cobaltika

i ended up *not* staying in all day after all. which is really good, because daily fresh air and exercise are important. my ex-landlord called and said there was a package and some mail there (why wasn’t it forwarded??? eeergh!). i wanted the package badly because it was a new garment from eBay! i am replacing a few rags. this year i can only purchase replacement items (if truly necessary) and things that will be consumed or used up. if i buy a new garment - 4 or 5 have to go out. well that’s easy. i have gobs of unflattering rags hanging in the closet. and i threw out TONS before moving. so i walked over there. with my camera. it was nice but i am really really out of shape at seeing. today i guess i will go fetch some posterboard to cover the artTable … then … READY … gulp.

bad news. it has been raining like an evil witch’s pissing bladder here. came home. found the west edge of my bedroom, particularly the northwest corner, soaked. the carpet. fuck! i made a point of asking specifically when i looked at these places if there was a water problem on the lower floors? “oh no. not at all.” and it was a dry time - and the place *seemed* dry. i did notice some darkened areas of the carpet on that edge, when i checked in, but it did not smell funny and was not damp (trust me, i *did* put my nose down there!). i thought it was just discolored. old. so i guess there is yet more water sneaking into my place. i will tell them of course, but i don’t see what can be done. i have sopped it up and the fan is blowing on it. but i don’t want fucking MOLD in my bedroom. that is dangerous and unhealthy!! i can’t believe the guy who lived here for 4 years never said anything and they didn’t know. i feel tricked. just after i have unpacked and made cozy. DAMN.

anyway. onward, i guess.

today is my betsy’s birthday! i can’t believe she is 23. that is so strange. i will never forget the day of her birth. it was magical.

not very many, sorry. it is very dark in here. has been raining for DAYS and is likely to continue. i have decided i may stay in ALL DAY today if i like. and just nork around. finally put the artTable together (it is behind those shelves, in the other half of the living area). it still drips - constantly. i am glad to have windows open though, and no need to run AC - saving money! yes! king tubby is actually in the house. asleep somewhere. probably a closet. maybe under the artTable? i won’t bother him. i am just glad he is not out in the rain. he still seems pretty nutso. the laundry is finishing down the hall. strange that someone was doing theirs *before* me on a saturday morning! gasp. i thought i would be first. i won’t ride my bike to the farmer’s market today. i have plenty of veggies left and might cook some mexican beans and roast the green chiles, then make some stew. yum? yes! i *should* go to the office and restart that donkey server … but i don’t want to … i need some white poster board to cover the artTable and could get it a few blocks away at the campus bookstore … but i don’t *want* to … go OUT.

by this evening i supposed i will be whimpering with loneliness but hey. if i put that artTable back together … maybe NOT! art is my friend! i am glad to be staying in today.

still no pictures. i’ll just make words. i am making art in my head again (finally), but not in the studio. or studio *area* i suppose i should say now. it is still not ready. boxes of stuff piled on tables, no light, etc. right now i have the living room divided in half with a row of tall shelves and a bamboo screen. a quiet sitting area and a working area. but the working area is in the dark part of the room and i don’t know about that. i might open the whole place up eventually. (buh. that would mean moving all those books and shelves…) my nestroom is pretty good now. only one basket of weirdshit left in there, to be sorted and placed elsewhere. i even sewed the curtains on to the closets last night. my arm hurts. it has been very bad since moving. since these are student apartments and i guess the students would get drunk and trash them, they just took the bifold doors off all the closets (there are two in my nestroom and one in the entry hall) and put shower curtain rods across the space. it could be a pretty shitty look, except for i have Decorating Skills, so mine look pretty damned good and i promise to show soon. i didn’t have closet doors at the pink cottage either, as they had bifold MIRROR doors that HAD to go. god! full length mirrors in the bedroom. NO THANKS. so i am using my same lace for curtains. what a floof i am. anyway. it looks pretty good.

when i turned on the shower this morning the faucet exploded off and water roared out of a hole in the wall. i hope they will fix it today. this will be the third service call in a week - yesterday i found more rain damage under a window, besides the ceiling leak…  i’m almost afraid to touch anything …

i got my whole deposit and a nice note back from the landlords of the pink cottage. thank you!

king tubby is still strange. he only comes home around 5am in the morning. usually he yowls at my nestroom window, but this morning he was just sitting on the patio, bathing, waiting. then he goes back out after stuffing his face and getting some pets. i wish he would come home for dinner, too. where in the world does he GO????

