boarding house.

life in a boarding house is interesting.

there are all the little things like who never does the dishes or who takes over the kitchen,
but then there's this whole extended family thing that feels like a whole nother time or place.
like latin america or a hundred years ago.
there are grandparents, ailing but always with at least 2 cents.
and my sister and her girlfriend who are this young family still figuring out how to raise a kid and be functional,
but they have to not only figure out each other and the kid, but my dad and random grandparents (not ours) and...
it's just interesting to see.
i thought i had more interesting insights...i'll have to start keeping notes.

well for instance, my day today.

i woke up and went to find malakai cause i was supposed to be watching him.
he was in bed with mickey so i took him so she could sleep. we went downstairs and made cereal, told mrs virgin and mr dick and nicholas-the parrot-hello, and took our breakfast up to my room where we put on an old record...i think it was bette midler,(how fun is it to discover someone else's music collection. especially from 20 or 30 years ago) and he sat on the floor and danced and colored and played with cars while i painted.

then ali came home and took him and i kept painting and dancing and eventually had to take a dancing break, cause gill scott heron took me over and i was having so much fun i had to get ali,
we ended up having lunch first and since no on eelse was in the house ali michelle (mickey) and i could speak freely, and did. you know- youthful liberal type stuff. sex drugs and rock n roll.
then mickey put kai down for a nap and ali came in my room. there's a huge open space in the middle of the room and i knew ali would love danvcing in it as much as i did, i showed her the moves i'd been doing and then i painted and she danced, then i danced and she did homework.
then we both just worked and listened to music together.
it was so nice.
i hope this becomes our aptime ritual.

you know- it's just nice.
when you have a functinal space it is nice to share it with people you love.

we'll see how i feel about it in a month.
they've been living this way for over a year, and i am blown away by how kind and gracious everyone is.


sketched today.
came up with a solid painting idea (ali helped) and bounced it off of donna and mrs virgin (refugees)
see--that's what i mean, i went downstairs to get some tool or soemthing and they asked what i was up to and so i ended up showing them my sketches and getting out a map and donna telling me all the places where there is still a house in th emiddle of the road or soemthing else that may work for my painting.
it's awesome. just awesome.