back home in utah

After spending a few days with my family in Merryland, I am back home in Utah. There was a time when calling Utah home was difficult, even unthinkable. Over the years, though, it has become more and more apparent to me that not only do I spend overwhelmingly more days of the year here than there on the other side of the country where I grew up, here also is where the next phase of my life is taking shape. The first eighteen years of my formation, well, they are in Maryland. Remnants of them lay dormant in forgotten drawers in my parents' house; I think that some parts of that history float idly through the school hallways, still trapped in those buildings after all these years. Here, right here, is where the next chapter is being drafted. Here is where I live. Here is where I eat and sleep, here is where I read and write. Here is where I am trying to figure out this big crazy world and how I fit into it.

I do not yet feel at home in my new apartment, but I am hoping that that will change once I get all of my stuff put away and thereby do away with the obstacle course that has invaded all of the potentially usable floor space. Even after I work some Mary Poppins-style magic on my own stuff, the place will still be crowded, since our hopes of having a separate library and a yoga room/guest room were mercilessly dashed when we found out that two other girls had signed contracts in our crappy, er, vintage, apartment. We'll see how it goes.

We did make some strides last night: Vanessa hooked up my dad's retired but perfectly functional DVD player while Chris and I put slipcovers on the (formerly) ugly and torn couches. I would like to point out that "slipcover" is a bit of a misnomer, since they do not exactly slip into place so effortlessly as one might suppose, but I must say that they look rather nice and they brighten the place up a bit. And we got an amazing deal on them (thanks mom!)