Month: August 2018

I’m a tad reluctant to show you “the couch” – I mean I had such a buildup didn’t I?  The anticipation of lounging and TV watching?  Well, I will report that I am not disappointed in the lounging/TV watching aspect of my new couch.  I have watched and lounged quite a bit in the two days I’ve had it.  I’m a bit afraid to sit on it because it’s so clean being ever so cautious of using a pen (I was making a list) and I will never ever eat on it, at least this first week.  Then I’ll probably just put a sheet on it and eat sitting on the couch watching TV like every other single person. I know you normal people take all this for granted.  Like being able to walk from room to room.  You know in my little efficiency where I just moved from I didn’t have that room-to-room luxury.  There was the bedroom and a chair in the kitchen.  Ya know?  Now I have a bedroom WITH a chair, a kitchen area, a living room WITH a couch and a screened in porch with yet another sitting chair.  Plus I can just walk around in a circle if I want.  Soooo many options.  And today I walked across the parking lot to the pool, just because it was another option I had yet to try.  And get this, I am doing laundry, on a Sunday no less.  I’ve taken a dip in the pool, used sunscreen, and then read a little of my book before walking back to my apartment to have lunch and put the load from the washer into the dryer.  The pool temp was/is perfect.  The first time I tried it was tooo warm but today? Perfect temp.  I have yet to discover the perfect place to write this blog, or be on the computer.  I don’t have a desk.  So far I’ve tried the little patio table as a desk.  That’s worked pretty well.  I know the chair which is now in the bedroom works okay as that is what I’ve been using for the last year and a half.  Last night I was scanning pictures, on the floor, using the couch as back support and right now I’m sitting on my screened in porch.  Yes it’s hot, but what I do is crack the screen door just a tad and then I have the fan blowing cold air on me.  It works quite nicely.  Although this old dinosaur of a computer gets kinda heavy on the lap.  Maybe I need one of those lap desks. I’m not sure why that wouldn’t be heavy too.  Or a contraption that goes across the arms of the chair, you know flips up like those old desks in classrooms?  And then I could put it down when not in use?  Has anyone invented that yet?  Isn’t that genius?  Actually there’s alot of those little stand kind of tables that will work perfectly.  Now that I think about it.  And thank you for letting me ramble on until I noodled it up. I’ll add one of those tables to the list.

I have quite the extensive “wish list” going on in my head, and on paper.  Nothing major.  No new cars or anything that major. I still want that piece of marble for my dining room thing. That’s a little bit of a major expense, but not like a car. I’m gonna do it, I just don’t know when.  Maybe by the end of the year.  And now I need that little desk contraption that I’ll just take with me and turn any place I want to sit into my writing area.  Plus a few rugs – one to go with the new couch – a couple more here and there.  And a new computer.  I’ve had this computer I’m using now since 2010.  I hate to get a new one if it’s not needed but it doesn’t have a battery anymore.  Yes I could replace it but it weighs a ton.  It’s very slow these days from who knows what spyware has gone undetected. But the pictures. What will I do with all those saved pictures?  Again with the photos.  They are a source of agitation at best. I started scanning some last night and made a pile to throw away.  But now I’m afraid to throw them away because what if the computer dies before I have a chance to do a Snapfish kinda thing and then they’re gone.  It just seems too sad to put those photos in the garbage.  I obviously have issues.  Lots of them around memories.  I was telling Di yesterday how there’s a box of photos at my mom’s house which I labeled “people we don’t know” and there they sit.  My blind mother will never be able to identify them, obviously.  And if we don’t know them then why not just pitch them.?  Why did I save a box of pictures who we will never know who they are? God help me.

So back to the couch.  The reason I’m reluctant is because I know it doesn’t fit correctly on the wall where I have it set.  But I want it that way to make the TV viewing the top priority and because I know Martha Stewart Living is not coming in to my apartment for a photo op.  Although she may reconsider once I have it all set up.  I also know that it doesn’t have much color in the room, but it will look much better with my new rug that I’m planning and the table and lamps that I plan on stealing from my mom at the end of the month.  Of course I’m not stealing them, but I am taking them from the house we are selling so they have to go anyway.  Those items, in my opinion, will make this area so much more cozy.  But here is a preview.

