Socially Distanced Friends

Today I saw Love Bug in the morning. He was super exhausted - probably from running around so much yesterday - so in lieu of anything too taxing we ate brunch, lounged about watching cartoons, and had a short video call with his grandmother.

In the afternoon I hung out with Joy, Mini T, Belle, and Sebastian. It was nice to see them again. We hung out by the ocean, went on an art walk, and ate pizza.

Belle and Sebastian.

Mini T.

Jellyfish!

Joy and Belle dance party while Sebastian watches.

Mini T in front of a mural.

Baby blowing a dandelion mural.

Masked superhero mural.

Pretty woman mural.

Belle in front of a weird madonna boobs cat mural.

Me in front of a health care worker's mural.

Then I went to the Boston protest for George Floyd. It was peaceful while I was there. Apparently it got chaotic after I left.

Photo of the protest taken by someone else.

Gorgeous Day

Today was super nice out and I finally got to take Love Bug outside in his gait trainer so he could run around. He was super excited. We brought his bubble gun so we could blow bubbles once he tired himself out with walking and he finally managed to hold down the trigger by himself!

Later on in the day, I went on a socially distanced nature walk in Holden MA with Pacman and his housemate. We saw a pretty river, a bunch of lady slippers, and a perfect spider web:

Pretty river.

Lady slipper flower.

Perfect spider web.

What's Up?

Well, a few things have happened since my last post.

This weekend I helped my brother Panda reorganize my old bedroom. His plan is to turn it into a knitting/crafting room for his girlfriend. She is currently away visiting family and the idea is to surprise her with the new room when she gets back. Of course, going through my old bedroom meant going through a bunch of random stuff I haven't looked at since childhood. Most of it is getting donated, but I was excited to find my old seashell collection!

My childhood seashell collection.

What else is new? On Saturday I had socially distanced dinner party with Karaoqueen and a few other friends. We ordered our own personal pizzas and we ate them in one of the friends' backyards. It was really nice to see people in a safe way.

The other exciting thing that has happened is that a 7-3 nursing shift has opened up at my work. Obviously I applied as soon as I saw the job posting. Please cross your fingers for me! The only thing I dislike about my current job is the hours and if I got the 7-3 job it'd solve that issue.

White boy with long hair crossing his fingers.

Socially Distanced Funtimes

In the past few days, I've decided I needed more of a social life. On Saturday I went to the drive through Dairy Queen's with Karaoqueen and we sat in our separate cars and talked to each other through the car windows.

Selfie of me and my friend in our cars. Please ignore my ridiculous haircut and scruffy face.

Then on Sunday another friend and I went for a socially distanced nature walk. 

Friend posing by a fallen tree we had to climb over.

Yesterday I didn't socialize outside of work, but I did do laundry and I've started hoarding leftover cardboard boxes from work for my eventual move. 

Today before work I was social again - I went to Jagged Little Pill, a virtual Alanis Morissette concert with Karaoqueen. The backstory here is that we went to an Alanis Morissette concert (with Garbage as the opener) along with Alice, Plath, and a few other friends when we were fourteen. Going to this virtual concert was like a do-over of our freshman year of high school and it was fun to sing along with all the songs.

Screen shot from the virtual concert.

The other exciting thing of today is Love Bug got a present in the mail from his grandma. It's a tank of fake jellyfish and they change color and glow like a nightlight. He is very into it and now he's got glowing jellyfish to go along with the twilight star projector in his room at night.

Jellyfish glowing blue.

Jellyfish glowing red.

Covid

Close-up photograph of coronavirus. 

So on Monday I learned that ANOTHER staff member has covid. Because this staff member worked with Love Bug, Love Bug is now on covid precautions. This means he can't leave his room even for showers, everyone has to wear PPE when they go in his room for any reason, and I can't visit him for two weeks. I'm not thrilled about this even though I appreciate that they are being cautious.

Also because of the situation, all of the staff at my workplace had to get tested for covid. This morning I went to the drive-through testing site in Lowell, MA to do my test. I tested negative. Phew!

What else is new? Love Bug had virtual appointments with his nutritionist and with the GI specialist. I decided to use the bank's lawyer because it's cheaper than getting my own lawyer. Annnnnnd I got a mortgage quote that was a stupidly low interest rate, which quite frankly might be the only positive thing to happen with covid. I think that's it.

