Update a day late

I posted Sunday night that I was going to stay one more night and get everything out early the next morning. Well I didn't stay the night in the dark apartment. I just didn't feel safe there anymore. Hearing the landlord's threats about police action kind of fed into my anxiety about staying there and it felt a bit overwhelming, so I packed everything up, took one last shower, and walked out.

I had my messenger bag with netbook and other sundry daily items in it; a large duffel bag full of clothes; a bag about 2/3 the size of the duffel with books, alarm clock, blanket, socks and underwear, and anything else I hadn't packed; a small bag with my shaving cream, shower gel, shampoo, toothbrush, and toothbrush; and finally a trash bag with my cat's litter box, bag of litter, bag of food, water and food bowls, and a jug of water. I think it was a good idea to leave last night because I had totally underestimated how much stuff I had left. If I had moved everything in the morning I would have been wiped for the rest of the morning but because I did it last night I was able to sleep it off and awake fresh.

Which brings me to where I slept last night. I slept in my storage unit. It wasn't too bad. I had my mattress, pillows, and blankets so I was pretty comfy. It only took me a few minutes to clear enough space to lay my mattress down. Then I fixed it up and went to sleep. When I went to sleep the unit didn't feel that cold but during the night the temperature fell off fairly quickly and in the middle of the night I was freezing with only one blanket on me.

A tip for anyone in cold weather: if you feel cold in the middle of the night; get up, find another blanket or two and add them to your bed. There is nothing worse then shivering all night long when you could have just gotten another blanket, which is why I got up, found another blanket in my stuff, added it to my bed, put on a pair of sweat pants and a long sleeve shirt, and went back to sleep feeling much warmer.

The next morning I woke up before my alarm went off. I was a little worried about having over slept because it seemed awfully bright but really I just am not familiar with how bright it gets in there in the morning. I should have gotten up then to get dressed and leave but I decided to wait out my alarm. When I did leave it was full bright out which made me feel kind of conspicuous leaving the unit. I was almost to the front gate when I saw some people across the street. I ducked back between the rows of units and waited for them to leave. When I couldn't see anyone I walked to the front gate. I decided that it would be better to slide under the gate than to possibly attract attention to myself by trying to climb over it. Once I was out I started walking like I hadn't just slipped under the gate.

The worst parts of last night were carrying everything to the storage at once and trying to slip out unseen in the morning. If I were going to stay in the unit for more nights I would probably work on leaving before it got full light out or find another way besides the front gate to get out. Right now it's a little cramped but that's because I have a lot of boxes full of books taking up extra space when they could be on the shelves that are also in the storage. Even if it was still cramped I could get a larger unit for not much more. A uninterrupted power supply could power some decent lights for quite a while. Some blankets on the walls to hide the bleak metal would also double as insulation and help muffle sounds from inside the unit. A small propane stove and I could even cook. To secure the unit at night from intruders would take two hundred pounds of weights attached to the door to make it very hard to lift and an alarm that would trigger if someone did lift the door more than a few inches.

I think about this way too much. ^_^

Gilly