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I just tried out the whirlpool for the first time, and I am SO relaxed. I don't know how long the effects will last, but it's literally like "what pain?" right now. I could fall right asleep sans meds, but it's too early for that. However, if I can go later in the evenings - shortly before bedtime, I will sleep like a bear at hibernation time. I figure the walk there and back is about three blocks each way, which I can manage on decent health days. Bad days I'll need rides, but living with two people - that's entirely possible. I know Dave wants to start using the fitness room, so we were thinking about going over together for me to soak and him to work out.
I didn't test out the pool, but it seems nice. Lots of kids splashing around. One girl, pre-teen - young teen aged, came to the door and wanted to come in. I told her she had to get a key from the office. I have a feeling I'm going to run into that a lot. It's only open to everyone in the complex during office hours. People can get a key overnight or for a weekend ahead of time if they sign out for one, but they gave me a permanent key - I think in large part due to my disability, which was super nice of them. When we were doing lease signing and she told us the rules, I mentioned I'd been planning to use it a lot in the evening hours, and she set me up with the key!
There was a child's birthday party being hosted in the clubhouse area of the building, so there were lots of people around, but the whirlpool room is set off in a corner, so it was still fairly private for me.
I do have to tug the cover of the pool off and on before and after use, which will suck on bad days - but then on bad days, I'll be getting rides and maybe can get the driver to help me with the cover?
The only drawback, and I've experienced this with other whirlpools, so it's a general feature and not of this one specifically, is that the pressure from the jets does contribute to headache issues. It takes all other pains and tensions away, but makes the headache stuff worse. I think I can live with that. Just have to stay away on bad headache or migraine type days.
As I was sitting in the whirlpool, warm jets bubbling water at my sorest spots and feeling all of the day's tensions floating away, I thought to myself "we picked the right place to live for sure."
Which I've been feeling since we moved in anyway. I do really like it here overall.
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We got our day's errands done. DMV done, bought some stuff at Office Depot, cleaned some more out of the old place including lugging the exercise bike into Carrie's car (we don't have space for it and she wanted it, amusingly enough to replace one my mom donated to her years ago during some other move), stopped at Walgreens for meds, and came home. At the office place, we bought Dave a new chair and a shelf-ey thing for his small TV and game systems with extra space to put his other stuff in, and me a filing cabinet to keep near my desk. We still have to find places for a few drawers and things, but I *think* it's all going to fit.
I feel kinda bad because we're taking up more room in the living room with our stuff than Angie will have, so I'm trying to think up as many space saving techniques as possible. I'm hoping it all evens out in the end: we have two smaller rooms and she has one bigger one, we have the storage closet and two small closets and she has her walk-in, we have one closet in our bathroom, and she has a linen closet, we share the balcony storage and pantry/utility room area, but we are taking up more space in the living room. We are paying a bit more rent, but I still want to make sure she has enough space for all of her things.
I think I'm developing a small guilt complex about it because we moved in first and I feel like we're hogging everything all up before she can put any of her stuff in and what if I put something somewhere she wants to put something of hers? I must have repeated something along the lines of "if you want to put stuff somewhere else, please feel free to do it" about a million times to her already and will probably keep doing it until I know we're all situated. I've never lived with someone other than family or a romantic partner for more than a temporary situation before, so I guess I'm learning how to do that? And hoping I don't get it all wrong! I lived with my family from birth - 18 - always with my own room. I had roommates in dorm rooms for my first two semesters and then lived in singles after that. I lived with one friend for a few months when I was in need and had a friend live with me for a few months when she was in need, and have camped out with my mom a few times for a few months when in need. In those situations, it's one person coming in and stuffing their things into an already established home for a short time, which is way different than actually sharing space that you both should have equal access to. I lived with one ex for a few months, which was meant to be permanent but obviously wasn't. And then of course I've been living with Dave for 7 years now. That works smoothly for us now, but the first few months were kinda rocky as we got used to each other and eased into our routines. Hopefully things will go smoothly with Angie. I don't see why it won't, but people being people - you never know. I think I'm mostly scared of annoying her and driving her nuts, honestly. But we're both talkers-outers, so if issues come up, I'm sure we'll address them, which does help immensely.
Man, that whirlpool does dry out the skin - I need to lotionize myself and maybe kick back with the TV a bit. Grab a snack, and rest before diving in to the next project.
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