My home computer is up and working. YEAH!!! I don't know why I worry so much. I've moved my computer around and reconnected and disconnected it so many times. I depend so much on it though that I'm always worried it's not going to work.

I'm so tired. The movers brought my stuff this morning, and I've been spending the whole day unpacking. Now I just have to decide where all my furniture goes. I've got boxes everywhere. A friend is supposed to come over on Sunday to help me decide where the furniture should go and help me unpacik, but I can't wait that long. I've already started unpacking everything, and putting the furniture in place.

I've got to go back to my apartment tomorrow to clean it, so I can get my cleaning deposit back. I wonder how long it will take for me to unpack everything. When I come back from a trip, it takes me a month to unpack and put everything away. I just moved after eight years of living in one place. I hope I don't have unpacked boxes lying around in six months.

I think I reinjured my right shoulder again from moving all my boxes. It really, really hurts, especially when I use my mouse. The desk I bought has a tray for your keyboard, but it's too low and it was making my shoulder hurt, so I'm using the desk part for my keyboard and mouse. I'll use the keyboard tray to write.

I didn't even think of the keyboard tray height when I bought the desk. The desk is great, except for that one problem. Honestly, I dont' know if my shoulder hurts because the keyboard tray is too low or if it hurts because I strained it from all the moving. I'll have to experiment I guess in a couple of weeks. It's kind of a pain not to use the keyboard tray, but if I have to use the desk part I will.

The keyboard tray is so low, I end up sitting low and looking up at my computer screen. I don't think ergonomically you're supposed to be doing that. I thought the computer screen was supposed to be at eye level. I'm sure I'll figure it out.

This is the first night I'm not moving and it feels nice, although I wish my things were here. I sent my first fax this morning. The copier/fax machine printer, an HP 6110, my company bought me is a pretty nice machine. I have winfax pro on my home computer, so if I have to fax something I scan it first and then I transmit.

I found the video store today. I was going to freak out if I couldn't find a video store, but there's a Blockbuster within walking distance. I also found a place that sell fresh fish and a kosher meat shop. How cool is that? The hardward store isn't as big as the one in my old neighbourhood, but there are a ton of places to eat and almost as good as NYC pizza place. I didn't see a burrito place, but there is a ton of japanese, vietnamese, thai and chinese food restaurants.

The only junk food eatery is a KFC/Taco Bell, which is where I picked up lunch today. I'm eating horribly and not counting calories, but I'm not gaining weight. All my old junk food habits are in full force, but I'm probably not gaining any weight because of the stress of moving and all the exercise I get from moving boxes up and down stairs.

Next week I've got to start eating better, or I think I will start gaining weight. I must admit though, I just love not caring what I eat and eating any kind of junk food imaginable. It reminds me of being a high school girl, a time when I could eat anything and not gain weight. Those days are definitely long gone.

I've even started eating Brown & Haley almond roca, which I used to eat non stop in my youth. It's such a comfort food, and it brings back such good memories because my mom always kept a can in the house. I'm craving it even now, and I've already eaten two packages of the stuff.

It's scary how I can so easily slip into my junk habit eating ways without a second thought.

My new desk came, and I spent all afternoon setting it up. It works much better than my old desk. I set up my printer/fax combo machine, but I think receiving a fax is going to be a problem. If I pick up the phone and hear fax tones, I'll just hang up and I won't answer the phone when it rings again because that means it will be a fax. It's a crude method but I think it will work.

My bosses are trying to keep me busy, and I've already been invited to a meeting in our Sacramento office, where everyone else in my office relocated.

I should have had the phone guy install my wall jack closer to my desk. I've got phone cables running along side one wall. I guess that's okay, because I unplug everything at 5 pm, so it's not like you'll see it. When my DSL modem shows up, I'll probably end up just running the cable from my home computer down the hall to my work computer, and then at night disconnect everything. I was going to buy something called an HPNA adapter, where you use your existing phone line and it acts like a LAN line. It's another $50 I would have to spend and I'll probably end up buying it, but I think I'll try the cable method first. I'm the only one at home anyway, so it's not like anyone else is going to trip over the fire.

I don't want to get into the habit of using the work computer for anything other than work, so I'm trying to make it hard for myself to keep it on.

I'm exhausted and I have bible class tonight. I was going to move more stuff and just fill up my car, and park it in the church parking garage, but I've got my tree to move and I don't want the tree to sit in the car for three hours. I might go after work, but it will be after 9:30 pm when I get home and I don't think the neighbours in either buidling will appreciate me moving stuff that late.

