Day 54: My New Home...

Dear Friends;

I know that it has been ages… And ages… And ages, for me to get back into a regular Blogging habit… This whole moving thing has just kept me hopping… (And scrubbing and cleaning and sorting and and and…)

I have gotten rid of about half of the stuff piled up in my new front room… It was taking up the whole room and was stacked up as tall as me… (Remind me to purge more of my own stuff when I am all done with this never-ending project… I hate the thought of being that old and having someone else burdened with all of my things and what to do with them…)

The furniture is another thing altogether… I have work gloves and heavy boots that will work for tearing down the already falling apart pressboard pieces… The whole idea of demolition is kind of foreign to me… I have worked so diligently with my Dad to refurbish old and long forgotten or abused pieces that to just tear something all to bits just makes me shake my head… But I guess in the end, the difference is falling apart pressboard and neglected real wood… I think I might just get into it though… Once I figure out how to bet go about it, that is…

Some of the things I have discovered about living alone at this point in my life are:

I can get up in the middle of the night and work for an hour if I can’t sleep. I don’t have to worry about disturbing anyone… I can scrub the walls, clean the shower, sort through boxes, pack for my next trip, surf the net… It does not matter if I turn on the light or make a little bit of noise… And when I am tired out again, I can crawl back into bed and not have to think about how I am going to fight for my part of the bed or covers again… The downside is that even with my heat retaining tempur-pedic bed, I still return to cold sheets rather than a warm body… I miss hearing the sound of another person sleeping peacefully next to me…

But… By sleeping alone, I can sleep sideways, diagonally, curled up, or sprawled out… I can get up and take my pillow to the other side of the bed if I feel like it… Even if the other side happens to be the foot of the bed… I have learned that I follow the moon, that I like to rotate my direction as the moon waxes and wanes… Odd, I know, but there it is… One of those totally secret single behaviors of mine totally revealed. By living and sleeping alone, I can do this without having to explain why I am ripping all the bed clothes up and turning us 45 degrees so that I can actually fall asleep… Ah… The life of an insomniac…

I can clean in my panties… Call me strange… But I like to clean in a tank top and boy shorts… Wild, bright colors… Soft, unrestrictive cotton… I feel extra productive if I add in a pair of mis-matched knee socks and what I have long referred to as my magic yellow gloves… With those industrial hand protectors, I can take on the icky stuff and not even flinch… They are what turn me from uber princess into superwoman extraordinaire… My work gloves for the heavy stuff, gardening gloves for the outside, and latex gloves for cooking are the same way… Now don’t get me wrong, I am not a germaphobe, I just like my hands protected… I will always shake a hand if it is offered, though I much prefer a hug… I only bring out the purell for when I handle large amounts of money, use public restrooms, or go camping… I have been this way since my Mom discovered that if I was ever going to do the dishes, I had to have something to put between my skin and the yuck… As soon as she gave me my first pair, I was hooked… And never complained about dishes again… (The funny thing is that culinary school broke me of using gloves to wash dishes… Full service for a four course meal for 200 can make even the best of hand protection futile… Besides, even a princess can be practical once she realizes that some things just have to be done, no matter what…)

I can play the radio whenever I like… And I can have it at that soft level that it seems only dogs and I can hear… Anything louder will give me a headache after a couple of minutes… And when there are other people about, they get frustrated that they can’t hear what the song is… They also get frustrated that I can’t hear both what they are saying and the song at the same time… It just turns sound into noise… And since there is no one about for me to keep an ear out for, I can actually listen to the radio again. (Of course, I only have two stations to choose from… The Latin religious station… And the oldies mixed with today station. And I am just not that old yet… Of course, I am not that religious and my Spanish is not that good, so the oldies mixed with today wins out… How I can’t wait to find my CDs… No comment on the lack of an MP3 player… I have heard of them, even seen and touched a few… But do not have a clue about how to get the music in or out, let alone on how to choose which one… Plus, don’t they have an added expense just to keep track of my songs or something? I don’t know… I am stuck in the land of the CD for a while longer… Oh well… Should I even mention that most of my Arabic Dance music is still on cassette tape? Hmmm… Just forget that I brought that hidden point up…)

I have taken to wearing my retainer all the time… Since there is no one to talk to, and no one to see me, I figure why not be “good” and start wearing my retainer before all the years of braces and surgery become undone by having my teeth move too much more than they already have… (I must look like the serious geek with my retainer, glasses, hair in a ponytail, cleaning the bathroom in mix-matched knee socks, boy shorts and a tank top… But yeah… That would be the real me… In the raw… unmade up and scrubbed clean face, dancing about to music that no one else can hear but me… Good mental picture huh?)

So there you go… I could list more that I have learned, come to embrace, or just come to accept about the real and uncensored version of me when I am alone, but this is getting longer and longer… So I’ll let some more time pass and then see what else appears in the ongoing and daily discoveries of my living alone… If there is one thing I can say, it’s that life is always an adventure… (And that is the best thing of all…)


Ps.

Here is a copy of the song that I have stuck in my head today… Perhaps you too will discover that you can sing along… (However, I can’t recall ever learning the words…) Enjoy… And keep your fingers crossed that someday, I will live where there is a greater choice in radio stations… (Though, I did just find out that Sugar Ray remade the song… No, that is not the version that has been crossing the airwaves into my home… But at least I now know that it is not that forgotten of a song after all… Of course, it was Sugar Ray… So… Well… I think I’ll stick with the original… At least then I can say it is a classic… And here is a version by Alizee… Hmm… Anything French is automatically a classic right???)

ABRACADABRA
The Steve Miller Band
written by Steve Miller

I heat up, I can't cool down
You got me spinnin'
'Round and 'round
'Round and 'round and 'round it goes
Where it stops nobody knows

Every time you call my name
I heat up like a burnin' flame
Burnin' flame full of desire
Kiss me baby, let the fire get higher

Abra-abra-cadabra
I want to reach out and grab ya
Abra-abra-cadabra
Abracadabra

You make me hot, you make me sigh
You make me laugh, you make me cry
Keep me burnin' for your love
With the touch of a velvet glove

Abra-abra-cadabra
I want to reach out and grab ya
Abra-abra-cadabra
Abracadabra

I feel the magic in your caress
I feel magic when I touch your dress
Silk and satin, leather and lace
Black panties with an angel's face

I see magic in your eyes
I hear the magic in your sighs
Just when I think I'm gonna get away
I hear those words that you always say

Abra-abra-cadabra
I want to reach out and grab ya
Abra-abra-cadabra
Abracadabra

Every time you call my name
I heat up like a burnin' flame
Burnin' flame full of desire
Kiss me baby, let the fire get higher

I heat up, I can't cool down
My situation goes 'round and 'round
I heat up, I can't cool down
My situation goes 'round and 'round
I heat up, I can't cool down
My situation goes 'round and 'round