Whew! Whatta week!

It started out well enough, still walking for #RedJanuary – a UK movement about using physical exercise to help your mental health during the short dark days of winter.

And rewarded by #EmotionalSupportCannolis afterward. This was a savory MAC&CHEESE cannoli and a pistachio cream cannoli with a chocolate dipped shell. It was better than it looks.

Be Kind.

I sent my great niece Little Feminist board books for Christmas.

Janey trying to snuggle with Caleb.

Walking through town.

Apartment hunting has begun. I have seen small….

Smaller…

Smallest.

The smallest one was actually Cute. As. A. Button. But SO small. Like “there’s nowhere for mop/ironing board/books/mixer/table, etc” small. BUT it’s a fantastic location with the grounds of an abandoned psychiatric hospital literally across the street, with walking paths and decrepit buildings, and a bluff overlooking the river a block behind it. But all that fabulousness didn’t help me fit my LIFE into the space. There was no room for – to quote Marie Kondo – the things that spark joy. And I’d be staying within the same financial and commute time footprint as now, so that’s good. And I was convincing myself I should not lose that location over having to put 90% of belongings in storage…when I saw…

The Best One. I don’t even want to jinx it – the homeowner wants to meet with me again on Tuesday, with my financials, letters of recommendation, etc., so I’m a nervous wreck that if IT falls through, someone else might have already gotten the cute tiny one. All I will share at this time is the CLOSET. Excuse me, ONE of the closets. Fingers crossed!

There were several others that for their own weird reasons are really not in the running. There’s a very small inventory of places in my budget that will allow a cat and are a reasonable distance from work. And so many people just never respond to your phone calls and emails!

So, given my impending move, most of Saturday was spent clearing box wall from the bedroom – opening everything up to see what there is, making trash/donate/sell piles, and just generally reorganizing.

Before.

After.

The bedroom feels so big now! I could do a whole other activity over there! I’d always thought I would eventually get an actual desk and put the vanity back in the bedroom on that wall (currently the computer is on the vanity in the living room).

Hopefully Tuesday will go well and the SEARCH will be over, it’s extremely stressful and time-consuming!

I passed on Sunday Funday with friends to look at more places and get work done. I fell so behind this past week, what with spending every possible moment scanning the apartment ads and going to look at things in the evenings.

And now tomorrow is back to work and I’m EXHAUSTED. This will be an exhausting month with packing and moving.

That’s all my news. What’s up with you??