwritten rule that 10am-10pm are out of bounds for noise complaints. Now, if it continues tonight, I will be calling 311. After two noise complaints, noisy neighbors get a summons. This seems fair as it forces them to put down noise-proof flooring or pay a high fine. If you intend to be inconsiderate and a horrific neighbor, expect to deal with it.
At this point, I cannot wait to get home, but for the sanity of whoever takes over my apartment, the gremlins upstairs will be getting a visit from the 311 men as soon as 10pm hits. I'm done accepting. I'm going to let them accept that they have consequences to every bad note on the clarinet and every decibel of trance.
So the flight I'm booked on has a connection in Dusseldorf, which I wasn't too stressed about, even though it adds extra time. Until British Airways failed miserably at customer service.
The first flight is with Airberlin. I asked them about extra baggage (comes with moving countries) and they said there wouldn't be an issue, just book it and pay. But the issue was that they had no idea if this would go through in the connection. No idea.
Great. And British Airways? Won't answers questions through email and as an alternative only leave an automated phone service. Get some sense of whose paying your salaries, guys! It comes from the customers on the flights. Customer service therefore? Not a bad idea.
So I'm sat waiting for the laundry man and the delivery guy (it's raining: for once I have an excuse) and to pass the time I'm watching one of my favorite channels. Sad but true, as much as I like the Bravo, Chiller, TBS type channels (and I definitely do), I much prefer the Discovery Channel and the History Channel. Today, it is the latter and a show called 'Decoding The Past' is on, with the particular episode being based on The Bermuda Triangle.
Now I hate to admit it but I have a vague obsession with the Bermuda Triangle. I'd love to know what the deal is. In 1945, six planes went entirely missing (Flight 19). Literally, they just disappeared. At first they blamed Taylor, the captain, but then revoked this erroneous blame later. Flight 19 has never been solved. Nobody knows where it went. 27 men were lost. The wreckage remains unfound.
Something is awry in this area. Maybe it's just the weather but what happens to the wrecks in this case? Maybe its something to do with the water acidity, in which case why do planes crash/disappear in the first place. There's of course the supernatural explanations: Atlantis, aliens, time passages. As much as I'm not so egotistical to believe humans are the only intelligent life in the cosmos I'm not sure I can pin this one on aliens.Then again, what could it be?
The show suggests Flight 19 was victim to another problem: Captain Taylor didn't want to fly that day, as he felt unwell. Flight 19 was practicing low level bombing. They were using dead reckoning flight navigation in the training exercise, which did not rely on ground navigation. The wind could therefore push them off of their estimates.
During the exercise, Taylor believed they had taken a wrong turn. His compasses had then gone out. They were over land but it was broken. Taylor was extraordinarily disorientated. He believed they were over Florida Keys. In fact, contemporary reports suggest they were flying over the Bahamas. At this point he also began to refer to himself as MT-28 instead of his actual title FT-28. This suggests mental incapacity on the day, supported by the sickness he had earlier claimed.The show then suggests that the students would have followed his directions.
This is the only thing I have a major problem with. Why would 5 other fairly experienced students follow someone in a nose dive. Obviously this is not right. The show suggests they all decided to land together and that this is how it would work in formation flying in the military.I know the military is very strict and from the military people I've met, I can see the evidence that they often blindly follow orders but really, into the ocean? That seems suspicious to me. I will be interested to see if the Bermuda Triangle mysteries are ever solved to everyone's satisfaction but for now, I don't think I'll be jumping to get on any boats or planes in that area.
So all that I have left to do to move out is trash my stuff, give Coffee's stuff to Markko, cancel my cable, cash a couple of checks and close my bank account, put my gas bill online and give up my keys. Plus pack the two or three things not yet packed.
Is it just me or did this time race by?! Not the four years - they feel like they've been going on forever in a good way (mostly). But these last three weeks - they've sped by. When I go home, I have some loose plans like going to London, seeing Wicked, having a big night out, getting a job etc, but it hasn't really sunk in yet that this is it: the end of the New York era.
Speechless. Um yeah.
So after growing to hate writing over the course of my writing degree, I've had a mini revelation. I just don't like class. My teachers would probably not appreciate this after the meagre attempts I leant forward over the past two years, but now I no longer have to write, I have started to love writing again.
I'm sat in the middle of writing one short (maybe short) fiction story and one plan for a biography. In addition, I'm actually enjoying blogging for once. This is somehow incredibly unhealthy that I have enough of an issue with people making me doing stuff that I ceased to enjoy something I apparently still love and yet, is very true. Who knew?
4 years of my life are currently sat against my bedroom wall, waiting to be packed away. Meanwhile, today is father's day and I wish nothing more than that I'd done this 2 weeks ago. My dad opened his card and prezzie today and I let him know the last part was on its way when I come home in 2 weeks (an awesome addition which I will mention again when I give it to him lol). He texted back that his best prezzie was coming home in 2 weeks anyway. How much is that the best dad in the whole world?!
I cannot wait to be home. I thought this would be scary but its turning out to be a big relief. I don't have to hold up a hard edge anymore, I don't have to be cold with people upon meeting them cos it's likely they're out to fuck me over. I can just chill out and enjoy the present, without tears for the past, without fear for the future.
My life has taken on one of those seismic period shifts again, where everything suddenly changes and I know an era in my life is over. I loved this period but it's time to let go.
Oh, and the kid who adopted Coffee - has his picture as his blog background with a mood of 'Love'... perfect. :)
3 more bags of my apt now live in the trash can and I'm slowly eliminating all the clutter in my life over here. I threw out shoes today. Shoes. No joke. One of my closets is entirely empty and I'm not taking any prisoners with trashing stuff at this stage. Hannah visits Staten Island tomorrow so have a minor break in the trashing things routine then back to work.
Its a surprisingly nice feeling getting rid of stuff.
And thanks to my awesome Britain friends I'm even more excited to go home.
So I never expected to be saying this. 6 months ago I was in a very different place. I was between two guys. I had recently broken up with one in the worst possible way (re: he was a cheater) and I had literally sat wishing he would crawl under a rock and die. I then met a different guy who swept me away. He was everything a New York relationship isn't. He asked for exclusivity on the second date. He cooked dinner on Valentine's. He put me on the phone to talk with his dad. And then three months in texted me to break up. No joke. Because he didn't really want a relationship, after pushing it forward at every stage. I was crushed. I tried being friends with him. I tried hating him. I tried thinking maybe in the future. But it's all pointless. What he did was wrong but that's his problem and his problem to sort of his behavior and karma.
But I just had my iTunes on Random and one of the songs from that break up came on. My friend Katie had sent it to me after the break up. 'Unanswered Prayers' by Garth Brooks and I sat and cried the first time I heard it because I couldn't imagine what any possible G-d could be thinking putting me through two consecutive torturing endings. Suddenly it makes sense. I'm not meant to be here right now. I wouldn't be convinced by graduating: it had to take more and this just about did it. Now I have this overwhelming sense of relief to go home. Whether or not I stay in Britain forever, right now I need it. I need the people, I need the culture, I need the family and I need to be out of NY. I guess 'Unanswered Prayers' makes sense suddenly.
I have to wait til home to have a pet again now since I just took Cream to her new home. All that is left to do is cash two checks, cancel cable and phone, junk my apartment, give in my keys, pack & close my bank account. Who thought moving country would be this easy???
My flight is booked July 3rd. My electricity and gas get turned off the 1st, and everything gets removed the 30th. I get home on the 4th & ohmygod this is going so quickly. Oh, and now my rat has a new 'home' too (or at least a shelter to get her one without snakes).
Let's pause for a second.
OHMYGOD!
