It took a little longer than I expected for my furniture to arrive from Bethesda, which is how moving tends to go. I got it on Tuesday evening, and I’ve made decent progress: the furniture is where (I think) I want it, my dishes are in the proper cabinets and clothes in their drawers, my desk is a functional home office. I haven’t gotten to the books yet or hung up any artwork and I need more lighting, having ditched some IKEA table lamps from the old apartment that were neither attractive nor durable, but that’ll come.
I have stalled out a little the past few days, though. Friday I spent the night back in DC for an office holiday party and used that as motivation to get the place functional enough for my stepmom to come dogsit for the evening. I got back Saturday afternoon and haven’t done a whole lot since, unless doing the bare minimum at work today or trying my first Meriden pizza place (Bella Luna, not proper New Haven style or particularly impressive but I’ll keep looking) counts as an accomplishment. No unpacking, no Christmas shopping, no finding perfectly cute lamps.
Some of that, I think, is that I didn’t really get a chance to rest after the election. Most years, that would be a time to sleep absurdly long hours, catch up on Netflix and reading, go out drinking with other people who have made the questionable but rewarding life choice to work in politics, and otherwise do a whole lot of nothing. I took a week and a half off work between the election and Thanksgiving, during which I finished my personal statement, applied to 5 different law schools, packed up my entire apartment, and drove a rental car from National Airport to my mom’s house in eastern Connecticut. Not the most restful of vacations.
And once I got there, I did a lot of moving around. I spent Thanksgiving with my sister and her spouse in Rhode Island. I was hoping to stay with my mom and stepdad until my furniture arrived, but their cat and Molly do not get along, so we got the hell out of Dodge after a couple kitty swipes drew blood. A few days in an AirBNB, when I was being told my furniture would come Monday, then a last-minute Days Inn stay when I finally got a hold of the moving company late Monday afternoon and they told me oops, all my stuff was actually coming Tuesday. (I do not recommend Overland Van Lines.)
But I’m here. A little more tired and with a lighter bank account than I was hoping for, but that doesn’t matter in the long run.
Two of the things getting the most use right now are my beloved Sonos speaker and my electric fireplace. It snowed an inch or two last night and it’s properly cold tonight, which is cause for consternation to Molly, who was made to survive deserts and gives me death stares if I drag her outside when it’s below 50 degrees F. I’m enjoying it, though. Feels like home…and like knowing I’m finally done with swampy DC summers where going outside feels like walking around in someone else’s mouth. The past few nights I’ve turned the fireplace on to warm the house up and get the extra light, put on a good album on the Sonos (a top 10 list for the year is coming, eventually), and relaxed.
Christmas shopping and wrapping will get done, the books will be unpacked, the lamps will be purchased and plugged in. I know I won’t let it go forever. Now and then it’s a good thing to claim a little rest for myself.