Wait. Let me back up. With Doofus gone, I have fulfilled my 2 year plan in aquiring a real bedroom, where my bed is neither in a corner nor against a wall. Yes--I have detached my bed from every wall in my room, and can now circumnavigate my bed at will.

Stop laughing. This is a serious matter for me. I hate having things above my head when I sleep (headboards, walls, etc) and loathe sleeping next to a wall. I won't begin to describe my hatred of trying to make my bed when I have to wedge the sheets into the bed-wall corner. It's untidy and ugly, for starters. But now, with just a flick of the wrist--poof, my bed's made perfectly and I'm not saddled with sheet/duvet weirdness.

So all's well in my larger bedroom--it comes with a real closet and heat. The good: real closet, heat. The bad: the closet is made for someone over 6', with the rod installed at about 6'3. I get a good workout putting clothes away, but the overhead storage is a joke. Also, I have heat for the first time in two years, and it's taking a while to get used to. Normally, I have blankets and comforters and layers upon layers in a reverse princess-and-the-pea with me as the pea and the cold as the princess and this simile is quickly becoming surreal if not downright insane so I'll quit now...Needless to say, I was cocooned pretty well. But now, it's like the tropics have suddenly arrived and I'm dying from the heat.

Which is a long way of saying I'm not quite used to my new surroundings yet. But I'm aggressively becoming so, because I'd like to introduce a new cat into the house and I should be established before I allow something with territorial issues to take up permanent residence. Y'know?

~~~~~

I spent the holidays with the family, and most of Wednesday was spent fighting the hideous weather that swept Illinois. I chauffeured Cin home from work in Oakbrook and it took over 2 hours to get home, which is a long time to be anxious about the other crazy drivers surrounding our little car. Home was relaxing, full of good food and hard work. My dad and I fixed up a little antique for me to take back to the house, and I fixed up some artwork to make it hang-on-the-wall-able. We laughed ourselves silly on many occasions, broke into song frequently, and laughed at the antics of Panda. She's almost 5...I can't believe it. I wasted my time at the theater Saturday but saw a lot of Pierce Brosnan, which can make up for a lot of poor dialogue and craptastic casting. Sunday, my folks generously drove all my stuff back to the city, where they unloaded it, oooohed and ahhhed over my kitchen's paint job, and headed to Cin's to move a sofabed. They are parents of the year, every year.

I had to hustle back to the city to see Mads, in town for a wedding and to show off her perma-tan now that she's a West Coast Girl. I haven't seen her for forever, so it was great to catch up. I coerced her into taking pictures, so now I will prove that I, along with all sorts of important people, actually exist.

From left: J, Mads, moi, Georgette, in all our pixelized goodness

Then home to rearrange my entire house (minus Charlie's stuff) and watch bad tv movies...and the holiday was over, and now it's Tuesday and cold.