The Last Sunday Morning Ritual

8/5/2002

Yesterday I got up and held my Sunday morning ritual in the living room for the last time. I got up and watched the old people news on CBS, drank tea and ate my waffles, taking my own good time about waking up. Puck the cat was with me and the apartment gave me this one last Sunday just like all the other before it, with calm and quiet, with space to cook and listen to music in my own little place away from the rest of everything. Sunday I took the kitty-cat clock off the wall and packed up my vases and candle holders, my art glass and the two fertility gods Ron brought me from Africa. I said goodbye to my own space this way. Although I'm excited about moving in with my cousin in Atlanta, I'll miss this apartment for a good long time. I'm not sure when I'll have my own space again.

The packing of my favorite things did remind me of the need for the move though; the vases I bought with Ford, the conjoined twin candle made by Kati, the statues from Ron and all these other little impractical things - I never buy the things I really like for myself. I'm the sort of person who needs everything I buy to be functional in some very pracical way. My friends give me these decorations as gifts, and without them my own space would be even more bare and utilitarian than it is now. My life, like my shelves, is sort of bare without my friends and family. I'm glad to be moving closer.

I packed all afternoon, pausing only to read the latest issue of Bitch that Aral brought home and to make one last pinwheel for her before I left. I have hooked my vegetarian roommate on white trash cooking. She'll never get that out of her system. I feel like giggling maniacally about that, and she thinks it's funny too.

Then Josh visited for the last time, and as usual we sat around talking about nothing for a few hours. I resisted successfully the urge at this meeting to try to dig deeper into what makes a friend tick. Then I remembered Alestar's second list, and what a very valuable thing it is.

I have decided Alestar's rules were fair and just when applied to many of the situations around my move, and here they are for all to see. You can check out the original list here.

list 2

1. state the facts:

a) when entitled personage asks for them;

b) when you will not have a chance to state them again.

2. remember:

a) you will miss him.

b) exess emoting is never agreeable.

3. love.