life on chapel hill

So, you know that aforementioned two-bedroom duplex on the Highland Park/Eagle Rock border? We’re moving there December 21—just in time for all of our rippling- biceped friends to be out of town for the holidays.

It took a weekend of grownup conversations, the kind you have to have when there’s more at stake than what movie to see, but I think both AK and I emerged relatively unscathed. In fact, I felt even more confident about our various conversations than I did about the at-least-it’s-not-carpet tan tile in the duplex.

“I’m going to try to be very process oriented about this whole thing,” I informed her, trying to psyche myself up for a month of painting, packing and heavy lifting. If I was going to be goal oriented, I would have to wait 30 days to reach my goal, which seemed daunting.

“Um, okay,” she said.

AK, who actually is fairly process oriented by nature, was busy enjoying her evening and had moved beyond the move.

An uninhabited space is a big projector screen for all your thoughts about what your living space should say about you. AK wants her space to say she lives in a world of crown molding. I want mine to say that I live in a world where everything is folded neatly.

We’re both learning to live on Earth, which isn’t a bad little place, really, especially when painted a shade of light green that Dutchboy calls “Chapel Hill.” And although I feel like a ‘50s housewife geeking out about the washer and dryer…hallelujah, there’s a washer and dryer! (Don’t worry, Dad, I’ll still come home to visit.)