as seen from my february window

well, i have pretty much moved the office to the sunroom now. i got a burst of energy after a decaf peet’s mocha last weekend and just did it. bought a new desk saturday when my friend was here and shoved the six-foot long couch through a doorway myself on sunday while clyde napped and leo swung. and this new view, it is amazing. albeit a little distracting.

there is still much work and organizing to be done, which i kinda get off on anyway. but, as predicted, we haven’t moved the tv yet because that involves moving the cable line somehow. however, we kept the loveseat out here in the new office for now, so we can watch tv from it. and i think that, combined with the fact that the heat has never worked so well in this window-wrapped room, is actually improving my marriage. i mean, we have to cozy up on a loveseat just to indulge in a little tv. can’t complain about that! hello cute husband, remember me? if LOST keeps moving as slowly as it has been, this could be even better for our marriage.

haven’t received my new laptop yet, but it’s coming. in the mean time, i am still sifting through all my garbage and eliminating more books and all the craploads of stuff i keep. like why do i have movie and concert stubs and fortune cookie fortunes from like 1985 and beyond?

computers have really cut down on some of the space-taking problem of packratism. so what if i’ve saved every email sent and received for my whole email life (i’m thinking that’s since the early 90s). it’s all in here. doesn’t take up any extra space in the room.

god, and digital photo saving has made life all the more roomy. print only the good photos. leave the rest on your hard drive to laugh at someday. before digital, we had to get every pic printed and now i’m forced to save them all, photo albums and boxes full. yes, even the one of me in a striped half shirt (please god no!), pegged jeans (you know how we folded them in and rolled them to be pegged?) with holes in the knees, and bangs up to kingdom come. yes, it’s in a box now. with all the million baby photos of other people’s children i can no longer identify. how can i throw smiling babies into the trash?

but yes, my new view is spectacular. even if it’s of the back of my neighbor’s house. and especially when i keep my chair lowered enough so that i don’t have to look at my own unkempt garden. soon enough spring will arrive though and my garden will surprise me. i’m always amazed how much comes back even when i do nothing to it. rose bushes should have been pruned already though huh?

all this natural world wonder is distracting, but i’m in a freelance work lull this week so it’s okay. here is a list of things seen from my new view that have distracted me today:

• busy squirrels jumping trees and rooftops; one is on its hind legs right now chewing on a stick
• black crows (the birds, not the band)
• the white flash on the wingtips of numerous mockingbirds flitting about
• orangey southwest airlines, headed east every few hours or so
• plump and puffy (the adjective, not the singer) white clouds on a blue sky
• thoughts of clyde and leo’s new baby girl cousin born yesterday; a february beauty for sure!
• the occasional police helicopter; its black and white is almost pretty against today’s fat clouds
• the white white white blossoms on our neighbor’s plum tree
• our fat cupcake pink camellias
• the flashes of sunlight coming and going behind those clouds
• that toddler of a scrub jay sitting happy in our stark pomegranate tree and the way its fuzzy gray suit kinda blows in the wind

see what i mean?

i wonder if i’ll ever really write a word (or god willing, get back to the novel or write a totally new one) from this place at my desk with a view. i wonder what will happen from here. maybe nothing. maybe everything. the hope is enough for today.

p.s. i’m loving all your responses to my “who the heck are you?” post! keep them coming. so fun and so inspiring really…