I can't wait till I get my home computer set up, and all my furniture arrives on Friday. It will be more unpacking but at least all my stuff will finally be here and I can finally put things away.

I finished packing up my stuff for the movers tonight. I just have one more load of stuff to move, and then I'm done. I'm exhausted, but it's fun to know that I'm still very strong and can sure as heck haul a ton of boxes. I definitely got my exercise and weight lifting in at the same time. I took boxes and bags down two floor and then back up two floors.

I can't believe I fit all my stuff into that tiny apartment, and it all fit although it was pretty darn cramped. I threw out a ton of stuff and clothes beforehand too, so it's not like I didn't try to weed out my things. I'm going to have do another serious weeding out of my things in the next two weeks.

I unpacked my cups and glasses today, and there are some cups and glasses I haven't used in two years. I'm like, why do I even keep them. They've definitely got to go. I'm got to go through my closet again too. I saw clothes in there that made me wonder why I was even keeping them.

I decided not to set up my home computer tonight. I'll just to have disconnect everything when my desk gets here on Friday, so what's the use. I'm using my work computer to use the internet. It's kind of a drag, because I don't have all my regular bookmarks and there are certain sites I can't visit because I don't remember my passwords for them.

I have a telephone meeting at 9 am tomorrow. I'm sure my bosses are just trying to make sure I stay busy, since I now work from home. Whatever.

My apartment is freezing right. I turned on the heat, something I never had control over at my old place, but then I freaked out paying a high utility bill so I turned it off. I'm spoiled. My gas and electric bill has never been more than $20, but with a bigger place I'm sure I'll be paying more.

I had a freak out at Jack in the Box tonight. I decided I'd be healthy, like I know that's an oxymoron while eating at a junk food palace like Jack in the Box, and order the spicy chicken sandwich. A word of advice to fellow junk food eaters. If it's a special item, places like Jack in the Box will charge you more money for the food. A jumbo jack costs $0.99. The spicy chicken was $3.79.

When the counter person totalled up my bill, I practically had a heart attack. I was paying over $7 for junk food. Like what's up with that? I thought the counter person overcharged me, and I became a little more than concerned. The manager came over and readded up my bill, and the way the first counter person added up my food was cheaper than the way I was requesting.

There's nothing like nitpicking over a few dollars in Jack in the box at 9:30 at night, and have the whole restaurant as well as the whole staff snicker at you because the counter person was actually right.

So what's the lesson in all of this? When you're at junk food stops like Jack in the Box, don't order the special sandwiches. They are such a rip off. Don't food yourself into thinking you're being healthy by ordering a chicken sandwich, especially not if you order fried and onion rings to eat it with. The chicken sandwich is fried in oil to a crisp for pete's sake, and probably more fattening than the cheaper burger. Besides, junk food palaces started out just serving burgers, so burgers are what they do best. Burgers are also the cheapest sandwich on the menu.

So ... order the burger and go whole hog with the junk food experience. Don't compromise yourself by trying to be healthy. It doesn't work, and what's worse, junk food palaces charge you up the wazoo for even trying to order healthy food. Ordering healthy food or the pretense of ordering healthy food is so antithetical to the junk food experience, that when you do it junk food palaces punish you by charging you an arm and a leg for the sandwich.

As you can see I am still so riled up by having to pay $2.79 more for a stupid fried chicken sandwich, when I should have gone with my first instinct and ordered a burger. This experience is going to haunt my dreams.

So I finished my first project at work this morning. It wasn't too bad. I have the radio on, my temporary desk is by a window, and I even went out on my break to go to the fruit and veggie market to buy some food for snacks.

I kind of miss talking to people, but it was nice to go the market on my break. I'll probably have to actively seek out company and people to talk to. When you're in an office, there is always someone to have a little conversation with even though that person is just a fellow office worker.

I logged off my company's VPN for lunch. At my office, I would spend half my lunch time taking one of my walks, and then afterwards find something to eat. There are many lunch places around my apartment, and I could actually go and get lunch instead of cooking it myself.

I have food in my apartment, but I packed all my pots and pans, so I really won't be able to cook anything this week. This probably wasn't a good move on my part, but I just got tired of hauling my own stuff. It's actually been fun to eat out every meal. Since I started watching my calories, I limited my eating out. I've been eating out now since last week, and I still haven't gained any weight. I think I'm so stressed out from my move, that I'm just burning off my food quicker than normal.

