Almost the New Year.

I have NOT found someone to rent my apartment. It's incredibly annoying when people ALMOST finish all the steps and then don't. I'm very worried about not finding someone now, and it's getting to the point of almost-panic. If I don't find someone soon, I'm going to have to pull out of my lease. There's a legal way for me to do so, since I didn't receive this "renter's packet" that everyone is supposed to legally receive. If you don't get it at the time of signing your lease, you can pull out of your lease with 30-days notice. I can't afford (and neither, really, can CA) for me to be maintaining an apartment once we've moved in to our new place.

Speaking of new place, there's much afoot! We replaced a lot of light fixtures etc, and the contractors are there right now, as we speak, sanding and refinishing the floors. There's still several major things left to do before we finish up and move in, but by February 1, we should be moving in. I'm hoping to use the MLK weekend as the moving weekend, so that we'd have some extra time to get ourselves settled before I went back to work. We need to pick out paint colors etc. but thankfully CA took the time off of work this week so we can get things done.

And speaking of CA, I spent Christmas in Florida with his family. It was... intense. Mainly just because it was different from what I was used to. However, it was fun (although, who plays baseball or goes golfing on Christmas? Why is it WARM enough to do that), but I was glad to be home and celebrate with my parents yesterday.

I guess I am just relieved to not feel like I have something I need to do right now. We did laundry and we're laying around watching the Northwestern/Missou bowl game (yessss, big ten!) and listening to music. It's a good time, a quiet time, and really... a time that I really needed.

I have read four books already this break, which has also been refreshing. The best one I read was Unwind, a middle school book but In the Woods was also amazing. Slam was good and the memoir by Hakuri Murikami about running was excellent. I'm excited to continue reading trashy vampire books ofr another week, and working on the house. It still seems strange to say that.

Finally, I spent some quality time both with EPS and ANR. It was wonderful to do our usual Christmas with ANR, complete with diner food, too many presents and very clearly showing that we know each other well. Honestly, I can't complain. Things are quiet. And that's good. Pictures to follow.

More moving miscelaney.

In moving-related news

1. I believe I have found someone to rent my apartment, thank god. And he's totally flexible with a TON of stuff.

2. Contractors will start the day after Christmas.

3. I want it all to be over so that I can just move in and not have to deal with beginning to pack for Florida at my apartment and finishing at CA's. I'm done. Let's just have our stuff in one place and be done with it.

4. I will, however, miss the heated garage. That's amazing.

5. My dad's being amazing and helping us out so much; I don't know what I'd do without him.

Miscelaney

We had big old family Christmas this weekend because of my cousins who work for UPS and their need to be at their jobs super-late for the next three weeks. He always misses part of Christmas in some capacity and so doing it this early meant that everyone could be there for the whole time. But this year he and his wife have twins (who are less than a year old--like 10ish months). Adding those babies to big old family Christmas was hilarious because it's so funny the things that can be amusing with small children. Watching them do the simplest things like unwrap a present or stand up on their own is fascinating. I think it added a new dynamic and joy to the party. Next year, it'll be crazy because they'll be running around all on their own. It's amazing to think about how these things change so quickly.

We brought a contractor out to the place to give us some estimates yesterday and there's another one coming out there today to talk to us some more. We're realizing in some ways just how much this is all going to cost. We're not going to (and cannot) do everything at once, so we're just prioritizing what we can and cannot do. We might be putting hard-wood floors downstairs too as every contractor whose been out has told us that they really don't think the carpet is going to clean up the way that we want it to. It seems like a stupid expense to put in new carpet and then have to re-do the new carpet at some point. It looks like other things (like a king-size bed) are going to need to be put off.

Finally, in other news, I am more frustrated than ever that this year I do not have mystical amounts of money with which to buy my parents gifts. I know that an iPhone and a kindle would be PERFECT for them, but alas and alack...