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.
