Preparing

June might be a bit early to start hording furniture and such for an August move, but that's not stopping me from doing it.

I'm setting aside Saturdays to hit local yard sales-- there's been some luck with that already: my folks and I found a nice table and four chairs for $25.

Thriftiness is a real issue with all of this. Tori and I can't swim in our big vault of gold like Scrooge McDuck, so we have to furnish our apartment on a budget.

Which means that our place will be a fine example of Great American Left-Overs.

It's surprising how everything's coming together, though. Nothing we have so far is particularly fancy and I doubt that we'd be able to go to some antiques expert and find out that the dresser we pulled out of my parents' garage is now worth millions of dollars, but the stuff we have is charming in its own odd way.

I guess this experience isn't uncommon-- first apartments are probably supposed to have that vaguely confused here-and-there look. But it's a first for me. I've never had a place of my own to furnish as I please (er... within the budget).

It's kinda nice, even if everything does have to be second-hand (and sometimes third- or fourth-hand).

I Am My Family's Dictionary

Really. It's true.

My parents and I went to see Vantage Point (yes, I still go see movies with my parents-- you want to make something of it?). All of us being rather opinionated, we spent the car ride home discussing the movie.

"It wasn't what I expected," my mom kept saying. "I thought it would flow all together. Well, not all together but all going one way... Oh what am I trying to say?"

"You thought it'd be linear?" I supplied.

"Yes, that's it, linear. I couldn't remember the word."

A few weeks ago, I was riding to a play with my parents; my dad was talking about a person he works with.

"And he's been talking to one of those people who can communicate with the dead," Dad said. "Y'know, a median."

Median?

Median?

"A medium, you mean?" I asked.

I love my parents, I really do.

But... median? Really?

I halfway wonder what they do when I'm not around to clarify what they're trying to say.

My apologies to all of the "medians" out there.