at home in the district

i'm not giving up on the hope that i'll be able to pirate a connection tonight. it feels like i haven't been online in weeks, that i haven't read a newspaper in months, and that i'm farther out of any loop than i've ever been.

but i'm home. i've hung my hat and scarlet her leash on u street. and even though our stuff doesn't get here until the second week in july, i am so happy to be _home_, i don't even care that we're on folding chairs and air mattresses for a coupla weeks. and out of the car...

the road trip kicked ass! we left the left coast, crossed hoover dam, spent a coupla days at the grand canyon, visited the eisenhower and truman libraries, saw friends, visited the family, and did most of it on two-lane backcountry highways, traveling through 15 states, and finally landing last night in the district of columbia. bitches, we saw and loved america!

and here we are at home, a new music box steps on a new street in a new town...

~k

the end of the music box steps

yesterday marked the end of the beginning for me. after the movers left, i swept the floor, took out the last bag of recycling, finished putting my bags in the car, and just stood in the living room of my empty music box steps apartment for a final quiet moment.

and for a brief instant i felt overwhelmed by sadness. and then gratefulness creeped in. for as sad as it is to leave my home, i'm grateful for my three years of music box steps magic.

so i turned around, locked the door, walked up the music box steps for the last time, and didn't look back.

forward only from here.

the end.

~k

the joys of moving

after my girl zip exchanged her vows sunday, and a long night of fun to the nth came to an end, i hopped a flight to my new town. where, um, madness abounds.

first of all, i'm in a new job. the office isn't new. the company isn't new. the people aren't new. but the job is new. the city is new. the commute is new. the hours are new (i am used to rolling in around 9:30 or 10:00, but on this coast, meetings start anywhere from 7:30-8:30 (wtf is up with these early birds!?)). and the life is new. right now, whilst in the throes of limbo, i am homeless, my shit is strewn about two coasts, my dog is at camp, my car is in an airport parking lot, my settings on everything from email to phones to alerts are set to different time zones. and i don't know whether to scratch my hair or brush my butt. fer reals.

and home-hunting lies pretty close to the bottom of the list of "fun" i associate with this relocation. and i am a picky mo-fo when it comes to that place i'll hang my hat. i mean, my new place is going to have to match up to the magic of the music box steps, and that's not going to be an easy feat.

the good news is that i've limited my search to three neighborhoods (this may also equate to bad news) and i have a pretty liberal rent budget. the real bad news is that i won't live with carpet, there must be a DC following the comma (all you virginia and maryland lovers really should stop wasting your time trying to convince me otherwise cuz i'm a tried, true, and tenacious city girl), i need parking within a block or two, the place must love dogs and have an in-unit washer and dryer, and i have to have easy public trans access. oh, and whilst i want a little bit of ghetto in my neighborhood, i don't want to be dodging bullets to and fro my metro stop.

so please wish me luck because i won't rest or sign on the line till i can find the DC version of my music box steps...

~k

a quieted discomfort

"the truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. for it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers."
- m. scott peck

ring around the fire

last night, seven amazing women and i sat around a fire and ceremoniously burned this decade past. regrets, heartache and heartbreak, loss, self-doubt, terrorism, global economic meltdown, job woes, love woes, life woes, and george w. bush went up in flames.



we each shared our sadness and disappointments with reflective honesty and clarity, and then watched these huge weights on our souls burn to nothingness. some of us made lists while others of us brought relics of our past. and we all emptied wasted space to make room for the better to come.

and whilst one never knows if this next decade will be any better, hope springs eternal that my list of wants in the coming years will fortuitously rise from those ashes, bestowing an even greater purpose and elation than i felt when offering them to the fire gods last night.

with a much lighter step, onward we bounce.

~k