eRamblings

MOM boxes = morning of moving boxes

This is where my mother tells me every day, twice a day, to make sure I pack my morning of box so that I know where to find the coffee machine and all my other necessities.

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Izabel is scared. I can see it. She runs to me about every ten minutes and gives me kisses (where she reaches up and touches her nose to my mouth, smelling my breath) and then stands there not knowing what to do with herself. She eventually retreats back to her one spot on the bed.  But I can tell she doesn’t know what to do or where to go. Tuesday, on the other hand, is psychotically making circles round the apartment. She runs at top speed knocking stuff over and hitting the walls meowing as she goes. Not sure if it’s nerves or just thrilled to have some space to run.

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I am literally shoulder deep in boxes. In the past two days I have packed up my kitchen, living room, office and dining room. Just finished the bathroom, minus the shower curtain and towels. Tonight I will be breaking down the closet and drawers while washing the sheets. And tomorrow I have the morning to finish it all.

Holy crap I don’t know how I’ll be ready.

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I’ve reached the point where I am ready to just start throwing crap in boxes. There is all this random stuff left and I am not sure how to organize it. The annoyed what the hell do I do with non-organized stuff usually throws it out, but I think tossing it in a box and writing misc on it should be good enough for now.

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It’s the morning of and I was driving home this morning to make coffee and realized that though I remembered to not pack the coffee machine, I packed every single one of my coffee mugs. (refer back to beginning of this post - mom boxes). I pulled into the nearest gas station and grabbed some coffee and donuts. As I was pouring in cream and sugar I noticed they have flavors, so I treated myself to raspberry flavor shots in my coffee. I gotta say I may be investing in flavor bottles just to spice up my decaf coffee. I can’t seem to find the Ghiradelli chocolate coffee I love so much. I have settled on Dunkin Donuts, but it isn’t flavored with chocolate or anything. I didn’t like the idea of buying flavors to pour in my coffee simply because I am spending more money, but it is nice to have the taste.

So here I am sitting in front of my desk, crunching the box underneath me, drinking my coffee and eating my donuts. Outside of the music I am playing it is very peaceful. I am relishing this because I know in about four hours my dad will be coming over to oversee the process.  When he wants something done he is a commander. That’s why I like it. Things get done, but once he gets here there will be no silence until the move is over. Again, why I like it. But for just a little while I am going to breathe. Sitting here drinking my coffee - the donuts are gone.

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Song of the day - here. (#4)

Dad: Hey we have this old desk chair that we are getting rid of. Do you want it for your apartment?

Me: NO!

Dad: Are you sure?

Me: So sure. all i can think is I don’t want another thing I have to tote up the damn stairs, not to mention i have no place for it.

Mom: You could put it on your patio.

Me: Damn. Won’t it get ruined when it rains?

Mom: It’s vinyl. You can just wipe it off.

Me: Double Damn. No. I really don’t want to have to carry it up.

Dad: I will carry it up for you.

Me: Damn.

Seriously he is the sweetest man alive. I feel guilty because he wants to carry it up for me. But I know it is a good idea. So I cave.

My dad lugs it up the flight of stairs, around the boxes in the living room, over the lazy boy and out onto the patio. He sets it down and looks at me. “Perfect. I’ll rearrange later.”

Later -

I go out and move the patio chairs in the corner and position the desk chair in the corner I like. This is annoying even as I am arranging the chairs because I know this is so me. So typical type A/OCD. Why is it really that important to place chairs in this position? I have sat in the same side of my patio since I moved in. Every once in awhile I will challenge myself and sit in the other chair, but inevitably I move back because it feels like I am sitting backwards on a train. This is so weird, isn’t it? I know this is weird.

I get the chairs exaclty the way I want them. I sit down in the office chair and get all comfy with my feet up, crossed indian style. And the moment I breathe out, the chair starts turning. When it stops I am facing my french doors. With my back to the outside patio. Can’t see a damn thing. Damn. I get up and roll the legs around thinking it is just off balance. I sit down again and get all comfy again. Within seconds I am facing the door again. Damn. It is coming to me that it isn’t the chair, but rather the patio that is off balance. I get up and push the chair into the corner I like and make sure it is tight against the wall. I sit down. It doesn’t move, but a hairs width. Good.

The very cool part is, the chair is about a foot higher than my patio chairs so I am not looking directly at the patio railing, but rather above it. Usually I squat down and try to see through the slats. With the new chair, no squatting required. This way, I am still out of the people’s eyes who walk by and yet I can still be up where I can nosy around.

