Matildaben’s blog

I wasn't really expecting to move so soon. I was just casually surfing Craigslist every few days seeing what was coming up, and not seeing a lot of great places.  My rent goes up in September, and it seemed like as good an incentive as any to think about moving.  Then I came across this really sweet place that had just been posted the day before, larger than my current apartment, same rent (including utilities), in a gorgeous location on a hillside overlooking Puget Sound facing north and west (you can see the Edmonds/Kingston ferries going back and forth, not to mention the gorgeous sunsets), a minute's walk from Golden Gardens and with a forest just at the end of the quiet dead-end street.  The landlady/upstairs neighbor really liked me, and I managed to scare up the money for the deposit next day after I passed the credit and reference check.  This is the kind of place that gets snapped up instantly, and luckily I was the one to snap it up (if I hadn't been working at home that day and been able to view it at 1 p.m., the gal who went at 6:30 pm would have gotten it instead of me).

Did I mention that the bookcases are built in?

A few small drawbacks: It's going to increase my commute to the Eastside by about 15-30 minutes (haven't tested it in rush hour yet), but not so bad since I usually drive around the north side of Lake Washington anyway.  It has a shower but no bathtub (I take maybe 4 baths a year, and there's lots of nice hot tub places in the region that I can go to if I need a relaxing bath).  It is quite secluded so not within walking distance to a lot of takeout places (but I needed a reason to start cooking more anyway), and may or may not be without of range of a Clearwire tower (which I use for wireless internet - at my current place, the tower is on the building across the street and I can see it from my home office window).  Also, there's not quite as much storage as I would like, but I can work with that (and stuff you never see/use is the best candidate for decluttering anyway).

The below images are my attempt at figuring out where everything is going to go.  The couch will be new (current crappy catscratched couch will go on Freecycle), and I'm getting rid of the coffee table and getting storage ottomans instead.  I'll also need a corner TV stand, since my current one is too big (the corner is the only place in the livingroom with a cable outlet, plus this way the couch is positioned to enjoy both the fireplace and the view).

LivingroomPlan

Bedroom Plan

What would you consider to be your 15 minutes of fame so far in life?

In the 1990s I wrote an article that was published in a nonfiction book from a small feminist press, that got a few press clippings from papers that review that kind of thing.  One of the clippings even namechecked me.

I like to think that, in the time of the Internet, the more accurate quote is "everyone will be famous to 15 people."  And I've acheived that to one degree or another in various communities I participate in.

Yes, I climbed these stairs...

...and yes, it was scary.

These are the stairs that ascend into the medieval city wall in Tallinn, Estonia.  They are very small and steep, with only the stone wall and a rough rope to hold on to.  Those of you who know me know that I am somewhat scared of heights.  But the city wall was so awesome that I couldn't let a little thing like that get in my way.

There are different towers that you can climb further up into from the walkways inside the city wall.  In one of those towers, I came upon some musicians practicing and setting up for a performance to be held at 19:00 that evening.  I decided to come back at that time and see the show.

Now, Estonia is known for its creativity in the world of contemporary compositional music, avant-garde, and jazz.  Since I knew nothing about the performers or what they had planned, there was a large part of me that was getting very excited at the thought that I could be about to witness something completely underground, cutting-edge, and unexpected.  Alas, my lust for the new was not to be so radically fulfilled.  They turned out to be a very sweet little a capella ensemble, who opened the show with a rendition of the classic American pop song "[I'm your] Venus", translated into Estonian.  Nothing earth-shattering, but it was a very enjoyable performance, and I'm still glad I got to experience something serendipitous such as that.

Cognition, originally uploaded by matildaben.

I've been posting a series of photos from KUMU, the modern art museum in Tallinn, Estonia. It was a wonderful museum to visit, and I'm pretty proud of these shots. If you follow the link to Flickr, you can view the whole set.

I'm still here ... Just haven't felt that anything is blog-worthy for a while.  So here's a three-point status report:

1. Saturday I saw one of the early signs of spring in Seattle - cherry blossoms!
2. This weekend, an old friend from my college days, who I haven't seen in 20 years, is visiting.  I'm looking forward to it.
3. I signed up to rent space for 6 months in a private darkroom (belonging to my former teacher), which will take me through the time when I'm not taking classes at PCNW.

I got tagged by poopoorama.  I guess I have to do this blog meme thing now.

"Once you have been tagged, you have to write a blog with 5 facts about yourself. Then choose 5 people you want to tag and list their names. Then leave a comment on their blog letting them know they’ve been tagged."

1. I have amblyopia.  It's hereditary on my father's side of the family.
2. My favorite sushi is Saba (Mackerel)

Saba