babble
Tuesday, June 04, 2002
I promise this will be the last time that I say how long it's been since I've posted. If you read this page and have any concept of dates, you already know that. I must add, however, that I feel I should provide content that is interesting on at least some level, so that's why I don't update very often. I want to hold your attention.
I've been racking my brain trying to come up with something interesting to discuss. I went to a couple of gallery shows this weekend, so I could probably write an essay about the pretentious L.A. art crowd, but I don't want to alienate all of my friends & neighbors who happen to be part of the art scene in L.A., though I think that some of them secretly agree with me. So I think I'll discuss cohabitation and utilizing an enormously stressful life event (such as moving to a new home) as a gauge for the strength of a relationship.
This past weekend, I moved all of my belongings and all of my girlfriend's belongings into one of the other lofts in our building. Ok, I didn't do all or even most of the actual moving. I packed and cleaned and hated life for two solid days. We recruited Liz's ready-made team of assistants (a.k.a. her kids) and a friend to help us lug all of our stuff over to the new place. Boy howdy, we have a lot of crap. There will be a lot of giving away, shredding, and donating going on within the next couple of months. Also, we have to get the apartment ready for viewing audiences by the end of the month, because there will be an open studio event for LACMA members, which means we'll have a bunch of people marching through our living room on June 29. So we won't be able to actually relax until at least July.
I am really enjoying the new loft. It's the same size as my old one, but it's got insulation and air conditioning and a nicer kitchen and skylights. The only problem seems to be that the walls are really thin. They're thin everywhere in the building, but our neighbors in this loft are loud talkers, so we need to devise some way to block the sound coming from their place. Other than that, it's perfect.
Well, due to all of the moving, I missed our friend, TV's Wil Wheaton, in the "Wesley Crusher day" Star Trek marathon on TNN. Oh, well. If I'd sat and watched a bunch of Star Trek reruns, my girlfriend may very well have been so disgusted by my overt geekiness that she would have left me, so it's probably for the better that I didn't watch it.
I've decided that moving can be used as a gauge for the strength of a relationship. Seriously. I spent the last three days packing, sorting, lifting, carrying, dusting, mopping, vacuuming, connecting, disconnecting, and sweating. It sucked. Obviously, it doesn't suck nearly as much as any number of horrible things that could happen in a person's life, and I fully realize that my bitching and moaning about the perceived horrors of moving to a new house when there are thousands of people living on the street is a pretty petty thing, but that's not the point of this rambling little post. I probably don't actually have a point, but that hasn't stopped me from writing before. Anyway, my point is that stressful conditions can test the strength of a relationship. At some point during the move, Liz made a comment along those lines, basically saying that if a relationship can stand a move like this, it's on pretty solid ground. I agree. A move can make or break a relationship. Really, any majorly stressful event can make or break a relationship. When I moved back to California from New York two years ago, the move killed the relationship I was in at the time. Granted, it wasn't very strong to begin with, but the stress of moving across the country basically pushed it over the edge. In a similar vein, my relationship with my ex-husband went sharply downhill after we moved into a new apartment. We'd been living in one apartment for 3 and a half years, and less than six months after we'd moved to a new one, we split up. I think that any major life-changing event (and no matter what anyone says, moving is pretty major) can alter the course of a relationship if it doesn't have a strong foundation.
In any case, so far Liz and I have made it through with flying colors. Granted, we've only been in the new apartment for two days, but still. I've been surprised by my comfort levels in this relationship, actually. In past relationships, I've been anxious, worrying about a myriad of issues that haven't even crossed my mind in this one. The most amazing thing about it is that I haven't been freaked out by the whole commitment thing - it feels like it's the most natural thing in the world to commit to her. I couldn't be more thrilled. I'm sure some of my friends would fall off of their chairs after reading that!
I'll leave you with this thought:
"Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes." - Oscar Wilde
babbled by Kat @ 11:19:00 AM |
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