Home, Sweet Homes

Before I left to go away last June, I lived in a fabulous apartment in the city. I could see the sunrise over Mount Sutro and the sunset over Ocean Beach, I had a huge kitchen and an equally huge closet, I showered in a retro 1950s style baby blue tiled bathroom and I watched the N-Judah rumble by through the big bay window and I had painted it myself with colors I'd gotten to pick out and I got to sleep with my head pointing north, one of those quirky things that no one else cares about but that makes an inexplicable difference to me. Did I mention it was cheap, this apartment? So cheap! Not so consistently heated, but...small detail.

Since June when I packed up my tiny, tidy apartment and put all my things into storage I have lived a number of different places, never more than two months at a time at the most. It is time now to move again, for the last time before going away again to camp in June, and while in some ways it is exciting to find another house to share for a bit it does make me realize how ready I am not to settle down but at least to stop moving all the time. As Liora said, "It sounds like having a closet would make a world of difference to you right now!" And, indeed it would.

So I am going today and tomorrow to look at two new places where I might live, for April and May, while I try out my new two-month contract job and consider my options for the fall and continue to live out of my two huge bags and my three Rubbermaid bins. It has been quite a year in that way and I have definitely learned a lot about what I really need to have on a daily basis and what I just think I need to have.

But for the next ten days, while I look for my newest house, I am here by myself at Mark and Rebecca's while they are in Italy on their honeymoon and I am remembering what it is like to live alone and while of course I love being with them, with anyone who is my housemate, I really do love having my own home all to myself. I know I have a few more months of adventuring but I am excited for the time, after camp, when I get to pick out my next house and get all my stuff, dishes and lamps and bedsheets and books, and settle in somewhere I can really call home.