Moving

I have moved into my third home in Indiana. Each of the three I have lived in have had their quirks, and obviously, I felt two of those places had quirks beyond my tolerance. It is painful to move, expensive, time consuming, mentally debilitating. And yet I do. I have. I will. I know I will again. It is a rental after all, and although this very cluster of buildings has faculty from my own institution who have lived here for decades, I am not that kind of pessimist. I want to find a home base I can call my own, my own to invest in, my own to destroy. Yes, destroy. Part of creating a home is its very destruction and rebuilding. Over and over.

Somehow, in moving, I made the poor choice of packing a library book that had been sitting on my desk, into a box I assumed I would be quickly opening again. The box and book have vanished, and the urgent emails from the library remind me it is time to return it. Part of being a faculty-person is having the elite position that a librarian wouldn't dare charge a fine for a late book, and procrastination and laziness are making me take advantage of this perk. If that weren't enough, somehow the other two books I checked out at the same time, that sat all through the holiday on my desk in my office, suddenly vanished. I cannot recall if I 'put them away,' or returned them (thus having them mis-shelved or whatnot). In total, three books missing, and not the faintest idea where they went to. It is a problem I can ignore, but it also fills me with such anxiety, I can't tell you how I cope. I go to my office and stare at my bookshelves, expecting the missing tombs to suddenly leap to my eyes, at which time I will laugh and announce the cliché, "at least a snake would've bitten me!" It hasn't happened yet.

I just emptied three and a half boxes in my extra bedroom. There were a number of boxes moved into that room when I wasn't looking. I don't really know what-all is there. I did find my missing harddrive, my tax receipts, a number of lost ideas and doodles on paper. But no books. Where have they gone? With the missing socks? (I haven't had any go missing lately.) With the lost ideas, the wasted days, the used kitty litter? How does my life so quickly descend into a chaos, bathing in unintended neglect, denial of adulthood (while everyday firmly asserts I am there)?

new rental

I am determined to live stylishly.
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Happy Holidays!

We celebrated the holidays before our drive. But I still decorated a little here. Surprisingly, Christmas lights are not a big thing here. Very few houses have them. There are a few snow-flake shaped light sculptures in the downtown area.


Today, we are taking it easy and I have had a chance to post here. I wish there were more pictures of a finished house for you! Or even some snow!! It is pretty here, snow or not. We have squirrels living in the trees in our yard. Yesterday another neighbor brought us 'welcome' cookies.

New House--Almost!

The sun room and kitchen are the only presentable, fully working rooms right now. Even they need some adjusting of decor, but they are mostly in order, and hence are my favorite rooms right now. The house has two bedrooms, a bathroom, a dining room (currently box-central), a living room, a sun room, a kitchen, a mudroom, an attic and basement. I love the basement-- "This box is in my way, can you take it to the basement?" It's a whole new level of the "honey-do" list. The only problem with the basement and attic are the stairs. Did people really only have 5 inch long feet one hundred years ago?


The kitchen is functional without excess. The counters appear to be from the 50s-- an aluminum lined laminate material. The yellow back splash tiles are authentic plastic tiles. There are nine drawers in the cabinetry-- I have never had so many drawers. What on earth do you use so many drawers for? One of them is an old built-in flour bin, a deep drawer made of metal. The door above leads to the basement.


Across from the basement door is this windowed door to the mudroom. Apparently, you leave your mudroom unlocked for visitors, and visitors are polite enough not to steal your tools out of the mudroom. This room is nearly the same tempurature as outside, in the 30s right now. The kitchen is hovering the 60s and 70s. Toasty!

By the way, that is indeed an advertisement for chewing tobacco you see in our mudroom.


The house is very charming. We have not unpacked everything yet, nor cleaned things to our satisfaction, but it is working out nicely. I love the door knobs.