those fraternity boys were singing again last night at 10pm. seriously, groups of boys singing is weird. it sounds so … vintage.

i finally quit drinking box wine and eating rotisserie chicken. thank god. there are nice veggies in the frig now. and rice in the cupboards. and i found my vitamins. i was starting to feel sort of crappy.

i guess i can make do. i am pulling out all my pretties and mexican things i had stashed away and not-used for so long. if you have some walls made of cement block, every loveliness helps. i am still nesting. i have been snapping some in-progress photos, but it is not a pretty sight yet. i meant to have the head of my bed on the proper wall, not the cement, but apparently the proper wall is closest to the noise-makers outside that keep people’s houses cool. too much vibration and machineSound for sleeping. so i had to have my head at the cement. almost everything is done-enough except for the studio space. i know when it is done i will have to sit there and DO SOMETHING - and discontinue reading paperbacks from the library. so i dawdle.

there is a leak from somewhere that has made an unattractive stain on the ceiling of the living room. uh oh.

at first i called the bathroom dormish, in some gentleness toward the gruesome gray tile floor, but now i realize i saw that same tile and grungy grout in many gas station bathrooms across the united states. i’m trying to look positively on this. perhaps find it exotic. i have pale pink towels anyway. and a shabby chic shower curtain. and a pink caddy sx-70 polaroid blown up on canvas on the wall ( (-:!!!! ). i can make do.

tonight i ate my first dinner at the table. (because it has been piled up with STUFF) pesto with basil from the farmer’s market, to which i rode my bike yesterday. i have been riding my bike. no matter which way i go there are hills.

king tubby only comes home in the mornings. he sits by the bedroom window and yowls. i wonder how he knows it is me behind that particular window? i wonder where he goes all day? and night? and why he no longer comes home for dinner? there are many yappy dogs in this place. it is such an alien place. i am rather sad. but i can make do.

for now.

i have no pictures or art to show yet. home decor and nesting are still in progress. into the workweek it is a slower process. but i am ready to be finished. i am ready for my studio to be put together again. i am ready to see what i will do there. i do feel more “wordish” lately, partly out of loneliness, i am sure, because i am very, so i will let myself ramble and make word mezclado for now. i feel so far away from my “old world” - even though when i walked to the old house for the walk-through last evening, it was only a 15 minute walk. slowly. i am not far, really. as it has been so cool and rainy, i have had the apartment windows (all 3 of them. ha ha.) open and was delighted that i could still hear the trains. i really worried about that! i love the trains. King Tubby is still having an awkward time, too. he seems afraid outside, but does not want to stay in. it was odd to walk to the office from the “other side” of campus this morning. it is a shorter walk and i am worried that i will not have enough exercise now. but i don’t seem very interested in eating, so maybe it will all balance out.

last night, i tried to listen to the Palin speech on iTunes radio. it was nauseating and i had to turn it off. she seems such a superfake, such a politician, nothing much to say for herself except the same trite republican lies, spending most energy on dissing the opposition. blech. what a pair. surely the American people will not fall for them? was that canned cheering in the background? i am so afraid there are more idiots in this country than i want to believe. i may have to move further than California…

last evening i came home from the walk-through of the old house and found my kitchen sinks full of brown water. that was nasty. but maintenance people came and fixed. a good point of apartment life, i guess. i have been trying to cover up the bland dormishness of the place with curtains and mexican trinkets and doilies and assorted stuff that i seemed to be unable to unload before the move. i’m still horrified at how much STUFF i have and am still throwing out things as i unpack. i *have* to. so many things are such a burden, especially if you are not yet settled and wonder if you ever will be.

well, onward…

things that scare me:

1. how much stuff i have
2. how much rotisserie chicken i have eaten in the past 3 days
3. how much box wine (merlot) i have consumed in the past 4 days
4. sarah palin - esp. in combination w/mcCain

things that impress me:
1. single-handedly emptying 50 cardboard boxes in 2 days
2. freecycle
3. king tubby’s abilities with a litter box
4. my bank account (it is not empty - despite all)

things that befuzzle me:
1. 2 million being forced to evacuate for gustav - huh?
2. the uniformity of the residents of this new environment
3. where my stuff is all going to GO
4. sarah palin - esp. in combination w/mcCain