The sun is out now, and my apartment is warming up. My apartment is really cold in the morning, and hot in the afternoon because my apartment faces west. At my old place, my apartment faced east and I had the opposite problem.

I can't wait for my furniture to arrive. I can't really unpack until all my stuff is here. There are bags and boxes of stuff everywhere, and it's a total mess. I hung up what clothes I could, but I don't have a dresser so I'm literally living out of my suitcases. It's so wild!

My new phone lines are installed, and I have my work computer set up. I'm using my work computer to blog because my home computer isn't set up yet. That's tomorrow's project.

I think I will have to buy a new desk. I was going to buy one anyway, but thought I could just use my old desk from years ago. Wrong idea! There's just not enough room on the desk for a keyboard and a monitor. The monitor is so close to my face. Now if I had a flat screen monitor it would work, but I doubt my company is going to buy me one now.

I'm glad I waited though to buy a new desk. I decided to move my work desk into the dining area. It's small and dark I just don't think I would ever eat in there. A friend has a window in her condo with a view, and she put her dining table right in front of the window. I don't think I'll do that, but I have enough room in my living room to put a dining table in the back. That way I could eat and still enjoy my ocean view. I will buy a screen, and hide my working area so I won't have to look at while I'm not working.

It will just working my office or in a cube. I will have a small quiet space, where I'll work on computer and listen to talk radio all day.

Thank you to all who commented on my strange old neighbour guy next door. I needed a reality check on his behaviour and I think I got one. I haven't seen him since Saturday, but I've been pretty busy. I don't think I have anything to worry about, but I know I need to be careful and that is all I want to say about it right now.

It will be my first full day at work tomorrow from home. I have a couple of things due so my week will be busy. I'm nervous about it, but excited as well. This is a new challenge for me, and I like overcoming challenges. Now if I can just figure out how to make the dsl work for my new desk location, then I'll be really happy.

I spent Friday night in my new apartment. The neighbour guy across the way knocked on my door in the morning, and introduced himself. We talked, and then he offered to show me around the neighbourhood. He's an old guy in his 60's, who is semi-retired. I get the feeling he's very lonely and poor. He's a seasonal parking lot attendant, who mostly works during the football season and at other events that the parking company gets.

We ended up at a breakfast place, and I bought him breakfast because he was so nice. He wouldn't leave me alone though, and I finally just had to tell him that I needed to get some unpacking done. The cable guy came over, and it was kind of awkward because the neighbour guy was like kind of telling the cable guy what to do. I had to tell the cable guy that the man was my neighbour.

I'm sure the old neighbour guy was trying to be helpful because I was a woman and all, but it was kind of weird because the guy was like acting like I couldn't take care of myself. I'm sure the man is harmless, but he sure does need alot of hugs. He kept saying he wanted us to do things together, and I'm like I hope he doesn't become a pest because I don't want to offend him because he does live across the hall.

I just never know what to do in a situation like this. I was trying to be nice to guy because I just moved in and to be a good neighbour, but I don't really want to socialize with him all that much. I'm like regretting that I told him I work from home, but if he knocks on my door during the day, I'll just tell him I can't socialize because I'm supposed to be working.

I was planning on going to the gym after work, and I think I'll start doing that regularly again just to be out of the house alot. And on the weekends, I'm usually out of the house anyway so I'm hoping the old neighbour guy won't have much opportunity to bug me. I think after awhile, the old neighbour guy will figure out that I'm never home.

I feel bad because I think the old neighbour guy is just really poor and lonely. I thought he said had cable TV also, and then he said he didn't. I'm hoping that's not true, because you can old pick up about three channels without cable. He didn't have any books or magazines in his apartment, but I kind of got the impression that he doesn't read very well. His apartment was pretty musty and dirty, and it kind of smelled. The man was clean and everything, but I don't think that cleanliness is one of his strong points.

I think it's nice that he's so neighbourly and everything. That's very rare in a big city, but I guess it's just so unexpected. I'm sure it will be fine, and if he does become a pest, then I'll just have to figure out how to deal with him. He did say that he didn't understand when people say to him. "they need their space". I'm wondering if people have said this phrase to him because he was a little too friendly. He's from the south, so he says he just wants to be neighbourly but I'm hoping he doesn't go overboard.

