Transformations and Tiredness

Yesterday was one of those strange up and down days.  Here's a metaphor:  I made pumpkin butter, the full recipe, which means I have more pumpkin butter than I will eat over the next few weeks.  So I decided to transform some of it into pumpkin bread.  It was a decent experiment, edible, but missing something that I couldn't articulate.

I got some seminary work done yesterday, but I am never as far along as I would like to be.  There are always tasks that need to be done.

I managed to get access to the HR site where my pay stubs from my former full-time job are housed, and while I had the access, I decided to download them all.  That took a bit of time.  It will be valuable, when I apply for unemployment benefits.  But there was something mind numbing about it.

Similarly, in the early afternoon, I got information about married student housing at Wesley Theological Seminary, and I had a nice phone chat with the Director of Residence Life.  She sent a document that has pictures of a 1 bedroom apartment, and she said that in her 7 years of being in the Residence Life department, they've never had to turn students away.

The apartment looks about what I expected:  a bit spartan, with sturdy furniture like one might find in a dorm or at camp.  Our current furniture is a bit scruffy, so on the one hand, it won't be an adjustment.  On the other hand, it's a bit spartan.

I went to the Realtor.com site to see what other kinds of apartments are available in the seminary zip code.  As I suspected, the seminary is a good deal in terms of money.  It's a good deal because the apartments haven't been updated.  But it's not like I've spent a majority of my adult life in ultra sleek, modern versions of kitchens and bathrooms.

The process of seeing what's available in other apartments was draining in the way that internet searching can be.  There's something attractive about being on the campus, after all.  But getting an unfurnished apartment at Wesley is not an option.  I am happy to get rid of most of our furniture.  but we may want to keep enough of it that we would have storage costs or a cramped space.

My spouse and I ended the afternoon by playing Yahtzee on the balcony as the rain swept in and swept out and swept in again.  There was sadness at the thought of not having a balcony in DC.  There was happiness knowing that we no longer own a house in a flood zone.  There was tiredness, both the good kind and the less good kind.

Let me go for a walk and greet this new day.