Unexpected Guest

(the uncensored version is attached)

What an unexpected surprise! Someone brought a peach to a carrot party!

 Oh yeah... I just realized maybe I should have censored that? It's very blurry though. Hopefully Patreon won't get mad at me. This image gave me a lot of trouble (physics-based lighting is finicky about dark-skinned characters, as I found out in that Queen of the Dark Elves image from way back) and it's late at night, and I forgot. >_<

WHAT A MONTH IT'S BEEN! I hope you guys have been doing well. We moved! We packed 90% of our shit into a truck (which was too small for 100% of our shit, we found out after we got it mostly packed) and moved hundreds of miles. I drove that damn truck through the Prairie Winds of Indiana and Illinois, and didn't break a single dish or knick-nack.

We still have tons of boxes packed, partly because I had to give up three small clothes dressers, two cabinets, and two full-size bookshelves and my wife gave up one bookshelf with a cabinet (we also donated tons of stuff to the Goodwill, and sold a lot of surplus books to Half-Price Books). It was HARD to do that though. I mean, I had a lot of junk I could easily throw out, but it was like, wave after wave of "Okay, find some things to donate or throw out.... Okay find some MORE things to donate or throw out... Okay pare it down to just the necessities... Okay pare it down AGAIN."

I admit... I lost my cool a few times during all that. My father was a hoarder, like, definitely, no question about it, he was a full-on hoarder. Part of being a hoarder is being bad at estimating the value of objects and forming emotional attachments to objects (or like, adding "sentimental value" way beyond what ordinary people do). I think I have a smidgen of that, myself. I had to really push through some feelings, at times.

It was also hectic and tiring and frustrating and the schedule was basically "We could do this if we had one or two more days and one or two more people and we don't have either". So, it's no surprise nerves were a little frayed, emotions ran a little high.

Now, since we gave up so much stuff to be able to move here quickly, we're still without a lot of basics. Like, we don't have a couch. I want a couch so badly. I have realized that couches are my favorite pieces of furniture. I fantasize about couches. Not sexually. Just... dreamily. I'm currently aspiring to build one. We have two mattresses. We could've dumped mine but it was packed into the truck before we knew we had to dump anything, so... there's this giant slab of memory foam sitting out in the garage. I figure, cut it in half, lay it on a sturdy box made of 2x4s, throw a blanket on it, and it's okay for the basement living room (otherwise I can't imagine how we'd get a couch into the basement anyway, it's a pretty narrow stairway - especially one as long as a bed). Then we can take our time finding a decent used one for the upstairs living room.

We have two living rooms, and no couches. It's been hard, but we're getting through it day-by-day. It's weird to want to relax and only have a BED. And there's no headboard and my side of the bed is against the window so I can't really sit up (and that window faces due east... I'm so glad we finally put up curtains a few days ago!)

Seriously, I'm all about couches right now.

I also took a nasty fall off our back steps (it's a deck that's one-story off the ground, with a full flight of steps going down to the pavement). It was one of those things were I thought I was at the bottom, so I stepped OUT instead of down, and there was still one more stair. Somehow I banged both feet on the stairs, fell directly onto my elbow and knee, and as my wife describes it "splorped into a puddle".

Luckily, nothing was broken! At least, I don't think anything was broken. I couldn't get out of the puddle because I was in a lot of pain and had to wait until I could move my knee again, so I got thoroughly soaked. Thankfully, I was mostly just bruised, but both feet were TERRIBLY sore for about two weeks. Like, seriously I've just started walking normally again. I would have gotten back here sooner, but my computer is set up in the basement, and I've only just been able to navigate the stairs one at a time. It's hard to get around when you have two limps.

That really slowed down our furniture procuring/building plans, but I think I'm basically back to normal now, which is nice! And the place is nice, it's nicer than where we were. It's a cute little neighborhood with lots of trees and backyard birds. We got a lawn mower (and I've had "Somewhere That's Green" from Little Shop of Horrors stuck in my head ever since, it sums things up for me pretty well). Living with my wife finally, is great - now that I can reach the basement we kind of have our separate nooks since we both appreciate our alone time, but we've spent basically the last month and a half with each other almost every hour of every day and night and haven't killed each other, so I dunno, I think she's a keeper. ^_^ I mean, she's been great, I'm more amazed she hasn't killed ME. I am an awful helper when it comes to moving... or anything else. But like I said, we made it. We're settling in. And it's a good place.

I doesn't feel "normal" yet though, living here. We haven't quite found our "routine". That took a few months, the last time I moved, for the new place to become "Home", and it hasn't even been a month yet here. You know what would make it feel a lot more normal?

A couch. A sofa. A daybed. A settee. A divan. A Davenport. A Chesterfield. A canape. A settle. Hell, at this point I'd take a loveseat!

I can't explain to you how often I think about couches. >_<