Fare thee well

I had about 3 hours of sleep last night. Normally I sleep very well, but last night things were on my mind. My Scottish roommate was going back to Scotland; he needed a ride to the airport at 5am; he didn't come home until 3am and brought with him all his friends to stay over night and they were loud; I was feeling sad about him leaving. So I drove him to the airport in the morning, hugged him goodbye. He was a blessing. One of the best roommates I've ever had. Something about us connected really well. It was a wonderful time while he was here. I'll miss him.

I didn't prepare ahead - so I don't have a roommate to replace Faizal. I was too busy to take care of finding a new roommate. Which means I'll have to cover my humongous rent on my own this month. At 9am I had a phone call from a potential renter. He wanted to come over at 3pm to see my place. So I spent the entire day cleaning. Faizal left the place a little dirty. The potential roomy came over - a sweet guy. We talked awkwardly for some reason. He's doing his PhD in Comparative Literature. He's from Nigeria. He's got that Rustafarian thing going on. (I know I spelled that incorrectly.) Anyway, even though we liked one another, I didn't get that thing that made me know we would be roommates.

After he left, I spent five hours doing yard work, after doing five hours of housework. It's my parent's fault - they were perfectionists with their own yard work, and I seem to have inherited this radical gene. I've got a tiny backyard, so there's no reason why it should take so long. After mowing it, I raked all the left over fall leaves and the grass that had grown shin high already. The edges of the lawn - which I'd so carefully "edged" before the winter, leaving a nice 1.5" trough between the lawn and sidewalk - was grown in. So I had to redo it. I even brought out my scissors to cut the grass I didn't get with my lawnmower (I don't have proper clippers). I found a trowel to dig out every dandelion and weed. Then I decided to sweep my drive way out to the alley. It looks awesome now, but I wonder - who am I trying to impress?