You have 60 seconds. For $10,000, go:

untangled paperclips …
binder clips …
ribbon …
shoelaces.

Give up?

The answer is: Things the Modern Mom and the Modern Gal suggested as methods for hanging a shower curtain while standing in the aisle of Kroger.

If you didn’t get it, don’t feel bad. It’s just because you’re not this lady:

Gawd how I miss the 80s. Ok, ending tangent.

The Modern Mom was gracious enough to join me in Knoxville to help me receive the movers when they arrive at the new place (and by the time most of you read this post they better freakin’ have arrived) and then to help me unpack because she’s a glutton for punishment.

The movers aren’t scheduled to arrive until Monday morning and it is Sunday night as I write this post. I have absolutely nothing here at the new condo, save some clothes and some random boxes of books I had packed away at a local storage unit. Oh, and a papasan chair and this lamp.

Between the 12-hour drive on Thursday night and my midnight to 3 a.m. drive on Friday night/early Saturday morning, The Modern Gal hasn’t gotten a whole lotta rest lately. She has been absolutely and completely worthless these past two days. Slug-like, in fact. My brain was still on vacation and my body was still asleep.

On a normal weekend, that wouldn’t have been a big deal except that I needed my brain to anticipate needs the Modern Mom and I would have as we camped out at the new place without having any of my stuff. Like a shower curtain. With curtain rings to hang it. And maybe a couple of plates and forks and spoons. All stuff that’s sitting on a semi-truck, God knows where. Which is why in the middle of an aisle in Kroger at 9:30 on a Sunday night I was telling my mom to put her MacGyver thinking hat on.

I’m sure we appeared as morons to anyone whose brain wasn’t on vacation, but I will say this: the curtain is very daintily hung from the rod with cut up shoe laces and it doesn’t look half bad either.

I am proud to announce that The Modern Gal should return to her regularly scheduled posting now that I’ll be back to the grind. I’ve still got some stuff to share from the vacation, but that will come later this week.

And thanks once again to everyone who’s offered their encouragement during this stressful time. I was especially cranky (one of my more dominant traits) when I wrote that last post. The crankiness manifested itself into tears later on that lasted a good hour, but I feel like it’s all behind me now. I do have my new place, and even though it’s not my old place, it’s still a good one and as soon as I get all my stuff wedged into it, it will be home.

Finally.