Living in an apartment I get to be very nosy. I can get to know my neighbors without actually meeting them face to face.

The people across from me are obviously young girls who have no problem having sex with their blinds open. Not shy. I thought they moved out, but I guess it was just one of their roomies. Thankfully they have gotten a clue and I haven’t had the pleasure of viewing. It is really quite annoying. There is just no where else to really look and it is almost like a car wreck - can’t look away. The couple below them are older. I haven’t seen the woman too often, but the man sneaks out late at night to smoke a cigarrette. Closet smoker, maybe? He inches the door open a bit, then turns sideways to get out. Does the same after smoking. The people to the left of me are always in their kitchen cooking. The people below them are younger and the guy sits out very early in the morning a smokes, shirtless and hagered looking like he partied all night. The couple nex to them above and below are about my age, maybe older. They each have a couple of kids. They sit out on the grass and talk and play guitar singing most nights. I love this. The music is awesome. The kids are very loud. Most of the time it doesn’t bother me. But when I am ont he phone, the person I am talking to always says how loud it is. The guy below me has anger issues. I think he beats his wife, but I don’t really know. We get the cops here at least once a month asking around about a domestic dispute. There are a couple of guys who live next to me, but I don’t see them much. There is a wonderful couple from London who live down the way. They have an exotic bird that says hello as I walk by to get my mail. They sit out on the patio and drink coffee late in the afternoon while the bird ambles around on the railing. I can’t believe how many people I see walk their dog and not pick up the poop. That is really gross.

I have finally given in and decided to buy a couch/love seat/sofa (whatever you call it).

I rarely even sit in my living room anymore and if I do, it just doesn’t last long. Don’t get me wrong, my lazy boy and papazan are really comfy. NOT! I would love to just lounge. I am just a lounger, y’know?

So I have been paroosing the craigslist.org to see if there are any worth buying. My mom doesn’t want me to buy used. She thinks it is weird because you never know what kind of lifestyle they lead, where they have been storing the thing (I got bed bugs (eww) when we pulled a foam pad out of the garage way back when) and she would just rather I buy new. And I am thinking I can always cover the dang thing with a sheet or slip cover.

But since I am on a budget, there is this thing I like to consider - money - the difference between $100 and $400+ for a couch. Tomorrow I will be looking at the stores in the area for a good looking couch (b/c I do have my rep to think of), a financial deal (no interest til 2021) and I am hoping they will deliver, but begars can’t be choosers.

It’s funny if I buy used I don’t care too much what color it is, but I would like a fairly good condition. If I buy new, I do care what color it is and all that.

What is your take on used or new?

I was out on my patio late last night enjoying the quietness of it all and looked over to see —–

directly into the window of my neighbor.

The blinds were up about six inches and it took me quite a while (shagrin) to figure out that it was a woman putting on lotion obviously after some bath ritual. Now I am not a pervert or a voyour. No, neither one. I spent the next couple of minutes trying to figure out which one was her front door. Mind you this isn’t rocket science, but there are doors on both sides of the wall of apartments and the apartment configurations are all incredibly different. I contemplated going down to the office and letting them know they should inform the girl of the blind situation (no pun intended), but didn’t really want to deal with people thinking I am a complete freak. Instead, I sat there trying to figure out what to do. And trying not to look. When it is late at night, nothing going on and only life to ponder an open window kind of becomes like a train wreck - just can’t look away. But being that I am a woman, I would hope a fellow woman would come to me and tell me they can see in my apartment, especially if I am vulnerably naked. Right? Well, I am a lousy neighbor and apparently, very whimpy too. This matter is still not closed, I am still contemplating how the hell to get up the gumption to go over (once I figure out which door is hers) and tell her I am so not a freak, but she should really close her blinds.

So there you have it, weirdness Wednesday.

My living room, kitchen and dining room.

My bedroom, bathroom, etc. Kind of hard to see.

I have SO much kitty furniture that it is kind of embarrassing. In a house it is perfect, in an apartment it is a little much. But I cannot possibly part with any of it. It makes them happy and they like having stuff that they know.Tonight is my first night in my new apartment. Took about a week to move all the stuff in and get it kind of organized. Not too bad. I am really glad I took the time to stay at my parent’s house. It helped a lot with my emotional baggage I am dealing with. Got my tv and internet hooked up which is cool. My parents came in yesterday while I was working and made the place feel like home. They bought me a modem, cable cords, groceries, hung all my pictures and stuff and just basically organized all the crap laying around. I still have a few garbage bags of stuff, but I will get through that this week. No rush. I also have a few loads of laundry to do. My shower ROCKS!! It sprays hard and I bought one of those rain shower heads that I like so much. It is so great.

