bedroom galilee clive barker bathroom amy and isabelle elizabeth strout car/walk evening susan minot
office look sharp! joe jackson lilith fair 2, 3 various car more tales from the city [book-on-tape] armistead maupin living room the sci fi channel
brand x the message came from out of the blue: Brand X welcomes you into its clutches.
1999 june 24
amazed
i am getting a new neighbour.
she is the sort of older woman who scares me in a heebyjeeby sort of way: bleached platinum hair styled in a flip with so much hairspray that not one hair would move in case of hurricane, fake and bake way too dark orangy tan, too much gold jewelry, too much strong perfume, too tight white sweater stretching over her too large breasts and hips, too bright and too long fingernails. her name is pamela or patricia or something like that. i just mumbled "claire" behind a forced smile and made my escape when i ran into her on the stairs.
before she moves in she is doing some major remodelling so i have had to listen to bangs and bumps and grindings and other machineries for the past week or so. occasionally the workmen will leave her door open so i can have a gander but in spite of all the noise i hear, i have yet to see anything other than a concrete floor and a lot of dust.
the major effect this has had on me and gene is the desire to rearrange our furniture; we can't afford to do a whole remodel just at the moment. as i have stated before, we are packrats, junk hoarders, owners of entirely too much stuff. under the best of circumstances this makes maneuvering about the house a little difficult, but when all the furniture is in disarray as well, it takes on the appearance of some crazed funhouse maze.
to get to the kitchen you have to walk around the two computer desks, then take a hard left to get around the trunk full of christmas decorations, then a right to negotiate passage between the dining room chairs and the dining room table, a slight shift of the hips to avoid the small bookcase and voila! kitchen. the kitchen itself is easy to get through, mostly because everything is piled on the counters with the exception of the huge tropical plant of unknown origin that is taking over the phone corner.
rather like a blind person must do, i have memorized all the paths necessary to make is safely from here to there within the condo. unlike a blind person, however, i tend to forget these paths when not quite awake. my thighs and shins are paying the price; i look like someone has been beating me on a daily basis.
i can't believe how late i am awake again this morning.
maybe my schedule is shifting for the summer. that would be so claire, to sleep in when the sun is shining and rise at three in the morning in the dead of dark winter.
left or right at the bathroom? claire
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