It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp

Hey kids.

Back to normal... sort of.

I am now officially cohabitating. I don't think it has sunk in yet. Right now it feels like large-scale playing house. Instead of contemplating what it means to be living with D, I am searching endlessly for the perfect bookcase and slickly-designed alarm clock that also indicates the weather outside. These are things that only a true adult should own. Suddenly I feel like a grown up, and I don't seem to mind at all.

D is taking things to a whole separate level, the level on which one wants to purchase new knobs for the kitchen and bathroom sinks, re-tile bathrooms, and buy a surround sound system for the apartment. "Go nuts, honey," I keep saying, "but I'm not sure we really need to dismantle the non-functioning filter system under the sink just because there's a random thing sticking up from the sink that I hadn't even noticed until you mentioned it."

The move went smoothly.

We woke up early on Saturday morning. I finished the little last-minute packing that remained while D emptied his apartment with the help of his friend S and The Boss (yes, folks, my boss helped us move - I think I am the luckiest employee of all time). They arrived at my apartment at around 10:00, discombobulated, saying "We don't think it's all going to fit. We may have to do two trips..." But The Boss said "No! I will make it fit!" And make it fit he did! It was miraculous. My friends M and J showed up to help, and we all decided that if/when we get laid off, we should start a moving business. I will pack (I know, I hate to pack my own things, but I am actually quite good at packing boxes), The Boss will coordinate all goings-on within the truck, and the science-boys will provide the labor.

(Sidenote: I was having agita the entire time the truck packing was going on as I did not want The Boss to see my, ahem, unmentionables. D had said "We'll lift the dresser with all of the drawers in it since your clothes are so light..." so I hadn't emptied the drawers of their contents. The boys, of course, decided to remove the drawers and thus my, ahem, unmentionables were sitting there on the sidewalk for all to see, including The Boss, which is just, well, weird. Luckily M took charge [although still weird for your coworker to be in charge of your, ahem, unmentionables, but not as weird as having your boss see them!!!] and made sure The Boss never saw them.)

The move in took about 20 minutes, as our friends T and T had shown up by then. Everyone was gone by noon. D went to help M move a TV from his apartment, while I stayed behind and did fun things like putting up the shower curtain and arranging my shirts by color in my closet.

When D returned, we ordered burritos and then put the bed together. We did not take a nap. We arranged the bedroom and got giddy and excited and frustrated and tired and thrilled. We hooked up the TV. We went back to my old apartment and rendered it immaculate. We started to organize the kitchen but I got irritable at around 8:30 after having eaten only a burrito that day and begged that we take a break for food. We got wraps and watched a bit of Andromeda Strain before falling asleep.

D went for dim sum on Sunday morning while I unpacked. When he asked if I minded, I explained that I love unpacking just as much as I hate packing. I put more clothes in closets and consolidated and threw things away and did jumping jacks in the shower because its a reasonable size and has very hot water and very fierce pressure!

I went to the grocery store to fill the refrigerator with goodies like juices and cheeses. I watched the entirety of Hustle and Flow despite meaning to watch only the beginning.

D returned and I had my first awareness of actually living together.

Normally, when D would be coming over, I'd know he was coming over. I'd be prepared. I would know that we would be hanging out. I wouldn't be doing anything else.

When you live together, it's not like that! I didn't know if I should drop what I was doing in order to hang out with him, or if I should be unphased by his arrival, or do some combination of those two things.

Weird, folks.

It ended up being a combination.

We unpacked more. We went into super-productive mode and sanded the bathroom and relocated the medicine cabinet and put things into closets and marvelled at how our combined belongings seem to be greater than the sum of the individual parts. "Everything fit in our old apartments where we each had only one closet... how is it that the things won't fit here in three closets?"

We made piles of books because we have nothing to put them on. We oriented the couch. We established that we cannot steal cable (although we seem to be able to transmit better network reception when the cable is plugged in). We ate delicious Thai food right on our street. We looked online for CD storage options. While watching the rest of Andromeda Strain, we ate cookies in bed because we can.

I fell asleep before the movie ended because I was watching TV from my bed, something I've not been able to do in my adult life.

I am at work today feeling slightly normal (last week was a daze) and only slightly worried about the status of the old apartment. I keep wishing, though, that I was at the apartment. D feels the same way. We are both very happy.

The only thing that is making me slightly unhappy is the fact that D's mother is not happy. He hadn't told her we were living together because he hadn't had time. She was apparently not surprised, but was disappointed. D said "She needs some sort of approval from your parents."

"What do you mean?"

"About us living together. She asked me if they approve."

"Oh."

"I told her that your brother and sister are already living in sin, so they already had time to deal with it."

"True."

"I don't know. I don't think she'll approve of anything I do unless I go to medical school."

"I'm so lucky," I said.

"Me too, because I have you and the support of your parents."

Awwww.

I am lucky, though. I'm sure my parents are less than thrilled about my living with someone, but because they are thrilled that I have found someone that makes me so happy (and because they adore D), they can't be anything but happy. I appreciate that about them. I really do appreciate that they haven't said anything about it. And I appreciate their enduring the fallout that they will receive from The Grandparents when The Grandparents find out. And I appreciate Father asking to talk to D on Saturday to tell him that he's happy for us.

Yes. This is good. I have no doubts about this at all, which is a new feeling for me. Yes, this is good.