Please pass that link along. I�d love for someone to take my current apartment without any worries from me.

I want to move downtown in a super fantastic condo where I can have a three minute walk to work and a much bigger place. One where I can decorate the walls with all different colors of paint, have an actual kitchen, and have a bedroom where I don�t have to put my bed up against the wall.

I want my very own patio, high ceilings, and two bathrooms and bedrooms where friends can stay, Hambone can lounge in any room he wants to, and Benito can take a poop without me smelling it.

If I don�t get rid of my apartment, there will be lean times in the ChicagoJo household. Rent and a mortgage won�t cut it.

Help a sista out, okay?

So, yeah. I�ve been quiet about it... When I started talking about being frugal was when I decided to purchase a place. After throwing in a downpayment, I�ll still be fine even if I get laid off in October (the new pessimist date).

Benito and I were talking about home ownership, and he convinced me to call a broker for current rates. Well, ta-da! A week later I�m looking at places, and I found my place immediately. I�ve wasted no time with securing a loan, finding a realtor, looking at places in-person, selecting a unit, and negotiating a price (one that is nicely below market, I might add), and I now have to keep the momentum up since I�ll be moving in as few as 45 days.

45 days. [gulp]

I�ve filled three boxes of stuff for Goodwill (will be moved to garbage bags since I need those precious boxes), a box of crap to go through and toss (your boxes are packed and ready to go Crowhihs and Hibiscus101, and I have a bag for you Bethany9), and a box of clothes for eBay. I listed auctions this weekend for all of my Wilton cake pans, and more will go up. All of my books are listed on Amazon already, and I�ve officially started throwing major things away. If you are in the Chicago area and need any stuff, let me know. If I sorta know you, I�ll be fine with you coming over and getting my unwanted stuff. Otherwise, I�ll have someone named Bruno over while you come to rummage.

Basically (with the exception of my actual furniture and anything that I�ve put real money into), if you can carry it, you can have it. This includes real money items like my TV stand with drawers, glass, and shelves and a desk. The 45-gallon fisktank set-up is a negotiable item. (If I don�t get any clams for it, I�ll be moving with me.) I won�t help you carry anything out, so be warned.

So, that was my Friday afternoon.

My Friday evening was spent in the company of the lovely Oz. I attended his Chicago Gay Men�s Choir spring show (I am a season ticket holder, after all...) and then we went out to eat and drink. I caved in my no-drinking-until-I-close-on-the-house and had a margarita. However, there was some instant karma floating around, and someone picked up the tab.

A lovely evening was had, but we departed from the group soon after they started singing songs from Rent and doing cheers from Bring It On.

I hit the hay pretty late, but I started the next day pretty early.

On Saturday I met up with Happy to play a version of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy that involves two hot chicks in J-Lo sunglasses helping two high school seniors look like hip young men (no running or theme song involved). We got their shaggy bowl cuts shaved, spiked, and highlighted. We removed the Sears clothing and adorned them in all things Old Navy. They weren�t comfortable in anything from H&M, so we stocked them with plenty of ringer t-shirts under plaid button-ups, loose-fitting jeans, a new belt, and jean jackets that they really seemed to dig. They walked outta there with almost $400 worth of stuff and smiles on their faces.

A job well done.

Afterwards I went home and tried to make some cookies from the leftover materials in my cabinet. I�m trying my best not to have anything left over when it�s time to move (fat chance), so I took out the carob chips, honey, flour, sugar, Crisco, and baking soda. When I realized that I also needed the oatmeal that was located on the very top shelf, I did my regular jump onto the counter so I could reach it.

I usually have the nimbleness of a cat when it comes to leaping, but Saturday was not the case. I banged the hell out of my knee on this sharp edge on my oven. I stood there for a moment thinking, �Gee. This really hurts.�

So I sat down and thought, �Criminy, this *really* hurts.�

So I laid down and thought, �This is how I�m going to die. I�m going to do something exceptionally stupid and die on my apartment floor where no one will find me until I miss work or a volleyball game. By then the cats certainly would have eaten me, and no one would know to clean Ming�s poop off the bathmat.�

So I abandoned cookies, put a bag of frozen grapes on the now-starting-to-swell spot, and resigned myself to sitting in my favorite chair and reading a book.

Saturday evening Benito parked and came over. We ended up at the Asian restaurant by my place for some super-yummy kung pao noodles with tofu. Mmmm... Afterwards we met friends at Dave and Busters.

I hadn�t played pool in almost two years. While in Austin I�d join friends for what this one pool hall called High Tech Happy hour. With a badge from any high tech company, the table and all pitchers were $5 on Wednesday nights. Maybe it was because I didn�t drink beer back then and my friends would just get worse and worse as the night wore on, but I remember being a lot better.

Benito and I played two games. We won one (the other team scratched), and the second game was somewhat close. I guess my crappy pool playing makes up for kicking B at air hockey. Har har.

I blame my bum knee, which at this point would bend only enough for me to sit down.

The next morning I wrapped up negotiations on the place, happily coming in only $500 more than I said I�d end up. The place was having an open house, so Benito and I made our way over there. He took pictures with his cell phone and we talked about colors to paint all of the walls.

After my last painting debacle, my dad has agreed to come to Chicago to paint the condo for me. Yay for dads! And when talking about colors, Benito didn�t once roll his eyes or say, �Jo...� in the voice that clearly says, �You�re being exceptionally silly.�

All right. So he rolled his eyes once. But it was when I said that I�d paint my bathroom yellow and put up pink and purple towels to complement. No worries though. I�m not a springtime color person, and that bathroom will be a deep green that is nothing like hunter green to go with my khaki bedroom.

In other painting news, the livingroom will either be a light grey/blue or a lighter navy/blue. The kitchen will be the same green as the bathroom (matched to my Faltzgraph plate design). The second bedroom and bathroom have no plans yet, although I know the second bedroom will have all light-colored wood.

All right. Enough about the house.

Benito went home after taking a gander at La Casa del Jo, and I set about to throwing stuff away. In the entertainment center that�s up for grabs, I found a bunch of videotapes from the Sydney Olympics. I watched one and a half of the tapes.

There�s something hormonal or silly about me that made me cry twelve times while watching the stuff from four years back. The USA women�s volleyball team narrowly beat Korea to advance to the semifinals. [tears] The unseeded men�s beach team beat Brazil for the gold. [tears] The men�s springboard diver from Mexico lost his gold medal hopes at the very last moment. [tears] A heavyweight weightlifter triumphed in breaking a world record, only to have it broken by this amazing Iranian a mere few moments later. [tears] On and on and on.

I�m such a sap.

Today I can bend my knee pretty well, but I feel the urge to shout OW when I walk up or down any stairs. (I tested this on the bus this morning.) Trotting won�t be attempted, so I actually have to abide by the flashing DO NOT WALK signs. It looks like volleyball is out for this week, but I�ll be there to cheer the team on in their double-header.

The plans for the rest of the week:

Monday -- At Helga�s for dinner
Tuesday -- Volleyball and then hanging out with Benito
Wednesday -- Dinner with Lorinda and her friends from out of town
Thursday � SOMA, but I�ll likely clean like crazy
Friday -- Out with friends, as usual

Sounds like I have a good week ahead of me. Hope yours is too! �