Monday, November 30, 2009

Ch-ch-ch-Changes!

I moved in with my mother this past month. (Hence the lack of updates during November – all of my free time has been spent either packing/unpacking, toting, lifting, etc. or playing Treasure Mania (now Treasure Madness) on Facebook. BTW, I'm SO happy to have Columbus's underpants!)

We both had to get rid of some of my furniture. My big thing was my couch. I loved that couch. I got it about 10 years ago for $250 and the cats and I would snuggle together on it. I’m a big girl, and the couch was big girl sized. I’ve never been all that comfortable (physically, not mentally or emotionally) on mom’s couch. But it has the matching love seat and is newer, so my couch went. It took four men from my church 30-45 minutes to figure out how to get the behemouth out thru three consecutive 90-degree turns and outside the house. (It took four men over an hour four years ago to get it in the apartment, but this time we already knew that it wouldn’t go out the backdoor and that the front window was too small, so they didn’t have to waste time testing those options. While we waited for one of the men to go get his truck, so he could take it to Goodwill for me, some frat guys came walking down the street and one of the men yelled and asked if they needed a couch. They said they could use it, so off trotted my couch. Sniff.. I loved that couch. I wonder if they would have noticed, being frat guys, if I’d left the petrified hairball in it.

Quite some time has been spent getting the room ready. Mom and I went to Lowes one Sunday after lunch on a fact finding mission and in less than an hour, I’d picked out paint, carpet and the border. Of course the underlying theme was “purple,” duh! and once it was all put together, I think it looks pretty stinkin’ good! Martha Stewart, eat your heart out! Tom and other Bro-in-Law Ed helped hang pics and a dragon and a wizard and the bi-plane dad made me this past weekend, so now once I get rid of a couple of more boxes, it’s all done! Here's a pic of the final product.

The border is my piece de resistance – is that spelled right? I opened a wallpaper/border book for kids rooms and chose it within minutes. It was $36/roll, but then I found the exact same border online for $15.99 per roll!! What a coup! (What’s with all the French all of a sudden??)

The cats and I moved in the weekend of November 7th, and the furniture followed us on the next weekend. It has been an adjustment for all concerned. Sophie and Gizmo had to leave the only home they’ve really ever known AND get used to there being another cat in the mix. Winifred had to get used to going from being Queen of the Castle to smallest and youngest of three. Giz and Wini made friends pretty quickly. I understand they even play together at night while I’m asleep. But Sophie and Wini are still not completely sure of each other. Although things have improved. This past weekend (Thanksgiving) there were 8 extra adults in the house for 2 days and 2 extra adults for 2 more days. We didn’t see much of Soph or Giz, and Wini accidentally got shut in the basement and spent one entire night downstairs, but everyone survived. Now the Christmas tree is up and assuming young Winifred doesn’t decimate it, we should have a happy holiday season.

There have been adjustments for me and mom, too. My normal routine was to come home, heat up some Easy Mac or a bag of frozen veggies, sprinkled with shredded cheese and go play on Facebook (Farmville, Mafia Wars, Treasure Mania, you know, the usual) and watch some TV until the old carpal tunnel acted up, and then hop into bed with whichever cat was still awake. Other than the occasional comment to a cat, I didn’t have to talk, no one wanted anything from me. I lived alone. Now I get home, mom generally has dinner made – BTW, she thinks vegetables are for every night! – or in the process, and although she says I don’t have too, I feel like I have to hang out and chat with her. I’ll adjust. I don’t have a problem hanging and chatting with mom, but it’s not my natural inclination, so until I get acclimated to being a roommate, I have to remind myself to do it.