News & Notes

Lots of busy work and errand running this week. We’ve finally unpacked almost everything and cleared all the boxes out of the new apartment. Last night Michael helped me move the old couch out of the old apartment and today I get to hand over my keys and be rid of it. I am beyond ready for that.

Got my emissions inspection yesterday and unlike poor Erin’s, my 1992 Saturn passed with flying colors. I’m always secretly convinced she’s going to fail. I sit there having a panic attack while some dude revs the car up to terrifying rpms and makes the engine whine and shake. I become convinced the car is going to explode, taking him and me with it. And then after what feels like an hour but is actually only five minuts, it’s all over and I’ve got my pass sheet and am out the door. And then I’m weirdly proud of my car all day–patting the dash board and saying nice things about her. Weird things go on inside my head.

Dumpsters

At the old apartment, a subject of constant complaint was the dumpster. Some of you will recall that it is located smack in the end of the parking lot, just a few short steps from our front door. It was always, always, always overflowing with piles of trash stacked all around it. It stank. It was an eyesore. We hated it.

At the new apartment, there is a large compacting dumpster that serves the entire complex. We have to drive to it. As you can imagine, we are now bitching about having to drive to it. We suck. Also, we put our couch out by the dumpster at the old place. Something that made us insane when our neighbors did it. I think I’ve earned some bad karma this week and should probably look out.

Speaking of karma, I left the window down on my car last night. Did it rain? Of course it did. My butt’s wet. This is probably payback for spilling an entire bottle of Aquafina into the passenger’s seat of the car and then allowing Tanya’s poor mother to unknowingly plop right down into it when I picked her up at MARTA a few weeks back. She was wearing a dress. I am a dork.

Things You Notice

This morning as I walked out the door of my very quiet apartment to head in for work I noticed that opening the door creates a little wind tunnel that sucks at the fireplace flue so that you can just barely here it vibrate, like the sound of distant thunder. That sound made me feel all warm and fuzzy. But then I sat down on the seat of my car and the moment passed.