ATTN: Dale Larson –…

ATTN: Dale Larson -- your e-mail address is bouncing, and I need to reach you. Please contact me.

Will chat with the rest of you later. Busy working. Beautiful day in Chicago... :-)

5:30. Well, today's Journal of the Day Award goes to Marissa, who made me laugh so hard and for so long that Kevin got up from the living room (where he was supposedly doing math *and* watching basketball at the same time), walked down the long hallway, came into the dining room and hugged me. This is even more impressive if you know how lazy Kev can be. I had been feeling kind of sick and cranky a little bit ago, and I think he was just relieved to hear me laughing. So thanks, M'ris -- Kevin hugs are good things, and more of them make me happy. :-)

I don't know if the rest of you will find her entry so funny; I think maybe you've had to have been at the mercy of BART to really appreciate it.

But since I'm in Chicago, rather than the Bay Area, I figure I'd better focus on here for now, yes? I thought maybe y'all would enjoy a tour of Kevin's apartment here in Hyde Park -- we're not going to be here much longer, but it's been a nice place to live (off and on) this last year. We'll start in the kitchen -- this is where I spend most of my time. My laptop is set up in the connected dining room, and when the back door and windows are open, on a cool sunny day (like today), this is a gorgeously pleasant place to work.


I've set up some craft supplies on the dining table -- mostly taken it over, really. I'm going to try making a few more collages; I've reserved some space at the WisCon art show, and if I don't lose my nerve, will put some up there. Feels a bit arrogant -- I'm not a real artist, after all. I just make my poetry look pretty. Hopefully they won't laugh too hard.

The bathroom and the bedroom are about what you'd expect -- simple and straightforward.

Kev's not much for art or decorating. The only time he has flowers around is when he buys them for me. But he does have a decent aesthetic eye -- he may not go out of his way to make things pretty, but I can be grateful that he doesn't like ugly things either. Or at least things that I find ugly. :-) I don't have much appreciation for kitsch, for example -- I can get it in theory, in a sort of academic way, and I think Susan Sontag's Notes on Camp are pretty cool. But I don't want to live with lava lamps, or little snowflake globes, etc. and so on. Give me simple lines and dark wood furniture, preferably old.

The living room is an odd room -- very long and thin. There's a nice fireplace that doesn't work, and built-in bookshelves that do. Best of all, though, is the balcony off onto the porch. This building is typical of Hyde Park -- there are long rows of these brick apartment buildings, some with balconies, some without. They're all pretty old, and the paint on the walls is usually a little cracked, and there are water stains in the bathroom, and some of the tiles are coming up. They've had people living in them a long time, generally students who didn't have the time or money to make their homes modern and up-to-date. But they're really comfortable to live in, and pair these apartments with long rows of tall leafy trees, and you have a beautiful neighborhood, one that I must admit to loving beyond all reason.

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