I'll keep this short and sweet.
As of May 12, we moved in with MiL. 99.9% of our stuff is in storage in the rented unit or her garage. We both want to pare down the amount of stuff we have accumulated--mostly books. Thank Goddess for the Nook my SiL gave me (purchased for her daughter who never used it) because youy can easily fit 7000 books on it! I brought 5 bags of books I didn't want to keep to Goodwill because the local used bookstore advertises a lot of pro-life crapola since the owner is fundy Christian and I don't want to contribute to hid bottom line one iota. It's bad enough I live in a house filled with angel statues (including two large plaster wreaths with angels worked in, which in my book are only a couple of points above paintings on velvet of Elvis) and have to hide my Wiccan books, but the office for my husband's cardiologist (which also houses the lab where they do his blood work; I refer to NE GA, natch) is littered with Bibles and fundy mags which cover every inch of table space and half the chairs. We've agreed that I can filch one whenever I go with him and take it home and tear it up and burn it while Mil is not around.
Before someone leaps in to accuse me of bigotry and intolerance toward Christianity and Christians, let me assure you that I am not. What I am, is tired of having other people's religion forced on me in public spaces like hospital waiting rooms and doctor's offices. This office is part of the damned PUBLIC hospital not run by any religion. Maybe I oughtta find some pamphlets on Wicca or a copy of the Q'oran, though I would be complaints if the offensive materials were not immediately shredded (because to a certain type of fundamentalist the acknowledgement that not everyone is a Christian and that, in fact, other religions do EXIST is somehow evidence of Christian Persecution).
The angels are safe however. MiL collects them. So are her books. When we finally get an apt (we're saving for it), I will hunt garage sales and dollar stores for repulsively cute angel statues (I have three lovely Solstice Devas for Christmas, far too appealing to destroy), have my own smashathon. It will be very cathartic. Some of you won't understand why this bothers me so much, but there is no equal treatment for other faiths down here. MiL, when I asked her about one area with which I am unfamiliar, informed me that it had gangs and a mosque ( be proud of me;I did not point out that the mosque is very unlikely to have a damned thing to do with the gang presence, though I suspect that in her mind the two are somehow linked).
This is the only place I can bitch safely, though this will likely be the last such session for a while. We have wifi but are trying to reconfigure the computer for WiFi because the router is in MiL's bedroom and she won't be happy with the cable in there. We have a tablet but that isn't useful for writing anything longer than a sentence. I CAN order e-books for my nook,however, which means I have a cheap source of reading material. Yes,the library has computers but the temp there is around 85 and itend to very uncomfortable after 10 minutes. And yes,they do have e-books for download byut for anything even vaguely recent, there's a very long waiting list. Gwinnett County has slashed the budgets of libraries and schools because reading and education are frills no one really needs.
Anyway, we're alive and doing okay. Ben had to drop out of cardio rehab because it's $150 a month in co-pays, but is walking a lot instead as well as pursuing a healthier diet to lose weight. I finally found someone who can cut long, thick curly hair and got a much-needed trim and a style that used my natural curl to advantage. I look and feel a lot better because of a new hairstyle that doesn't require fighting my hair's natural tendencies,and because I've lost 15-17 pounds. I can get into clothes I haven't worn in 5 years--my corsets almost fit again. I finally have accepted that a curvy redheaded Irish Witch isn't gonna be able to fly under the radar and decided to just be me, instead of attempting to be inoffensive. And Ben is much happier because I am back to being the woman he married instead of trying to fit in. I am not beige.