i have trouble taking pictures for this place because, quite frankly, i live in that teeny apartment it seems everyone needs spend at least a few months of their youth. we have one bedroom, just large enough for the bed and a dresser; a walk-in closet that holds all of puck’s clothing and half of mine; a bathroom – which is really larger than we need; and a living area/kitchen/dining nook. it’s large enough for us, but not at present, as we don’t want to buy a lot of storage-oriented furniture when we’re going to be moving in less than six months – easier to get it there, we say.
as of friday morning, we had stacks, nay, towers of books everywhere, and half-filled boxes of my disorganized craft supplies and his disorganized movies, and etc etc in the living room, my workspace, my office, my world.
so i cleaned out the bathroom closet (we don’t need nine bath towels for the two of us, and my stash of curtains doesn’t need to be easily accessible ’til we move… you get the idea), and made it the craft closet:
then, with a little creative packing and a little simple organizing, i ended up with this:
(space is most likely smaller than it appears)
when puck signed a lease on this place, less than a month before we met, it was intended to be the Fortress of Solitude, as he’d sworn off relationships for bit. have i mentioned that neither of us really cared to meet when we did, that both of us were not interested? you can’t choose when it happens…
anyway, he didn’t have that futon when i moved in. just the weight bench – his ‘recliner,’ as he called it.
you can’t really see it, but there’s a kayak behind the futon – what, you don’t have one in your living room?
don’t let the tv fool you. save for the occasional netflix movie, it’s mostly just a very large heavy stand for the wireless router.
check out, too, our little homemade wreath – hanging from the untouched thermostat. it’s just not beginning to turn brown.
my bookshelves! and our countertop. the kitchen is not completely clean at the moment, so we’ll save its photo shoot for another day.
the dining nook. we do eat dinner there pretty much every night, and other meals on the weekends. the two chairs closest the camera are extras, so they serve more often as a coat rack than a place for people.
after all the cleaning, puck ordered pizza, and i had a beverage:
(cranberry raki [albanian moonshine. long story.] with ginger ale, between eve and an angel. i took one look after setting the glass down and knew i needed a photo)
we watched a video of the president at the republican caucus, and i knit. a good night.
the cold front left us with ice glazing everything, but the roads were clean enough by saturday afternoon to go out, and there was nothing by monday.
but it put me in the winter mood. i made my first pair of wristwarmers with some cotton yarn i got from michael’s ($1 worth was just enough), and i started another, more intricate pair.
other than that, it’s been soup here. sunday night, a lentil-y curry messy that was thick and full of good flavors: turmeric, cumin, curry powder, garlic, carrots, onions, who knows what else (puck and i took turns on it – well, mostly he followed the recipe i showed him, and i made pita bread again. so good…) which lasted through monday night.
so last night, after puck played truant (in all fairness, it was job shadow day, meaning that he would have had maybe half a dozen students between his two morning classes, and his journalism class is a self-propelled machine) – carmelized onions and garlic, mustard greens and peas, cayenne pepper, paprika, pepper, lemon juice, a splash of vinegar, rice & more lentils (i keep forgetting to soak beans, and we haven’t bought eggs in months, so lentils it is) – perfectly basic after an indulgent lunch (coffee underground in downtown greenville – a peanuty veggie wrap for him and an indulgent slice of mediterranean quiche for me), perfectly warming after a cold day (walking around town, then an apartment whose heat we rarely turn on – as long as our neighbors use heat, as they usually do, our apartment stays above 50 degrees, it seems).
however, i remembered to soak black beans last night, and half of them are now in the crockpot with a little cumin and paprika. tonight’s menu? a sort of mexican lasagna – tortillas, salsa, beans, cheese, onions, spinach, and maybe rice all layered in the cast iron skillet (since that’s what the onions will be cooked in, and who really wants an extra dirty pan?) and baked.
i know most every woman seems to one day get tired of planning a nightly menu, but i’m still enamoured of it.
in other news, reading, reading. finished ‘war and peace.’ onto joyce’s ‘ulysses,’ but first ‘hamlet’ (i’ve never read it. i know, i know, what a heretic of an english major i am. but i’m reading it now).
it’s february. things are clean. the president is taking action, little by little. life is looking up.
