Hello, old bloggy friend.  I’m sorry I’ve been away for so long.  I thought I would be able to maintain my previous rate of bloggery, but then things just went sort of sideways.

January was kind of crazed.  My responsibilities at work increased in a pretty massive way.  My apartment hunt occupied much of my time.   Amelie and I took a brief trip to California to see Information Society and Book of Love.  We spent a day at the Magic City Comic-con in Miami.

And then, in the first weekend of February, I moved into my new apartment.   A bed was purchased.  Belongings were moved.  We took a detour to Orlando for our anniversary, and spent the day in both Universal Studios theme parks- Spider-Man, Optimus Prime, Homer Simpson, and Harry Potter were all in attendance.

On the fourteenth of February, we emptied my storage unit.  For the first time since early 2011, everything I own was in one place, under one roof.  I was finally able to unpack everything and inventory.  I finally see just what survived the various downsizing runs that occurred during my time in Germany.

Now that I know what I still have, I can see much more clearly what I still need.   On the day that I moved in, I brought the stuff that was with me at my brother’s house, along with a brand new bed, couch, and two bar stools.

After the storage unit was emptied, I had my Muppet-fur carpet from Germany, along with my beloved coffee table.   That coffee table is the only piece of furniture from my old house to survive the four years of storage and downsizing.

My new apartment is 617 square feet, with a tiny balcony suitable for a pair of chairs.  For my German friends, that converts to just over 57 square meters- larger than my German apartment even though it doesn’t feel like it.

I love moving into a new place-  the apartment is a blank page at first, waiting to be filled and personalized.    I get to make decisions about which cabinet to put my dishes into, and which wall is best for a bookshelf.  I get rid of still more of the things that I have stored because I will never use them again, and I purchase a few new things because I don’t own them any more.

When I moved in, some of the first mundane home-making purchases I needed to make were a front door mat, a cookie sheet, a shower curtain, and a toaster.  I love purchasing that sort of ordinary stuff to round out a new house.

So that’s where I’ve been for the last two months, bloggy friend.  I’ve still got more stuff to say about the repatriation process, and I promise to write more often as we go forward.  Now that I have my own lovely quiet apartment again, I feel like I’m starting to get caught up on things.

It’s a marvelous feeling.