Housefrau’s Packing Tips: I Have None

Moving day is a week from tomorrow. The nice thing about packing is that I don’t have to clean anything. The bad thing about packing is that I have to pack.

Some ruminations on the nature of owning things seem in order, but my heart’s not in it. Perhaps the unpacking process will produce an insightful musing on the complex relationship we have to our things, how owning something is also a way of being owned, how the domestic realm both shackles us to our couch cushions and at the same time offers the freedom of eating off frisbees.

But for now, packing is just packing. The only way I’ll ever get all this stuff in boxes is if I simply accept the inevitability of owning five different types of spoons and choose not to worry too much about whether it’s appropriate to label a box “kitchen stuff” if it also contains shoes.

Maybe next time I do this I’ll be organized. This time around, I’m just glad I saved the boxes for the marionettes.

Housefrau's Pretention Party: Poetry!

After Bernadette Mayer

After the Price Chopper
Intervals of tomatoes
Pink the knife.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx “Don’t cut yourself!”
He cries. Fer chrissake.
Nobody sez that
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To the Price Chopper.

Hotelfrau

I've been out of town for the last ten days, visiting Portland, Oregon (with five days of driving through other states of the union about which the less is said, the better [I'm talking to you, Wyoming]). I had thought I might blog from the hotel, but when it said "free wifi," it failed to include the phrase "that is so slow and unreliable that you may consider jumping out the window; oh, wait, we forgot to mention that the windows of the rooms don't open." In fact, the wifi at the hotel was so erratic that it made me concerned about the effectiveness of the free condoms they so thoughtfully provided with the toiletries.

At any rate, I'm glad to be back in my own poorly-kept house, surrouned by my own personal filth. It's nice to think that I can at least trace the origins of the stains around here.

The exciting news is that I'll soon be frauing a different house--we rented a place in Portland.

I'll keep you posted as the packing nightmare commences.