The New Place

There's no trace of me...

The thing that people don't tell you about your early 20s is that you become an expert at being a ghost. You move into an apartment or dorm, put down a security deposit, and then a few months later, you remove every trace of you. Hair is taken out of the bathtub, that spot on the floor is buffered out, the piles of clothes get packed away in your car. Everything you brought in here, is taken out.

By the time you take the pictures of where you'd just inhabited (just in case your sketchy landlord tries to take you to court), your essence has already been Cloroxed out. You no longer exist here. But if walls have memories, your ghost will haunt this dwelling place. I hope my ghost haunts the places I've been, because for a time I've fallen in love with each place I inhabited.

I've mentioned I'm messy, right?
This is my 'living room'

I told you guys awhile back that I moved away from the crazy neighbors, but I haven't showed you the new place, or told you much about it.

Probably because I'm still going through an adjustment period. Probably, also, because I no longer have wifi at this new place so I sit in the Young Adult section of the local library, hoping that the voices of the kick-ass authors around me will help muse me. (So far it's been working, I think.) This means the blogs you read are usually posted a week in advance now (trying to utilize my time, you know).

Well, Baxter and I live in Poland, Maine now. We live with an older woman, her son, his wife/finance/girlfriend (I'm not sure which so fill in your own blanks), and their son. (That's right, three generations in one house, and me and Baxter.)

Because I'm neurotic and freaked out when they started eating my food, they gave me a mini-fridge to put downstairs (it's the black box on the floor in the picture below). I'm now like a vampire; dwelling in the basement, getting no sunlight. I'm awake at night, mornings are still awful, and I'm still a horrible roommate. To be proactive, I'm trying to keep my head low and just hang out downstairs or go running. If I'm not around you can't fight with me, right?

Look, over there on the left. There's a bed.
Not an air mattress! 

The drive is significantly less to work, so that's nice. They also let Baxter out to pee while I work long shifts, so that's a huge help, too. But my anxiety level has increased substantially. It turns out, I don't like to talk as much as I think I do. Sure, I've been calling my sister for hours every day to chat but it's not talking. I don't like the superficial, "How's your day? How was work/school/etc?" I don't like answering the same thing countless times, "Oh, you know, I hate my job."

It taxes my energy level, and I retreat to the basement to be antisocial. Tell me about important things; politics, the fact the Shell broke the ice in the Arctic and is now helping destroy the world, religion, changing the world...Don't ask me about my day, when it's the same as yesterday.

I know at some point I'll be moving again. I don't know where (especially since I didn't get into TFA), and I don't know when. But at some point, I would like to live on my own again. In the meantime, it's nice to know that while a million things keep changing...

...Some things stay the same

**Note**
If you're a Twitter follower, I said that I was blogging today about Harry Potter. Sadly, the library I'm at doesn't seem to have any of the books, and I like to have pictures on the blog, AND my sister had some issues with getting her picture to me. Stay tuned, the blog post will happen. Sorry if that's what you were expecting today.

Lessons from Living Alone

Packed the car super tight.

As of May 21, 2012, I am the proud renter of my very first apartment! It's a two floor, one bedroom place of amazing. It has a washer AND drier, and a dish washer. And the best part?

NO (CRAZY) ROOMMATES!!!!!!!!!!!! Except Baxter, of course. 

(And the drier is a huge perk. I've been without one since late November.)

So on this adventure, I've started learning some life lessons already. I'm here to impart some wisdom upon all of my lovely followers:

Considering I have nowhere else to put my clothes...
This isn't so bad

Life Lesson #1-Put everything that you can away the moment you move in, maybe even as you bring boxes in. The longer the mess stays...the longer the mess wants to stay.

Life Lesson #2-Wash your dishes before you move. I am currently rocking a sink full of dirtiness, and well, like Life Lesson 1...it's probably going to stay there for awhile. Even though I have a dishwasher, because I don't have money for the fancy liquid.

Life Lesson #3-Make a list of things you need. Prior to this, I've lived by myself for spurts, but usually the place had been fully furnished, or at least had most typical things. Usually the times I'd lived alone, I'd also lived with someone so I received left over toilet paper, dish soap, aluminum foil, etc as they moved out. Here, there is no microwave, no strainer for wet dishes, no light in the bedroom, no dressers. Also, no pizza pans...which out of everything may be the most problematic.

You can't even tell it's inflateable!

Life Lesson #4-Two fully inflated air-mattresses stacked on top of each other is a dream come true. I would have slept really well last night, but  didn't close the bedroom window, and it turns out the train goes by at midnight, and semi-trucks pass all night. Tonight, I'll be closing my window.

