Still Life With Corrugated Cartons

FRIDAY. Another week has gone by and we're still surrounded by boxes. Part of the problem is not having enough furniture in which store our stuff. This house has no closets. It's the craziest thing. There's one fairly large closet in the master bedroom and, in one of the two remaining bedrooms, one miserable excuse of a closet that's too narrow to even hang clothes (the hangars won't fit). Our third bedroom is completely devoid of closet space. Additionally, there's no linen closet, no coat closet, no pantry, not even medicine chests in the bathrooms. It's an odd little house, but very spacious nonetheless. (Sure it's spacious--there are no closets taking up valuable living space....) We've been searching for a tall cabinet we can use in the kitchen for a pantry, and purchased an extra dresser and night stands to replace the bedroom set that was freecycled in Florida. But we're stumped about where to put linens. Right now the sheets and table linens are in boxes.

Moving requires great patience and an ability to function peacefully in chaos. Some days I think I just can't take one more minute of tripping over boxes, but I usually manage to find a quiet corner to relax. This afternoon that quiet corner contains a blue chair and an orange table in the middle of Flying Star Cafe. My chocolate-covered biscotti and Sunset Spice tea have taken the edge off corrugated confusion. M is filling out an application for a teaching exam online while I write this blog item.

Murphy went to the dog park this morning and had some fun with other pups, rolled in the dust, ran after a fuzzy yellow ball, and played with the hose. As usual, he performed his duties as Official Dog Park Greeter in stellar fashion. It was less humid today, and the park has plenty of shade trees, so it was a pleasant outing for all.

On the way back we drove through Old Town, stopped at an estate sale, where we purchased two more bookcases, and drove by the Botanical Gardens, Aquarium, Museum of Natural History, and Atomic Museum. Lots of stuff to do in this town!

I'm glad this week is nearly over. If today is Friday, that means Comcast will arrive tomorrow to hook us up to high-speed internet. Dialup is even more horrid than I'd remembered. Still, it's been good to be able to send the occasional (deathly slow) email from home for the past three days rather than driving to a wifi hotspot. It also felt good to work yesterday and today. Working helps me return to center. Work is familiar when all else seems different and strange.

This morning, while sipping my tea in the many-windowed family room overlooking the old adobe wall, a roadrunner ran across the top of the wall and disappeared in my neighbor's yard. The birds in Albuquerque sound completely different than East Coast birds. Nothing is recognizable. Even the grackles sing a different song. I look forward to cooler weather, hiking in the desert and mountains, and field trips to shoot wildlife with my Digital Rebel. Right now life is all about getting settled, finding ways to make daily routines smooth, and recuperating from a very stressful couple of months. It will be worth the struggle when we can finally relax into simplicity and joy. And it will happen soon. All I need is a little more patience.