apartment.

I'm currently sitting at my "dining room" table. (I use the label "dining room" loosely, considering that the dining room, living room, family room, office, and unofficial storage space are all really one relatively small room in our little apartment.) However, in theory at least, this is our dining room, and the table is in it, so I suppose that makes it the dining room table.

As I'm sitting here staring at the candle I lit to keep me company in my reading, I realize that this is home. I don't love it right now...there are still things that need to be unpacked. We need another couch. We only have two chairs at our table right now because Emily and I have each stolen one to serve as our desk chairs. One of our lamps doesn't have a lightbulb. We haven't perfected our kitchen cleaning/sharing strategy and we haven't developed a foolproof method of chore-splitting and bill-paying. But I'd better get used to it. Because this is home, whether I like it or not. I just crossed the barrier between "extended vacation" and "place where I'm living for the next 8ish months" and I'm kind of freaking out.

Don't get me wrong - my roommates are amazing. And my apartment is great, especially for the amount I am paying for it. I guess that I'm just starting to realize how very real my future is, and how quickly my future is becoming my present.

However, there is no avoiding it. So first things first, I suppose. I will go in the kitchen, put away the leftover pizza, take out the trash again for what seems like the 7th time today, and continue to settle in. Because this...well, for now, it is home.