Zeno's Paradox

Have you ever heard of Zeno's paradox? It basically states that before an object can travel a distance d, it must first travel d/2. And then to go halfway again, it goes d/4. And so on. But if it only goes halfway each time then you'll never arrive at your destination.

Here, I'll let Meg Ryan explain it instead.

Zeno's paradox is applicable in much of my life. It explains the 93.75% empty cereal boxes I would find at my parents' house each time I would visit. It explains how quickly 75% of a pan of brownies can disappear when we make it, but how the remaining 25% gets partitioned into smaller and smaller pieces. No one wants to be the jerk who took the last brownie, so instead Kevin and Joseph and I take turns leaving half of the remaining brownie until it's just about 1 square inch just sitting there.

And, of course, it is applicable to unpacking. We arrived on a Thursday and began unpacking right away, starting with beds. By the next night, the kitchen was almost all unpacked (after I went through the stages of grief once or twice about not having two sinks, a garbage disposal, or any drawers), the bookcases and couches were where they were supposed to be, and lots of the toys were unpacked. We felt like rock stars! We spent the next day clearing out space to set up the table and chairs again, and by nighttime we had not only achieved that but had also put books on the shelves and pictures on the wall, because what better place could they be?

People would ask, "How's unpacking going?" and I would respond enthusiastically. "We're already almost done!"

And then things began to slow down. Some things couldn't get unpacked until other things were moved, but those things couldn't move until something else was unpacked. Additionally, there was some furniture left by the landlord that we weren't going to use, but until it was gone we couldn't put other things where we wanted them. Decisions about organization became harder and harder, and each box felt like a lot more work. When people asked, "How's unpacking going?" my answer changed from "We're almost done!" to "It's taking longer than I thought!"

And so we settled into a Zeno's paradox, half-as-many-boxes-unpacked-as-the-day-before, almost content sort of life for the next week. It wasn't until a few hours before our landlord stopped by that I decided it was time to be box free, time to take care of the boxes that had gone back and forth from ground to desk to ground again, time to put all those empty boxes somewhere! So we did. Zeno's paradox had been defeated.

(Well, not quite. Every now and then I still find a box with things we're not using in a room it doesn't belong, So I guess Zeno was right.)

Anyway. Enough talk. After weeks of forgetting to take pictures, here's our new home!

This is the only place we can sensibly store the stroller (there is absolutely nowhere outside), but at least the bikes aren't there anymore. (They're in the basement, which isn't ideal either.)

It's nice to have a dishwasher again! 

We are using lots of cheap plastic drawers to compensate for the lack of drawers in the kitchen. Also, side note -- one of the hardest things about when we first moved to Michigan was having only hardwood and no carpet. This time, I was just so grateful that the hardwood didn't have hair and dirt finished into it that I was totally fine with it. So nice to move into a clean apartment. I mean condo. (the property manager's favorite phrase is "this is a condo. Not an apartment.")

We do use lamps in the living room, but everywhere else has light fixtures, which is so nice! It was also nice that the blue couch was left for us to use.

This might be the best bathroom of my adult life. There is actual counter space. And there's another bathroom on the main level, too!

Our bedroom. We have two bookcases in here, two dressers, and a desk for crafts/sewing. It's not super big, but it can fit a lot.

This is the biggest bedroom of my life. We love it! (and yes . . . I took the picture at night when kids were asleep.)

This is a pretty good basement! It's warmer than I'm used to basements being because we have to keep the dehumidifier running, but now that it's fall that shouldn't matter. When we want to use the bikes we have to carry them up the stairs, which isn't fun, but we have fewer opportunities to use them than in Michigan.

Living in New Haven has its challenges, and we will probably never be 100% happy with everything, even in our wonderful apartment (I mean condo). But Kevin and I are engineers, so Zeno's paradox or no, we are close enough to perfect happiness for all practical purposes.

Especially because of these two.