journeys of a restless mind

Saturday morning

It's been such a hyped-up couple of weeks.  With the move (which though we are living in the new apartment is very much still-in-progress), and the Club Mom stuff, and end-of-month craziness at work, I have been in a constant state of go.  I'm a bit disoriented, my usual landmarks aren't there.  I'm trying on new clothes, looking out of new windows, hearing the beat of a different drum.

Our brick apartment building sits perched on the edge of a hill--when the big earthquake comes, we're crumbled.   Meanwhile, the mist is rolling in from Elliott Bay far below.   It travels up the street, moving in in waves sometimes thick, sometimes barely there, floating silently past my window.

blobber

Ask a blogger to list some of her dreams, and chances are one of them is to figure out a way to turn this obsession labor of love of hers into a source of income for herself and her kidlet.  Sure, she does it happily for free,  but it is so very tiresome to spend so many hours every day, year in and year out, doing something you really don't like very much just to survive. Wouldn't  it be better to combine the love and money into one tidy package? Aren't you supposed to do what you love and the money will follow? 

Well, money all I have to say is that it took you long enough to catch up.   I'm thrilled and tickled and still a bit disbelieving, but dear dear readers,  although I can't quit the day gig just yet, I'm 'bout to get PAID, yes PAID to blog.  And that is very sweet indeed. 

Those crazy folks at Club Mom have selected me to write one of their forthcoming mom blogs.  There's going to be a whole slew of them, and let me tell you, the women they have chosen to write these are fantastic bloggers.  I'm damn excited to be included.    Details soon.

Meanwhile, I've been explaining to the kidlet that while yes, I am on the computer an awful lot, these days it's partly because I have a new job, and being on the computer is part of that job, and in order to afford our nice new apartment, mommy needs this job.  So back off from the computer and let mommy have it!  Yesterday evening after I picked him up from daycare he asked me if I was going to have to work on my blobber job later.  That's how I am to be addressed from now on, folks:  paid professional blobber.

 

We moved, and the kidlet's true identity is revealed

The old apartment, Saturday night.

The new apartment Sunday morning.

The infamous bedroom of my own.

His latest bath reveals that the kidlet is really a lizard child sent by aliens from a pod planet in a galaxy far far away.

moving on up

Quite literally.  We're moving about a half-mile up the hill.  I can watch the ferries cross Elliott Bay from my bedroom window (that's the bedroom with a door on it, that I have all to myself with no kidlet in it).  The movers will be here in three hours, so I'd best git crackin'.  You'd be amazed at some of the interesting and gross things I'm finding in the corners when I pull the furniture away.

Another upgrade for me is that I'm finally going to leave the land of dial-up and get high-speed cable.  This switch may cause me to be offline for a couple of days (except at work, and we all know that I never EVER blog or read blogs at work, isn't that right?).  When I return, I should be able to spill the beans about this. 

Don't think I've gone all snooty on you, though.  I'll still have rabbit ears on my TV.

Updated to add:  Moving always makes me sad.  Even when I'm happy to be going.  It's a clear marker of the passage of time, of the things you lose as well as gain.  The sunlight falling across the trees in the yard and on the blue and white house next door was so piercing and beautiful yesterday.

I won't forget you, tub

Is it possible to mourn a bathtub?  For the most part I am more than happy to leave this apartment.  I'm tired of the musty smell, the crooked floors, the lack of a bedroom.  Don't even get me started on the varmints--everything from rats to slugs to pigeons.  But the thing that I do love, and I love it well, is my tub.  I'm quite sure that's how I got seduced into renting this place, that gleaming porcelain, those claw feet, the depth!  I have spent many hours in that thing, hot and sweaty, reading The New Yorker, thinking about boys (both small and grown-up), immersed in the plentiful hot water feeling supported and safe.  My self-portrait in the tub is the most looked at post on nina turns 40.  I've had some darn good ideas while soaking in there.  And of course,  nothing soothes a broken heart like crying your tears into the bubbles.  The new apartment has a tub.  And it's a nice tub.  A good tub, even.  But it's not this tub.  I wonder how many baths I can take between now and when the movers come tomorrow.

I can see clearly now

Here's some news to distract you all from inventing ever crazier scenarios about my other news.  I am sporting a stylin' new pair of Vera Wang spectacles.  I haven't had new glasses in about five years,  so I am feeling very special let me tell you.  You can actually see my eyes, which is really kinda scary.

the good, the bad, and the unexpected

I have come to the inevitable and terrifying conclusion that my addictions (caffeine, sugar) are out of control and I need to do something about it.  Just as I was mulling this over, and having protein for breakfast instead of coffee (step one), I got some really fantastic, quite unexpected news that I can't share with you yet.  It is also somewhat terrifying, but in the best, what if you got something you've always really wanted and then had to deliver on it way.

ghosts of an Easter past

check it out!

Gary was kind enough (again!) to take one of my fotos and turn it into a gorgeous banner.  Hopefully this font is a little more readable as well. 

The kidlet is home again, the place is filled with chocolate,  and most importantly we escaped unscathed from the green jello cottage cheese pineapple salad.  Some days, you are lucky to gather those you love around you and not only are you happy just to be around them but they proceed to crack you up, too.  Today was one of those days, and I feel blessed.

A favorite of mine from Elizabeth Bishop

Insomnia

The moon in the bureau mirror
looks out a million miles
(and perhaps with pride, at herself,
but she never never smiles)
far and away beyond sleep, or
perhaps she's a daytime sleeper.

By the Universe deserted,
she'd tell it to go to hell,
and she'd find a body of water,
or a mirror, on which to dwell.
So wrap up care in a cobweb
and drop it down the well

into that world inverted
where left is always right,
where the shadows are really the body,
where we stay awake all night,
where the heavens are shallow as the sea
is now deep, and you love me.