Month of Sundays
2/25/00
Ok. I know I've been horrible. I haven't written in forever.
Honestly, I don't have an excuse. I just haven't done it. I don't know why, either.
I've thought about it but I just can't figure it out. Maybe the muse has left to do other things.
It's easy to see why she's been distracted. For the last month, James and I have been negotiating the puchase of our first home. Big step I know. It's a huge investment, but we can manage the payments. It's also way cool. On May 1st (I choose to ignore the fact that this is May Day), we will close on a two bedroom condominium at Lenox school. We're buying it from a friend of a friend - otherwise, we would never have gotten our hands on it! It's that cool.
Ok, here is the lowdown.
The school was built in 1908. They have all these pictures of the kids standing out in front of it in the upstairs vestibule. It's wierd, cause it's in the middle of this old neighborhood . . . but in the pictures, it is in the middle of nowhere! All the houses around it were built in the 20's.
Our unit is on the first floor. It's partially submerged but it's not really a basement - an old way of doing things. If you face the front of the school, we'll be the bottom left hand corner. It has nine foot ceilings (the other two floors are two feet higher) and concrete floors. Two owners ago, someone hand painted a "faux finish" on the living/dining room floor. It looks like Italian tile - very chic.
The kitchen has black slate floors and fabulous glass front cabinets with lights in them. There are windows all along one wall in the living room, and it has an enormous patio. It's on the National Register of Historic Places, so they had to keep all the original doors and stuff - - bonus for us, 'cause the patio door rocks. Since we're a good two feet below street level, we're totally secluded. There are 2 foot hedges all around the perimeter too . . . the current owner told us we could walk around out there naked and nobody would know (not that we're wanting to try that or anything).
My favorite part is the eagle. I'm assuming that the school mascot was an eagle, because they have a feather motif in the architecture. There is a masonry banner that looks like feathers and there are two eagles perched on the front corners - - he overlooks our patio. I kind of fancy it's like our own little Muppet Show.
The bedrooms and bathrooms are nice, but need some work. The master bedroom has to be repainted. Right now it's green. I don't have anything against the color, except that it makes my skin look like I'm in need of dialysis. Repainting will happen before we move in for sure. If there is one place you don't want to look like that, it's in your bedroom. We're hoping to rip out the carpet (an ugly beige variety hauntingly similar to that in our apartment) and replace it with hardwood. That's expensive though, and we may have to do one room at a time.
The bathrooms are between the bedrooms in the living area. They actually bisect the space. There are two vanities on either side - sort of like a sink for each bedroom. What they need is a facelift. See, this place was converted to condos in the mid 80's and the bathroom really reflects that. If finances allow, we're going to take out both sinks and replace them with pedestal sinks, put beadboard behind them and on the opposite wall, and replace the tile on the floor and around the shower. Hopefully, that will look more like a bathroom of the period. And it will give us some more storage opportunities. We have three big closets, but you can never have enough.
Can you tell we're excited?
On other fronts, I'm in a show at Theatre Memphis. It's called The Old Neighborhood by David Mamet. It's actually three one acts that he later combined. I'm in the second vignette, Jolly. It's a semi-autobiographical piece and I'm the sister. It's a great role too. Mamet doesn't write women like this often.
I was actually sought out to play it, which is a nice feeling. I was in Talk Radio with the director a year or so back and she thought I would be perfect for it. She must have called everybody in the city trying to find me. A humbling experience to say the least. We start rehearsal this week and I can hardly wait.
The only downside to the whole thing is that we had to cancel a trip. We had planned (as in actually had tickets) to see Eddie Izzard in New York City the second weekend of the show. But when this came though I had to take it. I've been wanting to get on stage again and to work with other theatres in town. We were able to sell our tickets with no trouble, and we saved all that money we would have spent on plane tickets and hotel rooms. New York can be pricey, you know? I was kind of upset about it at first, but the condo thing happened and I'm over it. Besides, our best friends are still going and they promised to bring us a T-shirt or an autograph. That will do for now.
Speaking of best friends, Harold and Sonya are going to London in a month. I'm green with envy. I want to go back there so badly. James and I will get our chance though. They're going to Mardi Gras this weekend too - actually just for Saturday. That kind of smarts. James and I had tried to wrangle a room a few weeks ago to no avail. The funds just weren't there. That's even more true now that we're getting the condo. I know that I keep saying that, but it really is my justification for a lot of things right now.
Temporary sacrifices add up to long term satisfaction.
Who knew I could be profound on a Friday morning?
But just so you don't think we're living by candlelight eating Kraft Dinner, James and I have a romantic weekend getaway planned. James was named employee of the year by his company. He didn't get a raise, but he did get a weekend at the Goldstrike Casino in Tunica. The rooms are supposed to be the nicest of all the casinos there and their steak house is reportedly first rate. We're leaving as soon as we get home from work. An entire weekend with just the two of us . . . kind of like a second honeymoon, without the mouse.
I'm writing this from work. My boss is at the casino herself, so I'm taking a bit of a breather today. I deserve it. I've worked like a dog for weeks. We have our PC at home now and I promise that I will utilize our superior internet connection to update more frequently. I'll have to overcome the Bloobs addiction, though and that might be tough.
If you don't believe me, try for yourself. See how much you get done with this on your hard drive!.
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