My cozy little apartment now feels like home. It belongs with me now in a way that no new place does in the beginning. For me, settling in requires that I first go through a series of emotional ups and downs about my new space. I love it. I don't. Where is the dish soap? I like it. I don't. Why did I do this? This is a good change. What was that noise?

Now that those feelings are settling, like my belongings from the final three boxes that I recently unpacked, I walk through the front door and feel myself here. Familiarity. Attachment for the kinks and charms of my tiny, undoubtedly temporary, home. Built in the 50's, the apartment has lots of character and fun detail. Great shelves built into the wall that separates the closet-sized kitchen from the living room. Rich hardwood floors that badly need refinishing. A bathroom with a pink bathtub, sink, and toilet, where I can still see the TV in the living room if I need to take a pee during a favorite show. Heh. The down sides are the thin walls that give me full audio of the upstairs neighbor clomping across the floor and the howls of her uppity cat when he's left alone. Or, the aspiring musician next door who plays guitar and sings the same verse of Weezer's Island in the Sun over and over while I'm making pancakes in the morning...and other times too. I'm getting pretty good at singing the back-up hip-hip though. Quite a few bathroom repairs. No dishwasher.

Oh, and no mail. In the two months since I've been here, I haven't received one piece of forwarded mail from my old address. This isn't a huge problem since my friend and ex-roommate dutifully collects and delivers my mail to me, but I finally decided to call the post office to find out what is going on. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: Hi, I changed my address a few months ago and my mail isn't forwarding.

Post Office Guy: Did you receive confirmation from the post office?

Me: Yes.

POG: What's your name and address?

I tell him.

POG: Oh, that's so and so's route. He's way behind on his mail forwarding lists, so that's why you haven't been receiving your mail.

Me: I see. Will it start forwarding soon?

POG: Well, I always remind him to catch up on that, and I'll remind him again. He's really bad about this. The good news is that he's retiring soon, so this shouldn't be a problem much longer.

Me: Okaaaaaaay...Well, thanks.

POG: Sure. Bye.

Oh my. I guess I shouldn't be surprised not to receive an apology or assurance of better service from the post office, but still it's strange to me that a complaint like this is treated so lightly over there. Sorry you're having a problem, but luckily it will be resolved once this dude retires.

In other news, I went out on my first blind date the other day. Naturally, this wasn't a typical blind date since it wasn't for me, but for my friend Chris in Minnesota. She recently met a guy through her dating service who lives in Seattle but is planning to move to MN in the next couple of months. They started out chatting online, then talking on the phone, and the next thing you know she's asking me to meet him to make sure he's not a creep. After all, why waste any more time? So I, being a good friend who doesn't want to see her good friend with another creep, arranged to meet Mr. Maybe for a lunch date. The whole scenario had the potential to be god awful awkward, and truthfully I was a bit nervous about it beforehand. He's a nice guy, and we managed to find enough things to chat about for a couple of hours. No creep alerts went off in my head, but it's impossible to determine chemistry for someone else. To make it all about me, me, me, happily I found the whole thing pretty painless, and now the prospect of going on a blind date of my own at some point isn't so scary.

Is anyone else getting a tad bit sick of Jude Law? He's very cute, but I feel like he has to be in every movie right now. And, if he isn't IN the movie, he's narrating it. Over exposed. I don't like it.

I can't believe the holiday season is upon us! Piles of presents to purchase. Decorations and lights to go up. Holiday drinks to enjoy. Festive cards to send. Family drama to endure. Lots of cookies and treats to....er, buy.