I was testing out color with that little rug in front of it; but I think I’m going to go with the big version of this one from Bed Bath and Beyond:

Do I have anything else to show you?  Maybe my bedroom where I have finally put the painted flower table where it was intended to go when I envisioned it.

I have a couple more projects in mind to make it homier, mostly furniture from my mom’s so the next phase will have to wait until late September after I go back up there.  I guess that trip at the end of August will be the last time ever I am there.  The sadness of that time is, at times, overwhelming.  BUT I have to learn to cherish the memories of times past and look forward to the future, right?  We moved three times when I was growing up.  I lived in three houses and my parents then rented a little house in Aliquippa of all places (Harper Village) until my dad died.  I don’t ever remember having the sadness about moving back then.  Never, ever.  I just rolled with it.  It wasn’t until I sold Fair Oaks that I got this way.  Oh wait, I forgot, I’m not talking to my therapist.  Oh wait, I forgot, I don’t have a therapist.  Ha! Well there’s the problem.

xoxox

I’m not going to go on ad nauseam about my new “happy” place; although I’m not sure why not.  I mean I did go on a while about how “unhappy” I was didn’t I?  Doesn’t it seem like people are almost more interested in hearing bad stuff?  Well I guess it makes sense.  Lots of people are miserable so it’s easier to relate. I still have things that are causing me misery.  Take Amazon for example.  I bought a new Firestick – an upgrade from my first one that I’ve had for several years – well anyway I got it on Prime Day – only $20 – so hook it up and there’s no sound. None.. Ended up calling Amazon and they said to return it and they’d send me a replacement – must be something wrong with it.  So they sent a replacement – it doesn’t work either (no sound) – 2 hours on the phone and 2 days later a very snarky tech guy tells me that it’s not compatible with my TV.   So I return it – write a 1 star review cause you know they could have saved me hours on the phone if they told me upfront it wasn’t compatible with a Sony TV.  Welll…don’t you know the next day another agent calls and said that the other agent gave me wrong information and it certainly is compatible with my TV and if I wanted to try again he promised he would be able to fix it. So wait, I get it back out of the mail the next day – had mailed from work but they didn’t pick it up yet.  Had to make an appointment for his call at 7 pm and all he did was tell me he was going to file a ticket and then call AGAIN on Monday.  Ya know? Is it really worth $20?  Nooooooo…so there’s that misery story.

Let’s see what else, my forehead is peeling from the sunburn…that’s a little miserable.

I think I might have just gotten bit by a bug..

My under-the-counter light that I bought for my last apartment and moved it here will not stay up.  It keeps falling. Damn thing.  Pissing me off.

That’s it.  My friend Kathy, at work, she has these great cards…you know, like angel cards. Anyway, we have been tasked, by the angels, to not talk about negative stuff any more, only talk about positive things and then more positive things start coming into your life.  So….

Tonight, Friday night, when for the last year I’ve been going home, sitting in front of the TV and basically doing nothing, well…tonight I did this:

And then I stopped to see this on my way home.  Just when I thought my sunset days were over, well all I had to do was look left and there it was, setting.  What is this called?  A lagoon?  A bay?  Anyway, as it was setting, the ocean started turning pink.  It was beautiful. It just keeps getting better and better in my happy place.

Tomorrow my plan is to stay away from the beach just for my skin’s sake but I plan on sitting on my peaceful screened-in porch with a big cup of tea in the morning, then finishing my book by the pool.  I might go and find the mall too.  It’s right at the intersection where I get on I95 to go to work – that’s one mile away.  I have lots of coupons and I need lots of stuff for my new apartment. There’s also a movie theater over there – maybe I’ll even go to a movie. It’s like I’ve come back to life!

NEXT Friday my couch comes.  There are no words for how happy I’ll be to lay on a couch and watch TV.  I do love walking on the beach but, but, laying on a couch?  I don’t know, I have a lot of couch-laying catching up to do.  It’s going to be a Friday night toss-up.

xoxoxox