He's old fashioned, and he kept calling me an "unmarried woman", and I'm like hoping that the phrase doesn't entail this whole weird thing.

Other than that, I'm still packing and tryng to move stuff over. It's weird trying to fix up my place without my furniture which doesn't come till Friday, but I'm coping as best as I can. Tomorrow the phone comes over to turn on the phone, and I'm sure that will be another adventure.

Wow, I hate packing. There's just so much of it to do. I have so much stuff, it's just unbelievable how much I've accumulated over the years. I visited my neighbour next door in my old place, and I finally got to see his apartment. His apartment is so sparse compared to mine, and it looks so roomy because he hardly has anything. I was standing there and marveling at how he could live with so few things. I don't think I could do it. I like to have things around me, my clothes, my books, the things I buy when travelling, my shoes, and my jewelry.

But maybe I don't need that many things because when you have to pack it all up and move it, it's a pain, a big giant pain in the wazoo.

And it's bloody bleeding raining outside today, when I was supposed to move enough stuff to spend my first night in new place. I need to make two trips tonight to take my twin size futon bed, my bedding, and my clothes. Then I'd like to make another trip to empty the fridge and freezer, and take the coffeemaker, the coffee grinder, the blender and enough breakfast things for tomorrow.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow as well, and that was going to be another big move day. I'll probably spend all day Sunday making trips back and forth. What a pain! All my friends are out of town or too busy to help, so it's just little old me. I'd like to ask rock star drummer guy to help, but he was in a really bad car accident a couple of years ago and he has the most awful back problems.

There's no much left to move except my clothes, the stuff in the fridge and freezer, the rest of my food, my shoes and my plants. I'm going to have let the movers move the rest, and just pray I don't suddenly need anything I've packed away in a box. If I do, then well, I'm just going to go out and buy it again because I'm certainly not going to open my packed boxes.

I was writing a post last night, and when I clicked on the Post & Publish button Blogger fritzed out. I had written a long piece, and now it's all lost. Too bad. I'm just not in the mood right now to rewrite what I wrote last night.

Oh well. I met my downstairs neighbour last night. He was really nice, and he made feel welcome. That was sweet. I think he used to be a psychotherapist, so it was kind of like getting a free shrink session. I hope I will be a good neighbour for him.

My office is shutting down at 11 am, but I might leave before then. It will be good to have the rest of the day to take more things to my apartment. I want to sleep in my new place tonight. I brought over the TV, VCR and stereo over last night, as well as most of the food in my cupboards.

The movers are arriving next Friday to move the boxes, the heavy furniture, and whatever else I don't want to move myself. It's going to be weird to only have half my things, but it seemed a good idea to have the movers come later rather than first.

I'm exhausted. Moving a car full of stuff tuckers me out. I should be able to make more than one trip a night, but one trip seems to be my limit. Hopefully today, I can make at least more than one trip, but I'll see.

I watched the ending of "Manor House", and it was bittersweet. The people talked about leaving the Edwardian era, and returning back to their 21st century life.

I'm starting to feel that way about my move to my new apartment. I've been at my place for 8 years, and it does feel like I'm saying goodbye to one era of my life and entering into a whole new era.

I'm nervous and excited at the same time. I've been wanting to move since November, and maybe even longer than that, although I didn't admit it to myself. But at the same time, I've grown safe and comfortable here. It's been home for a long time. When I used to move every two years, moving was no big deal. This experience has been incredibly traumatic and very anxiety producing.

I know I'm moving into a better place, with more room and less noise, but it's the fear of the unknown and the stress of having to get used to a different neighbourhood that's been making me extremely nervous.

I'm not only moving apartment, I'm also leaving my office to work from home. I think I could deal better with one of the two, but not both.

I do have the incredible feeling that I am entering into a much better phase of my life, and that's been a comfort at least. I won't have to hear the noisy neighbour upstairs. I'll have parking, and won't have to worry about having to move my car every night or wonder what's happening to it.

I'm also trying to see working from home as something that I need to know that I can do. My big dream in life is to be a full time writer, and full time writers work from home. They don't go into an office and work. They sit in front of their computers at home, and write. If I can't work in my corporate job at home and be productive, I'll never be able to work from home as a writer and be productive.

