mentally exhausted

Today was the inspection on the house I’m trying to buy. It didn’t turn up a lot of problems, but there were a couple of things that definitely need to be looked at and/or fixed soon.

It was also the day the lender sent out their appraiser.

And, because of those two things, I spent $775 today for what amounts to a disappointly small stack of paperwork.

We didn’t do much this weekend, just mostly sat around the house glued to the television (the culprits: Katrina coverage, the final season of Star Trek: Next Generation, and the first season of Sports Night, a fabulous show I never watched when it originally aired) and took a couple of trips to wander around Ikea. Daniel and I are both unnaturally excited about Ikea’s light fixtures.

I’ve not said much about Katrina here (though I did comment on Matt’s blog a couple of times today — check the link off to the right). However, I have been — as I said — glued to the television watching coverage for the last eight or nine days. Last Sunday before the storm officially hit, I was talking to my mom and quickly into the conversation said, “Are you watching this hurricane stuff?”

Her response? “What hurricane?”

Two days later, when New Orleans and much of the gulf coast was in a state of sheer disaster, I talked to her again. “Have you been watching the news about Katrina?”

“Where’s that again?”

{sigh}

But I’m not frustrated all *that* much, since in the last few days she’s been rounding up clothes and little hotel soaps she’s collected over the years to help out. Seems the news finally made it all the way up to Mountain Home, even. I guess thousands of homeless-by-hurricane refugees scattering to the seven winds will do that to you.

Katrina relief efforts have morphed into this incredibly huge undertaking, a truth that has permeated a lot of my life lately. TWU’s chipping in as best we can (though we’re not a small school, we’re not that big for Texas)… but it still all just shocks me.