New House with a Killa View

This is about as posh as I have ever felt. Here I am, clicking away on my newly tuned up lap top that is up to speed with the rest of the world of laptops, perched at my large antique wooden desk, a bottle of red wine to my left, even still more perched on top of a hill that provides me a sweeping westerly view of my entire town, much of the next town, and silhouettes of seaside mountains in the distance (though tonight I can only make them out by watch tower lights on top). In the daytime I know I can see islands. And all I have to do is shift my eyes a few degrees up and look out over my laptop screen and through my large double windows, framed with chipping white lead paint.

I occasionally feel like I am sailing through the constellations when I am on a mountain looking down upon a city. Like I am in outer space. This has only happened in Washington State that I can remember. Perhaps because I was rarely on mountains growing up.

It is midnight and I am in my new fully furnished bedroom on 5^th St. I should really go to bed since I have to awake in 7 hours, but I promised myself this time to write. I have to conceal the wine because this is a dry house.

The past 2 days I saw a lot of people driving. I was driving myself or biking. I slowed down and neutrally paid attention to the scene of being in a car, barreling down a road. I thought of how much time we spend in cars. I thought of how routine this time is we spend in this box on wheels navigating around other boxes on wheels. How did this become a normal acceptable part of our day? It doesn’t feel normal to me. I am blessed that I have for a very long time been able to walk or bike to where I need to go- for the past 6 years I have been able to do this most of the time since I started college. But I do do a lot of highway driving between cities. Here I can take a bus for very cheap, although the late night and weekend hours are inconvenient. I am lucky that now I live a minutes' bike ride from work, or a 5 minute walk. I hope you live close to your immediate needs as well, or that you one day can. It feels like the way humans are meant to live, in a village. This is a great way to feel a true sense of community.