I got really lucky with the furniture that my friends and family had laying around that they wanted to get rid of. A really nice bedroom set from my uncle, a lazy boy from a girl we work with. My aunt and uncle sent some really pretty flowers with a bear so I would know they were hugging me. How sweet. My girlfriend went crazy and brought me a basket of stuff - wine bottle, hand blown glasses, tulips and chocolate (yum). I have been completely overwhelmed with the kindness my friends and family have shown me. The kind words, the support, the unending help absolutely makes me speechless. I don’t know how to repay my parents for all the help and support that they have shown me. I really couldn’t have done it without them. They have been there for me in ways I cannot believe. I wish I knew what to say to them. Hopefully one day I can repay them.

Makes me laugh that when my downstairs neighbors ac turns on my entire apartment vibrates and not in the turn me on kind of way, but in the slightly earthquake way. SWEAR! Izabel ran around in her army crouch freakin out, but has recently calmed down.  Can’t get Tuesdy off her cat tree (2nd pic). It has been awhile since I have seen her so happy. They are both running around crazy like. I am guessing they like the place.

It is good to have a place of my own. What a great decision it way to go right into an apartment. It is a little tight financially, but in a few months I will be fine. I needed to do this for my own self-preservation. I needed to know I could take care of myself and that I would be okay. Having a place of my own reassures me of this.  Makes it easier to deal with all the emotions when my life seems to be in place. Still have some stuff back at my husband’s house, but we can get that later. All in good time.

Cracks me up that my curtains are being held up by tack pins, but it works for the time being. They are even colored! They don’t even blend. And I can’t imagine what I was thinking when I bought the bright fuchsia grassy material shower curtain, but it is bright and it covers the shower. My place isn’t big enough for a couch, which bums me out. My last apartment didn’t have one either, but whatever. Can’t have everything.

I will be attending dinner at my parent’s house this week because I can and because I really enjoy their company. We all have a really good time together. I love that they are right down the street from me. Close enough to visit and close enough to go home anytime. My drive to work is AWESOME! It takes me two minutes to get to work. After years of driving 30 minutes to work and an hour home, it is so nice. I can actually go home for lunch if I want. Gonna go back to eating at my favorite places ordering the usual. See if they remember me. Haha

It has been a relief not to have to worry about going home to argue with my husband, asking him a question I know he will make difficult, needing help that he just doesn’t have time for and all the other daily issues we dealt with. I can make my own food (healthy) and no one will complain. I can watch whatever I want, shower whenever I want and just have the freedoms that I compromised being with my husband. It will be a lot quieter and probably a little lonely, but I am glad I made the decision that I did. We will both be much happier not having to fight with each other. I know I am already. My girlfriends keep saying how they can’t believe how much happier I seem already. I don’t know about this. I still get that sad feeling in my stomach. That sick feeling of everything being over. I feel sad for us all. But I know it is right. And eventually I won’t feel so bad. Eventually I won’t miss him. Eventually I won’t watch a movie and think of him. All in good time.

All in good time

My dad was telling me I should write a post on the moving into an apartment and the funny things I deal with. Quirky things we were laughing about last night while trying to put together the bedroom set while being incredibly punchy.

The good news: It is quiet

The bad news: It is only quiet until your neighbors move in

The good news: It is small

The bad news: It is small

The good news: I have a designated parking spot

The bad news: All the stupid people parking around me don’t

The good news: I wash my dishes whenever I want

The bad news: I wash my dishes whenever I don’t want

The good news: I can see in my neighbors windows

The bad news: They can see in mine

The good news: I can play my music as loud as I want

The bad news: So can my neighbors

The good news: Everything is fresh and clean

The bad news: It doesn’t last

The good news: You find out who your real friends are

The bad news: You find out who your real friends are

The good news: Being on the second floor feels safer

The bad news: Being on the second floor requires a lot more work

On the flip side -

The bad news: It can be very lonely

The good news: Up until your neighbors throw a party on the front porch at 4am

And now that the juices are flowing I plan to add to this. can you?