days_unfolding

Mom had Rive Gauche cologne, and I really like it. I was looking for more of it. Kind of expensive though. eBay to the rescue; it has a bunch of it at decent prices.

Hmm. I was looking at a frugal living article, which made me think of the expense of Mom's house. Her electric and heating bills are high. And she has a lot of lawn to mow. Living in Urbana would be cheaper.

I need to wash out the litter boxes today. I have only one jug of cat litter, which isn't quite enough, but I'll go get more after Italian. I need to find the sewing kit that I brought and mend one of my summer blazers.

Suckage. I was looking on Zillow for houses in Urbana, and found some that are exactly what I would want, but the seller wants to sell multiple houses together to an investor. I still would try to buy the house that I'm renting first.

Gardener guy hasn't showed up yet, but that gives me time to make myself presentable. There are small plants growing between the bricks of the patio, and I want them gone. There also is grass between the flagstones of the paths, but I kind of like it and think that it makes the path look older. I'll see what the new real estate agent says. Gardener guy seems to have completely flaked out. He sent me a message a lot later saying that he has an eye infection.

I ran around taking pictures of the inside of Mom's house. It includes all the junk, but I wanted to document it because I want to take some pictures back to Urbana.

Mimi likes to be petted, but she also likes to lie on me, where I can't pet her. It's fun to watch her indecision about what she wants. Sometimes she'll start to climb on me and then turn around to be petted.

A colleague/friend sent me a text saying that she was thinking of me thinking about my mom today. That was nice.

The Fitbit says that my stress management score is "good". That makes me wonder what they would consider stressed out then.

It's a little chilly this morning. That makes me wonder what I should pack for the trip back to Urbana.

My Italian teacher seems to have flaked out too. He popped up and said that he thought that I was busy today. I will be busy next Sunday, so we agreed to have the lesson in two weeks.

I got my new purse, and it's nice and big, and the Kindle Scribe will fit in it easily. And also a print book!

PetSmart closes at 7, so I have time to take a nap. I looked at local Meetups, and there is a lot of interesting stuff going on. Napped. Zara joined me, which is unusual.

I think that I have turned on the lawn sprinkler system. We'll see.

Another thing to think about in the "where should I live" conundrum is that I'd need to go to grad school on campus to get tuition waivers.

Got cat food and cat litter at PetSmart. Got a few things at Meijer, but I forgot to put garbage bags on my list, argh. I could go back later tonight.

Did some dishes. Spilled used cat litter all over the floor when I was emptying the box, aargh! The litter box is soaking.

I'm studying Cantonese and wondering at my sanity in studying it. Nothing is "sticking". The lesson was typically hard. I mentioned to my teacher that I was also studying Italian, and she asked which was harder. Cantonese by a mile!

I think that I'm going to go to sleep and get up early after I put clothes in the wash. I'll pack in the morning.

I think that I found Pottery Barn slipcovers that I like, in oat (kind of a light golden brown). Now I'm thinking that I should put the table with writing in the living room as a writing desk.

Mimi is following me around. It took me two trips to bring my clothes downstairs to be washed, so she went up and down the stairs with me. I told her that was good exercise. Now I'm heating up water for dishes. (Because the hot water is out on the first floor, I have to heat up water on the stove. I'll be very happy to have that fixed.) Got some dishes done and draining.

I'm looking around at Mom's stuff and feeling the enormity of a life.

Mom has some nice travel and art books that I would like, but I'd have to figure out where I could put them. I also found a couple of nice wicker chairs, but where would I have the room? This is hard because Mom and I have a lot of similar tastes in things.

I found a used bookstore that buys books. Mom has books squirrelled away in lots of places. I need to go to U-Haul and get some boxes. I also want to ask Lotus if the Theosophical Society would want some of her books.

Mimi has decided that I'm in my rightful place, snuggling with her in bed. Nap time. Couldn't sleep.

I contacted someone about the pond. The theme right now is getting the yards in order.

I'm waiting for my Kroger order. The guy has been shopping for 40 minutes and I have 10 items? My clothes are in the dryer. My plan is to put the groceries away, grab some clothes to wear later, and take a nap.

I found my mom's address book and am flipping through it. She had originally said that she wanted a memorial service in Chicago as well, but I found only a few people in the Chicago area. I guess that I'll see who I can get in touch with.

Freeze warning tonight?

I'm wondering what to do with stuff like a half-empty bottle of olive oil. It seems like a waste to throw it out, but no one will want it if it's open.

I paid off one of Mom's credit cards. I'll cancel it when the account is officially zero.

I really like the Cantonese teacher. She's very patient and encouraging. She's going to be on vacation for a week, but then I'll book another lesson.

I ran into issues trying to get access to the Chase credit card online. I got the Citi card zeroed out.