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Out of the old, into the new. I moved all of my stuff out of the
Bachelorette Pad Saturday morning after four years of living in the
boondocks of San Francisco. Fortunately it was a foggy day. My heart would
have broken hard if the sun had been out and glistening on the ocean, and it
was tough to leave as it was. After my dad had packed all of the boxes with
maximum efficiency and my mom and Patrick and I had hauled all of them down
to our respective vehicles, I grabbed Tybalt and coaxed him into his cat
carrier and listened to his piteous meows all the way over to Berkeley.
Miraculously we got everything over in one trip split between four cars. My
books were the most overwhelming part of the whole process: boxing them and carr
ying them and finding room in the cars for them.
Thank God I stopped buying books and started using the
library six months ago, or it could have been even worse.
Saturday evening Aimee, Sophie, and Patrick accompanied me on my first trip
to the Emeryville IKEA. When I was still firmly settled at the Bachelorette
Pad, the IKEA opening had interested me, but I hadn't felt any need to fight
the masses to go there to add items to my already well-stocked apartment.
However, ever since I made the decision to move I've been poring over their
catalogue, plotting my acquisition of a couch and a media cart and a
thousand kitchen doodads. We fueled up on meatballs and apple cake in the
cafeteria when we got there and then started piling things into bags,
Sophie's stroller, shopping carts. By the time I'd made it to the
accessories section I was so completely overstimulated I felt like I was
coming down from an acid trip. But oh, the piles of cute stuff for my
apartment. I've still got to make some trips back for my couch and my
curtains...
After dumping everything at home Patrick and I rushed out again in an
attempt to see Planet of the Apes. We failed. Instead, we squeaked
into a showing of Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, which really I wanted to
see more than I wanted to see Apes anyway. Written by Mamoru Oshii,
the same guy who directed Ghost in the Shell, Jin-Roh is an
impressive piece of Japanese animation that takes place in a parallel
universe where Germany occupied Japan after World War II and is only
starting to loosen its grip in the equivalent of the present day.
Even when the plot got a little too
complicated for my poor tired mind, the film still hit all of its
emotional notes almost perfectly. The animation was also beautiful, with
many moments notable not for their flashiness but for how introspective
they were. The theme of "Little Red Riding Hood" runs throughout the film,
but, where A.I. bludgeons the viewer repeatedly with its fairy tale
connection, in Jin-Roh it serves to deepen the story. Even the
dubbing was some of the best I've ever heard, and I am no friend to dubbing.
I do still owe Patrick a viewing of Planet of the Apes after
all of his help with my move. I'm settling into the new pad (shall I call
it the Astrarium?) beautifully, I just pray Tybalt stops looking less
anguished about the whole thing soon.
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Heidi J. De Vries