Three Days Later...

The past few days have been a mixed bag, but I'm still very excited about buying my dream house! On Saturday I had a migraine all day and then it started snowing.

Meme of a woman pouring alcohol in a blender that says "Oh look!!! The virus is still here and it's snowing again."

My friend Ganou told me that in France they have an old timey saying: "Avant Saint Servais, point d'été, après Saint Servais, plus de gelée." (Before Saint Servais, no summer, after Saint Servais, no frost.) Basically the idea is that the weather can all sorts of crazy stuff until they've passed the Ice Saints, which are Saint Mamertus, Saint Pancras, and Saint Servatius. Their feast days are May 11, May 12, and May 13 so we're almost there!

Sunday was Mother's Day and I was missing my mom. That's all I have to say about that.

What else happened? I emailed Love Bug's family to let them know about the house and to see if the Mother's Day cards we sent had arrived (they hadn't).

Photo of a house shape made out of construction tools.

Meanwhile, today I had the home inspection! Nothing too surprising, thank goodness. There is a bit of mold in the attic which I knew about and which the seller is fixing. Turns out the soffit vents were blocked with insulation so the attic wasn't properly ventillated - hence the mold. Luckily this is an easy fix. Other findings include:

* The water heater is older and will most likely need to be replaced soon
* The basement tends towards being damp which is not shocking given that it's next to a lake
* I need to raise the mast head on the side of the house
* I should add a chimney cap so water doesn't come down the chimney when it rains
* I need to add a support beam in the basement to reinforce the one that is already there
* There are a couple close-to-the-house trees I should remove
* I should spray for pests
* It wouldn't hurt to add more insulation, either

The end.

I feel like I can handle this list. Nothing on here is particularly expensive and nightmareish. And luckily the water heater is one of the cheaper types. *Phew*

OFFER ACCEPTED!!!

They accepted my house offer! Yay!

Meme that says "Offer has been accepted. So I guess you can say things are getting pretty serious."

Today was my day off so after a long nap, I spent the day hanging out with Love Bug. He was very excited to hear about the house. I had wanted to go outside but the weather was kind of bleh so we played with his music toys and read some books instead. Also, I baked a cake to celebrate the new house:

Chocolate cake decorated with with chocolate chips in the shape of a house.

Offer Is In

Ok. The offer is in. Now I just have to wait.

Black and white meme of a skeleton sitting next to a sink with text that says "Me waiting to hear about a house offer."

The Perfect House

Ok. Today was my first day of in-person house hunting. The first house on the docket was the Perfect House. As soon as I saw it in person I knew this house was the one so I told my realtor I wanted to cancel all of my other showings and put in an offer. We're aiming to get that done by 5pm. Yikes!

My dream house.

Why is this house perfect?

* IT'S ON A LAKE!!! Waterfront property?! In my budget?! What?! Also the lake doesn't allow motorboats so it'll be quiet. I'm excited just imagining the kayaking and swimming and sunsets over the water!
* It is in a small town with a great public school system that has a good special education department.
* It is on a private dirt road with barely any traffic.
* The town allows residents to keep farm animals, including poultry and bees.
* It already has well water and a septic system. All I need is some sort of alternative electricity and I'll be off the grid.
* The house is sitting on an entire acre of land which includes land on the opposite side of the street where the leach field for the septic system is located.
* It's only a 20 minute drive from my church so I won't have to switch churches.
* It's about half an hour from my dad/brother and an hour from Mikey's family, which feels very doable for visits.
* It's a shorter work commute to my current job and it's close to Worcester which has lots of nursing jobs in case I want to switch jobs.
* The house is ranch style with laminate flooring so it's going to be easy to adapt for Love Bug. All I have to do is make the bathroom accessible, turn the front walkway from platform steps into a ramp, and get a hoyer lift.
* It's a three bedroom so there's space for me to have more than one kid if I decide Love Bug needs some more siblings.

The only drawback I can see is that the town is very white. The school does have a diversity council that seems fairly active and they appear to be trying to address racism at all grade levels and among the faculty, so that's good. There is also the option for future kids to use school choice to send them to Worcester public schools, which are far more racially diverse (though not a good fit for Love Bug because of the quality of their special education department).

Kid from "The 6th Sense" with the caption "I see white people" instead of "I see dead people."

Anyway, please pray for me - I really want this house to work out!