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Getting Situated

General

Now that we are officially moved in to our new place, I am surprised by the fact that I sort of miss the duplex. Well, some things about the duplex. Like the sound of trains late in the night, the reassuring cave-like atmosphere, and, oh, the bathroom! I really miss having a bathroom. To our surprise, when we moved in, our bathroom looked more or less like this, just not as nice:

This is the state it was in today after many, many hours of work by the construction men with blue eyes and white hair who do not speak English. This morning I stopped one of the men to ask if we might be getting a new toilet. He looked at me blankly, so I pointed at the toilet, made a face to show my disdain for it and then jerked my thumb out the door. Then he took both his hands, and moved them from right to left. I figured that meant that a new toilet would be coming, and once it came, would be installed in place of the old toilet. Or he could have just been telling me that sometimes he, too, has arthritis that acts up and makes him jerk his hands around.

When I got home from work, it was confirmed that indeed we would be getting a new toilet and sink, at least as indicated by the absence of the old fixtures. Our landlord called to apologize for the inconvenience of not having a toilet, sink or bath and to assure us that it would all be done–get this–tomorrow. Then she asked how it was working out using the bathroom in the vacant unit downstairs, and because I didn’t want to tell her that it was creepy and exactly the kind of bathroom people are always caught in right before the killer shows up in horror movies, I said that it was fine. But I really miss having my own bathroom… inside my own place.

Amidst all the moving was Alan’s birthday. It just wouldn’t be right in a story involving the both of us if there weren’t some tardiness involved, so I must admit that we took this picture 15 minutes before our dinner reservation. This probably explains why Alan looks like we should not be taking a picture at this time but getting in our car and driving to the restaurant, but that’s okay.

It’s okay because for his birthday, I took it upon myself to unpack and organize, turning this…

…into this:

Last modified: January 10, 2019