Day 38: Domesticity

Sea lions are disgusting animals, the males of which can weigh up to 2,000 pounds. They spend most of their time ork-orking at each other and pushing each other's young off of choice jutting cliffsides. They also lounge on piers (like the one pictured above) and make it necessary for people to put up signs telling other people to exercise caution and wisdom or else risk one of the vicious beasts slashing them across the throat, cleaving victims apart from tongue to stomach. It's like Homer.

And now a quick snapshot of my life in Astoria: DOMESTICITY

Most days, the hot water is not turned on at my house. My landlady deemed it unnecessary. A few days out of the week have been declared Shower Days. These are when I turn on the hot water, take a shower, wash the dishes and clean the kitchen and bathroom. They are the best days of my life currently. They are also the days I do laundry.

The day I moved to Astoria, my landlady watched me unpack my clothes. "I don't think I'll hook up the washer and dryer," she said. "You don't have that many clothes so you could probably just wash them in the tub, huh?"

Why, yes, of course. That's what I was planning on doing, too. Such obvious an answer. Sherlock. Watson.

So I do laundry in the bathtub. Please note: I am not in the bath tub while I'm doing laundry. You know that episode of "Seinfeld" where Kramer washes his fresh produce in the shower while he's taking a shower? No, that doesn't happen here. I'm not a savage. But, yes, I do wash clothing in the tub. As a result, I'm developing either a) wrists of iron or b) carpal tunnel syndrome. If it's a sunny afternoon, I put the clothes out to dry on the bent, crumpling aluminum saw horses in the backyard and over the green plastic lawn chair.

Showers are glorious. I used to hate them, the whole showering process. I like to be clean, but I loathe the tribulation of it and I hate wet hair and waiting for it to dry. But now I like showers. I've started taking unnecessarily long showers. These (alas alas) stopped for two weeks when the showerhead decided to fall apart in the middle of a shower. I had to make do with a pitcher and shower the India way. The pitcher has a rooster painted on it and hairline cracks all along the handle. I was just waiting for it to fall apart in mid-pour and send porcelain shards into my eyes.

But today! Oh today! The showerhead was replaced and I had a glorious shower. And that, children, is the end of the story.

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Recent published works include:

1. The Every Day People feature which comes out every Monday and it was my turn to write it this week. There is a story connected to this. I will leave it for another time. HERE IS THE STORY. These women made me happy. They were the type to reach over and pat your arm when they wanted to make a point. I love that. I also recorded a pod cast based around this story. The city reporter kindly assured me that no one ever listens to "those things."

2. More of a straight-up news story for this morning's paper. I can't make the link work, but if you're interested in reading about the children's museum moving and merging, FOLLOW THIS LINK. It should take you to a Google search page and the first choice should be the article headline and read: "Astoria children's museum on the move"