Sunday, August 21, 2011

I've been thinking a lot about home ownership lately. There are a lot of people that talk of home ownership like they talk of their marriages and their jobs: like it's a shackle holding them back from reaching their true potential. Though you have to wonder, true potential for what?  

This house is old, it is going to require a lot of money over our lifetime together. But it is also something that I am still super ecstatic about. It sometimes hits me at odd moments, like last night randomly: loml and I live here. We are making this our home, however slowly that is happening. We now have furniture in all the rooms. No unpacked boxes. And lists of plans and hopes and problems. To me this isn't solely a responsibility, it's a hobby. I'm going to put money into this house to make it my own and I'm going to relish it (most of the time).

I think I've mentioned here before that I was a weird teenager - I used to watch This Old House every afternoon and initiated a process to choose nice, wooden furniture for my room. My parents helped subsidize my weirdness - if I paid part of the cost of the furniture, it would be mine as an adult. It is now officially a part of the purple room here. I have always enjoyed this part of domesticity. 

The gutters could use replacing. The garage as well. Mulberries. The basement floor is partially ruined already. The list goes on; and sometimes it feels damn good to complain about the problems. But I own those problems, I am happy to put part of my money into fixing them. I'd rather have money to replace the garage than I would a new shirt, shoes, purse, gadget or car. It may not seem fun to you, but it is to me. I mean, what is more fun than seeing and falling for this and realizing there are dozens of places you could put it:
(via Oh So Beautiful Paper, hopefully available here soon)

Thursday, August 04, 2011

I tend to be a non-social person. That's not to say that I'm anti-social; I like a good get-together. And I've been known to enjoy a good party. But I just don't really thrive off of social situations. I am good with one-on-one, good with those I know well in small groups - I just don't like crowds. I am, in many ways, an introvert.

Strangely, I have found that I love it when loml has people over. I love it because I get to watch him doing something he likes and is great at (being social) and I mostly get to observe without participating.  It is like sucking in the atmosphere at a no-pressure party. I feel like I get all the benefits of social interaction without having to actually do much. It's fantastic.