My obsession with early flowers continues.

When I lived elsewhere in the country, my friends would sometimes ask me what people from Appalachia are like. Reflecting upon my family members and their multitude of idiosyncrasies, I would often remark that my people are "superstitious to the point of paganism." As my dad once put it, "You don't talk about bad things because you don't want them to happen to you. You don't talk about good things, either, because then they might not happen." My paternal grandmother was as superstitious as they come, and a worrywart to boot, and it apparently rubbed off on him in force.

When I was filling out my application to Western and trying to get them to take me as an in-state student, I had to ask my dad when he'd last served jury duty-- and was quickly informed that when it happened, which would surely be soon, it would be all my fault. Someone's managed to duck his civil duty for years, it would seem.

I am not very superstitious myself; I've never seen any connection between my voicing my expectations (or not) or bad or good things coming to me accordingly. Still, though. I'll not state the obvious here, in hopes that I get what I want.

Six more weeks of what, exactly?

Daffodils on a rainy February morning. 

Things I'm Excited About

1. I have joined the intelligentsia and subscribed to The New York Book Review. I also have subscriptions to The Nation, Atlantic, National Geographic, and Wine Enthusiast. Nook magazine subscriptions + my tablet = best thing ever.
2. I tried a beer this weekend that tasted like beef Ramen noodles. True story. (It was Abita Winter, if you're curious or like beer that tastes like extra salty, artificially meaty noodles.)
3. They are finally airing new episodes of the TV shows I like.
4. My internship. It's pretty amazing, and it really sucks that I can't blog about it here, because damn. THE STORIES.
5. My classes thus far: I like my electives. I don't have the required ones until Friday. 
6. Not having to work until mid-February.
7. And still getting paid. Yay, funemployment!
8. Possibly visiting Canada at some point this year.
9. The fact that the school library allows grad students to check out books until the end of the semester.
10. My hair. It looks pretty awesome these days.

New Year's Resolutions: 2012 Edition

It's that time of the year again! Here's what I'm hoping to do next year.

1. Continue to rock the grad school thing.
2. Learn more Spanish.
3. Not allow grad school to interfere with the timely updating of this blog.
4. Keep up the good work on the running/exercising front. 
5. Read at least one book a week, and participate in a few challenges (more on that tomorrow).
6. Listen to more audiobooks, since it's looking like I'll continue to log a fair amount of time driving to Cullowhee and back.
7. KNIT EVERYTHING. Seriously. My stash needs an intervention, and I am Not Allowed to buy any more yarn until I put a sizable dent in it. To that end, I have organized most of it into monthly tote bags that have assigned knitting projects. Each month, I will (attempt to) knit a hat, a scarf or shawl, a pair of socks, and a mitten/glove/wristwarmer. 
8. Make better choices where interpersonal relationships are concerned. 

If last night is indicative of anything, 2012 is going to be awesome. I went to a party at LAB with my best friend from elementary school and her little sister. We talked, we drank, we danced, and at midnight, I crossed an item off of my bucket list: I kissed a stranger on New Year's Eve. Two, actually. 

You know it was a fun night when your shoes are crusted in dried beer and champagne the following morning. 

2011 Year In Review

Overall, 2011 was a successful, but very challenging, year. I feel like I've accomplished a lot, but pretty much all of my successes have been hard-won and/or involved a fair amount of personal sacrifice or struggle on my part. It wasn't a coincidence that I left Matt right before school started, and the fallout from that made an already difficult semester that much more so. In a way, school completely eating my life helped me escape the suckitude of my day-to-day existence, but it also rendered me less able to do things that I enjoy (also, social work coursework can be pretty soul-sucking if you don't take care of yourself). Volunteering with foster kids has been every bit as awesome as I thought it would be, but it has also entailed a lot of hard decisions in situations where there aren't any right answers. Dealing with everything was pretty tough, and even though I am pleased with the outcomes of my choices thus far, only time will tell if the risks I've taken this past year will prove worthwhile.

Things I accomplished in 2012:

• Getting into and attending graduate school, along with earning a 4.0 for my first semester.
• Learning (some) Spanish.
• Finally signing up for my volunteering gig with foster kids that I don't get to blog about. 
• Reading (and mostly reviewing) eighty books (even though I didn't finish any of my book challenges because grad school ate my life). 
• Learning a number of new recipes (which has sadly stopped since I moved back in with my dad, who does all the cooking).
• Knitting (and crocheting) a bunch of cool stuff. 
• Getting back into running. 

