Home

I need an apartment.

But that’s only sort of what this is about. This is about  perpetually clean sheets and mattresses made of memory foam, cinnamon rolls on Sundays, and  the feeling I get whenever I listen to Al Green and Steely Dan. In short, it’s about home…whatever that means.

I took a little (actually 3 hours long…#fconstruction) trip to Madison this weekend to see the fam. Although I haven’t lived at my mom’s in quite a while (well, besides that quick little stint last spring, but that shit was beyond my control) whenever I go there, I still refer to it as ‘home’. Not uncommon, I know. After all, home, for many of us, is where we lived growing up. For fewer of us, it’s where we stored our beanie baby collection that was tragically stolen by our older brother’s punk-ass friends, it’s from where we were evacuated at 4am because our brother and his punk-ass friends set the basement on fire, and it’s where we learned that the behavior of our older brother and his punk-ass friends really set the bar pretty low and exhausted our mom, yielding a very lenient adolescence, discipline wise. You know, memories and whatnot. (I love my brother, by the way, and we rehash this stuff all the time.)

But it also has things like memory foam mattresses, Eames chairs, a kitchen with god damn counter space, a garden. It’s comfortable.

But is it comfortable because of all of the nice cozy things? Because of the people?  Because of the feeling of some sort of permanency?

Whatever it is, this little dungeon/garden-level studio with a view (sort-of of the lake, but moreso of people doing it just outside my window. #true) doesn’t have it. As I hunt and hunt and hunt and hunt for a new apartment, I’m wondering what and when it is that the place you live becomes a ‘home’ rather than just a place to keep all of the stuff you’ve accumulated since you left your parents house. I want comfort. I’m not saying I need the dream (dog, fireplace, chef’s kitchen, record player that plays while I cook dinner in chef’s kitchen, etc.) just yet. I want to feel at home. Or maybe I’m just sick of moving every 6 months.

whatever this is

http://www.sicis.it

 

WHAT and WHY?

What -“a regal collection of mosaic bathubs.” Why – fuck if I know.

Sure, these ‘regal’ tubs are unique, and I can appreciate the time and effort that must have gone into the heinous, intricate floral mosaic designs, but I’m struggling to determine exactly to what demographic something like this might be desirable. I get it, women love shoes, BUT if you were a die-hard shoe fan and had the kind of money I imagine it costs to buy one of these, wouldn’t you just spend it on more actual shoes? Do some women actually get to the point where they are so overcome by their love of shoes that wearing them on their feet isn’t enough and instead are they’re compelled to buy a gigantic, ugly, expensive shoebath that they can sit naked in?

Beautiful new Kona Paddy Wagon

I’ve been wanting a new bicycle for a while, ever since the tire on my old piece popped mid beach-side ride, forcing me to roll it home from Lake Park on foot while Bradford Beach bums stared on with that “why don’t you just RIDE it?” look.

That was almost a year ago.

Recently, spring briefly sprang during a week with neither school nor snow, and I got all feverish about it. Perfect bike riding time. My piece of shit, wheels-outta-true, innertubeless, too big for me bike sat helpless in the corner of my over-sized foyer, leaving me without wheels.

So, I started looking online, checked out a couple of shops in town, and finally,at the advice of some friends, I rolled (walked) over to to see Cory the Bike Fixer. While the other shops in town spent about 30 seconds trying to not sell me a bicycle, Cory spent about an hour with me figuring out what I wanted in a bike, making a number of recommendations and showing and explaining to me the differences among the different types of bikes he had. I knew at that point that if I was going to buy a bike, it was going to be from that guy. In the end, I pulled the trigger on this:

Why I wanted it:

1. nice, functional, NEW replacement to my aforementioned shitride

2. Better investment than fixing the old one

3. Milwaukee is not a large city and I hang out primarily within a 5 mile radius–no need to drive.

4. It’s pretty

Why I needed it:

1. gurl, you KNOW my ass needs to be workin’ out.

2. Milwaukee is not a large city and I hang out primarily within a 5 mile radius–no need to drive.

Wants and spring-related financial irresponsibility prevailed and now I may or may not be verging on brokeness. At least I have a nice, free mode of transportation. Anybody wanna ride bikes?