Closer every day

I phoned my landlord this afternoon and made it official – well, closer to official, in any case. For it to be truly official, I need to make a written statement. However, they now know that I won't be renewing my lease for my current place of residence when it runs out at the end of August.

For those of you who may not have figured it out, joi_division and I are moving in together. We've found a nice two bedroom apartment in Mt. Lebanon which includes a living room, a dining room and all utilities. The place is quite a deal. We've even managed to get a garage space to park Joi's car in. We're all set to give up constant afternoon and evening commutes between her place and my place for a life of cohabitating in sin.

At present, we're both trying to clean out our respective apartments because the two of us are horrible pack-rats. I have so much crap that I get disheartened when I look around my place. Meanwhile, Joi counts it as a major victory when she manages to get a closet emptied out. She's been shooing me away over the weekend, and when I return in the evening I find her living room floor covered in bulging garbage bags with my stressed-out girlfriend slumped over on the sofa.

Our biggest challenge will be the move itself. We both have large pieces of furniture that the two of us will be unable to handle on our own. So, we have to either hire a moving company, which is expensive, or rent a U-Haul (Yinz-Haul?) and con...errrr, persuade some people to help us with the heavy lifting.

We'll be getting our keys to the new place this Friday and moving in at the end of the month. It's hard to believe that the month is nearly half over. I'm stressed-out, excited, terrified and delighted all at once!