Month: July 2021

We moved into the new place officially last week (hooray!), and when the Partner loaded up our bikes on the back of his car to take them over there, I thought how we hadn’t ridden them in a while and that it was funny – at some point, we took a ride on them through the neighborhood of the old apartment, and came home and probably had a shower, and put up our helmets and propped up the bikes, and that was the last time we would ever ride around that neighborhood, but we didn’t know it.

Continue reading “The Last Time” →

During our 3-day vacation at the beach, in between devouring books like ravenous beast, I decided that July will be the Month of Self Care. In the past six months, I have: finished earning the down payment on our apartment; obtained a teaching contract at a new university; just about completed the second year of my masters’; trained to be a speaking examiner for a second international English exam; purchased the aforementioned house; and zipped home to the US to support my father through the removal of his bladder cancer. It has been a damn busy time. One thing I have not done is conceived a child. These 3 days at the beach were well-deserved, but it occurs to me that perhaps that whole thing about stress impacting the likelihood of conception is a Real Thing. Hence: the Month of Self Care. I will exercise, by enjoying meditative walks around the burgeoning countryside! I will eat healthy food, which I will cook in a relaxed manner while listening to podcasts. I will give myself leisurely reading breaks. I will reconnect with friends in this reprieve from the pandemic. I will calmly and methodically move my possessions into the new house, resulting in an organized and peaceful space. It will be delightful and restorative.

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We’re getting verrrry close to moving into the new apartment (!!) minus one small kink: there is no electricity there yet. I’ve been so focused on getting all of our stuff moved over there and organized, and the fact that the electricity has not been activated yet (despite the fact that we were assured that it totally would be, seriously don’t even worry about it, ragazzi) that I sort of haven’t even processed that once we move, we won’t come back to this other apartment any more. I mean… obviously. But we have spent almost a full year going to the new place on weekends and in spare moments to check on its progress, first as a construction site and then as one or the other of us moved a few items or unpacked a few boxes, that it almost feels like playing house over there. It doesn’t yet feel like we will sleep there (probably also because our mattress is still here) and have breakfast there and start our workday there and look out those windows and not come back here and look out these windows anymore. (Yes, I definitely have some sort of thing with windows.)

Continue reading “Little happy moments: Mornings at the old apartment” →