Weak.

That's how my arm feels! I did not remember a tetanus shot feeling like this. I guess last time I got one, I had earned it and so was more focused on the pain in my pinkie. Stupid sledgehammer. And the concrete block was in my way. And who puts re-bar there, really? At least I eventually grew a new fingernail :)

Ah, Friday. And lawn mower drama.

I took last Friday off and had an awesome day! I got a cute haircut, found a cute pair of boots for $15, had a tasty lunch with my mom and brother at a new restaurant, and had a nice meeting with my high school's headmaster (in which he described my siblings and me as being very different but having a "red thread" which made us all related!). After all that, I headed to the lake house :) So excellent.

I was in such a good mood when I got there that I decided to mow the lawn with our reasonably cranky old machine. I managed to not only get it started, but to mow the front and back yards without much mishap (side note: fire ant mounds make an interesting sound and red cloud when you run over them). While I was mowing, the neighbors showed up and started doing the same. When their newer, fancy lawn mower broke down, they asked to borrow ours. All was going well until...it caught on fire! The grass clippings caught in the blades ignited. Yikes! Glad I was done by then...

Success!

Alright, first, let it be said that I am not having children for a long time! My sister is 15, and it was still exhausting taking care of her for a week. Me with a baby would be no good.

Now, to the cleaning!  I'm calling it a huge success. I have cleaned out the whole closet at my parents' house, which was STILL a lot of stuff even with numerous previous attempts at cleaning it out. I now have a trunk and one of those long, under-the-bed style tupperwares in the attic. And a few more under the bed... But the ones in the attic are really my things. The bits under the bed are just notes from sciency or interesting courses that I'll either keep or chunk one day. If I ever figure out what I want to be when I grow up, I can decide what will be relevant! But for now, I'll keep everything :) Now I'm down to office supplies, a mini disco ball, pink stationery, and other very odd bits and pieces to deal with. Maybe next time...

A mission!

As part of my preparations for moving to Europe, I'm working on purging all the unnecessary stuff I own. Turns out, there's a lot of it! I am a huge sucker for decorative things, and actually do want to settle down someday, just so I can have a place of my own to decorate :) No other reason really motivates me to stop moving.  Just as a side note about how I work: I moved every year in college and have moved 4 times in the last 1.5 years, and that doesn't bother me. I like being in new spaces and tend to get bored quickly with anywhere I live, particularly if I can't set it up the way I like. Another reason my European program is perfect for me-we move to a new country every six months! I do think that the urge to move constantly will go away once I find the place I really want to be, but we'll have to wait and see! I may be permanently nomadic.

But, back to my mission. I've done well with purging stuff from my apartment, mainly because I trim it down a bit more each time I move :) A lot has been pitched or given away, but I have a bad habit of moving things to my parents' house if I'm not totally sure what to do with them. That changes this week. The parents have gone to Europe, leaving me in charge of the little sister. While I am staying at the house, I'm cleaning out my junk. That is my intent. If you don't hear from me in a week, please start searching the basement, then the attic...