I think I'm very disciplined about work, so it will be interesting to see if I can maintain the same standard while I work at home. My old boss told me today that I'll be fine. He's been working at home for about five years, and he loves it. He can't imagine working in an office, even though he did for a time. He's even cut back to only working part time, because he and his wife just had a second child. His wife also works at home and she can make more money than him working full time, so they decided that he should go part time and she should go full time.

Everyone I know who works at home loves it, and seems very happy. I hope the same result will happen for me. Working at home can't be that different than working at my work place. At work I had my own office, and I always worked with my door closed. I had some interaction with people at work, but not really that much other than to exchange pleasantries in the kitchen or in the hall. I was never one of those employees who was very social at work, at least not at this job.

How can working alone in my office with the door closed and staring at my computer all day, be that much different from sitting at home at my desk and staring at my computer all day? When I look at working in this way, I don't see that much difference, but I guess I'll find out in the next few months.

I know I have to stop looking at my life as permanent, because it's never been that way. There have so many changes in my life over the last few years, and I've always been able to cope before. I've changed job three times since 1997, I bought a car, a really good friend died, I've gone through a few romantic relationships, I became seriously involved in the growth and development movement and was even contemplating becoming a life coach or a seminar leader before I left, I spent three years taking acting classes and was cast in a play, and I started taking writing classes, started two novels and a play, finished several short stories and a screenplay, was in an instructor led writing group for a year, joined another writing group, and for a time was even part of a screenwriting group.

My life has been in a constant state of flux, so all my moaning and groaning about having to leave the permanency of my life seems to have been nothing but a lie that I've been telling myself. But perhaps it's very human to tell yourself lies about how stable your life is. I think it's stressful to think of your life as changing constantly, and that it seems perhaps less stressful and in the short term easier to have the illusion of permanency in your life.

But it's an illusion nonetheless, and I just have to realize that.

Is the universe standing in the way of my move? I'm supposed to half move this weekend, and there's this huge storm due in tomorrow night. The cable TV person is coming on Saturday to set up my cable at my new apartment, and turning off the cable in my old apartment. The phone guy is set to be at the new place on Monday to hook up the phone, and turn off the old phone. But the movers aren't coming till next Friday.

I should have moved this Friday, but the office is closing on Friday and it felt weird not be here to say goodbye to everyone. Starting Monday I'm officially supposed to start working from home, except I took Monday off because the phone guy is coming over.

I wanted to spend Friday night sleeping in my new place, and move over what I need for the week before the movers arrive on Friday. What a drag though to move your stuff in the rain. I need to move as much as I can over the weekend, because my only free nights next week are Tuesday and Thursday.

How did I do all of this in the past? I don't think I had as much stuff as I do now. My stuff all has to be in boxes for the movers, and getting everything into a box is so hard. There is just so much stuff. I've made two trips to Uhaul to buy boxes, and I still don't have enough. I was even able to obtain four boxes from work yesterday, but I still need more boxes.

I'm moving my clothes in suitcases, and just putting the clothes on hangers into a garbage bag and taking them over to the new place. But there's only so much you can do each night after work. I wish I could justify hiring people to pack for me, but it's just too expensive. I don't mind paying for movers, but it feels wasteful to have a company pack up my personal stuff. Still if I had the extra cash, I think I'd do it because I'm getting so sick of moving.

My worst nightmare is I'll need something that I've packed away in a box, and I won't remember which box I put it in. Then I'll be tempted to open up each box to find what I need.

This is why moving is so stressful and traumatic. There's just too much to do and there doesn't seem to be enough time to do it all in. And it's even worse when the weather doesn't cooperate.

I am bad. I get hooked on TV shows when I should be packing up my apartment and getting ready for my move.

I started watching "Manor House", and now I can't help it. I have to see it all the way to the end. The last episode is tonight, thank goodness.

My favorite character is Kenny the cute young hall boy. The boy says the funniest things. He's got a thing going with the scullery maid, and here's what he said about her.

"She's a stunner, a real fetching (sounded like catching) bird." At first I thought he said "catching bird", and I'm like driving to work thinking "what the heck is a catching bird". Now I think he really said "fetching bird", and that makes more sense. "Bird" is cockney for girl.

I like the kitchen maid as well, although I can't rememer her name. She said if she was alive during Edwardian times, she would have chosen to be prostitute because at least she'd be on her back all the time and her feet and body wouldn't hurt.

I'm watching American Idol again. Man oh man, I love Simon Cowell. He is so witty, honest and cute! He's the only really honest judge on the whole panel.

