david taus

Crossing my I's

music: Steve Kimock Band, 12/31/02

When it rains, it pours. Boston is actually due for a two-day rainstorm, the coattails of Hurricane Frances I think, but right now we are suffering through some nasty muggy humidity. Tension, and release.

I returned from an incredibly wrenching and difficult trip home to find the 1-2 buzzing with activity. This place is positive. Ron enlisted the help of pretty much everyone to start unearthing the decades of pile-up in the basement and about two tons of scrap was moved upstairs. The downstairs suite was getting more and more set up. Stereo was in. Gina contributed pillows to the common area that looked like someone killed Cookie Monster for his pelt. Tmo’s stuff began to leak out of his room again-cables and computer boxes flying this way and that. Peet’s stuff was in semi-neat piles in the common room. Kitchen is in its usual state of halfway clean, fully used. This is a place of movement and activity, an exciting place at that, so I shouldn’t expect it to be sterile and immaculate any time soon. I have my room to keep in such an order. Fine.

We are moving forward on projects here, bit by bit. Today Marla, Peet, and Ron started to piece together some of the old salvaged bike parts in the basement while Claire, Matt, and myself cut down the ten foot wooden weeds growing out front and along the side of the house. Ron is plotting the next step for the basement and has Matt and I excited about building a recording studio in the far corner, along with a bike shop and workshop and storage facility. Tmo started clearing out the porch and back hall and tended to all the plants in the house yesterday, also did some rearranging in the kitchen. There is some good momentum here, a lot of energy for sure. We are a force: myself, tmo, Claire, Peet, Ron, Marla, Matt, and Gina. We’re getting there for sure, we just have to be sure to keep our energy directed towards positive ends and be able to remind each other of this. Our goal, short term at least, is to have this place squared by Saturday, October 9, when we host a big party to celebrate the 1-2-oh-my-god. It will also, incidently, be the Funky New Year.

With all that’s going on on the homefront it’s amazing to me that I’ve just started work in earnest and for real. Today was my first official day of work and I have to say that I have a sweet job. People are nice, relaxed, laid back. We are given an incredible amount of freedom and autonomy but also are supported financially and personally in all our decisions. My schedule is excellent. My student load is small. I really couldn’t be happier, all things considered. It’s now a matter of preparing as much as I can, hoping I’ve dotted all my I’s and crossed all my T’s, knowing that something will be left out but that I’ll be able to deal with it.

This is a powerful and exciting time. There’s a lot going on here. And yet, I am forcing myself to keep one ear turned towards Milwaukee and Grandma as she squeezes in her final days on this earth. I’ll have to go home some point in the next couple of weeks, and with that trip will come a good deal of emotional needs, but I feel a secure foundation here. The chaos and uncertainty in Boston is now slowly resolving itself, simmering into a tight rhythm. I feel vitally alive these days, wholly present, even when (and especially when) it hurts.

Posted by davidtaus at September 7, 2004 11:41 PM