Overall, I managed to fulfill most of my New Year's Resolutions from last year. The only ones that fell completely by the wayside are the ones that were Matt-related (swimming and cooking), so I feel pretty good about the way they turned out. I'll post 2012's tomorrow; I haven't finished them yet. 

xmas xmas.

Now that I am home from work, I am looking forward to the evening ahead:

Part I: Working out on the elliptical while re-reading Harry Potter (so much for reading new stuff over break).

Part II: A roasted veggie pizza, Syrah, and Arrested Development on Netflix.

Part III: More Arrested Development and working on my sister's scarf.

I know some people find spending Christmas alone weird and sad, but for me, a second of solitude during the holidays is a rare treat. I have a huge family on both sides (that are in a fairly constant state of conflict over Quality Time where my sister and I are concerned), and my holidays therefore have historically been more chaotic and stressful than anything else. Not having to deal with all that has been nice, even if I did miss my two-year-old cousin's rendition of "Red Solo Cup" (my twenty-five-year-old cousin is not a good influence).

An update about running.

Yesterday, I went out to buy a new pair of running shoes. It was a necessary investment; my knees have been hurting post-run all week, a tried-and-true sign that the supports/shock absorbers in my shoes had given up the ghost.On the recommendation of a friend of mine, I headed to Foot RX in South Asheville to pick out a new pair. They had me run on a treadmill for about a minute so they could film my gait. After that, they went over the video in slow-motion and determined that I needed shoes with extra support because I run funny (their explanation was more complicated than that, though). I tried on several pairs and wound up picking out a pair of Asics.

I just got in from my inaugural run in them, and I am quite pleased with how well they're working out for me.

I am less pleased, however, with the fact that I should probably stop purchasing my exercise shoes from the children's department at Dick's Sporting Goods. A pity, because they cost about half as much as adult shoes. On the other hand, though, I'm not getting any younger and I'd rather spend extra money on good shoes now than have to deal with blowing out my knees and needing replacements at 40.

As the great philosopher Mick Jagger said, "What a drag it is getting older."

Overall, though, I'm happy with the running progress I have made. I started running again shortly after I announced my blog hiatus because my stress levels were starting to render me non-functional, and I figured my sanity was worth sacrificing thirty to sixty minutes a day to exercising. I wound up doing a modified version of the Couch to 5k program. Rather than only running three days a week, I did six (three days on, one day off, three days on, etc.), repeating each workout two times until I hit the "run 20 minutes" mark at the end of week five. Since then, I've been adding two minutes to my run every couple of days.

My original goal was to reach an hour's worth of running by last week; unfortunately, my schedule got delayed by two weeks thanks to finals (when I seriously didn't have the time to go running) and that godawful illness I had. I'm now back on track to finish by the New Year, and I'm pretty excited about that. I haven't been able to run five-plus miles in one go since I was in high school!

The only downside to this whole fitness endeavor is that I have (of course) lost weight. Okay, losing weight isn't really the downside. All things considered, I probably needed to. The downside is everybody and their mother thinking that my exercise schedule's existence entitles them to make unsolicited comments about my body and how much better I look now. I get that they're trying to be nice and supportive and whatever, but I still find that kind of thing really rude and disrespectful, particularly since I said I was exercising again because I like it. Assuming that my running routine is based around weight loss and talking about how great (read: skinnier) I look is presumptuous and kind of insulting (like, hey, it's good to know you thought I was a giant fatass last month). It's pretty frustrating, and I've added it to my list of "Near-Daily Reminders of Why Feminism is Still Necessary."

Grown-Up Accomplishments Thus Far

I'm now two weeks into break, and I have thus far:

1. Obtained business cards.
2. Gotten a background check done for my internship.
3. Figured out how to operate a curling iron (at 27. I'm not good at that sort of thing). 
4. Finished the second Juneberry (though I still need to block it).
5. Started my sister's scarf, which is knit at a tiny gauge and is consequently taking forever.
6. Ran 4-ish miles at a time.
7. Re-started Only Revolutions.
8. Worked on my Taffy socks.
9. Knitted a few hexapuffs.
10. Plodded away at cleaning out the e-mail inbox. I have about three year's worth of facebook notifications archived, sigh. 

