The Magic Bobby Pin

I sign the lease on my new apartment today at 3 o'clock.
I move on July 1--this Friday! And all because I biked down 39th Street for the first time in my life and saw the For Rent sign.

This has unfolded like a lot of things in my life:
I'm the opposite of a Type A, Take-Action, Five-Year-Goal person.
I'm more of a passive, maybe-a-genie-will-appear kind of person.
The weird thing is, (weird in this Type-A culture), often a genie does appear--though on its own time table, that's for sure. Or, you could call it grace, or just dumb luck. It works, if you don't want something NOW.

I don't always trust that it'll work,
but it's probably how my life has worked most of the time.
Things drop out of the sky, like acorns.
They pop up, like toast from the toaster.
Of course it's not magic:
forces have been at work all along--the oak tree has been growing, and I went for a walk;
someone--probably me--put the bread in the toaster and pushed the lever.
Etc.

I was talking about this to some people one evening on the Camino in 2011.

I told them that earlier in the day, my long hair had been blowing into my face.

As I was walking along, I came across a bobby pin on the ground.

"If you need a bobby pin,"
I said, "a bobby pin appears."

(I would add, "Well, sometimes".)

Also, a few days later, I asked Lucinda to cut my long hair short,
and that took care of the problem.

This is a favorite photo from the Camino--this young man, Tom, (with a toy monkey toy dangling from his backpack) is pushing the fountain spigot for me to fill up my water bottle. That sort of thing is how the Camino worked, help appearing out of nowhere, since you couldn't plan for anything, it was all grace.
Sometimes grace is not comfortable, and you sleep on the hard ground.

I hear that since 2011, people use their phones to plan ahead, reserve beds, call an Uber, find a store that carries bobby pins...
That sure would make Camino easier! but it makes it a little more like a walking trip and less like a pilgrimage.

II. "Don't Settle"

Anyway--this apartment felt like it appeared in a fairy tale.
Send me mail!

A couple more photos. The newly spiffed-up bathroom--blue tape around new grout (no grungy grout!):

BELOW: The little bedroom with a new window a/c (comes with the place). It faces south so is very bright, though a tree outside casts summer shade. The living room faces west for afternoon/evening light.
The girlettes have already claimed the flat top of the wood divider: "Girlette Land":

Maybe I'll put my desk in the bedroom too, for the light. Not that I have a desk. I hardly have anything, but as my coworker Jesse (who I helped with the planter) said,

"Whatever you need, we will get it donated here.
Wait until it's the right thing: don't settle!"

Don't settle.
That's what Marz had advised me about looking for a new apartment. I'd had an appointment to look at a place near the thrift store--a dangerous area--and she said that'd be a mistake to live there.
I knew she was right, I was just feeling a bit desperate.

I am so, so eager to live alone. I can hardly wait! I just want to sit in my half-empty apartment by my own self.
In three days, I can!