Thursday, September 30, 2010

Saturday, September 25, 2010

I'm over it

Remember when you were a kid and in an effort to get you to clean up after yourself your Mom would say some variation of, "the maid is off today," or "what do I look like, the maid?" It was at these moments when I would dream of living in a hotel and having someone to pick up the wet towels, make the bed, wash the dishes and just generally turn my not always orderly life into something more manageable. In my head, this situation was always blissful, desirable and the only trajectory worth pursuing, but my head was wrong, oh, so, very wrong. We've been doing just that for almost a month now, living in a hotel. And, while the housekeeping aspect is great, or maybe it's merely fine, living in temporary quarters is not.

We are tired, from late nights and early mornings due to DC traffic patterns. We are cranky from sleeping on past their prime mattresses and deflated pillows. We are sluggish from too many prepared, carbo-loaded meals and not enough fresh fruits and vegetables. We are bored with the same selection or books and toys. All of this is made worse by the fact that we are actually already partially, even mostly, moved into our new house, all we lack are the beds. They haven't arrived. We've been waiting for weeks for two beds. Nothing fancy mind you, just run of the mill, keep you from sleeping on the ground, beds. We have other things of course. A beautiful new stand mixer, plush towels, wonderfully comfortable couches, area rugs, garbage cans, even a re-purposed desk donated by a former grad student to a current one. In short, all the comforts of home. Except, not. I've never stopped to think about this really, but no beds means no real living. Even mattresses on the floor are enough to call a place home, but without them, a home is just some walls and a sink or two. Our house desperately wants to be a home and I want that for it and us too.

I feel for the DC commuters, but I'm ready to be done sharing in their misery every morning as we make the pilgrimage from Northern VA to Downtown DC. I want to break out all the cute new bedding we have for Isaac's big boy bed -- I know he's going to be as excited as I am about the stars and spaceships and rocket ships he gets to curl up with every night. I want to finish putting odds and ends away and am having difficulty conceptionalizing our living space with no beds. The lesson here is next time, bring the beds with you, or order the beds in advance or buy them in person or beg, borrow or steal, okay don't steal, them before you do anything else.

One more week. The beds will be here next week and the hotel living will be over. We still have stuff coming from Caracas, but those are the non-essential items and we can live without them. Good thing, because as of today our shipment has still not been inspected and therefore not cleared from departure from Venezuela. But, no matter, from next week our new closets will be full of clothes and our suitcases will go on a much deserved vacation. All the random things we have lying around will find permanent dwelling places. We'll be able to start re-paying all the favors we've racked up over the last month from so many dear friends. And, most importantly, we'll all be getting a very good night's sleep.
 

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