So there are two drawers in the kitchen. One is for silverware and measuring spoons, very well organized. The other is a thing drawer. I’ve been here nine days and already have a thing drawer. It holds the rest of the stuff. The things. Batteries, measuring tape, undefinable implements. Is this just the way my brain works? Must I have a miscellaneous file?

Of course, at the moment I have a spare room, too. The rest of the apartment is spotless, well-organized, peaceful. But beware the spare room. Open it at your own risk.

Is the little place of disorganization necessary to the rest of my life going neatly and purposefully? I am fine with that.

I’m starting to get my act together here. The pile of boxes slowly retreats under my fierce gaze (although I’m still adding boxes to the pile, which doesn’t help. I think the poor pile is getting mixed messages. “Does she want us to shrink or NOT?”)

It is weird to live alone.

Five days into this, so far everyone is surviving. One missed bus. A few miscommunications. The calendar is nowhere near functional yet. But we are all okay. The kids think the apartment is cool.

I suspect that the novelty will wear off soon. Some snarling and grumpiness will happen.

Last night at Scrabble club, all my years of preparation finally paid off. People have scoffed at me. But no more!

When S. arrived at the club, I was odd man out, so I immediately offered/begged for a game. He had his arms full of stuff, bags and the like, and I began to set up my board, rummaging through my (disorganized) bag for racks and tiles. And gum. And a cough drop. And a pen.

Meanwhile, S. was rummaging less successfully in his bags. He’d located a salad but was muttering under his breath. I found the other wooden rack and slapped it on the table.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a FORK in there, would you?” he asked sarcastically.

He obviously doesn’t know me very well. “Why -- yes I do!” I opened the outside pocket of the bag, pulled out a stainless steel fork, and handed it to him.

He took it without further comment and ate his salad.

Two address changes to note:

After sifting through all the wise advice people gave me regarding the livejournal quandary and so forth (and ponies and kittens), I have decided to just mirror this blog at livejournal. When I feel the need to delve into more scrabble details, I will do this only at the livejournal blog. This will be the only difference between the two.

The community features at livejournal make this worthwhile, in my opinion. (Community features include friends lists, groups, communities.) I’ll back-post starting January 1, probably.

The other address change is less trivial. I am doing something today which I’ve never done before: writing a rent check. Yep, I’m moving down the road about a mile. The cats are staying at the house; the dog is moving to the apartment with me. The kids will continue to base their operations at the house but will be free to come and go at either place. All are doing well.