This week is full of milestones – accomplishments, birthdays, anniversaries, and more.

Today I took a significant leap toward a huge “adulting” milestone — I’m almost the sole owner of a condo. Hopefully it’s just a matter of a little math and a lot of paperwork from here out, a manageable prospect for me, and soon I will (practically) be among the landed gentry.

Also in the category of “Big Girl” events, I bought a new refrigerator this week – not to prematurely celebrate my imminent home ownership (ha!), but because the current one was 10 years old and clearly on the blink, and I wasn’t about to be caught flatfooted. I thought Mom would be proud of me for circumventing my usual style of hemming and hawing — after doing what felt like sufficient online research, I just went ahead and bought the darn thing online.

Sadly, it did not occur to me that before buying a major appliance like a refrigerator, it’s apparently highly advisable to see the model on the floor to make sure you like the design, etc. This piece of useful advice from both my father and my aunt came to me just after the fridge was delivered and I shared with them that the freezer was half the size I thought it would be. Their response made it clear that seeing the fridge first was an universal truth I should have known – really? I must have missed that day in school. Well, lesson learned, and there’s no way I’m going to let that stupid tiny freezer bother me for the next ten years. I’ve simply turned off the ice maker, removed the tray, gained back half the shelf space, and am moving on. Milestone upon milestone.

Thankfully, I was smart enough to figure out ahead of my purchase that the new fridge was about one and a half inches too tall for its cabinet space, so I had my amazing handyman over last week to brainstorm solutions with me. His advice was to wait until the fridge’s delivery before altering the cabinet which, it turned out, was excellent advice – in short order today, he was able to remove the bottom piece of siding and raise the cabinet doors, allowing the fridge to slide in without having to adjust the floor of the cabinet, thereby preserving the storage space.

But here’s what really made me smile – after relaying the story of the work that was done to make the fridge fit, two family members independently asked me if Saundra would have approved of how it turned out – because they both know, as I do, that my mom remains the ultimate standard bearer for this house. It was her home alone for 30 years, after all, and over time, it became our home. Now it’s about to be mine, and it feels right and good to be here now. And heck, I’ve even got a new fridge she’d approve of (except for the freezer – she’d hate the freezer!).

Tomorrow is my mother’s 86^th birthday – another milestone. Last year, she and I celebrated by going to the Hollywood Bowl to see “Singing in the Rain,” the movie accompanied by a live orchestra. It was our second year of being at the Bowl on her birthday, a really fun way to celebrate, though not an easy trek for Mom. She was a trooper, though, and in the days that followed recounted the evening to many friends: “I will tell you, even after 72 years, that movie has legs!”

A final milestone – tomorrow is the six-month anniversary of my mother’s death. This has been a season unlike any I’ve experienced in my life. I feel in some ways that I am going through a portal, full of all the sticky gooey stuff of rebirth along with all of the beauty, everything all at once. On this eve, I’m beyond grateful for everything my mother gave me and continues to give me… really, for so many blessings of my life. I miss her like crazy, and am sending her all of my love, today, tomorrow, and every day.