Sunday Morning Tradition in The Long and Winding Road

Many of you know that my favorite way to start a Sunday morning is in bed with Bing curled up next to me (I'm so happy he's a sleepyhead dog and doesn't demand to be taken outside the minute we wake up), a up of coffee, the CBS Sunday Morning show, and my diary. So here I am -- my first Sunday morning on Prosebox! Sitting up in bed in my new apartment is a very different experience from how it was in my townhouse. Here, I have very high ceilings and huge, very high windows -- one next to my bed and one straight ahead. So as I sit here, I can look out at Lake Washington and some neighboring high rise apartments through one window, and a part of the lake, tall trees, blue sky, and a traffic light through another window. It's a wonderfully cool morning with a nice cool breeze blowing in off the lake. It will warm up later, but for now, this is nice.

Yesterday was a nice day. I did my first routine Saturday morning cleaning of this apartment. One of the things I'd been looking forward to by downsizing and moving to a smaller place, was how much easier it would be to clean. And it was! I didn't clock it but I know it took well under 2 hours to thoroughly clean everything, scour sinks, clean tub and toilet, dust everything, Swiffer the kitchen and bathroom floors, vacuum, wash and change the sheets, etc. I even washed my duvet cover, which you know I hate to do -- but on the day I moved, I grabbed up the duvet and tossed it in my car, brought it over to the new apartment and tossed it on the floor, waiting for the furniture to be moved and the bed set up. Washing the duvet cover before using it was the least of my concerns at that time, but it's kinda been nagging at me, so now it's done.

My former neighbors at my townhouse community were having a group garage sale yesterday so I decided to stop by, walk around and say hi to everyone. Mostly I wanted to show some support for Hillary who, as board president, has worked hard for this garage sale. But I also was rather hoping Gwen would see me wandering around. Since she seems to feel, since I moved, that she is free to talk about me and bad mouth me and revive old drama between her and me (that was already blown out of proportion by her even then) I thought it might be helpful to remind her that I didn't die or anything.... I'm still around and in touch with some of my former neighbors, most especially the neighbor she's been doing the most complaining to! I don't know if she saw me or not, but I did enjoy seeing people and visiting with them.

I didn't intend to buy anything -- I just spent 4 months purging and getting rid of tons of stuff, which has changed my perspective on buying things for the house just because they catch my eye. But, I did end up buying a photo taken by one of my neighbors and printed on canvas. I was so drawn to the bright colors in this picture -- I'm not sure exactly where it will finally end up in my home, because I still have 2 walls in the living room that I'm working on finding just the right art for -- but for now I put it on a wall near my TV. All the colors in my home so far are taupe, brown, white, and lime green, with just a little bit of dark red/burnt orange thrown in. I intend to get a large print of one of the pictures David took as part of his Diana series ("Diana" being the camera he used) and it has a lot of bright red/burnt orange in it. I'm really going in a different direction for my decor. Anyway... hot pink is certainly not part of my plan but as I said, I really liked this picture:

Later I took Bing for a long walk, and then I started playing around with Michael's camera. I've been wanting to learn how to use an SLR camera, and the view of the lake and the 520 bridge from my balcony motivated me to do so. I had tried to take pictures of the 520 bridge at night with my little camera but the lights of the bridge and the cars came out streaked looking -- you need a tripod and a better camera to catch that kind of movement. A year ago, I took a one-day long photography course so I borrowed Michael's camera and tripod, and pulled out the books and my notes from that class and got busy. Ha. Obviously it's going to take more than one brief afternoon to learn how to be a photographer. Ya think? Really understanding about ISO and aparture and shutter speed and how everything works together, and how to adjust those settings on the camera, is going to take time. But I did get some pictures, which I haven't uploaded yet -- I am sure they won't be very good but I'll learn from them. In the meanwhile, the camera on its tripod does look pretty cool in my living room!

By the way, I'm now finding it very easy to insert pictures into Prosebox. Once I accepted that I had to upload them to Photobucket first, from there it is very easy. I'm wondering if I copy this entry into OD, whether the pictures will show up there with this code. I guess I'll find out!

Slowly, the change in environment at my new apartment, is having an affect on me -- a good one. I think it's what I hoped would happen, it just didn't happen overnight. For those who don't know me, I owned a delightful (in my opinion!) townhome with lots of windows, that backed up to a protected greenbelt and felt more like a single family house than a townhouse. I had a big beautiful deck with lots of plants and flowers. And I tended to hibernate in that house. I tend to be a bit reclusive anyway, and it seems that as the years went by, I became more and more of a homebody. I wanted a change, so a few weeks ago (after many months of making home improvements to my townhouse, lots of trips to Goodwill and the dump, selling a lot of stuff on Craigslist in anticipation of down sizing, then selling my home) I moved into an apartment only a few blocks away from my former townhouse, but it's in a walking community with a lot of small restaurants, clubs, coffee shops, etc., as well as hair and nail and massage salons. And it's a block away from a wonderful beach/park on the edge of the lake. Because of Bing needing to go outside, I've been out and about at a later hour than I am used to. And because we're on the 4th floor of an apartment building, I can't just walk out on my deck in my nightgown anymore to let him out. I have to get dressed and go take him for a walk. And it's actually been startling to me to see how many people are out and about at 10:00 p.m., sitting on benches outside, or at tables outside various restaurants, or walking about, or sitting by the fountain. I was stunned to see that there was a musician performing at one of the nearby coffee shops -- I had no idea! It probably sounds strange but the idea of getting up off my couch and getting out there to join in, in the evening, is a novel one for me and I plan to embrace it, but changing old habits is going to be a bit of an adjustment.

Lastnight was the home opener for the Seahawks this preseason. I thought for a little while that Michael, a couple of his neighbors, and I were going to go to a nearby pub to watch the game there, but that fell through, so I ended up watching it from my couch. I am not usually that enthused about preseason but it was a really good game and I enjoyed it a lot.

I'm also keeping an eye on the news about the wildfires in Idaho. It's hard to believe I was just vacationing there a couple of months ago and now everyone has had to evacuate -- the air quality is so bad, people can't breathe, and the fires are working their way towards homes and businesses. We hear stories like this on the news all the time and, sadly, we get a little jaded to the news. Then suddenly it hits a little closer to home and we become more aware of the real lives, families, homes and businesses that are dramatically affected.

Today should be fun. My friend Nancy is coming over -- she's been anxious to see the new apartment, and it just so happens that the neighborhood is sponsoring a free ice cream social this afternoon at the beach park, with a couple of bands, including a ukulele band, so we will walk over for that, and then probably go have drinks and dinner at one of the nearby restaurants where we can sit outside.

Well this hasn't been much of an entry, I don't feel like I found my writing groove, but it is what it is! Now that I can toss pictures up so easily, I'll toss up a few more and then I guess it will be time to take Bing for a walk.

My little Bing. Since he's been on the Prozac, his eyes look different. More sad, less lively. That's the part that makes me question whether I'm doing the right thing by having him on the meds. On the other hand, he does seem to have calmed down a little, at least in some circumstances. I'll review the situation with the vet soon.

A night light I got for the bathroom. Don't ask me why I'm sharing a picture of a night light! I just like it.

I took this picture of my living room ceiling as i was laying on the couch Friday night. It's shadows of a plant that has a lamp behind it. I thought it looked kinda cool.

That's all I've got for today. Hope everyone has a good Sunday. Ciao!