Contemporary essays, fiction, and opinion offered regularly by author Anne Brandt.






Question for the week
How might I punctuate the following sentence? Students, stop cutting in line(?)stop throwing food(?)and stop leaving trash.
Ten minutes to
write.
Less time to
read.
Day Thirty-Eight
Posted: 10/23/09
Our closing on the new condo is scheduled for Monday, November 2, at 10 AM. Of course, this is always a moveable date up to November 2 at 9:59 AM. A Waldo can arise at any given moment.

Today, however, I choose to believe we will close on time. With that in mind, I’ve begun scheduling all the other installations, the ones the builder isn’t responsible for completing before he hands the keys over to us and we in turn hand over a large chunk of money to the mortgage lender.

We are not moving for another week after we close; in this time, I want the new flat panel televisions we are purchasing installed. But that can’t be done until the people from Comcast come out and deliver those ugly boxes that work with the TVs. And protocol requires that can’t happen until the utilities (a sure sign of ownership) are in our name. Then there are the window treatments which I want installed before we actually sleep there, because there isn’t a lot of distance between our windows and our neighbor’s. (This alone may require Earl and me to rethink our minimalist sleeping attire.) The washer, dryer, and glass shower door must be installed; otherwise we’ll have cleanliness issues. The telephone company must make an appearance; otherwise there’ll be communication issues.

And, while it isn’t absolutely necessary I’m having a couple hundred tulip bulbs planted and our birdbath (which was once part of Wacker Drive in Chicago) put in place. Finally, the movers will bring the furniture – that we didn’t send to auction – and set it in the various rooms.

I leave for New York on business this Sunday and return just before Halloween Weekend. If I’ve calculated correctly that will be Day 56, and we’ll have exactly two weeks to go in our moving countdown. So let the final organization begin . . .


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