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“Thank you for interest in employment opportunities with ZLB Plasma Services. We will review your resume and may contact you in the future.”

Well that was a weird e-mail. I didn’t send them my resume.

Broke into the old apartment

This is where we used to live

Broken glass, broke and hungry

Broken hearts and broken bones

This is where we used to live

— “The Old Apartment”, Barenaked Ladies

Well, the move is finally — finally! — over and, frankly, I’m exhausted. I’ve been exhausted since about noon yesterday, despite a full eight hours of sleep last night, and I may not be about to shake the feeling until everything is finally unpacked. My parents and I spent the better part of two days moving boxes and furniture from one side of town to the other — “just far enough,” joked our waitress at dinner Saturday night, “to be really annoying.” The heat and humidity, of course, didn’t help any; it was probably the single worst weekend to attempt any heavy lifting, meteorologically speaking. Stumbling from the car to the door or back, we’d wipe the sweat from our eyes and squint uncomfortably in the sun. I thought I would never stop being thirsty. Even the U-Haul truck I had rented started to overheat, make strange sounds, and we returned it four or five hours earlier than we had to rather than risk having it break down on us somewhere in between.

But it’s all over now. I have only to defrost my refrigerator and return my keys, and I can say goodbye to the old apartment forever. It’s weird. I was only there for two years, but I suppose even that can be an eternity sometimes, especially when what you wander into next is an unknown. I know eventually I’ll get used to this new place, and already there are things (like wall-to-wall carpeting, better cable, and that wonder of wonders the dishwasher) that I love. This is a good thing. But it still seems like someplace that someone else would live. I need to get my things out of boxes before this can start to feel more like my home.

It’s all a bit zany – you know a bit madcap funster…frankly I don’t fully understand it myself, the kids seem to like it. — Monty Python’s Flying Circus

Once again, the Friday Five.

1. How long have you had a weblog? In its current incarnation, since September 13, 2001. Before that, I was briefly here, although there’s only a handful of posts there. I’m also part of the communal writing weblog 600 seconds. Typically, if I have anything interesting to write, that’s where it will end up.

2. What was your first post about? Here, it was about the September 11th attack. It was just impossible not to post something about that. On the old pitas page, it was about my favorite online activity, capping.

3. How many changes (name, location, etc.) of your weblog have there been, if more than one? It’s always been “occasional fish”, since I’ve always been especially fond of that quote. I’m not sure if I discovered it first through Neil Gaiman or through Karawynn Long‘s short story “The Voice of Her Eyes” (at the time, I was probably still reading my way through the Sandman graphic novels). Either way, I’ve always liked it. I sometimes wonder what strangers who come stumbling in are expecting. Aquarium news?

4. What CMS (content management system) do you use? Do you like it or do you want to try something else? I use Blogger. Pitas was nice, and at the time I liked having my weblog as an external link for some reason, but I’ve been relatively happy with what I’ve got here, the occasional (sometimes reoccurring) bugs notwithstanding. If my current web hosting plan allowed some of what goes along with them — and I felt confident I could figure them out — I might consider trying Greymatter or Movable Type. But hey, I know people who like Diaryland, Livejournal, or Manilla. Whatever works for you.

5. Do you read people who have both a journal and a weblog? Or do you prefer to read people who have all of their writing in one central place? I have no idea how to answer that. I like good writing, regardless of its location. My friend Sharon, for instance, keeps both a weblog and a dream journal. I enjoy reading both. I tend to read weblogs more than I read online journals for some reason, perhaps because journals require more dedication and are harder for new readers to just jump into. I used to Karawynn Long’s nine lives, but she’s put that on hiatus. There’s Darn Tootin’, Lazarus (which doesn’t get updated much anymore but which I still check up on), and Nyssa has been known to write some longer, more diary-like posts. But otherwise, it’s primarily weblogs. Even more primarily, it’s good writing.

The internet is quite steadfastly refusing to amuse me today. I think it knows that I should really be at home, continuing to pack for my move on Saturday. I’m more or less finished, except for the kitchen, some clothes and some loose odds and ends here and there. Last night, I threw away the table where I used to keep my computer and put more things in boxes. Tomorrow afternoon, I get the key to my new apartment.