I think I want Ruben to win. He's got the best voice, but I don't honestly don't know if he's pop star material. I liked the marine guy Josh, but he was tense tonight and his voice just wasn't up to par. I think Clay and Kimberly have great voices, but Ruben totally outshines them.

Neil Sedaka has written so many hits, it's amazing. He also seems to be such a nice person, and that was unexpected after all his success and fame.

I'm not a voter though, I'm just a watcher. I don't know, I just can't bring myself to vote.

My church is offering a seminar next Sunday entitled, "The Moral Education of Children". I wasn't even thinking of attending but I do someday want to write children's books and I guess I should see what this seminar is about.

The seminar will be taught by Professor Steve Johnson, director of education programs at Santa Clara University's Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. He comes to my church services on Sundays and Wednesdays, and I always see him, although he' s not a member. I hear he's still trying to decide on whether to join my church, so it's interesting to see that he will be leading a seminar. I am very curious to see what he has to say.

I've been thinking about the guys I've been in love with since 1999, and they've all been strawberry blondie boys with brown eyes. I'm a on red-headed boy kick. Steve was strawberrry blondie with brown eyes, Brian was brown/red-headed boy with hazel green eyes, and now I have a crush on some guy from church, and guess what, he'sa strawberry blondie boy with brown eyes.

The only exception was Chris, the screenwriting cutie, but he possessed my other favorite look for guys, dark hair and blue eyes. I'm a sucker for that look.

What is going on? Strawberry blondie boys? What's up with that?

Citizen Kane is on TV. I saw Citizen Kane on my first date with the ex-hubbie. They say during a mercury retrograde that your past comes back to haunt you. I haven't seen Citizen Kane since that first time with my ex.

We both loved the movie, and spent the whole night talking about it afterwards. I don't remember what we said but we were definitely falling in love at the time. What a trip!

My dentist removed the part of my tooth that was starting to separate from the cavity. He recommended I try and get the dental surgery right away, so he can put a crown on the tooth. He took xrays of the tooth, and the tooth is cavity free but my filling was just old and deteriorating.

He said if it didn't hurt too badly when I ate food, he wouldn't have to rebuild the tooth before the dental surgery. He knows my insurance only covers a certain amount of dental work per year, and he wants to make sure that I have enough insurance to cover the dental surgery and the crown.

My pre-tax medical flexible spending account will cover most of the crown, but not all. I put away $1,500 for the year, but I've been using it to pay for other expenses. My new glasses costs me $400, I bought $100 worth of contacts, I expensed all my medical doctor visits, the consultation visit to the dental surgeon, and all my chiropractic visits as well. The money went so quickly.

My dental insurance will only pay for 80% of the dental surgery, so the balance will paid with flex spending money. By then, I'll only have enought left to cover about 70% or less of the crown.

I wish I could put off getting the crown till next year, but with part of my tooth gone and some gum area exposed, I can't. My dentist is very good about the dental insurance thing. He said something about charging today's visit to last year, so I don't use up my dental insurance money for this year. I'm not sure how he's going to do that, but he said he could. He then said he was only doing it because I was long term patient. My dentist is so nice. I'm really grateful to him for doing that.

My dentist asked me if I lost weight, and I told him yes. He said I looked really good. He was happy with me and not his usual cranky self today, because he said I was taking better care of my teeth. He requested that I buy an hour glass egg timer, and brush my teeth until the timer was done. The timer goes for about three minutes, and I've been doing it because he was scolding me during my last visit about the state of my teeth.

He says it's really made a difference in my teeth and gum care, that I now brush longer. So if your having peridontal problems, buy a three minute egg timer and brush your teeth for that long. It seems to really help.

SARS gossip on Muni. I took the bus to Union Square, and heard this chinese woman coughing. The couple in back of her jokingly said "I hope you don't have SARS". Then the woman said that her mother was in the hotel in China on the 9th floor when the breakout happened, but said her mother was fine.

How scary is that? I was sitting only two seats away from that woman thinking, her mother might have brought back SARS and gave it to her daughter without even knowing it. Every time somebody coughs and tells me they have a cold, I also jokingly say "I hope you don't have SARS", but perhaps it's not a laughing matter anymore.

It was fun bopping around Union Square, and sitting in every couch I could find. Sofas are so expensive. I did find a couple I like, but they were comparable to the one I liked at Ikea, so I'll probably end up getting my sofa there one day.

