A Done Deal

It's official. We're homeless. That sounds so dramatic, doesn't it? Thanks to the infinite generosity of my sister and her husband, we aren't homeless - we have a nice sturdy roof over our heads. But now we are house-paymentless - which is a remarkably good thing. We're scheduled to see a boatload of houses with our realtor this weekend, but there's really no rush, is there?

I sat at the closing amd cried into a pile of tissues and refused to look at the two new faces that will be living in my house. They had tons of nice things to say about our taste, our decorating, our style. But I still wanted to stab them repeatedly in their smug little faces. It was a painful moment, OK?


The weekend we spent in the 'burg was full of typical Steele family drama. Jay and I both left the beach last week with an annoying cold. That annoying cold decided to kick it up a notch the day we were supposed to start moving. We discussed calling a moving company and hiring some men to come help us because we both felt SO miserable. But we soldiered through it with the help of cold medicine every four hours. We would have been sunk without the help of our buddies, A and N who gave up their ENTIRE weekend to help us out. I treated them to as much food as I could, but I have the feeling they were both feeling the pain on Monday morning.


Meanwhile, back in Richmond, the baby girl woke up Friday with her eyes glued shut with mucus. Apparently her parents had passed their nasty germs onto her. And Saturday, the Ya-Ya woke up with it, too. Somehow Ya-Ya made it through the weekend and saw Lois safely through her first cold. As miserable as I was in Christiansburg, I was kind of glad not to be witnessing my sweet little bean with a snot trail from nose to ear. Give it up to my sister who managed to help Ya-Ya, serve a breakfast for company on Sunday, get a week's worth of laundry done, and keep me updated on the dramatic going's-on. You go, girl. Thank goodness for you, as usual.

Moving the blasted TV from the upstairs bedroom proved to be one of the most difficult tasks of the day. Our buddy A was actually the one who - with the help of his brother - got the TV up the stairs three years before. At the time, he suggested we open the window and pitch it out when it came time for us to move. Well - that time had come and here we were asking him to move it back down the stairs. Poor guy. Somehow he and Jay managed to get it done, but it wasn't pretty. Wasn't graceful. And was sometimes difficult to capture on film. But they felt good when the job was done.

My buddy A's birthday is this weekend, and unfortunately, Jay and I won't be able to be there for the big shindig. I bought a cake for him from our local bakery - where they know me by name -how embarrassing is that? - and we had a small celebration in our living room floor on Sunday. It was a drop in the pan for what we owe him. Happy Birthday, friend.

You make me feel old, kid. REALLY old. But I love ya.

So we're residents of Richmond now. But our hearts? Well, they're still back in Christiansburg. It may take them a few years to catch up.