In two places at once...

I am getting so tired of the moving process, and we still have a long way to go. And very, very, very, little time! I intend to stay put at the studio for many eons, for I am not a fan of uprooting my life, packing it all in reusable Whole Foods bags, driving to the other side of the city, and unpacking it, only to repeat that step two dozen more times. What I really want is a stable, organized, well-maintained little living space that is comfortable and which I can really call home. And that's what the studio is when it all comes down to it. I've lived there (minus a year elsewhere) for 3 years now. It's a friendly place, with nice people, low home-owners dues, and fresh pretty paint. I have a white kitchen, a new sofa, and a warm, 80-year old radiator. What more could a person want?

Let me tell you, we are going to have such a HUGE celebration when all of this is over! Not that anyone reads my blog anyway, but to those of you who are reading it, party next week! Come celebrate the new old studio where I will stay for the rest of eternity, because I hate moving boxes. :)

Love and the Skull

L'Amour et le Crâne

Vieux cul-de-lampe

L'Amour est assis sur le crâne
De l'Humanité,
Et sur ce trône le profane,
Au rire effronté,

Souffle gaiement des bulles rondes
Qui montent dans l'air,
Comme pour rejoindre les mondes
Au fond de l'éther.

Le globe lumineux et frêle
Prend un grand essor,
Crève et crache son âme grêle
Comme un songe d'or.

J'entends le crâne à chaque bulle
Prier et gémir:
— «Ce jeu féroce et ridicule,
Quand doit-il finir?

Car ce que ta bouche cruelle
Eparpille en l'air,
Monstre assassin, c'est ma cervelle,
Mon sang et ma chair!»

— Charles Baudelaire

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Love and the Skull

(Old Tail-piece)

With bold and insolent grimace,
Love laughingly bestrides
The bare skull of the Human Race,
And, as enthroned he rides,
Blows bubbles from his rosy cheek
Which soar into the sky
As if, beyond the blue, to seek
The other worlds on high.
They ride with wondrous verve at first,
Reflect the sunny beams,
Then spit their flimsy souls, to burst
And fade like golden dreams.
I hear the skull at each renewal
Expostulate aghast —
"This game, ridiculous and cruel —
When will it end at last?
For what your cruel mouthpiece drains
And scatters, sud by sud,
Monstrous Assassin! is my brains,
My substance, and my blood."

— Roy Campbell, Poems of Baudelaire (New York: Pantheon Books, 1952)

Of moving boxes and studios

With all the crazy plans we made finally solidifying into a place for us to call home, I'm just thankful that the sun keeps coming out every day. I'm not sure I could handle it otherwise. One bit at a time projects are getting finished, and in 7 days we're supposed to have moved our life and all of it's possessions back into the little studio on Capitol Hill. It's stressful, exciting, relieving, chaotic, and fun all at the same time.

I will miss the sun streaming in through our huge windows, but I won't miss looking out the windows over Ozzies, quite possibly one of the crappiest hot spots in Seattle. I look forward to once again seeing familiar faces everywhere when I walk to the grocery store, get a cup of cider at the Joe Bar, or stroll up to Volunteer Park. I love the local dogs, their owners, and the people that live in our building.

Today is another beautiful day in which I will hide away in the garage at my parents' house and breathe in paint fumes for a few hours. But the cabinet doors are almost finished! Victory! And the couch is arriving today, eek! Time to clean up and get the place looking like home again...

The perils of climbing the rope...

Yes, ouch. Rope burns on my feet are not my friend. They keep me from being able to wear any sort of footwear besides flip flops - and it's cold outside! I thought they'd heal by now but apparently I really did a number on them. Well, that's the end of my story. Sorry if this post was too graphic for anyone!

Butterflies

Is everything as it seems?

I think it's wonderful that everyone seems to be happy lately. Yes, there have been bad moments, stuffy-nosed colds, and broken refrigerators, but life seems to be exciting right now. Kaitlin got her much hoped-for apartment in Pioneer Square, Brandon is on leave from the Phillipines in Portland for the month, Ryan is quitting work for Mr. Schultz and leaping into his photography career full-throttle, Aaron and I have so much going on I can't even write about it all, and I seem to be coming out of my shell for the second time around. My insecurities that built up over the last 4 or so years seem to be slowly diminishing; and what was wrong before? Nothing at all, really. But isn't that always the way it is?

February - busiest month of my life?

Yes, apparently it is. I never knew there could be so many things - thankfully, most of them good - going on in the span of only 3 1/2 weeks. We decided just a week ago that we were going to move out of our beautiful 1200 sq. ft. apartment back into our tiny little 480 sq. ft. studio on Capitol Hill. Crazy? Maybe. But it's smart financially, and that's what we're after. Plus, while helping Bruce and Simmone move out of their studio space we met the landlord and right then and there decided to rent the space for all of our artistic needs. So not only are we moving, we're moving to two places at once.



The only gliche in this otherwise seamless plan is that the studio condo is not even finished being remodeled. Not even close, really. We did find another tile man who won't run off with our deposit and Brian Dixen is coming this weekend to lay down new vinyl in the kitchen. Now we just have to finish stripping the cabinet doors and repaint them. And a few other little jobs here and there.



Today we've already showed our current apartment to two prospective renters. Our uber-busy landlord wants us to do it for him (fair enough, we are breaking our lease after all) and then hopfully he'll be on top of things enough to call the people who want to give him lots of money every month. Whew, I am really going to feel better once that part of it is finished.



Now to pack. It's nice in a way to move twice within a period of three months. You get really good at sorting out your junk and throwing a lot of it away.



Oh great - I think our refrigerator just broke.