Life Lesson #5-With the two-fully inflated air-mattresses, make sure you have blankets that fit the bed. (Mine are currently in storage. Oops)

Life Lesson #6-If you spit on the floor, you're going to have to be the one to clean it (I learned this one today)

Life Lesson #7-It can get lonely, so make sure you have things to do. Coloring books, blogs, novels to edit, books to read, people to text and harass at all hours of the night, running shoes, a dog to play with when you're bored. Oh, and twitter. Need the twitter, always. Also, if you don't own a TV (yea, that's right, I'm old school) an iPod helps cure the quiet.

Life Lesson #8-If Wifi is not included, try to pirate it from your neighbors :)

Life Lesson #9-You can do anything now; walk around naked, towel walk, sleep naked, make stupid faces, have dance parties. There is no one to impress, no one to tell you to put clothes back on. It's rather liberating. (Don't worry guys, naked-ness freaks me out. Clothes stay on, though I am prone to wearing a sports bra for a shirt. Here, my sister won't yell at me :) )

Life Lesson #10-Make it yours. Does my bedroom really need a punching bag stand in it? Probably not, but is it there? You betcha. If you look in the second picture I posted, you can see my Board of Inspiration hanging up already. I also have a closet that's full of CDs. Another closet that's full of shoes--left side is active shoes (skate shoes, running shoes, Vibrams, etc), right side is dress shoes (including the hooker boots).

Overall, I'm stoked about this arrangement. I have to drive close to an hour every day to work, but for $400/month, I'm pretty excited.

Caffeine And Sleep

I'm a hard worker. I'm headstrong, I'm stubborn, and I get things done. I don't let people push me around.

And why does this matter?

Because...
Last night, I left the lovely state of Georgia after a wonderful afternoon later than I meant to. It took 8 hours (and almost an empty tank of gas...scary.) to get home. I arrived at 3:30am. I got Baxter settled back in, and then called New Mike (sorry I'm calling you New Mike publicly if you read this, but I've mentioned other Mike a lot!) to let him know I arrived safely. (I hear rumor he was worried. I have heart problems and took a caffeine pill before departing, which he discouraged me from, and he REFUSED to let me take a second when the first took too long to kick in. The single dose of 200mg resulted in me having a panic attack on I-95N, and not being able to breathe. Lovely....) Then went to sleep.

Less than four hours passed until I had to be up, shower (because I hadn't showered the day before), and get to work by 8am. So, I worked (and got SLAMMED) at the Front Porch from 8am-4pm. I couldn't breathe through most of it. My heart was giving me trouble but I kept on. I've been at Kitty Hawk Kites since 4pm and will remain here until 10pm.

Why?

Because I'm going to Seattle on Tuesday to ideally start the rest of my life. And I am strong enough to work my ass off, and get money to help send me there. I work three jobs to support my writing habit (and my dog). I will get my break, mark my words.

Also. The eye looks much better. Will post a picture sooonnnnnn. :)

Day 12 Of 20

Today is the 12th day into the 20 day project. Here are the standings at the moment:

147 Pages

41,652 Words

I have the day off today, so I thought I'd be able to shell out 20 pages or so (which has become a common occurrence on days off. My dog doesn't appreciate the days I spend at home any more because I'm plugged into my computer. All. Day. Long. Which interrupts his beach playing time. Or fetch. Or begging for food. Or just being pet all afternoon. Okay, you get the idea...) I'm starting to think I'll be lucky to hit the 3,500 word goal today....Here's why:

It's Fat Tuesday. I spent the morning going to Starbucks and McDonald's (SHAMROCK SHAKKKKEEEE!), then running errands with Mike. When I got home, I started washing my sheets and blankets because of my dog, Baxter. Beyond that, I've been trying to prepare my sister's soon to be room (Laura is making the 16-17 hour drive from Michigan to the Outer Banks of North Carolina as we speak). I have massive amounts of A.D.D...

Other than the errands, my loving dog seems to enjoy nothing more than a fabulous romp through poison ivy patches. Hi. My name is Stephanie (Lynne) and I am highly allergic to poison ivy. When I was younger I got it once a year and it was hell. Well...Baxter, my adorable pony sized dog...shares my bed with me (thankfully it's upgraded to a queenish size bed rather than the twin we used to share. That was awful...). Which means, I wake up in the morning with my neck itching, or my arms covered in fresh reddish-pink splotches.

It's gotten to the point I'm considering quarantining myself so I don't have to go out in public. Mike and I talked today and he told me to cave in and take some Benedryl (spelling?)...after a mad search of my messy, messy room, I found it.

Now I'm exhausted. I've even had coffee today (I'm severely caffeine intolerant. One cup of coffee usually means I'm up for three days. Not. Kidding. Ask my sister, I hallucinate). Because of the medication in my system...I'm soooo tired. And I can't even take a nap right now because my bedding is either in the washer or drier. Baxter's head is resting near my leg as I type this. I'm a little jealous that he's snoring. I want to be snoring, or productive and writing.

Let's see if I can focus before passing out. :)