It's really too bad knitting is a zero-sum game. If I'm working on one thing, I can't work on something else, and my sister's scarf has turned out to be way more time-consuming than I originally anticipated. 

ARGH SICK.

I like how I managed to get sick the very day after classes ended. And by "like," I mean "am really irked at."

Sure, it means that I didn't have to miss any finals or give any presentations under the influence of Sudafed, but damn it, I have Important Winter Break Things to get done! I only have a month off! It's also seriously thrown my running schedule out of whack.

The crazy thing is that it seems to be the same awful illness I got last year. It started with a sore throat, then I lost my voice, then I felt okay for a day, and now my sinuses are so clogged up that my eyes look bruised and my face hurts. I hope I get better faster this go-round; I was sick for almost two weeks last year and it really sucked.

Reflecting.

When I haven't been at work, volunteering, in class, or snowed in under homework (so, the approximately ten minutes of free time I have before I fall asleep and when I wake up each day), I've been doing a lot of thinking about what my next move is going to be.

I graduate in May 2013. I will be twenty-eight years old (ye gods). I'm not sure whether or not I am going to stay in Asheville long-term.

I will have to stay in the state of North Carolina for a year or two in order to obtain professional licensure. Once you get an MSW, you have to complete a certain number of supervised hours before you can take the licensure exam, which you must pass in order to be fully accredited. It's generally considered a bad idea to get a degree in one state and then try to get initial licensure in another. While most states recognize reciprocity if you're already licensed, educational requirements that vary from state to state can make getting initial licensure in a state other than the one in which you got your degree very tricky, if not impossible outright. One of my friends has been in licensing limbo since he finished his master's in 2004 because of that. Not being licensed can really screw you over; without it, you're not eligible for student loan forgiveness and you get paid way less.

After that's dealt with, I can move somewhere else, if I wish. I know that's a long way off, but it's something I need to start considering now since it's going to affect a lot of the decisions I make post-graduation. For example, it's not worth the money for me to buy a house here if I wind up moving away after two years. I also have to consider how much of myself to invest in this city, and how long I'm going to avoid potential romantic entanglements (assuming I ever date again. Becoming a nun is looking pretty good right now). I don't want to get attached to the idea of being here forever if it's not going to work out.

One day, when I have some free time, I'll make a list of the pros and cons of staying where I am-- and moving to a bigger city. I'm 90% sure I'm not willing to move back to Tennessee, but there are plenty of other places I think I'd like to live.

Another week, done.

I'm amazed at how crazy busy I have been since school started back. This past week was especially eventful; I was so slammed, I didn't even have time to knit after Tuesday! Here's what I accomplished:

1. Going to class on Monday and Tuesday, which are all-day-long affairs involving a whole lot of driving.
2. Attending several group meetings for class projects.
3. Going to court for the current case in my volunteering gig which has eaten my life.
4. Running a bunch of errands all over town for said case. Wish I could talk about it more, but my org's confidentiality rules are pretty hardcore since I'm working with kids.
5. Writing a lengthy report and compiling documentation for said case. I really need to be more organized.
6. Doing a ton of reading. For class, sigh.
7. Working.
8. Working out! I'm thankful my dad has an elliptical machine since I'm pretty sure I lost my Y Family Membership in the breakup. Sadly, I have to do homework reading instead of fun reading on it. That's why I haven't finished a book in over a month. 
9. Going out with my co-workers after work Wednesday and yesterday. 
10. Pro-tip: Sake slushies are both a great and terrible idea. Sugar + booze + me + the following day = disaster no matter how much (or little!) I drink. But damn, they were tasty!
11. Pro-tip #2: If you're going to wear a dress that's cut up to your ass in a club that has blacklights, wear dark undies. Nobody wants to see just how far the dude you're dancing with is hiking it up. 
12. Having really awesome hair. I don't know what's up with that, but everyone has been liking it lately. 

So, yeah. I'm doing okay and things are going really well. Even though the workload is crushing me, I'm really enjoying school and am looking forward to finishing out this semester. From what the second-years have said, it's by far the hardest one, and once you make it through, it's smooth sailing. 

Crazy week, fun weekend?

