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Gratuitous Picture Post News Travel

Updates from the past month

So, I moved. My friends and I painted the new apartment, I went into a frenzy of packing, and after $500 and eight hours with two professional movers, my stuff was officially transferred from West Hollywood to West L.A.

Living room
Living room, painting and filled with stuff

It’s been a rush, to be sure. The new place is smaller and I’m trying to readjust my thinking as I try to purge the excess from the many boxes. I’ve always been very attached to “having stuff”, even if it’s just stuff I shove under a bed or into a closet. Having it has always been the key for me. Now, I’m working on asking myself, “So what if I *don’t* have it? What will change?” This week I gifted several of my prized collectible Barbies. I’m shipping yarn to a friend tomorrow. I’m starting to think it might even be possible for me to let go of the Buffy action figures. ?!

Tomorrow I’m going to Ikea to purchase two PAX wardrobe units for my bedroom, and I’m very excited. I’ve been living out of suitcases for two weeks now (my dresser did not survive the move, and the new place as ONE, TINY closet), and I’ve reached a point with the boxes where there just isn’t any place left to put things. And Saturday, WeHo is having a shredding/recycling event at City Hall, so I may even get to unload 15 years of paper in one fell swoop. Seriously, I’m getting all tingly.

ION, I went home to Massachusetts last month for my friend Rebecca’s wedding. It was a great week (Red Sox game! Karaoke! Bar hopping in Boston!) and a great wedding, and I even learned that Mr. Darcy actually had a first name. I did not know that. (It’s Fitzwilliam, btw. Or maybe FitzWilliam?)

That’s all the news that’s fit to print–for now, anyway. 🙂

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News

I AM MOVING

man person people car
Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com

Yes, it’s true. I’ve lived at my current residence for 10 1/2 years, despite leaky windows, insect infestations, and noisy neighbors, but I finally got the motivation to go out, find a place, and actually sign a freakin’ lease. (Really, it was the combination of all three of those at one time that finally convinced me.)

My new place is in West L.A.–five minute commute to work! My new place has a balcony with a clear view of the eastern sky–private outdoor space all my own to enjoy a book and a cup of tea! My new place has ONE closet–holy crap. So I’m currently in the process of packing and trying to purge, although the purging isn’t going all that well so far. Hopefully it’ll pick up once I reach the Hall Closet of Doom.

IMG_1786

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Miscellaneous

Awry

I have always been a big reader, and therefore I would frequently run across the word ‘awry’ in my readings. For some reason, though, I had separated the word I knew verbally (properly pronounced), from the word I saw in print, which in my head was pronounced AW-ree, until one day my sister asked me how to spell ‘awry’. I suspect the click in my head was heard as far as Sweden.

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Miscellaneous Shopping

Tax refund season!

I’m getting a decent tax return this season. I wasn’t expecting it, because I planned to do my taxes myself, but I let a friend talk me into going to her accountant, and lo and behold, a refund! Woot!

Sadly, it’ll all be going to a credit card, but that doesn’t stop me from daydreaming about what I’d rather be doing with the money:

* A vacation! My friends are going to Ireland in a couple of months, and omigod I wish I was going, but it costs twice what my refund is, and it would be ridiculously irresponsible of me to try to meet that price tag. And while it is enough money for another cruise, another week at Disney World, a week in Aruba, or even just a week in Yosemite, I’m still stuck on “financially irresponsible”. I might try to swing another few days at Zion in July, though (it’s waaaay cheaper than Yosemite!).

* Every book on my Amazon wish list. As awesome as that would be (and it would be AWESOME), I can’t even finish reading the books I already own.

* A Kindle. (See above about not finishing the books I already own.)

* Security deposit on a new apartment. I think this is the only one that could tempt me away from putting it towards a credit card, except that moving scares the death out of me. Like, anxiety attack, pass the xanax, scares me. Hopefully I’ll get over that before the ceiling in my living room caves in.

* New laptop. I’m only thinking of this one because lately, even though I have a nifty new router that made video streaming so much faster and easier, for some reason my laptop keeps losing the web connection, and worse, DOESN’T TELL ME. All systems are, “What? Everything’s working fine! Seriously.”, even when nothing loads, and only corrects itself when I reboot the modem, the router, AND the laptop. So!annoying! But logically, it works pretty well under most circumstances, so a new one is just a pipe dream.

* New furniture. Oooo, I really want this one! If I’m not going to move, I’d really like to at least freshen up my current place. Everything is over ten years old, which is fine for the shelves and the tables, but less fine for the couch. Plus I could definitely be using the space in the bedroom more efficiently, and the kitchen could use a few extra shelves on the wall.

* Cable. This is definitely a luxury, though. I’ll only go there if AT&T’s new bandwidth limit curtails my Hulu streaming.

* An elliptical trainer. Ha! Let’s be honest, I’d use it maybe a week, then it’d become another thing taking up space.

But these are all pipe dreams, ’cause the money will really be most useful if it can help me cut ties with Bank of America just a little bit sooner.

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Gratuitous Picture Post Miscellaneous

Video: Mathemagician at work

How awesome is this video? TOTALLY awesome! The mathemagician in question is the brother of one of my colleagues, and he’s entertaining as well as smart! Gonna pick up his book (Secrets of Mental Math: The Mathemagician’s Guide to Lightning Calculation and Amazing Math Tricks) first chance I get.