nina turns 40

wherever I lay my hat

We got the McPartment (a kidlet term, I don't have the heart to correct him)! We're on our way after work to put down a deposit on it. Phew! I was starting to worry that we were gonna be homeless, or--horrors!--end up moving to the Peninsula and living with my folks. So the ball is rolling, and for once I don't feel like it's coming along to flatten me. Good news, indeed.

Contrary to what you might think from looking at the fotos here, Irises are my favorite flower. My neighbors have some gorgeous ones, both purple and white, and I keep meaning to sneak over and shoot them before it's too late. I saw some really elegant ones last weekend at a park, with very tall and slender leaves and stalks, and smallish, dark purple flowers. I could easily imagine them growing wild along some riverbank. Someday, when I have enough space to have my own little garden, I am only going to plant purple flowers. Maybe some white ones thrown in for contrast, but mostly purple, my own little sea of violet and green.

cansada

I'm worn out, weary, exhausted, pooped, drooping, dragging, and just plain tired. My heart still feels like a train wreck most of the time, and I don't know how to pick it up and get it on out of this tunnel and into the light of day. Haven't taken many fotos of late, and it's still up in the air whether or not I'll get the apartment. Oh, and the kidlet has declared he doesn't want to go on vacation. He'd rather just stay at Gramma and Grampa's house. But there's a pool where we're going, I told him. Gramma and Grampa have a hot tub, he replied. Sorry, kidlet, we're going on vacation, and you're along for the ride.

just wondering

Why do I always get along best with the nerdy/geek boyz?

more tub love

I finally saw an apartment that I liked well enough to fill out an application for. It has a bedroom and an alcove which will work for a second bedroom for our purposes. It has a patio outside, and a killer claw foot tub. We'd actually be able to put up a table, you know for eating dinner, and even have friends over for dinner without eating on the floor (and yes, that's how we do it now). My budget will be very tight, but it will be nice to have more space, and we could walk to the grocery store, bank, coffee house (several), Easy St. records, and even some cultural venues. There is someone else interested who was there before me, so let's just hope that person finds something else or has horrible credit or something.

seattle is too a real city

For those who bitch about the awful architecture in Seattle (and you have some horribly legitimate reasons to do so), I present our new Central Library, about which the New York Times says: "If an American city can erect a civic project as brave as this one, the sun hasn't set on the West. In more than 30 years of writing about architecture, this is the most exciting new building it has been my honor to review." Finally, a building we can be proud of, and the fact that it's the library makes it extra cool, because it's a public space that we can all use. It's not officially open yet, but once it is, I'll go check it out and give my own impressions, but I'm very excited about it at this point.

Note: I don't like to swipe fotos, but I don't have one of my own to post, and the link to the Times' story is gonna be dead in a week or so. Lara Swimmer took the picture, and a fine one it is.

further proof the kidlet is a genius

Last night the kidlet and I were playing a game. He said, "Let's find words that rhyme with fox." So we came up with box and locks and rocks and clocks, and then he said, frogs. And I said, "No, not quite." So we decided to rhyme with frogs. I said logs and then he said, "blogs, like on your internet."

I can't think of anything more incongruous with my mood today than a field of pink tulips. So here they are.

home is where the tub is

Is it wrong to pick an apartment based soley on the size of the bathtub? Saw a very cute but also very small place today, but the tub was to die for, long and deep and it was about all I could do not to fill it up for a soak right then and there.

As far as this house goes, it sold, so no more strangers stomping through, and we don't have to be out until the third week of June, so I'm sure we'll find the perfect place before then. But I'm already weary of this whole process, and I haven't even begun to pack boxes. Although it's been a big pain in the ass to have realtors calling all the time (and we even got locked out once), it is lovely to have had the pressure to keep everything clean. The apartment has never looked so good. I'm missing it already.

embraces

My friend returned a book to me last night, a book I had forgotten that I had lent her. Eduardo Galeano's Book of Embraces. It is a very beautiful and sad book, which fits my mood today perfectly. It is written in very short chapters, or vignettes, really, each one rarely more than a page. Here is an excerpt