Real Estate Acquisition

    I apologize for my silence. There's an awfully good reason for it.
    I've been out acquiring real estate. Not in the traditional sense, mind you. I am now, in a sense, "living in" four different places. Confused? Yup, me too.
    I still have things at the house—the marital abode. The soon-to-be formerly marital abode, actually. But that's another story, and one into which I chose not to get. There's not much of mine there, but what is, is heavily laden with emotion. And, unfortunately for me, stuff that I might want rather soon, e.g. Christmas ornaments and a tree. (Rats!)
    There are also things in my apartment, as one might assume. That's the 1 BR lower, into which I moved in the middle of November.
    Alas, I'm still staying with my friends.
    And yesterday I signed a lease on a bitchin' 2-BR in a security-controlled building with an elevator that's 4 blocks from work, to which I'll take possession on 12/15.
    More confused??
    Here's the deal. The smaller apartment is too small. I got my stuff in and realized that I couldn't live there without feeling like I was in a box. There are some other things wrong with it—I'm not entirely sure that it's habitable, really—but the basic issues are the size and the fact that the chicks upstairs smoke, so each time the heat turns on there's a blast of menthol smoke. [Gag] So I moved my clothes out almost immediately. And I've been stopping by periodically to "visit" my things, but I've been living at the condo. It's a weird situation, and it's definitely uncomfortable in a variety of ways—not least of which financially—but it's not unheard of for me to make seemingly permanent decisions only to back out of them less than a month later. I've taken a few jobs that I've not begun....
    So I called the landlord at the smaller place on Friday, to talk to her about canceling the deal. Fortunately, we hadn't signed the lease yet. (Long story.) She called me back today—that's a rather odd bit, but it made sense to me and that's really all that matters—and everything's going to work out fine. She was actually very nice about it, and apologetic for it being too small! She's the sweetest thing, so I was just glad that it worked out.
    I'll pack up the rest of my things from there on Thursday night, I think. And then as soon as the chick's out of the bigger place, I'll rent a truck, rent some guys (why do all my really good male friends live in other states??), and move. Again! But I'll be moving about 5 blocks. Which makes it easy, and yet idiotic at the same time. (And so a classic Amy maneuver.)
    This is good news, though. I'll be settled. I'll be out of the way of my friends, who've been more than generous and gracious with me. I'll have my precious cable internet (and so I'll be posting a lot more). I'll be living with at least the great majority of my things, for the first time in a long time. What, stability? I don't think I remember what that is. I look forward to becoming reacquainted.