The Move

I'm typing right now from my new living room. I'm sitting in a lawn chair that is currently on the exercise mat that usually has a set of rollers on it. I can almost see my dining room table beyond the boxes, bins and bookcases placed on or around it. Believe it or not, this is progress.

The move was on Monday. I did not hire movers. I received a quote from one reputable company and thought - no way, for that price I can move myself. In hindsight I may (absolutely did) not have thought that through.

Closing was interesting. The last time I closed on a house was circa 2002 (?). That time the worst of it was "so it's only you" about a thousand times. Apparently it was as rare as a garden gnome in the Arctic for a 20-something female to purchase a home ALL BY HERSELF. I actually wrote a check for the down payment and the seller was there to countersign - in black ink only.

This time everything was completed electronic-like and I showed up for 20minutes to sign about a thousand disclosures. My signature devolved into a scribble as the pages kept coming and I remarked that each one of these disclosures exist because someone sued someone else for something that wasn't directly stated in a contract. We kill more trees to print more paper because some j-hole was a ... well ... j-hole.That was it. It seemed way too easy, like I was missing something. I lingered for a minute like - um - are we good? We were and so the move began. Oh, and not once did someone question me buying a home by myself. So there's that.

I am without words to describe the joys (ahem) of actually packing all of your worldly belongings into a box truck. The most fun was getting a queen mattress and box spring down the flight of stairs - and back up two flights. That experience brought back the traumatic memory moving in 4years ago. We even managed to match the scrapes against the ceiling on the way down. Oh, and I will gladly buy a nice bottle of wine for the first person to patent handles for mattresses (get your mind out of gutter, I'm talking about trying to hold on to the mattress while maneuvering it up/down stairs). Post edit: apparently there is a solution -of course I see this AFTER the fact. That said, not sure how it holds up when bending corners or going UP stairs. I'll keep my bottle of wine, then.

The first day or so after moving was tough for this creature of habit. My new house has 4 levels (including the garage) and it took more than a minute for me to figure out where I put things and what needed to go where. I was constantly looking through boxes trying to find whatever trivial thing I absolutely NEEDED that minute. For the love of all things good, where the %$#@ are my scissors!?!?!?

moving day 1869

There's an interesting article here - despite my whining above I'm thankful we aren't still living in these times.

My highlight of moving day was a surprise arranged at the end of the day. Prior to and while helping me move a certain someone coordinated with my closest friends to come over. Completely exhausted, beat up, frazzled, probably smelling like sweat and boxes (Yankee candle does not market that scent) I walked up the stairs to find them standing there with glasses of wine, balloons and fantastic hats fashioned out of newspaper comics (thanks to Claudette's creative young'uns.). After the long and sometimes frustrating day I couldn't have wished for a better way to welcome me home.

Thank you, much love and and more to each and every one of you. And to that certain someone- I wanted to throttle you a handful of times during the move and I'm sure it was mutual. Consider yourself forgiven.

So this is happening

It's that time of year again. My first round of pumpkin roll is long gone and although the first round isn't always my best work no one complained, at least not out loud.

I feel like I'm a little behind seeing as this was happening in Shirlington the weekend before Halloween. I think one of the best pics I've taken was at the Walgreens by my house. Given the right angle, it looked like a Witch was sneaking up on the Santa display in the next aisle. Can't we get through Thanksgiving without the onslaught of advertisements and holiday music? At this rate we're ready to throw those jingle bells at someone long before the holiday actually arrives.

Anyway. Speaking of things happening - I'm moving. Yes, this is finally happening. I have a love/hate relationship with my current location - Love that I can ride to hains (but that gets old), love that I can walk to a bunch of places (I cannot stand the post-frat tuition-fund clientele and don't get me started on the stupid drunk-trolly), I'm so close to everything (close enough that some random guy came into my house through an unlocked door and tried to sleep on my couch at 4am after being out at the bars), I have a driveway (that I constantly have to kick people out of- seriously, one person pulls in, I tell her this is private property and she argues with me to please, just do her a favor. Who the hell are you and I will have you towed if you leave your car here!), I love being near about 4 metro stops (although I despise the metro, especially with cold/flu season coming on).

See? Love/hate. 

I sold my townhouse in 2011 to move to Arlington and have been renting since then. I'm an accountant. Renting is a dirty word in my world. But, life got in the way and things happened and/or didn't happen so here I am, finally making it happen. Settlement is early/mid December - so the super (not) fun packing and purging has begun. At this point my current house is a disaster and quite possibly a fire hazard.

Rambling again ...

I've missed blogging. Actually, the blogging is more of a method of writing, I've missed writing. I fell off the wagon (so to speak) for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, life gets in the way sometimes. I try not to blog about super personal stuff and I come from the era of "if you don't have anything nice to say, keep your mouth (or keyboard) shut".

If you're reading this you probably know that I'm a bit outspoken when I have a strong opinion. That said, I'm not purposely inflammatory and I do my best to find a positive outlook on the subjects I blog about. Despite those efforts, I had some people complain that I was hiding by not naming names when talking about races or training. So, I started naming names and then I caught hell about calling people out. I voiced an opinion that didn't agree with someone else's opinion and received an inordinate response but, of course, was my fault for having an opinion. It became such a hassle to toe the line in order to manage other people's issues that I stopped trying.

After some time and a change in perspective, I've decided it is not my job to manage the emotions of others. Here's a suggestion - if you don't like what you're reading, STOP READING. Or - another idea - shoot me a note and share your perspective so we can have an adult conversation. Novel, right?

In the immortal words of Forrest Gump - "that's all I have to say about that".

Anyway. It's 80degrees in November and my bike's not going to ride itself so that's it for today. More to come.