Blend

In approximately six days I will change my status of “living alone” to “having a roommate” for the first time in a year and a half. Yes, my cracking maroon and pumpkin walls will be home to two: the maroons for me, and the pumpkins for Maren Monitello, a spritely Ohio native whose sarcasm nearly matches mine and whose love for books just might (gasp!) surpass mine. We both felt the need to grab our financial situations by the cajones, and we also hung out together far too much to deny our relationship its inevitable rise to the next level… at least for the next 3 months.

A few weeks ago, it started: I took pictures of my many dispensable possessions and sold most of them on eBay and Craigslist. {This is a story for another time, but when I sold my olive&plum desk to a bearded Williamsburg hipster, and he towered over me in my kitchen, chit chatting about typewriters and the difference between oak and maple, I couldn’t help but consider asking the guy if he wanted a glass of wine…and wonder how many relationships start via this weird post & pick-up routine that we’ve all begun doing.} I slid my bed to a different corner, my dresser by the world map, the old love seat under the window, and took a deep breath. I dragged the tall bookshelf into my bedroom and the short bookshelf in too, and collapsed on my kitchen floor. I rolled up my green rug and shoved it into the closet… realizing the closet needed a once over twice too. I got down on my knees and scrubbed Murphy’s into the thick wooden slabs that are my living room floor, squeaked a rag over the windows in the front room, and chugged some H2O. Posters came down, nails were removed from their posts, and hammered into others. Lamps switched off and switched rooms. Shelves in the bathroom were scoured, and plants were moved here, and then there, and then back over here. The place was poised for a new life.

Maren started bringing her plastic boxes and paper bags full of books, DVD’s, food processors, cream of tartar, and Cuisine Art pots and pans. The art on her walls will be vintage book covers, the lotion she wears smells good. The best addition by far, though, is the blender. Within 12 hours of its presence in my kitchen, I began to blend fruit, like the old days. Bananas splashed into welcoming orange juice, followed by blueberries, strawberries and peaches. Would you like a free boost with that? My excitement continued when I found an old soup cookbook I’ve never been able to use, and I began blending leeks with diced celery and seedless cucumber and coriander.

With these mixtures and matches of flavors and tastes, comes the blending of two lives, one part Kelly Link and one part David Sedaris; one part Justice and one part Radiohead; one part Tazo Zen tea and one part Mexican roast coffee; one part Monty Python and one part Requiem for a Dream…and I think it will make for a delicious combination.