Vestiges of a New Life

i am slowly sloughing off the vestiges of my old life. Before i get into it, here is the Mary Tyler Moore photo. my mother bought me this big wooden E because we used to watch the Mary Tyler Moore show, and a big wooden M hung in her apartment. It was the first thing she moved in and the last thing she moved out. So, i do the same with my E.



As i suspected, the apartment is humongous. It leaves me with a lot of space that is just... space. Which is nice. Here's the living room.



And as i suspected, Sao LOVES the windowsills! my Wichita apartment had one window, and the sill was big enough for her to stand on, but not to turn around on, or sit on, or lounge on. This apartment has three windows, and all have cat-sized sills.




i actually have a dining room. A room that is for dining. It has a door and everything. It's not a nook. It's a room. i even had to buy a floor lamp to light it. i went with the four-footed one, so that it would be harder for Sao to knock over. So far, so good.



my bedroom. The door on the right goes out to a hallway (with a walk-in coat closet, no less!) and the powder room. The door on the left goes to my dressing area (a dressing area, for god's sake!) and the master bath and walk-in clothes closet.



Here's the view from the dressing area. Big white wooden E and all.



The apartment was expected. Here's my news. Believe it or not (i know, it's a stretch), the truck qualified as a clunker under the government CARS program. It was falling apart, guys. The passenger door wouldn't close unless it was locked from the outside first. It was leaking gas whenever i filled up. It was making knocking sounds over every bump in the road (and in Pennsylvania, that's every 1.2 meters or so). When it rained, it was leaking over the passenger seat. It was rusting, under the frame and into the frame. The gas cap took several minutes to pry off.

Don't get me wrong, i loved that truck. Loved it. Duke. i'll miss you, buddy.

But meet The Black Sparrow...


He's a 2009 Toyota Yaris. Three doors. (Yeah, that took me a minute too... they consider the back trunk a door.) Tiny. Sleek. Fuel efficient. i got $4500 for the truck, which was worth about $50. But to do that, Steve and i had to jump through about 24 hoops made out of beurocratic red tape. Steve is my Toyota dealer. We spent so much time together, we made it to first-name basis. Everything was set on Thursday, but i had to wait for the car to arrive from Jersey. So when the program was suspended on Thursday night, we freaked out. It all turned out alright, but i had a very sleepless night and a very stressful Friday.

i didn't realize how much stress the truck was giving me until i thought about not worrying about it anymore.

This is my first new car. Oh, i've had cars before. But never new. And i have never bought one before. my dad bought the Escort i drove in college, and gave it to me after i split a year's worth of payments with him or so. my dad also found and bought the truck (used) because my credit was so bad at the time. And while i payed for it, and maintained it, it didn't feel like mine, even when we transfered the title to my name.

The Black Sparrow is mine. i don't even think i'll mind making the payments on it. i just love driving it around. It has a CD player. Guys, i've never had a car with a CD player before!

And the back bumper? A blank canvas for new bumper stickers.... mwahahahahahaha.....

It has power nothing. No sun roof, like i've always wanted. No little beepy panic button. But i don't care. He's all mine, and he smells like a new car.

i've been fixing up the apartment, car shopping, and meeting new people in the last few weeks. But i think i will venture into the city on the train this week sometime, and hopefully bring you some Philly photos.