This week, I survived the following:

• Getting up at 7 am every morning to go to Spanish class
• Except for Monday, when I did the tourist thing with my mom and stepdad
• One day of grad school classes
• A Spanish Quiz
• My first Spanish test
• A 14-page paper in which I analyzed readings about racism and wrote about a Madea movie my cousin made me watch last weekend
• My final week (and shift) of waiting tables-- EVER!
• Banging out a cited introduction to what will likely become a giant-ass public policy paper
• Starting a new scarf
• Beginning the reading for the next 14-page paper that is due on Wednesday
• Giving considerable thought to the 5-page paper that is due on Tuesday
• Purchasing a dress (and lipstick!) to wear to my cousin's wedding today

I'm hoping that once I switch back to my old job and get caught up on my schoolwork, I'll be in a better place to write more here.

Oh, gadgetry.

So, I finally broke down and got a tablet last weekend. I'd been meaning to get one for a while, but kept putting it off because I didn't know which one to get. I was also having a difficult time justifying it because I already own a netbook, an e-reader, and a smartphone.

That, however, changed when I started school and discovered that all of my professors were putting a large quantity of the course reading materials online via Blackboard. While they were .pdf files that could theoretically be uploaded onto my nook, they didn't render right when I attempted it. Copies of copies of scanned in books do not look right in e-ink, even if you use a e-reader-friendly file format like .pdf. I wasn't really a fan of simply printing the readings, either. The printer here at the house is an inkjet, so the black bars on the borders of the pages (from the scanning process) would use ink, not to mention all the paper I'd go through. Using kinko's or the school's printers would be expensive (especially over the course of four semesters) and, in my opinion, wasteful. So, I decided to buy a tablet.

I wound up getting an ASUS eee pad transformer. I decided to skip the optional base (since I already have a netbook) and just got the tablet and a protective cover for it. So far, I'm really liking it. I downloaded adobe reader so I could load up my course readings, and used the MyLibrary app to organize them. Reading them is a breeze since you can use the pinch and pull feature to quickly resize text, and the ability to flip pages with your fingers rather than pushing buttons is pretty awesome. My only quibble is that it can take a few seconds for the screen to render and sharpen, but it's not enough of an issue to warrant me not using it. For future semesters, I intend on buying as many books as I can in e-reader formatting and using the kindle or nook apps to read them.

As far as regular, non-academic use goes, I like the eee pad's functionality. Since it runs on the Android OS, which I already use on my smartphone, I had an easy time getting it set up. Since the app market is synced with my google account, all I had to do was press a few buttons and enter my google login information to get all of my apps on the eee pad, including preferences. While the eee pad apps are generally identical to the phone apps, it is nice to be able to read my twitter feed (and other text-heavy apps) without killing my eyes. Also a plus: the full-sized web browser. No more crappy mobile sites!

I'm still getting used to the weird, pop-up keyboard thing, though.

Apologies.

I'm sorry for the unannounced hiatus. I figured absence would be better than forced whimsy or emosplosions, so I took some time out for starting grad school, continuing my efforts to learn Spanish, getting my stuff unpacked, quitting my job so I could go back to the former one, and, you know, completely undoing the last year and a half of my life. The last two weeks have been really rough, and I appreciate those of you who are out there reading for bearing with me. I really appreciate those of you who fielded all of the breakup and grad school-induced emosplosions. You're the best, and I owe you all some cookies.

Things have mostly settled down, at least for the time being. I've gotten everything unpacked, my schoolwork is organized, and I have less than two weeks left before I [Seriously Mean It This Time] Never Wait Tables Again. If it weren't for the never-ending pile of homework, I'd have oodles of free time!

Alas. I have a lot of homework. It's not that much more than my workload at Vanderbilt, all things considered, but it's still a little overwhelming. The reading is slightly less in quantity (but it makes up for it with serious density), and I have far fewer mini-papers to write. That, unfortunately, is linked to an exponential rise in my stress levels, because that means that more of my grade is riding on fewer assignments, and there is little to no room for error. The expectation that much of my learning (and work...) be self-directed is also a bit daunting given how long I've been out of school. I keep envisioning my brain as this cobwebby, rusted-out jalopy, all, "Didn't I used to be smart?"

Anyway. I'm going to keep updating, but I don't know if I'll be able to go back to daily content for a while (read: until I graduate, and maybe even later than that. Possibly when I retire). It's for the best; my pleasure reading has plummeted since I got my assignments, I don't have much time for knitting, either, and while I might find social work theory interesting, I doubt it's appealing to many of you. So, I guess we'll see. Story of my life, these days.

this space intentionally left blank.

