Abbie's Real Life Blog

First day after Labor Day, a time when everybody pretends it’s getting close to autumn instead of continuing to celebrate summer, even though summer will last for another three weeks.

Or maybe it won’t!  This year’s super cool summer weather in our part of the world has resulted in some tinting of the trees around here.  Autumn is closer than usual this year.  I will have to get out and do some photography before the leaves blow away.

I had a pretty good weekend not going to Nebraska.  There was plenty else to do.

Tracy had to move this weekend.  It was a whole big saga, with raccoons coming through the roof and the landlord declaring bankruptcy so the bank would foreclose on the pretty Victorian house where she moved earlier this summer.  Apparently, she could have stayed out the lease (protected by the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act signed by Obama in May 2009), but the landlord had effectively given up on the property and the raccoons were having their way with the place.

She moved about a mile away, but it’s a much nicer, quieter, less hipstery neighborhood.  The apartment is a real apartment in a post-war building rather than in a cut-up old house.  She has a real maintenance staff, laundry facilities in the building, and she’s still close to Westport and the Plaza and work and all the good stuff.  There are some minuses, but I think the pros outweigh the cons.

I went up on Friday night and stayed until Sunday, helping out with the move, and when I left on Sunday, she was completely out of the old place but not actually settled in the new one.  She worked on it on Sunday and then came to Columbia on Sunday night and stayed until Monday evening.

I spent the rest of my Sunday finishing painting the living room wall (the one that was red and then was blue, and is now brown) and the hallway.  I am happier with the warm beige now that it’s finished.  The trim could use a touch-up but that not a goal for now.  Maybe I will try cleaning them first.  I certainly won’t do anything about it until after I have the floors redone, if that’s actually going to happen.

I also spent too much money at the Gap Outlet in Odessa and bought a floor lamp that doesn’t work (but it was only $5).  In all, it felt like a pretty major weekend.

And now I’m at work in new clothes, feeling very autumnal because my new pants are knit plaid, but they’re very subtle and dark gray/black, so I don’t look autumnal.  I just look normal.

And I’m obviously getting sick!  I sound terrible, my voice several octaves lower than normal.

So it’s a great way to start out the post-Labor Day end-of-the-year.  Did you realize that it’s also the end of 2009?  Welcome the beginnings of the End of the Decade pop culture-y wrapups that usually come with this territory.  I can’t quite believe it’s the end of a whole decade.

Meanwhile, I am looking forward to finishing things on my Quarterly Resolutions list, and thinking about the things that I want to put on the new list that will begin in October.  I still have a lot to do if I want to finish the stuff by the end of September.