We Are Pleased To Announce
We are not so pleased to announce that I had food poisoning symptoms for the first half of last week and spent several days praying for death. The week was, however, redeemed by dinner with Rocksy and Jen on Wednesday night.
We are also not especially pleased to announce that a huge storm ripped through the Tri-State, not dissimilar to a cosmic three-year-old screaming as he throws his toys. We had no power from Friday night until about noon Sunday, which is why my responses to comments have been sporadic at best. The Undead Zombie Tree (also known as that bigass maple in our backyard) lost huge chunks of its limbs (including the one that had been cabled together some time ago) and was revealed to contain carpenter ants, the backyard looked like Jungle Hell, and we had the Branch of Damocles perched on the garage roof in a not-particularly-nonthreatening manner. (The garage is a separate building and predates our house; it was a carriage house at one time.) The good news is that no one at all was injured in the storms, the Branch of Damocles has been removed by the roofer, and on Saturday, a couple of gentlemen who heat their house with wood came by and offered to chainsaw the larger branches in return for getting to take the wood, so everybody won. Lolmom may also be getting a new roof out of this mess. (Nothing came down on the house, thank fuck, but the roof is about 16 years old, was not particularly competently applied the first time, and has sustained previous storm damage.)
There is something kind of badass and empowering about throwing tree limbs into a pile for the city to pick up, though. (These were the smaller limbs that we could drag into a pile ourselves, obviously.) FUCK YOU STORM.
I received an e-mail from the landlord yesterday. I have a lease for the Apartment of Brick (it is also acceptable to refer to it as El Apartamento de los Muertes), and my move-in date is 7/25. I've signed it and returned it, and I asked if it would be possible for me to revisit it between now and move-in (so I can look at dimensions and make sure the important shit fits). SHIT JUST GOT REAL. Renters' insurance seems to be much cheaper than expected, though, so that is a godsend. I know that this is exactly why I saved all that money for all those years, but I feel awful about spending it, EVEN THOUGH THAT IS THE POINT.
Overtime has been over for almost a year, and I don't have nearly the money I had hoped for all the furniture I wanted, but that's okay because there's no way it could all fit. I have my table (we can take the door off the hinges if need be), and I'm buying a new bed because mine is elderly and the springs are exposed (lolmom said she'd get me a new mattress and box spring). I am also buying a sofa bed because it is an anti-social act to make overnight guests sleep in the bed with me (unless, of course, that's why they're there), maybe an extra bookcase, and maybe a dresser. Lolmom and I will have to hash out what's OK to take with me.
There is no coherent aesthetic vision of any kind because I am a bachelor and I think decorating is the most tedious-ass bullshit on earth. I can appreciate it when I see other people's nice living rooms, and I like restored old houses, but I don't have the desire or the patience to do it myself. I mean, I could be writing or something.
You guys, everything is changing. I have desperately wanted this for a long time, and part of me is afraid that it'll be too good to be true. But I'm going to make the years I spend in Bloomington, however many they may be, some of the best of my life. On that, I am resolved.