I tried to formulate a lighthearted, whimsical post about my first day at school today, but apart from my Spanish teacher liking my Hello Kitty notebook, nothing lighthearted or whimsical happened. Traffic on campus was godawful, I had to park forever away from my building, nobody sat next to me, and, oh yeah, I did all of that with frog eyes (the result of spending most of yesterday/last night in tears). What a great first impression: looking like a disheveled basket case. 

I know I have every right to look like a disheveled basket case. I lost my home, my boyfriend, and my pets in one hour-long conversation and then spent the rest of the day hauling all of my stuff back to my dad's house. My inner Type A perfectionist doesn't listen, though, and relentlessly castigated me for not only crying in front of Matt and his friends (repeatedly), but for not having the energy to find my makeup and a cute outfit for the first day of class or to wow the teacher by participating. 

Needless to say, I'm beat. I'd declare it vodka o'clock and retire to my knitting, but grad school orientation is tomorrow and showing up hungover on top of everything else probably isn't a good idea. Back to unpacking, I guess. 

Books are heavy.

Just like this entry.

I tend to be a little hesitant about including details about my personal life on here. I tend to be pretty reserved where that subject is concerned on a good day, and talking about my relationships publicly has burned me pretty nicely in the past. This, however, needs to be said:

Matt and I broke up this morning, and I've spent my day thus far hauling all of my things back to my dad's house.

Hence the entry title.

Hence also why you won't be seeing him or the house (which belongs to him) or the cats (ditto) on here anytime in the near future, if ever again.

I'm not planning on going into the how or the why. I don't think that's ever a good idea, and I don't harbor any ill will towards Matt (...that the golf ball his back windshield took less than an hour after the "we're over" talk happened didn't satisfy), so I'll avoid dragging him through the mud on here. If you know me well enough to be my facebook friend or know my cell number, feel free to contact me via those mediums (or my e-mail) if you want to talk about it.

I just wanted you guys to know what's up, and to tell you that I'm doing okay. I have somewhere to live, things are amicable, and I'll be fine. Eventually.

A real day off?! No, not entirely.

Once again, it's Monday and I'm not at work. I still, however, have a bunch of work to do. So far, I've accomplished going to the bank and the library, along with some wall q-tipping and sock photography.

My main goal for today is to 100% finish the wall that will comprise my main workspace in the office. I've cleaned out the grooves, but still need to wash the flat panels and then watco the whole thing. I also need to finish sanding my desk, and then prime and paint it. My Spanish class starts Wednesday, I have grad school orientation on Thursday, and then grad school begins on Monday, so I really need for that room to stop being a giant disaster zone like the rest of the house.

We'll see.

At least I got to have some fun yesterday, though! Amy came up to Asheville and we went to Biltmore and saw the house and did a wine tasting. After that, we went downtown and had dinner at Curate, which was really good (thanks for recommending it, Dad!). The food was excellent, and the tableside-made white sangria bordered on being a religious experience. I fully intend on going again sometime soon.

YAAAAY!

We are finally moved into the new house. There are still a few things left at the old place (mainly in the kitchen), but all of the furniture is here now. Along with clothes, books, electronics, and everything else.

Most importantly, we finally have internet.

A Fun-ish Monday!

Today, I drove up to Bristol to get some stuff out of my storage unit and visit my little sister. She wanted to show off her new classroom, which she'd spent the past few weeks decorating. I was pleased to see one of my old bookshelves, which she'd repainted into a much nicer color (it was pink and white, now it's teal and white) and a couple of dolls that our great-grandmother brought us from Mexico years and years ago that I thought had been lost. After she showed me around and introduced me to some of her coworkers ("You two look just alike!" ...sigh), we had lunch at the pizza place downtown and caught up. I had a really great time seeing her.

After that came the less fun part: hauling my crap out of my storage unit. The goal was to remove enough stuff to where I could get the rest of it in one trip in somebody's truck (I have a few options on that point, one of the upsides of living in the South). It was pretty painful. Not only was it as hot as eight freaking hells outside, I hadn't been to the unit in well over a year, so everything was covered in spiderwebs and dirt. Yuck. I also hadn't done a very efficient job packing when I left Nashville, so everything was pretty disorganized. It took me over an hour to get everything sorted, including removing some stuff from boxes and throwing a bunch of stuff into a nearby dumpster.

