Pen-Elayne on the Web

Vacation, Meant to be Spent Alone

My week off work has come to an end. This is the first time in memory that I've taken a full week off with the intention of doing nothing but hanging out at home, and as usual my best-laid plans went somewhat awry. As mentioned earlier, on Friday, January 31, we got both the reprieve (as the rude upstairs neighbors finally left) and a wake-up call (as our rent increase notice came), so much of this week has been taken up in looking for a new home. We've agreed on a little area in the northwest corner of Staten Island near all sorts of shopping (including the SI Mall) and public transit and the Wildlife Refuge, where the townhouses are both large enough to hold us and our accumulated detritus and inexpensive enough to afford. We currently have a binder on a charming corner unit with a fireplace and a white picket fence and central air and a community pool and room for a little garden and pretty much everything I'd ever dreamt of. So even though I didn't get as much reading and cleaning and resting done as I'd hoped for - and if this goes through smoothly it will be at a breakneck and dizzying pace for the next couple months between the legal stuff and packing and moving so neither of us will be getting that much rest in the short term - overall I guess I'd have to say it was a pretty fruitful vacation.