1,004.08

I'm literally doing nothing but waiting to leave, now. I've deconstructed my room to its bare essentials. I gave Kevin, the new guy in the attic, the big bed and will spend the rest of the month on my old mattress. My mom's taken a lot of the big set pieces like the TV and such. No art on the walls (but plenty of nail holes). It's just me, Holmes and the record player. It feels nice. It feels clean. Today I paid my last $500 of rent and told Paul that I'd be leaving on the 30th. He made me put that down in writing, than said something racist about the Middle East to send me off with. 

I'm also putting my phone into suspended status, which comes with a small monthly fee but bypasses the reactivation / new plan activation fees that I'd be facing next fall (and the guy threw in unlimited texting for the same price as the 450 text-per-month plan I was currently on). 

E-mailed Janice at Global Ed with a status update and she said everything looks clear so far. Still waiting on financial aid to help with the tickets and insurance. Then I'm set. Probably going to spend the last weekend of January up at Mom's because it's her birthday on the 28th and all. I get the feeling she's gonna cry like she did when I left for Sonoma State, bless her heart. It's only seven months.

Midtown is fantastic and it will be missed.

Yesterday I woke up with plans to go to Wells Fargo for rent cash. Crisp weather. Wore the scarf. Made a stop at Old Soul for a coffee before the walk, saw Nic working with old Mort, who was wired as a terrier, over-stimulated by everything. Say hello to Robby. Notice increased excitement in voice when telling him about Istanbul. Wave to Daniel over at the roaster, leave the coffee-shop, put on sunglasses. Bronywn sneaks up on me. "You're just gonna leave without saying goodbye?" she says. It's good to see her. She gives me a ride to the bank in her new toaster-shaped Scion with a bad-ass looking factory stereo. She's tired from a New Years catering gig. We say goodbye. I wait in line for a teller, make small talk and ask for large bills. Walking home, I don't give change to a homeless woman listening to 90's alternative on her battery-powered radio. Somewhere near the Sandwich Shop, I cross paths with Lance who hadn't been sure it was me since spotting me near Pete's. We small talk about Turkey and head back to Old Soul. I'm still nursing my coffee. He goes inside for a drink and I go home to pay my rent. Paul's not there. Granted, it's still early, so I grab my laptop and backgammon set and head back to Old Soul to do some writing. I give it an hour or so and head home, but Paul's still not there. For a while, I get a little stoned and watch Final Destination 5 and make maybe-plans to hang out with Chris and Katie later, since they still have my Kermit sweater. My new upstairs housemate, Kevin, texts me to see if I'm available for the mattress exchange. We hang out in his room drinking English oatmeal stout and sampling his herbal selection, talking about traveling and some additional details of Kevin's colorful history. We move the mattress. Kevin does most of the hard work. I replace the empty space with my old bed. Ricardo comes home. He opens a beer and suddenly we're all hanging out near Kevin's stairs, talking about things to do around Midtown, Kevin helping Ricardo get a job with Apple's call-center, and the history of the Ottoman Empire. Eventually I retire for the night, postponing those maybe-plans with Chris for a later date. 

Today I'm up early for no reason. I dabble in some literary-journal searching, looking for somewhere to send my Lamp Shop story. I lull around for a while until I think Paul might be downstairs, but he's not. I clean up my room a little more. I go to Old Soul and it's Nic and Mort again and this time I order a breakfast sandwich with my coffee. I sit to do some writing and Bobby's sitting across the table, so we catch up. He tells me to send something to the journal he's an editor for. I do. An old customer, Don, comes in and gives his usual mumble about something-or-another (today it was the article about technology invading Idaho's public education). Tim settles in with a newspaper, chatting about the ridiculousness of people in this world and the tenacity of Ron Paul. A guy I met on a trip to the movies with Melissa, Samir and Sarah a couple months ago sits across the table from me. I've forgotten his name but I surmised that he and Melissa were dating. I tell him about Istanbul. I hear him on the phone talking about an e-mail he received from someone working on the Obama campaign. After I head back home, Paul's in his office and it's time to pay my rent. I also give him my moving-out notice. Then I call AT&T and schedule my phone for suspension while I'm gone. In a while, I head over to Brady's for two games of chess and some time spent around cats. We decide to try out the new Squeeze Inn Burger, stopping at my place for a moment long enough for Ricardo to ask to come along. The three of us find out that the Squeeze Inn has a 45-minute wait time. I'm not waiting 45 minutes for a cheeseburger. We're off to Mr. Pickles, but Brady veers toward home since he's just along for the conversation and Ricardo and I find random things to talk about and each drop a few details about ourselves. He's going through a relationship transition from long-distance (eight years) to no-distance that isn't going as smoothly as he'd wish. It makes me grateful that Jenny and I have April planned, plus the summer, because it would probably drive me crazy to be apart from her for much longer. After lunch, I shell up in my room for the afternoon and watch a movie and hear something promising back from one of those literary journals I found earlier, so I send them the last few pages of the Lamp Shop and cross my fingers. I've cleared up some more things from my room and tidied the disorder. I've got to get Kelly her bookshelf back, unless she doesn't want it--I don't remember if she said she wanted it or not. Also, I think she said she'd hold onto the record player. If she still feels like hosting a Kick-Back night tonight, I can ask her later. News flash: she's come down with the cold. Anyway, I've got an addiction to indie puzzle platformers that needs to be tended to, so I'm set for the evening. For some reason the church down the street plays the Star Spangled Banner with its bell. It's beautiful.