New Furniture

So I had two roommates move out, and soon I'll have two more moving in. Don't expect much more explanation.

I've been living on my own for about a month and a half now, and I've bought a stupid amount of new furniture. I'm a pretty cheap person, and having spent as much as I have makes me feel nauseous, especially since I'm minimally employed at the moment. But most of the furnishings left with my old roommates, and I wanted to make a strong first impression for the people moving in. Give the place an impression that somebody lives here.

Finally got my standing lamp. The living room doesn't have an overhead light, closest one is in the connecting hallway. New lamp spreads out light exactly like an overhead would. Got my bookshelf for the living room, which is something I've wanted since moving in. I actually bought a 5-drawer for my bedroom since my 3-shelf was full. Moved the 3-shelf to the living room and put my board games on it. I've got a standing coat rack for the front hall. These three items were what I've been wanting for the living space for a while.

I have a dresser now. Ever since I moved into student housing, I've not had a dresser. I had a 2-drawer nightstand that I inherited from the previous owner, which I put my socks, underwear, shorts, undershirts, bathing suit etc. Then I hung my pants in my closet with my shirts. I abandoned the nightstand when moving, because I got sick of moving things (but then wound up helping a roommate with much more stuff). I got a another nightstand, but it wasn't as big. Turned into a situation where I never had quite enough room to fit everything.

But now I have a dresser. My pants can go in it, my socks, my shirts, my undershirts, my shorts, my bathing suit all have a place where they belong. My closet can be reserved for my shirts.

My old nightstand is in the kitchen, filled with a collection of cook books I somehow developed, and supporting my microwave. Now that's a move that made me feel peculiar, like I was trying to step into a class I didn't belong. But I found it at only $50, when my impression was that microwaves usually cost several hundred. I'm worried I'll feel the need to branch into other household conveniences from here. But the microwave is useful for heating leftover pasta and stirfry.

I feel like everything's cheaper than usual right now, which has helped encourage my spending.

I got a shoe rack, bath rug, floor mat, curtains... Curtains have always been something I've been a bit particular about. When I was in Katimavik, me and another guy puzzled out a way to create a "secret language" where we described curtains, but it actually meant women. And it seemed to work, since the females in the group would become frustrated because they couldn't understand what we were talking about, and al their attempts to interpret our conversations were completely off-base.

Of course, since then, I've learned you can take pretty much any topic and twist it around that way. Still weird that I'm weird about curtains. None of the curtains at any of the generic stores were thick enough. You can see a silhouette of the person from the outside with those, which to me, doesn't really allow for privacy. There was one value store that sold curtains that I'd been satisfied with before. But last time, I'd bought two single-panels that seemed to have the same pattern, but wound up being asymmetrical. Drove me crazy. This time, I found that they had two-panel sets with a price that equaled what two of their one-panels would be. Thought this would be a good way to get thick, symmetrical curtains.

But the inside lining was like, a bubble gum pink. I really don't understand why curtains will have different patterns on either side. I mean, if they were used as a wall hanging, you might put the more decorative side facing the public, with the more plain side against the wall, where nobody is meant to see. But if you hang your curtain against, say, a window, then it is probably meant to be seen from both sides.

So I had to go back and get two single-panels with confirmed symmetrical patterns on both sides. So yeah, now you know I like my curtains thick, patterned the same on both sides, front and back. If you don't know what I'm talking about YOU ARE NOT A MAN.

I went to a Katimavik Alumni Meet yesterday. There were only 4 of us, and I wound up knowing two of the people there. One was someone I've hung out with before, and the other one was someone I've had a professional overlap with, but I didn't know he had done Katimavik. Fourth person was someone new.

We were at Beertown (uninspired name). I got the fish and chips. They asked me if I wanted it with fries. I'd thought that since it's "fish and chips" the "chips" would be half the dish, and you couldn't replace it. Whereas with another meal, if fries were a side, you could swap it out. But I swapped out the chips for sweet potato fries and got a whole bed of them, at the same quantity as if they were chips. Much than if they were a side,  but at the same price.

I got rejected to become a member of the Katimavik Board of Directors. They're feeling confident enough that Katimavik may get new funding that they are taking on new board members. I applied, and they sent me a really nice rejection notice. Said they were grateful for my participation in the program and my willingness to volunteer my time, that they were impressed by my resume and cover letter, and that they hoped I would continue to serve, but that they had narrowed the applicants down to a very small number, and that I hadn't made it.

Could have been a copy-paste email since it had no identifying characteristics about me, and it sounds like I didn't even get into the final round of people being considered. Bummer. I felt pretty confident in my application, since they were looking for members who had done the program. I was in the last program to have fully completed it, so I felt that I had more experience than others, and they asked for volunteer history, how the Katimavik program had impacted our lives, how our values corresponded with the organization, and what our proficiency was with French. I was able to say that Katimavik offered me my first opportunity to work with population I would choose tom follow a career with, I was able to state a number of volunteer opportunities I'd taken on, including the Respect Campaign, which reached out to all vulnerable populations which coincides with the values of Katimavik, and I even became a Respect Leader. I was able to say that Katimavik inspired me to do Canada World Youth, which put me in a full French immersion scenario, where it was the dominant language in La Pocatiere, and the language of trade in Karadje. But apparently there's a list of people who finished the program when I did, with more applicable experience.