The house is not haunted…however, it’s so old that you can hear everything within the nearest proximity. If Josh is roaring with laughter upstairs I can hear him easily in the living room. The clothes washer cleans so vigorously that the entire house shakes (SHAKES) during the spin cycle.

Hobbes has taken to crawling into weird spaces and corners–behind the TV or under a bookshelf–and meowing. She spends long hours on the front porch, surveying the scene. She’s had multiple run-ins with neighboring cats, standing her ground with a fat tail but refusing to throw the first punch. I’ve chased cats out of our yard periodically, anxious for Hobbes to feel as if her territory is asserted.

Josh was gone for almost an entire week and I realized how utterly and completely unfeminist I felt. Useless! I lolled around and felt grouchy. I missed him so much I couldn’t sleep…ended up hiding out in the spare room with the rationalization that our bedroom was just too big for one person. A mother and her teenage daughters engaged in a verbal smack down in front of our house at 10pm and it totally freaked me out. I’m all alone in a strange new place and there’s screaming and hollering going out right outside my doorway. I hung out in my bathroom for a little while–the room furthest from the front door. Luckily, things settled down and the family retreated into their house a few doors down.

I walked for miles up Seward Park Drive, totally intent on reaching Seward Park…never made it, just too far. Went to the Colombia City Farmer’s Market and felt cheered by the boxes of end-of-season fruit, local farmers selling the last of their harvest, and the overpriced homemade goods. Went to an Open Improv Jam downtown and did well, received a few laughs, met up with old performing buddies, and stayed out late. Unpacked as many boxes as I could physically carry, but still fell short of fully unpacking. Decided against painting the kitchen gold…will wait until another weekend opens up. Realized that I have writer’s block, artist block, and dancer’s block all at the same time.

Josh returns and everything feels different…just having someone else roaming around and shaking the walls in the house with each step of the stairs makes me feel better.