The carpet strikes back…

The Carpet Strikes Back… a thank you… and more…

To begin with I would like to thank all of you for your outpouring of support in response to my last blog. I really feel loved and supported, which is more helpful than just about anything else! My absence from posting was due to a combination of the final chapter of the carpet saga and planning our wedding/honeymoon.

So, we were told at the end of last week that the icky, yucky, blucky carpets would be gone at the end of last week or the beginning of this week. Weeell, they came out today. Sadly, all of our stuff has been in the family room all week while we waited, and we had to sleep in the living room last night in order to insure the furniture was out of the rooms. (By the way, we will be finding an alternative bed for guests, our futon sucks!! I heartily apoligize to any friends who have already learned that. Sorry Luke!!)

But today the carpets were removed to uncover a decent, though heavily stained, wood floor. I have spent the better part of the day mopping, sweeping, and steam cleaning the wood. I have also removed little pokey things (staples and nails), and tiny remaining tufts of carpet that were stuck to the wall. The rooms look better. They do not look great but they are no longer covered by stinky, ugly, dirty, lavender carpet. (YAY!!) I am now completely spent.

Our landlord came by today to haul away the carpet. He missed some, of course. One of his biggest arguments in this carpet debate is that we have pets who will simply ruin any new carpet that comes in. Now our pets are good. The girls have occasional accidents, but given that we are fencing the backyard and I will be able to let them out whenever they need to go, there should be no issues here. My cat, Chloe, has never peed anywhere. That is until this morning, when she objected to the carpets remaining as long as they have by peeing on the one in the hallway. So the carpet removal crew informed my landlord that the carpet was wet, and he gave me a very triumphant look. I responded by stating the obvious. That pets, no matter how well trained, will spray when they encounter another pet’s urine smell, and that poor Chloe had restrained herself for over two weeks. Happily for me, the carpet removal crew agreed that it is nearly impossible to stop your pet from peeing on a carpet that is covered in a different animal’s scent. My landlord grudgingly agreed, but I am positive he expects my pets to ruin the carpet in the family room. Sigh.

I am settling in a little better, the challenges of the last two days have kept me from feeling quite so “desperate”. I vacillate between wanting to stay at home and wanting to work. I really would love to write an article for publication, or maybe even a book. I would love to do crafty stuff, and volunteer for some good environmental causes, learn to cook Indian food. I would also love to take on a new legal challenge or several, and earn some money after years of incurring a massive debt. It is really hard to figure out what I want to do.

Luckily, I have some time! Tonight I am making chicken curry for the first time ever! Off to counquer the kitchen! Thank you all for your helpful suggestions and love! I miss you!

Denver Girl, signing off!

Desperate Housewives…

Desperate Housewives…. suddenly I relate.

I didn’t watch Desperate Housewives when it first came out because I thought it was a reality T.V. show. I didn’t want to spend my time watching a bunch of suburban women cheating on their husbands or doing whatever other idiotic thing the reality T.V. guru’s decided to offer as entertainment. However, one night, on an airplane to RebLaw 2006, I saw the pilot episode on the plane. I was immediately entranced with the story and proceeded to Netflix the hell out of the first season. The show was so wonderful, the characters so real. I really sympathized with the women in the show.

Well, I watched more of it today while I was cleaning house in my suburban home, on my quiet street, while my husband takes over corporate America. The show really hit me hard today, I really felt as though I understood it on a whole new level. I left behind almost all my close friends, my family, and my connections. I left my career at it’s very inception. I spent my day cleaning my living room, unpacking boxes, and attempting to entertain my small daughter with a variety of learning games. I began to feel really desperate!! All of the sudden I had an image of my days, spent like Bree, smoothing out wrinkles on the bedspread. Espescially now that law school has instilled in me a very obsessive compulsive streak.

Now I know, logically anyway, that I am not actually going to turn into a character on Desperate Housewives. I also know that I have been in this postion for a week and a half, and my sense of unease is compounded by the fact that our house is still unpacked. I also know that having nothing to do but clean the house and entertain the child is a contributing factor to this feeling. However, despite knowing this, I felt so incredibly lost today. I have got to find a job. I am afraid I am going to lose my mind if I am not doing something while Monkey is in school all day, at least until the baby gets here.

Well, thanks for listening to me rant,

Your Denver Desperate Housewife, in Jersey.

Flesh eating bugs

The one where they get eaten alive by mosquitos…

Monkey and I are covered in mosquito bites. We simply can’t seem to avoid the blood-sucking parasites. Every day I douse the two of us in Off, and every day we have little red nibbles all over our legs and ankles. I even get bites on my feet, the bottoms of my feet!!! It is so bad I am considering getting a pet bat. Yes folks!! A bat! I am thinking about buying a bathouse and placing it on the roof. Maybe attracting a few bats to the yummy bug smorgasbord that is my backyard.

New Jersey is teeming with life! Creepy crawlies abound here. I encountered the largest free range spider I have ever seen in my gardening shed. Consequently, I will not be entering the gardening shed, of my own free will, again. It was easily the size of a silver half-dollar, and that was just it’s vile, fuzzy body. Yeehhehhh. I saw it, it saw me, but I was out of there with the door slammed securely shut before it could act on any plan of attack.

We have crickets, fleas, ticks, mosquitos, grasshoppers, spiders, tiny little red bugs, and god only knows what else! I definately need a pet bat. Granted, owning bats as pets is generally a bad idea, and some of the rarer species are illegal pets, but I can certainly build a bat house and try to lure one of them to me. Here little bat, come eat these lovely bugs, check out the spider in the shed, come eat at McMisty’s!!

We have got to do something. I could put up a bug zapper but I am afraid it would be so busy killing bugs that it would keep the neighbors awake, or maybe blow the neighborhood power grid. (Which seems a little dodgy anyway, given we have lost power several times in the 12 days we have been here.)

At least Monkey can enjoy catching bugs. And we do have an abundance of butterflies and fireflies, so I shouldn’t complain too much; BUT THE REST OF THEM ARE ICKY!!!

Off the bug topic, we are settling in. The final chapter of the gross carpet saga will be resolved this week, and we will be able to get our stuff moved in and set Monkey’s room up. Finally. We will be able to hang up and put away our clothes, and get all her toys out, and have a house, wherein we can actually live.

I am going to go spray some more Off! around,

Your Denver Girl, signing off.

Managing life with chronic illness requires savvy spoons

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