New Neighbors

So, at the same time we were moving in, there was a cre...I mean a man moving into the same area of the building that we were moving into. No biggy. We can share the elevator, well we would have, had we moved at the same time of day, but this man decided that he wanted to move in, in the middle of the NIGHT! So, he was unloading his car in our parking lot courtyard, into a shopping cart, and running the cart back across the parking lot (insert sound effect of cart going back and forth across parking lot in the broken stillness of the night)until 3 am! Never mind the poor people who live right by the door that he must have repeatedly slammed. He did this from about 10pm to 3 am one night. The next night at around 1030 we heard to dulcet tones of the cart clanking across the concrete again and proceeded to yell at him out the window. (we just asked if he was planning to move again all night) He said that he was on his last load, it was totally his first for the day/night! From then on we started calling him the creep, as he creeps around doing strange things at night.
He looks like he is in his mid thirties, and fairly successful at whatever it is he does (besides creep), leaves in his expensive car for some sort of work everyday in a suit. Very fraternity stereotype kind of image here.
The next day we came upstairs to move things to the new apartment and the hallway was full of empty boxes outside of the creeps apartment!! WTF?! Now I live in an "adult" building which in my town translates to mostly seniors who have canes, walkers and wheelchairs. You cant go around blocking hallways in this building let alone creating such a mess! (creep). Then the next night the creep was sitting in the party room wrapped up in a blanket on the couch watching tv like he was in a dorm house(our party room lies between our apartments and you walk through it as if it is part of the hall when it is not being used).
And finally last night when I was coming home I walked past his apartment, most people have decorations such as wreaths, signs, etc outside of their doors to decorate their doorways. When I came past his door he had put a Vikings schedule poster on the outside of his door! Number one, like we all care??, number 2 this is not a dorm room, I mean come on A POSTER!!!, and number 3 wow the depth of this person...a vikings poster...that's what he wants people to know about him. Deep.

Yesterday was stressful, and so I needed a good laugh...

This makes me giggle just thinking about it. When I need a good laugh all I have to do is pop in a episode of the Big Bang Theory.

Thought Provoking and Eye Opening.

So we had finally moved and gotten the old apartment all cleaned, but we still had several pieces of furniture that we were not planning on moving as we are now in a smaller apartment. We had a recliner, a lamp, and two dining room chairs that we just didn't need anymore. We really didn't have any idea how we were going to get these out of the apartment before the first of the month. My mom had called 1-800-junk and they want anywhere from 100-200 dollars to pick up what we had! Um, no! So, she then decided she would ask around the building to see if anyone was in want of these few pieces of furniture. It turns out that there was a woman who had moved in just down the hall from our old apartment that had almost NO furniture. She had a bed, a desk, and an ironing board. That was all. So when my mom asked her if she wanted the pieces she was very happy to take them. It turns out she was in the process of getting divorced, and had left everything behind as she just needed to get out of her house. Her adult son still lives at home and is Bipolar and schizophrenic and wont take his medication continuously and has threatened to kill her and her husband several times, she had to leave in fear for her life. Her husband refuses to do anything about the situation with their son, and she refuses to live in fear any longer.
As we had an abundance of furniture, including some in our store room (an extra table) we were able to give her a head start on at least furnishing the beginning of her new start at life and she was able to help us clear out our apartment with very little effort. A good ending, or beginning.
However, it made me think about all of the things that I surround myself with, and all of the things that I think I NEED. This woman was living with a bed, desk, and an ironing board. So little is actually needed to sustain us, yet I think I NEED all of these things to make me happier. WHAT IS THAT ABOUT?! Don't get me wrong there is something to be said about comfort, do I want to sleep on the floor? No. But just watching her look around our apartment and then walking into hers... We are still trying to find places to fit stuff in our apartment and she couldn't decide which empty space to put the table and the recliner into...So how much of the stuff we surround ourselves with is actually stuff we need?

My Mommy

This song reminds me of my mom, who has been ill for several years. Several times I have been in the position of being able to do nothing but hold her hand and cry with her as she endures so much pain and agony.

Moving aches and pains.

So, we have almost made the whole switch from one apartment to the other, today will bring the last load I think. Yesterday was a whirlwind of moving, shifting, carrying, putting, cleaning, dusting off, and I am soooooo sore today! Even sleeping last night hurt. Today the agenda (heck the whole weeks agenda) is full of cleaning the old apartment from top to bottom. I hate cleaning apartments from move out. It is very satisfying when you are done but the whole process leaves me with a big ol "hey isn't it nap time!?" feeling. I am planning to head over there with a CD player, some good mixes, and a positive attitude as soon as I find one (the attitude, the cd's and player have been located).
Although this apartment is quite a bit smaller than the last apartment so far this one seems to be a little more homey-er. We have put more work into making this one more comfortable than any place we have lived in the last ten years because my parents have to spend so much time in the house now that they are both disabled. We also put a lot of thought into making this accessible as well as attractive and homey (my mother can not lift heavy objects or put her arms over her head, OR bend over). So far the worst thing is the lack of a laundry room (we now have a laundry closet) and that we went from two bathrooms down to one. :(

Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock.

Sheldon, Sheldon, Sheldon...

When do you realize that you are losing it?

When you become jealous of a fictional rat. Why you ask? Because he is better read than I am. I have been reading Firmin: A Tale of Exile, Unrequited Love, and the Redemptive Power of Literature, by Sam Savage over the past week. A book about how -

"In the basement of a Boston bookstore, Firmin is born in a shredded copy
Finnegans Wake, nurtured on a diet of Zane Grey, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, and
Jane Eyre (which tastes a lot like lettuce). While his twelve siblings gnaw
these books obliviously, for Firmin the words, thoughts, deeds, and hopes—all
the literature he consumes—soon consume him. Emboldened by reading, intoxicated
by curiosity, foraging for food, Firmin ventures out of his bookstore sanctuary,
carrying with him all the yearnings and failings of humanity itself. It’s a lot
to ask of a rat—especially when his home is on the verge of annihilation."

Strange, you say, a book about a rat who not only eats books but can read. Oh wait didn't i see this movie??? you ask "Tale of Despereaux"? No, this is not a child's book, not at all, this is not some heroic mouse bent on saving the princess, this rat has some serious social and behavioral issues, even for a rat. But that's all well and good, (you know what I mean), what caused me problems was that within the first year of this rats life, he had read more of the classics then I had in all of my *mumble mumble* years! He has 'devoured' books such as"Oliver Twist. Huckleberry Finn. The Great Gatsby. Dead Souls. Middlemarch. Alice in Wonderland. Fathers and Sons. The Grapes of Wrath. The Way of All Flesh. And American Tragedy. Peter Pan. The Red and the Black. Lady Chatterley's Lover" (p. 20). Not to mention"...the Bible, The Koran, the Bhagavad Gita, the Book of the Dead...Kant, Hegel, Swedenborg..."(p.18). I WAS JEALOUS OF A FREAKIN FICTIONAL CHARACTER....AND IT WAS A RAT!!!!

So, after coming to grips with this I have decided I really need to read more classics and maybe less books about animals who read faster than I do.