I’m sitting on my porch, looking out at the greying sky. The sun has just set, in a storm of reds and yellows. I felt sad when I saw it  disappear beyond the horizon. It was such a beautiful day, it seems a shame to let it end.

I washed my car today — just the cheaper, drive-though kind where I vacuumed it myself and drove out still slightly dripping water. Isn’t it amazing how good a freshly washed car can make you feel!

I spent over 20 minutes scraping off this obnoxious sticker the apartment complex had put on my front windshield, right in front of the driver’s seat. They claimed, in this sticker, I’d be towed if I parked where I was parked again. Even though there are no "No Parking" signs or red curbs anywhere to be seen. The complex manager — a rather obnoxious jerk of a man — said Metro Police had put the sticker on. Come on. Would a Metro officer really be stupid enough to put a sticker that won’t come off right in front of the driver’s side? I don’t think so. Law enforcement gives tickets and warnings… things in PAPER where they have a copy of it for future reference (also, and more commonly, known as CYA). Anything more permanent than that tends to come with an outrageous fee you must pay them in order to get your car back in driving condition.

I’m pretty much over the whole thing now. But I was very steamed when it happened. Parking is so horrible here that if I don’t get home before 4pm, I’m generally stuck parking about two to three buildings away from mine. Very annoying. Especially late at night, when I’m tired, and its raining. And especially since I then have to walk back down there in the morning, when I"m generally running late for work.

Ah, well. The "joys" of apartment living. When our contract is up in October, Adria and I are moving. She’d already told me she wanted to move closer to downtown and the east side where she works. I still like living in the south, and had at first thought about just finding another roommate. But now I’ve decided I want to move up that direction too — though I’d prefer more around West End or Hillsborough/Vandy/Belmont areas, or a little farther south of there toward Green Hills.

Check me out! I’m finally starting to get to know Nashville the way I know LA. Cool.

I went shopping today too and got sucked in by the 9 West Awesome Clothes Beast. I spent more than I probably "should" have, but I came away with a very cute jacket I can wear with all my business pants, a new pair of pants and two beautiful silk tank tops. Those were the killer items the Beast used to lure me into her lair. And there I succumbed to fashion as I never have before. I went in a level-headed woman, and came out a giggly teenager too excited by her purchases — and the 35% I saved on them by opening a Hecht’s account — to worry about the vast amounts of cash that had just left my possession, albeit through a credit card rather than the cold hard stuff, but gone nonetheless.

Worth it, I say. Completely worth it. I felt pretty in those clothes, something I don’t feel often these days. Definitely worth it.