Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Bright and early on Sunday morning, The Gryphon and I signed a lease for our new place, the adobe row house we looked at last week. The weather was a bit nicer, if overcast, so I had the opportunity to take some more pictures. I also went through the house and photographed all the rooms, in part for documentation and in part to share with family.

The landlord was again very friendly and went over the lease with us, pointing out various things on the lease, which was fairly straightforward. The lease does lock us into an automatic renewal of one year after the first year is up, but it does give us the option of breaking the lease before that year is over, provided we pay a $200 fee. I don't expect this to be a problem any time soon; I'm sure we'll be living here for some time.

Before the landlord left, we tried both sets of keys, just to make certain they work. I've had problems in the past with duplicate keys not working properly.

After we talked over some things with the landlord and he promised to get us a fire extinguisher, he left and The Gryphon and I walked around the house. We talked about what we might do with the space. I got a nice photo of The Gryphon leaning in the archway between the living room and the dining room downstairs.

Afterwards, we stopped back at my place just long enough to figure out what the movie times were before we went to see Bride and Prejudice at the Plymouth Meeting AMC. This was a Bollywood movie that was inspired by the Jane Austen novel, and it was a lot of fun: very colorful with lots of comedy. Of course, everyone gets married at the end.

We stopped then at IKEA, because I'd promised my sister to pick up a catalogue for her. While we were there, we browsed for things to pick up for the apartment. We probably won't buy anything new until we've moved in and know exactly what we need. And we probably won't buy much in the way of furniture but mainly organizers. The only item of furniture might involve a table to serve as some additional counter space for the kitchen.

As we walked through IKEA, I visualized different aspects of the new place, different things that might help.

Then we stopped in again at my place and filled up my trunk with some things I knew I could live without for a month. We ran them over. Although it was a trunk full of stuff, it hardly took up any space in the new place. I'll be running things over by myself in the mornings before I start work. This will ease the burden when it comes to our major moving day.

Considering how upset Una got when we took things out of the house, and when I moved things myself this morning, we've arranged to leave her with the pet sitter the day of the big move. She worked herself into an absolute panic, trembling and protesting loudly. I mentioned this to my brother's wife on the phone later, and she said that their dog, Pulsar, which is Una's mother, reacts the same way.

I think I'll take Una to the new place soon so she can see it. Maybe we can walk over during one of our walks.

As soon as we got home, there was another reminder of the many reasons I wanted to move. We had so much rain that it came up high enough to put out the pilot light to the hot water heater. Since The Gryphon and I don't have any experience relighting a pilot light, and the instructions looked daunting, we called the landlord and he came over to fix it.

I'm making decent progress in going through my stuff. I'm practically done going through my magazines and am bundling them up for recycling. I shredded so many old bills this weekend that my shredder couldn't take it any more, so I had to unplug it to give it a rest. I'll continue the process later today.

My entire family spoke to me on the phone this weekend. They're all visiting my brother and his family. In some ways, I'm jealous of their opportunity to meet my nephew and spend time with him, but I know that this move will ease my financial burden. This means I'll be able to justify taking a few days off later in the year and traveling up to spend time with them.

Turns out my sister will be moving soon, too, possibly this month. She and her fiancé will be renting a place in Bellefonte that's a lot bigger than the State College apartment they're in now.

My brother, when he heard the news that we'd officially signed the lease, said, "Wow, it's a big year for everyone." I had to smile, because this was the first time I had any major life news in awhile, and I was happy by how excited my whole family is for me. I know they love The Gryphon and wish the best for us both.

It's funny how stressful even a positive change can be. I found myself getting easily annoyed this weekend, and I apologized to The Gryphon for my mood swings. He said he understood. For his part, he alternated between exuberant to subdued.

I remember how scary it was to move here to the Philadelphia area five years ago from Central Pennsylvania. This move will be far less jarring, and I've got someone to help me through it.

Copyright 2005 by Alyce Wilson

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