Somebody keeps getting carried away with the pink grapefruit air freshener in the women's restroom at work. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate it when people "cover their tracks", if you you know what I mean, and I like the scent of citrus. What I don't like is emerging from the bathroom smelling like I just took a bath in grapefruit juice.

I was looking at my office phone list. There's somebody named Robert Bob.

Hehe.

At my new job, when people lay out their fund-raising paraphernalia in the break room, along with a description of the cause and the child who is making their parents do the selling for them, they post a picture of the child. This is a total cheap shot. It's almost as bad as when they come to your door, whispering and looking at their shoes. I mean, how can a king size package of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups be bad when it's coming from a grinning 7-year-old in a cub scout uniform?

Sunday night as I was driving home from the airport, on a highway overpass there was a banner that read:

THIS MONTH IS NATIONAL CHILDHOOD LEAD POISONING AWARENESS MONTH.

So be aware.

Insanity abounds. Deciding to move out, move in, and start a new job in 3 days was admittedly a crazy choice. But like many seemingly insane decisions, it was made out of necessity.

So here I am, sitting at my new desk at my new job in a new town. As glad as I am to have the move done and done quickly, trying to move out and move into a new place in two days is an exhausting task. I literally feel like I was dragged out back and beaten with a bat. Even typing hurts. So I hope you appreciate the pain and suffering I'm putting myself through to bring you this update.

Now I'm not saying that all the work is complete, because it certainly isn't. This morning I had to empty out several boxes to look for things like cotton balls, towels, and moisturizer. And, having not yet been to the grocery store, I had to settle for the old college breakfast of cold pizza. Mmmm mmmm.

Oh well, at least I had a bed to sleep in and a hot shower. Life is good.

Packing update: I made it my goal to get rid of one third of my wardrobe before I moved. Yesterday I achieved it. It wasn't easy. There's those pieces of clothing I keep hanging on to, thinking maybe someday I'll feel like wearing them again. Or the things I love but can't seem to find the right thing to wear them with. Or stuff I'm just hanging on to for sentimental reasons. But I had to remind myself that while I'm sitting around waiting for the right time to wear this stuff again, somebody else could be wearing them now. So, in essence, I'm doing my clothes a favor by donating them to someone who could love them and wear them more than I ever could.

So I did it. And now that adorable gingham checked, seersucker dress I wore for my high school graduation open house is neatly folded in a plastic grocery bag in a cold, damp Goodwill warehouse. (sigh)

I have nothing in my house even resembling a snack anymore and I'm about to go out of my mind. I just stopped myself from eating a brick of ramen noodles. I've deliberately avoided grocery shopping so force myself to eat what I have in stock, but I just can't bring myself to eat frozen peas or any more tomato soup.

Wait a minute! I just had an epiphany! Cereal! Oh yeah. A bowl of Clusters will hit the spot quite nicely....

I'm trying to clean out my cupboards and refrigerator in anticipation of the move. But I think I need to do a better job of prioritizing my efforts. Something tells me the chocolate syrup, potato chips, and that bottle of merlot will travel better than that bag of frozen spinach. But still, it sits there...

So, I can't tell you how excited I am about the new apartment I've found. It's part of a huge, old Victorian home that's been split up into about half a dozen apartments. It's a little two-bedroom place with all wood floors, a porch and a fireplace. The exposed carved wood beams and inlaid floors are going to make my furniture look kind of shabby, but oh well. I've got the George Eastman Museum of Photography in my backyard. And the shops and cafes of Park Ave. are only a block and a half away. And the neighborhood full of gorgeous turn-of-the-century homes is going to be fun to run through. And, of course, the second bedroom will make it all the easier to entertain out-of-state visitors.

The anticipation is building...

As scary as it is to move again, there is one bright spot: I get to say to goodbye to my neighbor with the tacky seasonal decorations. I came home from apartment hunting in Rochester this weekend to find in his yard two four-foot diameter inflatable jack-o-lanterns, a five-foot tall Dracula, and a six-foot-tall Frankenstein.

You can't see me, but I'm shaking my head in resignation.