New place, same face

Well, I'm living in and loving my new apartment! It's small but beautiful, in a building that's on the National Historic Register and right in the heart of downtown in this small city. And the amenities, with the great definition of something that conduces to comfort, convenience, or enjoyment, are such that I haven't enjoyed since being married, long long ago. I have ceiling fans in each main room, an ice maker, garbage disposal and a dishwasher. Oh, I can hear you all laughing from here, but really, these are unheard of luxuries to a poor, single parent! There's also an intercom, an elevator, a parking space right in the back of the building, an exercise room and more. I think I've died and gone to heaven, all for a pittance. My house was ever so much more hassle and more expensive and it had none of those things. Yes, I loved the house but it was a love gone sour with huge monthly expenses, constant repair, cold in the winter, and basement flooded and redone twice. Someone else has my blessing (and prayers) to love the house now, instead of me.

But, anticipating the move, I had a whole new life planned out for myself. I was going to eat only raw foods, a practice which shed (fairly easily, actually) 60 pounds of overweight a couple of years ago. The crushed foot, firing, and generally more sedentary lifestyle had returned them all, of course. I had prepped during April by weaning myself off from coffee. It was a difficult thing that took a full three weeks to accomplish. I've gone off coffee several times before and each time is a horror of migraine-level headaches and violent illness. Coffee, that is, the caffeine in it, really is a drug and gives awful withdrawal symptoms. When I moved, I was ready to begin the raw food diet and also grow greens on the windowsills and sprouts in the kitchen. I was going to walk or bike most everywhere and generally be the most healthy and "green" person possible.

Well, only the greens and sprouts remain, cooked food has returned to my meals, unfortunately. First the coffee returned, a cup or two per day gradually rising up to my normal pot or more. Coffee requires milk in it (in my world) so milk returned, and with it cheese on salads and other digressions from raw foods. Other cooked food slowly returned too, as the caffeine makes me more hungry and have "the munchies" in a way that eating only raw foods does not. (which is why I had to give up coffee-drinking for this diet/lifestyle)

So the same old me is living and enjoying this new place.

As for my son and grandson, after a huge hassle and flurry of activity, he found and moved to an apartment with a friend. His roomie is great, a guy who lived with us about six years when they both were teens, I call him my "pseudo son" and they are like brothers. He does a lot of child care and I do, too. Both he and my son have found good jobs and are working quite a lot, rare for this area of high unemployment. Son and grandson lived with me for nine months in which he did not work. He was resentful, at first about the changes but we all are much happier now. Life is good! Hope yours is, also.