Moving Day, again

Today we move to our second sub-let apartment. This time it's a two bedroom with a little more room and little less up and down stairs. It's really close to work, so the walk will be shorter, but it's also in a less desirable place. I keep telling myself that it's just for a month. Pai will pace one last time today through Eran's hallway (our first sub-let).

This Week Has Been

.... a lesson in focussing my attention. While I only had the chance to see David for a couple of days, he left me my dear Pai and this has been wonderful. All of my attention, aside from going to work, has been on helping Pai adapt to becoming an urban dog. I walk her 30 min in the morning, 45 min after work and 20 min at night. During our afternoon walks I've been mixing it up by finding new places we can discover together. For example, we went to a really cool park quite a ways from Columbus (we drove there) and we got to walk around in a meadow and pick blackberries. They were yummy! We also discovered that the Dairy Queen in Grandview gives out doggie treats!

Video of the Day I Left

Second Sunday

Several happy events today already:

1. I found a Whole Foods.
2. I found a French Bakery and a Graeter's Ice Cream across the street from said Whole Foods.
3. For the first time ever, I watched the movie "Better Off Dead". I will always love John Cusack.
4. I also watched "The Sound of Music" which put me in a positively good mood (redundant, I know.)
5. I went for a walk around Victorian Village and Harrison West and visited a park.
6. I did NOT thumb through the classifieds.
7. I enjoyed NOT sweating in the shade.
8. I found a bar of soap I was looking for.
9. I ate whatever I wanted and didn't feel a lick of guilt.
10. I treated myself well.

A week later

I've been waiting for a certain piece of equipment to arrive so that I may finish a project and post it. Till then, let me just say that this has been the longest week I've experienced in a while.

It's a strange experience to relocate in an effort to change one's lifestyle. It's a completely frightening prospect when one is also responsible for others at the same time. I spent most of this past week dutifully trying to find a residence for David, Pai and I. It took me a week of looking at places and coordinating the best possible solutions. We have certain needs. I'd like to be close enough to walk, bike or bus to school while NOT living amongst frat houses. David and I both want to be able to walk to cafes, markets, a pub. I would suspect, proximity to biking and walking trails would also be attractive to David. For Pai - she needs a little bit of green space, a fence, a little scenery and some not-so-obnoxious or threatening neighbors - whatever that means. Most importantly we need to be able to transition from owning our own home to renting - which is weird. It feels a little backwards. I can go round and round about my responsibility about finding a domicile for us, but I know that I can only search so much. Usually, the right spot finds you, not the other way around. For now - I'm subletting an apartment from a current dance grad. It's a nice place, but not dog friendly. My sublease is up at the end of July. For August, I have another apartment sublease that accepts a dog and will be big enough for all three of us. It's not ideal in that David and I will be about 20 years older than all of our neighbors - but it's just for a month. Sept 1st we'll move into a single family home. I can't wait! It's a cute cape cod-style house and I think it will be a good home. I'll be happy to make a home with David again. It may have only been a week that I've been gone, but it feels a lot longer.

My reaction to all this change varies as can be expected. I'm doing my best to just observe things as they happen and get to know my way around the town. At night I have disturbing, vivid dreams, but I know they're really just little things surfacing. Things will eventually calm down and I'm looking forward to it. I'm really just trying to remain calm and be present.

“Ideally a painter (and, generally, an artist) should not become conscious of his insights: without taking the detour through his reflective processes, and incomprehensibly to himself, all his progress should enter so swiftly into the work that he is unable to recognize them in the moment of transition. Alas, the artist who waits in ambush there, watching, detaining them, will find them transformed like the beautiful gold in the fairy tale which cannot remain gold because some small detail was not taken care of.” - Rainer Maria Rilke

Arrived!

Sixteen hours of driving completed!

Happy Independence Day!

The Day Has Arrived

A certain day became a presence to me:
there it was, confronting me - a sky, air, light:
a being. And before it started to descend
from the height of noon, it leaned over
and struck my shoulder as if with
the flat of a sword, granting me
honor and a task. The day's blow
rang out, metallic - or it was I, a bell awakened,
and what I heard was my whole self
saying and singing what it knew: I can.
- Denise Levertov,
"Variation on a Theme by Rilke"

Procrastinating instead of Packing

Our house is too comfortable to start packing things away!