I tested out the firmest mattres I could find at Macy's, the extra extra firm one, but it still didn't compare to my hard futon. The salesman told me that I wouldn't find a mattress as hard as a futon, and I think he's right. I think he was sneering at me because I told him I sleep on a futon. How rude! I love sleeping on a futon, and I rarely have problems, which is like the most common ache in the world.

My chiropractor keeps asking me if I have lower back pain, because he says everyone else does. It makes me wonder what kind of mattress the people with lower back pain sleep on.

The only time I had lower back pain was when I took a yoga class, after not having done yoga in a long time. I took the yoga class, and then went to the gym to do a serious weight lifting session, and it was the combination of using back muscles during yoga that hadn't been used in a long time and the weight lifting that threw my back out.

I didn't even know what was wrong with me at first, having never had a back pain before. I called a friend of mine to tell her what was happening, and she said I threw my back out. I called my doctor, and he said the same thing. He told me to take some aspirin, lie on the floor for awhile and rest. In three days it was gone, and I haven't had any back pain since, and I continued to take yoga class and lift weight afterwards.

So my busy Saturday continues. I bought a futon cover for my futon so it won't get too dirty when the movers take it to the new place. The sales guy made a sales pitch for buying my bed at his futon shop. He had a futon which I really liked the feel of, and which looked great sitting on a bed frame since it's shaped like a regular mattress. He also had a cherry wood bed frame that with free delivery, which costs about the same as the one I was thinking of getting at Ikea.

I have slept on a futon for years, and now I'm used to very firm mattresses with no give. I don't know if I could go ever go back to sleeping on a regular mattress. I think the reason I rarely have back problems, unlike most of my friends, is because I sleep on a hard as the ground futon.

I have one of those old fashioned japanese futons, which my friend says is basically like sleeping on a wooden plank. I really like it though, and can't imagine sleeping on anything else.

I wasn't planning on buying a bed until the end of year, but the futon guy is selling the futon bed I tested for 50% off. It's so tempting. I told him I was moving, so he said I could put 20% down, and pay it off in three months. It's tempting, but after the cash outlay for my car accident, the thought of plunking down another $1,000 for the futon and frame in three months is just too much for my finances right now.

It's not like I don't have a bed, because I do, but I was thinking of buying a new bed and frame, just not until the end of year. My intuition tells me to wait. It's a Mercury retrograde, I haven't even gone to check out the regular mattress stores, and I think if the economy keeps tanking the way it is, by the end of year, I'll be able to get the same deal.

Now, I'm off to Union Square to get my hair trimmed, and to see my dentist about my tooth that's about to come apart from my cavity. I'll check out all the stores as well, and look at couches and bathroom accessories.

It's only 12:30 pm and I'm exhausted. I've been running errands since 9 am, and I still need to make a trip to the new place tonight to move some fragile items. By the time the day is over, I'll be ready for bed I think.

I picked up my new apartment keys this morning, and I was planning on spending Sunday moving a few things over to the new place after church, but I forgot that I bought tickets to attend a workshop at the New Living Expo.

I love the New Living Expo. It's like a fair for new age living with over 250 exhibitors, over 150 speakers, natural foods dining, expo bookstore, all connecting body, mind and spirit. I especially like visiting all the exhibits. All the alternative cures and vitamin people will be there, the crystal people, healers; it's new age california woo woo galore.

I also forgot that after the Sunday church service, the deacons have an ice cream social, which is always held on the Sunday after Easter. It's a deacon fundraiser, and a way I think to celebrate all the restrictions churchgoers have put on themselves for Lent, like Lent is over so now you can eat and enjoy yourselves. I'll definitely have to attend this event, even though I'm not a big ice cream eater since I'm supposedly allergic to dairy products. Ice cream gives me a runny nose.

Saturday is another busy day. I have to go to the chiropractor for another ultrasound treatment, and then I have to go to the dentist so he can looked at my cracked filling. I was hoping to spend the rest of Saturday relaxing, but with my Sunday now booked, I may move some stuff late Saturday afternoon instead. The electricity won't be turned in the new place until May 1, so if I move anything it has be during the day while there's still light. I'm definitely going over tonight after work, to measure the rooms so I can figure out where my furniture needs to go. I'll probably start moving some of my office stuff to my new place, just to start that process as well.

OY!!! It's already started raining too! Such yucky weather for an April, but I don't mind because it's been a dry year and we definitely need the rain.