I am mostly in a good place right now, and that fills me with a sense of solace and comfort that I have not felt in many years. When I'm in a good place, I tend to write. A lot. Not just here, but in my book and in other ways. I do everything from craft new poetry to make to-do lists and shopping lists. I start feeling invigorated, and I do more things and chores around the house -- faster, and with more vigor. I go to bed at reasonable hours, and I get up early in the morning ready to start a new day. Stuff like that.
Not everything is all good, of course; as I mentioned before, my car has a leaky hose. Looks like it's a radiator hose, as it looks like antifreeze is what's leaking out. The coolant in it is all good and new -- it got flushed and replaced shortly before I purchased the vehicle, and the reserve tank is still almost completely full (after I topped it off about a month ago), so the former girlfriend gave me a bottle of "radiator stop-leak" to put into it to see if it temporarily fixes the problem until I can get the car worked on and said hose replaced or repaired. Either way, it's not a major problem that I'm overly concerned with at the moment.
Last night, when we were moving the cars because of the approaching storms (read: putting hers in the garage and pulling mine up under the balcony as far as possible in front of the garage door to avoid any possible hail damage), I turned on the lights for her so she could tell me if they were working properly. My passenger side high beam was out. I bought a replacement lamp today at Walmart for $10, and she volunteered to help me install it if needed, as she's done it before. Just another little thing that needs fixed on that old Monte Carlo of mine.
Though I will say she did ride in it today with me, for the first time since I put the Decepticon logo on the hood, when we went to Walmart -- despite saying she'd never set foot in a car so nerdy.
Her reasoning? "That's before I was moving out of town. Now that I'm moving to Wichita, I don't care who sees me in your car."
The funniest part about that is that she knows less people in Newton than I do. I at least have a lot of former coworkers here from the newspaper and two or three former students who live in town.
I've started to make a list of things that the house will need once the former girlfriend moves out; some of it's little things that people would take for granted in any other situation, but some of it's rather large and bulky stuff that I won't be able to purchase in person (I mean, I can, but the Monte Carlo is 2-door vehicle with a very small back seat, so I couldn't get it home). Here's the list so far:
1. A can opener (not an electric one, just a manual handheld one)
2. A toaster
3. A blender (eventually I'll need one, I'm sure)
4. Some silverware (possibly)
5. A knife block set of steak knives
6. A tall dresser with 4-6 drawers
7. A smaller nightstand-like dresser with 2-3 drawers, like a chest dresser
8. Cookie sheets, cake pans, and mixing bowls
9. One or two pots/frying pans, hopefully stainless steel
10. A deep fryer
11. A hot-air popcorn popper
12. An upright vacuum cleaner, hopefully a 12-amp bagless one
13. An $80-100 push lawnmower, new (can't trust one from a yard sale)
14. A small folding stepladder (that will actually hold my weight)
15. One or two acrylic (or bamboo) cutting boards
16. The cheapest coffee table I (or anyone else) can find
17. The cheapest futon/couch I (or anyone else) can find
18. Another TV converter box and an amplified antenna
19. Small-ish end tables of some sort
20. A box fan
21. A handheld Dirt Devil or something akin to it (to vacuum the inner stairs)
22. An air purifier of some sort
23. At least one sort of "lounge chair" for the living room
24. A "patio-sized" ashtray (y'know, one of the big ones)
25. A cheap DVD player (possibly needed, don't know yet)
26. A paper shredder with basket
It may seem like the former girlfriend is taking a lot with her when she moves due to the fact that I need most of these things; in reality, note that "a bed" isn't on the list, nor is "a TV," "a microwave," or "a washer and dryer." There are three TVs in the house; she's going to take at least one of them, if not two (one of them is hers anyhow). She has no room for the king-size bed, and she wants to leave it so I have something to sleep on. The washer/dryer she also has no room (and probably no hook-ups) for, and they're very old anyhow -- she bought them on craigslist when we moved out here for about $100. As for the microwave, it's mine anyway -- I purchased it when we were in our last apartment when the cheap, $35 Walmart model we'd had up to that point stopped working. She's also more than likely leaving me an extra desk with drawers and a bookcase/set of bookshelves or two, and will possibly leave me a (very small, but very heavy) loveseat/fold-out couch bed just because she may not want to move it. It weighs about 150 pounds, if not more, because of the fold-out mechanism. Most of the things she's taking I wouldn't need or use anyhow, and obviously it's almost all hers anyhow. I've offered to give her my large TV, as I've said before, which she'll probably take.
As I just have the Monte Carlo and no other means to actually get any of the larger items to my house, I hereby issue forth the following APB -- if anyone out there within reasonable distance reading this has any of the items on my list above, new or used, that you are willing to give to me or get for me (I have an Amazon wishlist with many of the above items on it, if you want the link) I would be more than willing to accept said items from you. You would have my eternal gratitude, and I would be greatly willing to offer you tons of tie-dyed clothing of any sort in exchange, especially for larger items like couches/futons, chairs, or dressers. Keep in mind that, again, I can't pick up the larger stuff with my car -- about the largest thing I could pick up would be a coffee table or end tables, and I may have to remove the legs to get it into the car -- so if you have any of the big stuff, I'll need you to bring it to me or otherwise ship it to me. If you bring it to me in person at the house, I will be sure to also reward you with as much free beer as you desire, as now that I'm single, I again have a reason to drink heavily and will have beer stocked in the house.
(That last part, about having a reason to drink heavily, is mostly a joke. Mostly.)
I'm going to post a version of this list/request on Facebook as well.
Normally I would first start hitting up thrift stores for many of the smaller things, but the best thrift store in town -- our local Salvation Army -- closed down shortly after Christmas. This is disheartening because they always had a lot of good used furniture, including couches, coffee tables, and chairs. The only other real thrift store here in Newton is a place called the Et Cetera Shop, and while they have some decent small furniture at times, most of their space is devoted to donated clothing and antiques-like things. I need to go there anyhow at some point soon to drop off at least two or three big bags of donations, and I may do that on Saturday just to see what they have in the way of furniture items. The nearest Goodwill store? Either in Maize (which has a large one, but is mostly clothing and books) or in Wichita proper. DAV Stores are the same way -- they're all in Wichita too. So, as of right now, I'm pretty much screwed in the thrift store department. That's part of the reason I'm (at least sort of) asking for help. We don't even know any friends that have a pickup truck, to be honest, so it's even more complicated.
The former girlfriend will more than likely find out whether she's gotten into her new place tomorrow morning, and if she gets it, that's when the fun begins.
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