last day in silverlake

Howard Stern is on and we’re drinking coffee while writing, our morning ritual, but I’m on the floor and the computer’s resting on an overturned laundry basket. stee’s in his underwear because we forgot to turn on the only collection of clothes last night before we went to sleep. We woke up to dirty clothes covered in soap. It’s an interesting race against time — will stee have dry clothes before the movers get here?

We hired the movers a while ago, back when we figured there was a piano to move. With the almost thirty steps to the front of our house, this may have been the smartest decision we’ve ever made. We measured out the empty living room of the new house yesterday, making Plan A (the piano doesn’t fit), and Plan B (the piano fits). The piano foster parent cleaned a space in her home last night, just in case (thank you, thank you, thank you, beautiful foster piano lady). Movers can be crafty and determined. Who knows. Remeasuring the front door last night shows it might be a half inch wider than the piano. There may not be enough room on the porch to turn the piano into the house, though.

Our house has a porch. And last night, when we entered the house that’s now our home, our first home, the home we own (but mostly the bank owns), stee carried me over the threshold. We ate Chinese food in the backyard, watching the sun set behind the mountains.

The last owners left us little notes alternating between helpful and hilarious (she’s an actress, he’s a stand-up comic), taped to applicances and little things they left behind. “Check out your ghettofabulous fridge, yo! It even has a shelf for your ParKAY up in this piece!”

We started to notice the little things that will need to be attended to first. The ghettofabulous fridge hums pretty loudly, and it’s practically in the living room with the small floor design. We’ll need to Cal-proof the screen door. We’ve decided to paint, since right now we have almost no furniture.

The mattress arrives today. RIP, bed of forks.

This has been a very lucky house for us, the house we’re leaving today. We merged our lives together here. We advanced in our careers, made huge accomplishments, and decided to spend the rest of our lives together. We will miss this house very much. It’s been quite good to us. It’s roomy and pretty and oh, I’ll miss this kitchen.

Tomorrow morning we start finding our new routine, and while it will be different, it can be better. It’s the house were we will discover how to tend a lawn, how to have a marriage, and eventually, how to raise a dog. Big things ahead.

We’re only moving a few miles away, but sometimes it feels like a completely different world. They say DSL might take a few days, so I’ll see you on the other side.

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