in which I pull a McCrarey

Those who have been following the intrepid John McCrarey's blog know that, before he left Korea for the rainy, humid Philippines, John had been literally counting down the days until his departure. There were plenty of "lasts" during that time: last time visiting such-and-such bar in Korea, last home-cooked meal, etc. Well, tonight is my own night of lasts, as I'll be moving out for good tomorrow.

Truth be told, the move already started on Monday night. I've been using my huge Costco bag to shuttle items up to the 14th-floor apartment. The bag is great, but it's still a pain in the ass to take ten or twelve trips upstairs and downstairs, ferrying the stuff of my life from one apartment to another. On the bright side, I've managed to move almost all of my small items, thus leaving me only with larger items to move. Also on the bright side, I'm moving only a few floors, so it's not as though I have to box everything up, load it onto a truck, and pay a fee to have everything trucked over and moved in to a place across town.

To facilitate the final day of moving, I'm taking Thursday off so that I can start early, move out 99% of my remaining possessions, then wait until 4 p.m. or so for one or two burly guys to come over and help me move the heaviest items: my bed, my other bed,* my fridge, my TV, and possibly my large, gray bookshelf. I'm thinking of leaving the bookshelf in the 6th-floor apartment for the next tenant to use: the new place has way more built-in closet/storage space, making the bookshelf largely irrelevant.

So tonight's my final night in my current, 6th-floor digs. By tomorrow night, I'll be completely moved in to the new place on the 14th floor. I'm gaining a lot by moving to the new apartment, but I'm also losing some features that I had come to rely on in my current place. I no longer have enough space, for example, in which to store pots, pans, and dry ingredients: the new kitchenette is slightly smaller than the old one. But the disadvantages of the new place are few; in terms of livability, the 14th-floor apartment is a huge step up from the squalor I've patiently tolerated for the past three years.

By Friday, then, I'll be slowly putting all my possessions into place, and by Monday, I'll have settled into what I hope will be my new normal. By September, I'll be enjoying a raise of almost $1000 a month, and in August and October, I'll be traveling to the States and to France to see friends and loved ones whom I haven't seen in years. Barring any nasty surprises, the rest of 2018 ought to be quite decent, as years go.

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*My other bed, which I used in Ilsan, but which hasn't been used since I arrived at the 6th-floor apartment in 2015, might end up going down to the disposal area unless I can find a justification for its existence. In my apartment building, you can throw away large, bulky items like desks and closets and beds by paying a small fee to the basement-level concierge and leaving your item at a specially designated drop-off point for bulky garbage.