09.11.06

i wasn't prepared for the storm surge of domesticity that attends coming back from one's honeymoon. it started slowly enough - we cleaned like fiends last sunday, did a little grocery shopping, bought some new pillows* - but by ten in the morning on labor day i was making chili for an army, and over this weekend we lofted the bed, painted the bedroom,** cleaned again, and, um, arranged flowers. is this how the yuppie landslide begins? the roses, it must be said, are very satisfying.

i remember my first 9/11 in new york simply because it was my first. the bagpipers in the subway were a bit odd, but the day was otherwise unremarkable. i watched the reading of victims' names at ground zero for the first time in years this morning, on the other hand, and teared up; even as a local, it's easy to forget that the attacks were more than a national disaster for some people, that this is the anniversary of family members' and friends' deaths. i feel a bit ashamed of myself for wishing the survivors' groups would quit bickering over details of the memorials. it can't be fun to be reminded of, say, your husband being killed every time you see a teaser for one of the commemorative tv specials.


*this was actually the first time we've purchased pillows for ourselves; the others just materialized, probably from our parents. if you think about just how long we've been living together, this is pretty gross.

**yes, the incredible hulk green is no more. i was really fond of it - and it did make the room look larger than café-au-lait beige does - but the new walls are definitely more restful, and much easier to decorate.

4 comments:

sara said...

dang, you've got energy! all jet lag had us do was get up at 4am and watch tv or mess around on the computer...

valya said...

you lofted your bed?? how did that work? i'm picturing a king bed on stilts, but that can't be right.

bassett h-q said...

Yeah, I'm with Val on this one. You've been watching Norm Abram on PBS, haven't you? (I detected a slight New English tilt to Joe's voice; now I know from whence it came.)

lauren said...

sara: travel does strange things to people, especially customarily lazy gits like myself. i plan to right the cosmic balance by sitting on my bum this weekend and watching veronica mars (thanks, jake!) until my eyes bleed.

valya and tom: okay, lofting is overstating things a bit. we chucked our old cheap-ass risers and stacked two full new wooden sets under each leg, so now the bed is maybe a foot and a half higher than one would expect a bed to be. as it's now got the shiny side of our new quilt on, though, and it's usually piled with cats, it seems quite high. i sing "you ain't nothing but a mattress in the sky" to it.