The beginning of my summer DIY projects! I'm huge on DIY and hope to keep cranking out projects until my apartment is beautiful.

The first few photo are my tables and crates prior to painting/staining. I got all the paint from samples of blues that were kind of donated to me. I chose a reddish purple stain and because I'm an idiot and didn't shake the can one of the crates which is unpictured is waaaay darker than the ones shown I'm going to have to stain the others to match - oh well, I've learned a valuable lesson about wood staining.

The crates are going to be turned into a bookshelf. The small tables will be bedside tables and the larger will be the main coffee table. Yay decorating!

Just received a call that I was approved for the apartment I looked at! I feel like a real live adult now.

My brain is swimming with crafty ideas and I'm excited to not only start fresh but on my own. I think this will be a great step forward for me and I'm really excited.

On a more depressing note I have to leave the house I've called home for over three years. Mostly this means I have a ton of stuff to get rid of in a quick time frame which stinks.

Apartment hunting continues. I have one pretty much selected but I have to view the actual unit before I can put down a deposit on it. There is someone living in the unit making viewing it difficult. I'm having nightmares that there is a large hole or burned part of the carpet under a couch or something I won't see until I actually move in.

The real estate company I'm working with I'm sure is getting annoyed with my constant calling and pestering but since I've only worked with a couple who privately owns the house I rent I have a lot of questions! Where can I park my scooter? When can I move in? When do I need to pay everything? Why? Why? Am I approved yet? Why?

In the meantime I wait for news back and I plot decorating ideas.

Thus far my Ikea wishlist is four PDF pages long and will cost me $417 but who's counting anyway -- right?

Mostly I want my own space to craft and nap and do all the fun things I love. I'm still deciding if I really need two enormous televisions in a one bedroom unit or if that's just something I want. Keeping me absolutely ridiculously heavy T.V. might be easier than trying to get rid of it in its current condition but it's going to take a crane to move into the second floor units I've been looking at.

Wish me luck, I'm off to visit what might be the apartment.

Turned in an application for an apartment today! I'm more than super excited to live by myself after 22 years of living with others. I can do all my super secret alone behaviors all the time! But mostly I'm excited to be able to grow and learn more about myself without other people around to depend on.

Attempting to become a "real adult" has proved more difficult than I imagined it would.

My new job is fabulous, I'm settling into a new routine and trying to force myself into a normal sleep schedule.

On other fronts I'm becoming a tad frantic.

I need to find an apartment before August 30th. I have some wants and needs for specifications, a price range, etc. but finding affordable housing is hard. Being a real adult in the sense that I will get to live all by myself will be wonderful but getting there has turned out to be quite the process. I have emailed probably half a dozen landlords/real estate companies about different apartments and houses for rent and have always gotten bad results. If something is posted on craigslist at 10:30 it seems strange that in an email at 2:30 the unit already has someone in it. Regardless I think I've found something that will work - it meets most of my specifications and it's cheap which is more than I can say about the rest of the places I've been in love with. A co-worker from my old job (hi Georgia!) would be my neighbor in the building and it would be fun to know someone in close proximity. I think I will sacrifice location for price and in-unit laundry for limited number of units and multiple laundry facilities.

Now, another challenge has presented itself that I haven't had to apply for an apartment before. I live in a house that is privately owned and let's just say the landlords are rather loose and fancy-free with their lease agreements/tenant arrangements. It's been a fine arrangement for me but now I'm freaked out about applying for a REAL apartment. I also will probably have to overlap this rent with the other and run into some issues there.

We shall see!

For now I'm researching how to make furniture out of pallets and old grandma things for cheap.

Exciting news! I have accepted a position! I'm an actual, full-fledged, adult type now. I'm now also looking for an apartment, considering new phone options, and perhaps looking into getting a kitten or something.

I feel fabulous and excited to start my adult-type life.

More updates to come as I navigate apartment hunting and all that.

I think today's interview went well - it was a very different company than anything I've ever worked for but it's an exciting company.

I have one tomorrow on the books for the company I interviewed for twice over the weekend and then I don't know where things are headed, hopefully towards employment.

For now I'm exhausted from all the getting dressed and driving and waiting and talking and waiting and talking. I'm going to watch Charlie Rose do a tribute to the wonderful and inspiring Nora Ephron.

Interview today went well. I have another interview on Tuesday with the company which is exciting. I'm getting nervous about all these interviews back to back messing with my mind.

I have the interview tomorrow afternoon that I need to prep for. I spent some time organizing my clothes this afternoon so I have that out of the way. It seems like finding a blazer this time of year is unheard of. I only have one grey one and it's hard to find one at a decent price IN MY SIZE around here.

Apparently people don't wear blazers in the summer? What if we have four job interviews in four days? What then!

I have decided the two questions that are super important to me at this point are whether or not my pb&j family will have a place at my desk/cubicle/area and if I can have control over my nail color. Other than that I'm getting used to having really cool and complete introductions to companies as part of the interviewing process.

The more I think about my post last night the more I worry that I will have to give up some of the fun things I wear/do in order to be a real adult type.

I wear weird bows in my hair, I have a striped blazer that resembles Beetlejuice, I used to have my septum pierced (I still do, technically, I just don't really wear it), the list goes on.

Sometimes my hair looks like this:

Sometimes when it rains I wear my dinosaur raincoat:

 Sometimes I wear my kitten sweater to work; what's wrong with that?

I'm just concerned I will lose my ability to be me and have to be office drone #12. Hopefully my first job will fulfill all my hopes and dreams of being freeform and fancy and I will be able to wear kitten sweaters on occasion or dinosaur jackets.

I have an interview at 3 so I'm going to go run around the lake to release some of my energy but I'm still concerned with the state of my outfits.