8:34 AM:

I have yet to get a decent night's sleep here.

I'm not certain why. Maybe it's the change in setting, maybe it's the fact that I'm sleeping on a mattress on the floor, maybe it's just that my internal clock is still recovering from the last few weeks of the summer.

I've been functioning well enough, though. Yesterday was my first day of class, and it didn't go badly. It did feature a mad dash from my first class (which ends at 4:00 on Wednesdays) to my second class (which begins at 4:00 on Wednesdays), but at least I had company; one of my classmates shares both classes. And she even knew where we were headed, which was a definite plus.

Two of my brothers did come up with most of my stuff this past Sunday, and I've been unpacking ever since. The biggest issue has been the lack of sufficient bookcases, but I'm working on that. The place is getting somewhere, though.

Plus I have more room to work with. I've got a living room, a kitchen, a bedroom, and a bathroom, as opposed to my old place, which was basically one big room with a small kitchen area and a bathroom about the size of a small closet. My living room and kitchen combined are about the size of my old place. (My brother, who's much better with spatial stuff, insists that they're bigger than my old place, but I'm not sure he's right.)

I'm spending a fortune, though. One thing I hadn't even considered until I got here was that I was going to need mezuzos for all my doorways, of which there are three. (Those leading to the bathroom and closet don't count.) At $31 apiece from the local Chabad center, that's $93 right there. And then there's furniture and schoolbooks to be bought... basically, my fellowship had better come through soon.

In the meantime, I've gotten an armchair. From the annual yard sale of a Buddist temple, of all places. It's not the most stylish piece of furniture, being yellowish-brown and having some rips in the upholstery, but this was good, as this made it much cheaper than the snazzier-looking chairs around it. And it's comfy, which is all that really matters, aside from the price, which was just $12. Well worth it, especially as it's the only chair I currently own. (Something's going to have to be done about that, along with the lack of a table of any sort, but that'll have to wait for the aforementioned fellowship payment, I think.)

I can't possibly overstate how incredible Sibley and Natalie have been in the past week, helping lug my stuff upstairs, taking me shopping, scouring the town for yard sales, lending me stuff I neglected to take with me... that I'm not feeling lost, alone, and frantic has everything to do with them. (Well, okay, I always feel at least a little frantic, but it's not more than the usual background level just now.)

Oh, the problem with the fridge turned out to have an easy solution. First I cleaned it out. Then, a few hours later, I realized that in addition to being plugged in, it needed to be turned on. Oops.

Finally: I'm leaving escape.com for good. Any e-mail addresses you might have for me at that ISP will stop working at the end of this month, and I'm not checking it very often these days. shmuel@nycmail.com is your best bet. Thanks.

This bit was written during my first night in Ann Arbor, last week:

So I'm in Michigan.

I'm writing this on my Palm IIIx at about 5:30 AM Thursday. I ought to be asleep, and want to be asleep, but it probably shouldn't surprise me that I can't; I've been awake all night for the past several days now. No doubt my internal clock considers this to be "prime time."

The catch is that this presumably means I'll be ready to sleep all day, and I have a mandatory orientation to attend at 8:30 AM.

Another reason I'm having a bit of trouble sleeping, I think, is that I didn't bring my fan along. It's not that hot, but a bit more air circulation would be nice.

Other things I wish I had with me:

• A cup. I tried drinking some water using my hand, but it didn't work very well, and I felt silly. Eventually I hit upon the idea of using the lid of my peanut butter jar. It didn't hold much, but it served the purpose.
  
• A bottle of a caffienated soft drink. I didn't pick this up at the supermarket earlier tonight 'cause the price wasn't marked. In hindsight, this was a really dumb decision.
  
• My shoes. Forgotten in the last-second shuffle. I have my sneakers, but I dunno what I'm gonna do for Shabbos.
  
• A prayer book. Ditto. I've got the weekday prayers on the Palm, but that ain't gonna do me any good on Shabbos.
  
• A sheet and a blanket.
  
• And more.

Now, if only I could wave a wand and magically make the mildew in the fridge vanish...