The new "New York Lori"

So I moved into my new apartment yesterday. The move went as smoothly as could be expected... with the major exception that I didn't know where I was actually putting my stuff until 1pm the day of. Apparently the apartment failed the first lead test and was fixed, but they wouldn't let me in until they got the results back from the second lead test. If it failed I would have been putting my stuff in storage for an undetermined amount of time and sleeping on Jerry and Jenna's couch. But it did pass, I didn't have a stroke, and into my new apartment I went.

They did a better job cleaning and painting than I expected. Of course, it's not clean up to my standards, but I'm crazy about a fresh new apartment. I've moved into a lot of them, I know what I like. One major disappointment is that they painted over this beautiful framed blue-green glass that was over the doors to the bedroom and kitchen. I really loved it. I'll have to buy a paint solvent and get that glass back myself. Other than that some pretty basic stuff to fix... missing light bulbs in ceiling fixtures, putting screens in windows, replacing a towel bar in the bathroom. Nothing major, just small annoyances.

I quickly realized upon moving in that I'll have to make a few adjustments to my lifestyle in the new place. It's not a small apartment by New York standards, but it is to Chicago standards. Even though I already downsized when I first moved here, and then got rid of even more stuff before this move, it's still not really enough. All my stuff fits, but not comfortably. Certainly not stylishly. So I have vowed, in the presence of Jenna and Jerry (so I can't back down now), that I will become a new Lori. A paired down Lori. A streamlined Lori. A "New York Lori" if you will.

I'm going to be a new woman with a better attitude. I will see my apartment not as a too-small space with limited furniture placement options and awkward painting challenges. I see it as a tremendous and unique opportunity for artistic design growth. I will utilize these challenges to stretch my creativity and see what I can come up with. I will also no longer see my "stuff" as necessary objects just because I've had them for a long time or someone gave them to me. Everything is up for disposal. Well, except of course furniture that is handed down and special and I love it. But the handed down non-special stuff is up for grabs. I will learn to live the New York apartment life, with the emphasis on higher quality of fewer objects instead of greater quantity for the same price. I've already been doing this very thing with my wardrobe, time to put it into practice outside of the closet too.

But don't worry, fair readers, I'll never become a real New Yorker. Just a New Yorked version of Lori. I'll pluck the good stuff that the city has to teach and blend it in. And I look forward to the massive shopping spree I'll have the day I move back to Chicago because I'll have so much floor space to fill!