Happy Memorial Day!

Hello good fine people of the world wide web... how is your Memorial Day going? Mine started off crazy busy, and has slowly segued into nice and relaxing... everything a Memorial Day weekend should be! And the weather is G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S. Warm, sunny, clear skies... perfect Memorial Day weekend weather!

Well, we got our new carpet installed on Friday, and let me tell you, it was an ORDEAL. We had to essentially pack up our entire apartment and move everything either onto the balcony or our bathrooms. It was not easy, and it was not fun. I slept very little on Thursday and Friday night, because I was so busy frantically packing and unpacking my entire room and all of my stuff in the other rooms in the apartment. The carpeting guys were kind of jerks and seemed agitated that we had not moved everything out of the way before they got there, but there was just some stuff that we could not physically lift ourselves, and they copped a bit of an attitude about that. Most guys would be honored to help two fine ladies move furniture and heavy boxes, but not these guys. It took a lot longer than we expected- they didn't leave until about 2:30- and the rest of Friday and Saturday was devoted to piecing our apartment back together, unpacking everything, multiple trips to storage and trash bins, etc. On a really hot day at that. It wasn't fun!!! I was more than happy for it to be over! And I will say this- it is a very nice carpet. It's very soft and comfy! I don't know if it was quite worth all the hassle my poor roommate and I had to go through, but it is nice.

We took advantage of the fact that all of our stuff was in disarray and rearranged the apartment a little- we moved furniture around to make the apartment look more spacious, and we set up a "Reading Corner"! We took an armchair and angled it at a corner of our apartment, and it's right next to all of our bookcases, but still in view of the TV. It's not finished yet because we haven't organized our books yet- my roommate and I are both out of shelf space, and need new bookshelves- but once we have it all set up and organized, I'll post a pic! Needless to say, I am very excited for Reading Corner. :-D

I also cleaned out and reorganized my room, threw away a ton of old stuff that I'd been hanging onto for years, organized stuff like photos and cards, etc. My room looks amazing! I can't remember the last time I had such a clean and well-organized bedroom. Want to take bets on how long it lasts? ;-) Nah, kidding. I'm really going to try to keep it this way.

While I was going through a bunch of old stuff, I came across a birthday card that my dad had given me about five years ago. It's beautiful. It's black and white with a flower on it (not sure what kind- an orchid maybe? I'm florally deficient), and on the front it says, "Savor each day for the gift that it is." I read it and immediately started to cry. It made me thank God that I'm a pack rat who holds on to everything. And in light of everything that's happened this year, that sentence couldn't be more true.

I had my room all finished up by Saturday night, and I've spent the rest of the weekend thoroughly exhausted!!! I did manage to make it to the gym today- first time since Wednesday, and I'm glad I went, I was itching to get there!- but my legs were definitely sore after my workout, and the rest of the afternoon consisted of sitting on the couch and watching the Phillies beat the Yankees (in a nail-biter game.... they won by one run in extra innings!!!). It felt so glorious just to park my ass on the couch and be completely lazy. :-) Okay, not completely lazy... I did do laundry and change the cat's litter. But it took effort!!!! I had no idea how physically exhausting and mentally taxing the whole carpet ordeal would be. It was basically like moving, only I didn't go anywhere- I moved into the same damn apartment! I hadn't thought there would be so much involved, honestly. I definitely underestimated the work that would need to go into this- the apartment complex had given us a checklist of things to do before the carpeting company got there, but it was extremely vague, like "clear off bookshelves", "unplug stuff from walls", etc. Nowhere did it say, "Put everything you own into boxes and move them into bathrooms or the balcony." It did say we had to get our stuff off the floor, but where are you supposed to put an entire apartments' worth of boxes if you cannot use your floor? Should I have waved my magic wand and had all the boxes suspended in the air, a la Harry Potter? Seriously! I'm either seriously lazy or a serious baby, because I feel like at this point, I should be recovered from it all by now. What's wrong with me??? :-D

I've really gotten into The Feminine Mystique, as much as I could this weekend, anyway. Last night I climbed into bed with every full intention of reading, opened my book, and realized that I was too mentally and physically exhausted to concentrate on processing words. :-D Oh. My. God. This book is SOOOO good! I'm still a little too worn out to get into the details right now, so look for a more thorough and competent review tomorrow. Right now, I'm still feeling tuckered out from the weekend, and am just ready to park my booty in bed! ;-D