Remarkably, I did not long for a glass of wine or a cocktail this entire time. After coming home from the hospital, I had very little appetite at all and was happy with just Saltines and Peanut Butter.
And for sure, I was not interested in drinking.
Doug made dinner the other night and asked me if I was going to eat it "since you don't eat much anymore." Well, I'm feeling sick as fuck and food makes me nauseous, and everything tastes weird and wrong, so maybe I will, maybe I won't" was my reply (I did eat, and it was very good).
My drinking lately has been ice water, hot tea, or diet 7-up. Last night we began the sacred season of the NFL Playoffs, so I felt that the three boxes of wine on the floor in the kitchen needed some attention. Geoff had cracked them open so it wasn't much effort.
I like ice in wine, I'm a weirdo, and most of the time I'll mix it with diet 7-up so I don't drink as much. It's like a spritzer that way. Fancy like that.
Tonight I talked to my sister and missed the entire TB/NO game (spoiler alert, Tom Brady wins again!) I just went into the kitchen, everyone is in bed, and the box of wine was emptied of its plastic bag, the last glass was all that remained of the contents. No one put dinner away while I was talking to Linda, so poured the wine, got some ice, I cleaned up, loaded the dishwasher, got everything buttoned up and cared for. Brought the wine in here to the guest room to hang out with me and Big Friend.
Cheers loves. Seeing as I lost 20 pounds, some of that is from not drinking any alcohol. I'm going to try to limit my intake to minimal. Weekends mostly, or something to do while watching our Federal Government get stormed by insurrectionists.
We went and looked at rental houses today, just drive-by visits of places I've been eyeballing on the map. A couple of my favorite ones I've been watching have just been rented out. Places come and go quickly. I figure we have to know what we are doing one month from right now so we need to get serious about finding a place. Doug has been very aloof and detached, and kind of weird. So I was happy that he wanted to go out and drive around and look at places.
One place is a split level, looks huge from the outside. No shed to keep the lawn stuff, and it is at the very top of our price range (my very top is 200 bucks a month more than his very top).
Another place abutted the interstate, so we parked in the cul-de-sac it sits on and listened to the highway. Not too bad but I can imagine engine brakes, car crashes, and horns. Price was very high, not quite as much as the split level but if I'm going to pay that kind of money, the neighborhood the split level is in is so much quieter!
Third place was adorable and delightful. It has a shed, and a 30 ft tall bamboo wall lining the back of the yard which is nice for privacy. Very small yard, nice patio but it is uncovered - no screened in porch like here (boy would that be sweet!) But the backyard is on the east side of the house so the afternoons may not be brutal out there? Price is nice. I'd like an interior tour.
Final place was kind of a hot mess. Great location with easy access to the creek and the walking trails. Fully fenced yard, with a gate in the back that gets you out to said walking trails. Very convenient.
I emailed the guy listing the rental a couple questions the other day. He told me to go by and visit before asking for a tour inside, because a lot of people were complaining it is too far away from the store or the metro. They were telling him it was "isolated" and "remote."
It's perfect, location wise. It is exactly the kind of spot I'd love to be in. So I wasn't buying the "this spot is too remote" thing that people may have been telling him.
Truth is - the place looked a mess.
Broken screen door, no central air (a show stopper for Doug and to be honest, me. It gets hot here in Maryland!) Windows all look like they need to be replaced. It was just shabby and beat up, didn't look at all like the pictures in the online listing. When I'd asked about the AC, the guy said he was "thinking about" installing central air this spring. I'd like to give him a full list of all the things he should do to make it a more appealing rental. I truly think people weren't done in by the "remote" or "isolated" location. They were done in by the place being a dump.
Our property manager right now is just stellar. We have a question, she's on it. We need something fixed, done. I adore her. I kind of feel like the guy would be a slumlord. A shitty landlord. Kind of like the guy we had for the house in Massachusetts we rented.
Us: "Gene, this is broken"
Gene: "Put duct tape on it, it'll hold."
Us: "Gene, an entire step cracked in half and split, and broke, and we can't walk up the stairs without stepping over it. Can you get someone to come over and fix it?"
Gene: "Well, you can pull the step out and bond it with wood glue, and put it back in."
Us: "Well, someone did that in the past, we can tell because of the glue that oozed out all over the place and sucked at holding the step together, this really should be replaced."
Gene: "If you didn't stomp up the stairs so hard..."
Us: "Gene, One of the windows in Jess' room just literally fell out of the window frame. She was putting the window up, and it fell out of the entire frame. Very happy she caught it and the glass didn't break and she didn't get hurt. Can someone come fix this?"
Gene: "Just stick the window back in there and cover it up with that plastic sheeting that you get to cover windows in the winter."
Us: "Hey Gene, we have a yellow jacket problem? Jess moved out, and the bedroom up front is full of yellow jackets. She told me that she used to kill them with a slipper, about 20 a week or so. We need an exterminator."
Gene: "Jess isn't living there any more right? So maybe just close the door?"
I've lived that life. I don't want to go back. No fun.
We will keep looking at houses. Find a place to live, and drink more wine.
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