Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Life in 300 square feet

We (my husband, two children, and I) have spent the past four weeks living in small spaces: the two weeks before the move in a small one-bedroom apartment in Berlin, the last two weeks in an equally small one-room hotel suite. As the woman in Julia Donaldson's A Squash and a Squeeze would put it, it's titchy for four.

So what have we been up to since returning Stateside? Lots o' things...
  • we bought a car (we hadn't planned to)
  • we spent four hours in the ER with our 3-year-old (hadn't planned that, either)
  • we decided against the house we were sure we wanted before we moved and wound up looking at about 25 more
  • we refereed countless numbers of fights between two boys who could use a little more distance from each other
  • we discovered that the Great Plains can be hot and humid and rather miserable at times, and, consequently, came to accept the necessity of air conditioning
  • we went to the Farmer's Market, discovered burpless cucumbers, and sampled real maple syrup by the spoonful
  • we spent time hanging out in the (THE!) indie bookstore in town
  • we had decent margaritas and Mexican food for the first time in years
  • we went for walks in the nearby park and watched the curious fireflies check out our curious children
  • we found a place to call home
And on Saturday, I head to Chautauqua for the Writers Workshop! I can't wait to get my head back into writing. It's been far too long.

Check back on Monday for the first part of a terrific guest post by Katie Davis--Marketing Monday at it's finest!

8 comments:

  1. Glad you found a house. And air conditioning is as necessary as air in the midwest.

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  2. Alison, I'm so glad to hear you're on the way to being settled. It sounds like quite an adventure! Looking forward to hearing about Chautauqua.

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  3. Hooray for finding a place to call home! Have fun in Chautauqua.

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  4. Allison, where did you move to? I know you were coming to the US but lost track of where you finally ended up. I wish I could go to Chautacqua. What an experience that will be!

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  5. Glad you have found a home and are settling in. I can't WAIT to hear all about Chautauqua. Green with envy, but also so excited for you.

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  6. Welcome back! You've never had real maple syrup? I'm shocked, but maybe because I grew up in New York and still live in New York, and we are covered in maples.

    Good luck settling in! And have fun (and productivity) at Chautauqua!

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  7. Lots o' things, indeed. Sounds like an adventure, for sure. Hope your house is lovely. I know you'll have a blast at the writer's conference (though I've never been to that one). They have a nice tendency to get more writing juices flowing. Hope you'll share the goodies.

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