[a moment] to unpack

[moment 206]

I had been procrastinating unpacking for way too long. I blamed it on needing to jump from vacation mode to "real life" mode right away, with medical appointments, errands, driving people to and fro. But the reality was, I just didn't want to. 

And then a friend of Mal's is going to come over. Mal cleans her room. I unpack and clean and panic just a little bit because my OCD is on overdrive even though the odds are this friend won't be visiting with the rest of us - just with Mal in her basement room. 

My OCD always goes into overdrive when people are coming over. Well, most people. A few of my friends know the chaos that is my life all too well and don't judge when they arrive at my house and there's a pile of dishes in the sink, half-finish projects on the dining room table, and beds in just about every room.

Our house isn't ordinary. Most of our belongings are second (or third, or twelfth) hand or from Ikea. Or second hand from Ikea. There's a bed in our dining room (Onyx's) and a bed in our living room (mine and Jim's). There's a created bedroom space in our basement (Mal's) and then Eris, Austen, and Alex inhabit the actual bedrooms.

There are potions and spell books and jars full of magical things on one wall of our dining room. There are ukuleles, photos, artifacts, and artwork adorning our walls and pride flags in our windows. We have a wine rack of paint and van seat couch. And for some reason there's a wind chime with a fake rat skeleton hanging from it in our living room. 

We're also in the midst of several projects including, but not limited to redoing our floors, repainting our walls, scraping our popcorn ceilings and painting those, replacing baseboards, and refinishing the kitchen cabinets. 

Seven people live here. We have one bathroom. One. If someone needs to take a shower while you are here, you will be asked if you need to use the facilities before said person gets into the shower. Everyone in the house will be asked, as here it's a common courtesy. 

I used to be self conscious about our unusual house, but have found that teens especially appreciate the relaxed atmosphere and creative vibe of the house ... and the "don't worry about it" attitude we all have about messes and mishaps and mistakes.