People

I've been in Portland nearly a week now. I am surrounded by inspiringly lovely and wonderful people all the time. I don't know any of them very well but I am getting to know them. It is surreal to be here where I know no one, and they have such established relationships. They all seem to like me though. I hope to get to know them all very well. There are also babies everywhere (a baby explosion happened within the last year, among many of the appropriately aged couples I know. Most of them are poly. I find this to be fabulous.)

Here are three of the wonderful men at this welcoming and strangely named house:

They are hugging. One of them is of another one's back. The one with the yellow pants is getting picked up in the process.

Right now I am sitting placidly on the couch while a couple different wonderful people discuss a coding project, some other people cook dinner, and somewhere the babies are probably sleeping. Earlier today, because I was jealous that a baby was riding someones shoulders, I got a ride on some wonderful person's should while I squealed and giggled with glee. And this morning, at 6:30 am, I made blueberry pancakes with a wonderful person and his baby-year-old son, and then accidentally went back to sleep. I didn't mean for this to be so much of a vacation; I meant to draw, and post more reliably, and get other important things done on the computer. But I didn't bring my own computer, so I can't follow my usual posting work flow, and have instead been very vaguely learning GIMP and the other ways of ubuntu.

Home. Love. Family.

I really like it here. These people are family.
Even the awkward boarder is such a part of this household. I like how when I bring people over, my family has something to say to them, a way to relate.

When I came home late last night, my heart flooded with wellbeing to see that everybody else was home. I am so lucky.

And the in/out board Barbara made is actually really cool.

Dactyl love

These Dactyls felt symbolic, warm, and fuzzy, as I arranged them on the book shelf. I had just gotten done rearranging and cleaning the living room, with Bob (This was on the 30th, also, the same day we got the couch). The Dactyls are so intrinsic to this family that people sometimes call Bob and Barb "the Dactyls," as a convenient way of referring to them, since their last names are different. I feel very at home among the dactyls, and felt especially at home after Bob and I worked together to make the home more homey. Home Home home.

Dactyls symbolize love and family. They especially symbolize Bob, but also Emily and Barbara, and this house. Here they are nuzzling. It just makes me want to nuzzle!

I love my home.

Emily and Kevin are home for the weekend, for my birthday, and just generally to visit. They make me so happy. I was literally bouncing with anticipation the day they were going to show up, which was Wednesday night.


This afternoon we gave the litter of current foster kittens a bath. They are all so fluffy and precious, but they smelled pretty bad.

Predictably, Kevin was taking pictures. Since I had also decided to take pictures (kittens!) we were getting in each other's way whenever we saw the same good idea. It makes me smile. Kevin's camera is such a part of him, and it couldn't get in my way if he weren't hanging out with Emily and I in our bathroom, so it is obviously a positive thing.

I love them.

(Kevin's related blog post is here )

Sunfowers

I bought some sunflowers to try to brighten up my room. My basement. It doesn't really get any sunlight. Unfortunately, the sunflowers don't help; my room was already so colorful. I mean I have a huge brightly colored painting on the wall, so the flowers were just a dying drop in the bucket.



It's so unfortunate that I decided to move to a place without sunlight, because I can never get a good picture inside. Among other reasons, like the effect on my mood. Sunflowers are so pretty. But I buy them because they are the cheapest flowers at the supermarket. So cheap, so pretty. I probably wont keep buying flowers like I planned originally, because my room is bright enough without them.

I have a house. Also- Lasagna.

here is my beautiful Wilson, ready to walk with me to a beautiful fall wonderland, where we could live happily, basking in the warm sunset and swimming in the river.

But we didn't walk through that window, didn't take that route, because I feel compelled to get this amazing education.
















But I do have Wilson, and I do have a place to live. I also have magic lasagna making powers. Anyone who has talked to me in the past week has probably heard all the want to hear about lasagna.


Here is lasagna-eating. Nom.
I set up my bed space to dry some roses, so that when I got Wilson out here there would be dried roses above the bed. They're in a vase now.

Too bad to those of you tired of hearing about my lasagna. It was SO GOOOOD. And lasted me for almost a week, so I should definitely make it again sometime.
Why did I make it? The ricotta was on sale and I needed to use the spinach and some ground beef. So I should make it again soon.

Here is my apt while I was moving in. COLOR!

Also. I have too much salt.

I am so tired.

Here, have a picture I took of a really awesome pepper. Bob subscribed to a farm-share, and is getting all these beautiful and fresh vegitables.



But I don't get to eat them, because I am in new york.

I've been in New York since Tuesday, being as responsible as I know how to be. You see, I want a home. The sort of place where I can put nails in the wall, hang paintings, and have some peace and quiet.

I've been walking around, asking people, emailing people, calling people, all about homes. I've also been calling people about bikes. I have only determined that I am not going to get a folding bike. It was a lot of work to figure that out, you would be surprised. All of my time, save for some blog posting, has been either sleeping or being responsible.



So I am too worn out to take a better screen shot. This one I took before shutting down my computer, to look at and memorize this morning, and then I added the purple a second ago.

The arrow is where I went. It's a nice walk. A pretty walk. But it is 2 miles. For slow-walking-mackenzie, that is about 40 minutes. In the snow, that is... well... probably an hour at least.

I really like it there. There is what could be my own apt up top, to decorate as I wish, Wilson could stay with me... two cats, and a garage I could paint in. A really nice woman about my mom's age lives in the downstairs. She grows tomatoes, and sews, and I really like her.

It could be a home.

But it wouldn't be very much like college.

See the purple circle? That's about where I want to live. I want to transport any happy home to within that circle and then live there. I want to be able to be out until 3 am, and I want to go home to take a nap in the middle of the day.

I could maybe live on campus, and smuggle in Wilson. But it wouldn't be quite as much a home. 8/9 people sharing a kitchen, and I only get my tiny room, and then I have to move out at the end of the year. But in some ways it's better. It's college. Its a few hundred yards from the art building. People will ever visit me.


What do I do?