The View from Here

The view from here is spectacular.  I am sitting in a palatial home waaaay up on Aloha Road, which is in the upper Avenues neighborhood of Salt Lake.  From here you can see the whole city spread before you.  I'm sitting cross-legged on a sofa that is actually an antique opium bed brought from Singapore.  It juxtaposes nicely with the Little Tykes mega-plastic kitchen set in the corner and the banker's boxes piled willy-nilly around the place. 

We call this the Aloha House or the Bachelor Pad.  Three single dads are living here, sometimes with kids, sometimes without.  Chuck has a room here and I have come up here a couple of times to be with him.  I like it: the clean lines of the house are restful; I like talking with Chuck's friends.  And the view is always waiting for me to admire it.  Especially at night. 

I was looking out the front windows the other night, and thinking about how much in my life is new. I have a budget, and I am learning to manage it pretty well.  My routines are all shifted around. I shop for groceries in a new store (where I can't find a fucking thing!).  I ride my yellow bicycle there after work and put my groceries in the bike basket, which detaches from the bike with a little clip.  I occasionally drink Pabst Blue Ribbon from a can.  (I feel so cheap!) I meet new people all the time.  Pat, Cliff, Kathy, Al... I watch classic comedies that I never had the chance to see before.  Sailing:  never did it before now.  Riding on a motorcycle:  never did it before now.

Luckily, when they passed out resilience, I got an extra helping.  I handle change OK for an old broad.

Thursday was a difficult day at work.  When I was done for the day, Chuck came on his bike and I climbed on back.  We drove up here and I did data entry while he cooked a pot of chili.  We put his laptop between us on the opium bed and watched Blazing Saddles and drank (kind of a lot of) wine.  Afterwards, I was standing here at the windows looking out and Chuck came over to stand by me. "What are you thinking about?"  "Just looking at the view!  The view from up here is amazing!"  I wasn't just talking about the city lights, but the pleasure of a new perspective over all.  Some parts of it better than others, absolutely. (See Pabst Blue Ribblon, above.)   But all of it different, all of it new.  None of seen by my eyes before.

[Still struggling with Internet.  Hope to be back regularly soon.]