All said and done, I managed to cram a box of kitchen stuff (dishes and the like), a few trashbags of bathroom/shower stuff, some clothes, a nightstand, four chairs, and a microwave into my car. I never fail to be amazed at how much stuff can fit into such a tiny space. I had to leave my bed, mattress, box springs, table, and both dressers behind, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to get it all in a second trip (if not, I'll leave the mattresses, which need to be replaced anyway). I'll try to do that by the end of the month, as my free time will be dramatically curtailed thanks to the start of school.

It mostly went okay.

Yesterday, that is. I managed to accomplish everything except acquiring wood restorer (Home Depot didn't have it, so I'll be picking it up at Lowe's today) and using it along with fixing up the new desk. Matt's Everything With This House is Harder Than It Needs to Be curse has struck me, too, it seems. I got up extra super-duper early in the morning to get everything done, only to be foiled by the following:

• the aforementioned lack of wood restorer at Home Depot
• a brownout that struck my area right as I was getting the sander ready to plug in that didn't end until less than an hour before I was scheduled to have dinner with my dad and stepmother
• Horrendously filthy...well, everything, but especially the walls in the room that will become my office.

That office. Oh god, you guys, it's so bad. Matt, my dad, and my stepmother overruled me on the painting the walls white front, so I've decided to clean and restore them. I thought that I'd only need an hour or two and half a bottle of Murphy's to get them nice and shiny, but I was so very, very wrong. They're pretty horrifying. You can't tell from looking at it, but the upper third of the room is coated in a very thick, very tenacious layer of yellow-tinged black grime (that slowly goes away as you work your way down the wall). 

That can only mean one thing: cigarettes (and, given the quantity of ick I'm pulling out of the walls, a lot of them) were smoked in that room. It must have been a smoking lounge at some point in the past. I know the immediately previous occupants hadn't smoked in the house recently, as I am insane allergic to smoke and wouldn't be able to be in there and still breathe properly. So, consider this my version of an anti-smoking PSA: if cigarette smoke and the chemicals it contains can cling to walls for decades, meditate upon the damage you're doing to yourself and the people/things around you by lighting up. 

Needless to say, it's probably good that I won't be painting those walls. I intend on washing them until the rag runs clean, as it were (e.g., until I can run a soapy rag over them without some hideous grime coming up), before I use the restorer, but that doesn't mean I'll have gotten all the nicotine out. It's very clingy, and damn near impossible to 100% get rid of. Luckily for my sanity, that wood has a slightly yellowish cast to it, even at the bottom, which is relatively unaffected (smoke rises, so the worst staining is within eighteen inches of the ceiling), so it's undetectable. Painting those walls a light color is officially off the table, though: nicotine bleeds through even the highest quality primers and paints. It's miserable to deal with-- ask anyone who's bought or rented a place that was previously occupied by a smoker. 

So, I have another to-do list for the day:

1. Sand, prime, and paint the new desk.

2. Take last night's laundry to new place and unpack it.

3. Come home and do more laundry, and take it over later today or tomorrow.

4. Go to Target. Acquire econo-size package of q-tips (sticking my fingers in the grooves of those walls when I was cleaning them yesterday was a BAD idea. It hurts to type, and my arms/shoulders are still kind of aching) and a big pack of Magic Clean Erasers (walls in the bedrooms are seriously scuffed). 

5. Go to Lowe's. Buy wood restorer.

6. Go to unfinished wood stores, acquire chair for desk. Then prime and paint it.

7. Finish washing the walls in front bedroom.

8. Finish washing the walls in my office (this round, anyway). 

I sort of doubt I'll be able to get everything done, but I'm working towards completing some immediate goals for the house:

1. Get my office in a usable condition before school starts on the twenty-second.

2. Get the front bedroom set up-- I'm hauling my bedroom set in from Bristol, so all I need to do is go to ikea to pick up the duvet set I want for it and then buy paint for the walls and some curtains (which my stepmother has very graciously volunteered to help me with). One good floor-scrubbing later, and that room will be 100% good to go. 

3. Paint the hallway. The previous owners had started working on it, but didn't finish. At my request, they left the paint they hadn't used and didn't take down the painter's tape on the doorways. I'm not really wild about the colors, but since I have no idea whatsoever as to what I'm going to to with that space, I may as well have  it look decent in the meanwhile.