Homecoming

In a mission to avoid the food-crusted-on-as-thick-as-mold-on-old-coffee-filter-stove at 518, I jumped at the opportunity to go to London for a couple of nights when Courtney invited me.

So on Tuesday night we boarded a surprisingly packed 10:30 p.m. bus, and spent the next day lounging beside her Dad's pool before Brie's "Goodbye London" party.


Yay! Friends!

All my commentary about the night is being self-censored.

Basically, it was a lot of fun, and I missed my 11:30 a.m. bus on Thursday morning.

A little woozy, I went home and dropped off my bags before I headed down the street to my new home to see it for the first time.

Yes, that's right, the first time. Oh, and did I mention that I was scheduled to move in for the following morning and had never seen my room before, even in pictures? True story. I'm adventurous like that.

Here's the deal: My new roomate, Natty*, has been in Europe all summer. Her old roomate, Brooke, is going overseas in a month (she's living here until the start of October). But I needed a place to live and Natty needed a roomate. It seemed like a sweet deal when I heard about it (washer & dryer, patio, sunroom, living room, 1 and 1/2 bathrooms, two floors, right on Queen Street West) so I jumped on the deal and agreed to live with her without ever seeing the place.

Until the day before I moved in. Natty warned me on the phone, "Your room needs to be painted. There's spackle on the walls." I thought she was just being picky or exaggerating and figured the room probably didn't really need to be painted.

Until I saw this. And then I noticed the 20 foot ceilings. And wondered how I was going to possibly paint them. And then I noticed all the random screws and nails in the walls."The light's burnt out," Natty told me. Icing on the cake.

I cried a little. But just on the inside.

Fourteen hours, two coats of butterum paint, multiple bruises and three hundred dollars later, it's starting to look a little bit more like home. However, the lightbulb is impossible to change--we couldn't get the fourteen foot ladder I rented (and hauled all the way home) up the stairs. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know! (There's a screw in the ceiling, so there must be a way to reach the top of a 20 foot ceiling without a ladder!)

This puts the massive ceilings in perspective. Yet another room without genuine windows, but it's still a step-up from my den of a room in China.

Once we get the place put together I'll post more pictures.

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*Fun fact: I pronounce all double "T"s as "D"s. Kitten=Kidden. Little=Liddle. Little Kitten=Liddle Kidden. Natty=Naddy. Kind of embarassing when you're living with someone you've only met roughly on three occassions prior to living with them.