Tracy Calabrese

Right now, I have eight days left in my apartment. I am traveling this Thursday - next Monday and possibly next Thursday and Friday. I can’t wait to get out of here. Three years in the same apartment…it was a good run, but it is time to move on.

I feel like I am breaking up with my apartment.

I have been attempting to eat the contents of my freezer and pantry, which isn’t the healthiest food in the world. Lunch this week will consist of Lean Cuisine’s, dinners will be veggie burgers, crab cakes, fries, one lonely pork chop, some Uncle Ben’s teriyaki rice and an assortment of frozen veggies. I have a few boxes of opened cereal, pancake mix, an assortment of granola bars, english muffins and egg beaters.

I spent most of the weekend packing. My dad came down on Sunday and helped take apart my busted computer (Literally. He took out the hard drive and then took the computer with him to recycle.) and helped me spackle the holes in the walls, fix the washer, move the refrigerator (to clean underneath and behind it) and move stuff from my outside storage closet inside to the pile of boxes that continues to grow.

I have a laundry list of people to follow up with tomorrow - listing agent, mortgage broker, title company, insurance company and financial planner.

I still have to pack up part of the kitchen, the bathroom (linens and towels, mostly), dresser and closet. I am not looking forward to the closet, but it has to be done.

There’s a lot to do in the next week and half or so, but I am so ready for it.

People at work have been ranting and raving about how awesome KaBOOM! is. I have been pretty skeptical, but after getting totally disgusted with the mildew build-up in my shower, I decided to give it a try.

I am convinced that this stuff, who knows what it is made of, is the best bathroom cleaner out there. I sprayed it in my shower, did some other cleaning for an hour, came back and the mildew was gone. And my apartment didn’t smell like chemicals!

For the $4.79 or whatever it was at Target, it was worth it. Highly recommended.

Things to do before JRL gets here…on Friday!

• Clean the bathroom
• Vacuum
• Mop
• Dust
• Laundry
• Grocery store run
• Figure out St. Patty’s Day plans (for both rain and shine)

Things to do tomorrow:

• Get some work done in the morning. Even though the office is closed, my client and part of my team is in Barcelona for a tradeshow. Should only take an hour or so of my time and I can work in my pajamas.
• Hit up the Katy Trail. I bought a pedometer this weekend and it makes me feel good to know how many miles I have walked.
• Scope out the 6 condos I found online yesterday. I didn’t have much luck driving around town because 90% of the places I passed were either a) to expensive or b) didn’t have any info in the “Info Tube” on the For Sale sign.
• Clean my bathroom.
• Do some laundry, including my bedding.
• Possibly drive out to the Acura dealership and ask for touch-up paint to cover up the scratches on my passenger side door (which LOOK like they were done on purpose).
• Eat the piece of red velvet cake I brought home from my dad’s birthday dinner tonight.
• Read a few chapters of “The Host,” which I haven’t picked up in over a month.

I call my mom almost every other day just to check in and make sure all is well in their suburban wonderland.

Tonight just happened to be one of those nights. I came home, made some dinner and watch watching TV while chatting with her. I mentioned that I renewed my lease today and that my apartment people were offering either a carpet cleaning or apartment cleaning as a thank you for staying here for a third year.

She said she hoped I chose the carpet cleaning since I have been here for two years only had my carpets cleaned once. I said no, that I would rather have someone come in and clean my apartment top to bottom. She said I was foolish, that I keep my apartment very clean and that a carpet cleaning would be nice.

I went on to say that my apartment looks clean, but I certainly don’t clean as often as I should. Sure, I wipe the counter tops down and clean the kitchen floor on a regular basis (since my laundry room is off the kitchen and the cat tracks litter on the kitchen floor), but I don’t vacuum or dust all that much. And my mom said I should be vacuuming every week. Ha! I told her that I vacuum every two, maybe three weeks. I mean, it’s only me and Jersey here.

So she went on to tell me that I am a dirty person (not me, I shower once, sometimes twice a day) and I should clean more often.

After I hung up the phone with her I did the following:

• Vacuumed
• Dusted
• Cleaned the bathroom, including the toilet and bathtub
• Mopped the floors
• Changed my sheets (and vacuumed my mattress)

Thanks, Mom.