Baby it's cold outside

I am at my brothers house soaking up the delicious warmth of the internet. It is nice to be online stalking people, checking my pitiful bank statements and selling my belongings online.

I recently sold a necklace I had received as a gift 11 years ago. I got $14 for it and have been wrestling with that significance. On the one hand the necklace does not do me any good if I can't put gas in my car. One the other hand, it was a meaningful gift and $14 comes and goes with no meaning at all.

I am also thinking of cashing in my quarters. I have been collecting the state quarters since they started coming out like 10 years ago. I have tried to get 2 from each state: one from the Denver mint and one from the Philly mint. I think the value is less than $30, so again- would it really make a difference in my life right now? But does my little collection (still missing about 8 quarters) mean anything at all if I can't pay my rent?

My roommate Erika, experiencing a similar season, quipped that this is the winter of our discontent. For Christmas I got her fingerless gloves because we were talking about how things feel so post-apocalyptic right now (yes, we are dramatic little women). But in many ways I am content. Anxious and getting gray hair but not entirely discontented.

I live on the third floor of one of Lancaster's townhouses, complete with crooked windy stairs and a ceiling that slants. It is a darling design if you need the room for storage or for a sewing room. But since this is the room that is my entire home, I find it tedious and poetic at the same time. I spend more time thinking about how I will maximize the space in this room than I have ever spent thinking about any home I have ever lived in. Everything has to be just so.

To make the diagonal walls work for me, I pushed my bed into a corner facing the wall. On the back side of my headboard is my couch and a few feet away in another corner, my TV. I was proud of this feat since it gives the illusion of two separate living spaces. Plus I have never had a TV in my bedroom and did not want to start. I firmly believe that a TV in the bedroom is bad for your sleep. I have enough problems. I do not need to add troubled sleep to the list right behind TV addict.

A small window is visible when I am laying in bed. I can see rooftops and some wires but primarily I see the sky. It is comforting and makes me feel hopeful.