Ode to IKEA

Odes

Your logo in yellow

reads like home to me.

Past your rotating doors

await a million things

I never knew I wanted.

You often have surprises

though I study your catalogue

with religious fervor often;

Each verse an invitation for a purchase —

Tirup:55:9 reads Buy me, while

Billy:77:7 is Perfect for that corner!

I enter with a plan, a short list, an intention

But you disarm me in a matter of seconds.

Of course, this could be my kitchen,

Yes, of course, I want this as my living room.

I test the pillows, I stretch;

The room is suddenly my own

until a passerby enters uninvited.

The audacity! The violation!

I scribble notes with my midget pencil

I write down codes, aisles and colors

and move along.

By the time I reach the register

my mouth is dry but my heart is eager.

I foot an inflated bill and head for the exit

carrying a dismembered version of LivingRoom:29.

On dust

Rants

Among the many joys of renovation is dust, my dear friends. I’ve often imagined what it would be like if dust were an actual person that I could beat up / yell at / simply evict.

I share my open letter to dust with you here.

Dear dust,

I have decided to write to you because you and I have recently developed quite a relationship. In fact, some may mistake it for a friendship, and of course, why wouldn’t they? You and I have been living together for over 5 months now, a period during which I have come to know you quite well. And I’ve decided there are a few things I want to tell you.

Firstly, how dare you spread your filmy fingers over all of my possessions with such glaring ease? It’s bad enough that you’ve taken over my entire book collection like a hungry bookworm, you’ve also infiltrated my technological equipment! It’s no longer worth keeping up pretenses: I know you raped the printer; I know you violated my laptop. You greedy bitch! As if that wasn’t enough, you took over all of my wardrobe and stained my clothes with your filthy grey breath so that when I wear an item, I carry you with me like a curse.

At nights, you sneak into bed uninvited and take over all the space without permission. You fondle my hair when I least expect it and it takes days to wash off your grimy touch. I fucking hate you.

And stop eating my food. It makes me hungry! The thought of your sooty lip stains on my daily meals makes me lose my appetite, which is of course to your advantage since it makes you take over drinks, utensils and the like at a rapacious pace.

I want you out of here, dust. The door is open, I’ve traced your escape route on the ground across your body. I hope that hurt. Because you and I, we’re through. Get the hell out or there will be blood. I’ll introduce you to my friend, the vacuum. We’ll see who laughs then!!

Yours,

plain bananas

Mad Night

Musings

Tonight was Mad Men night. A friend of mine has yet to catch on to the series, so I had the bright idea of starting a Mad Men night every Friday to indulge in the girl fun (while drooling over dresses we wish we owned). I came home all ready for this, even contemplated making some bites to spoil ourselves, but it seems the first Mad Men Friday is postponed.

So here I am, drinking coffee from one of my new glass mugs (photos forthcoming), and feeling slightly guilty to be out of the blog loop. There have been too many things going on job-wise. Too many opportunities have come my way, and I, being myself, decided to take up all of them. But thankfully it’s the weekend and so I have a chance to catch my breath.

As regards the renovation, still no big changes, though the space is finally empty of stuff. I’m currently making do with whatever furniture was already in my possession, and will slowly start buying stuff for the home as the renovation begins and ends. It feels very much like my early college years. That’s a lie. Maybe the first couple of days of my college career, because after that (thanks to Target etc) I managed to acquire an assortment of homely things. That’s not going to happen now, as I’m determined to pace myself and find the right thing at the right time.

Let me share what the apartment looks like at the moment:

The living room: the bare necessities

My workspace: Where all the homework happens

Bedroom stacks: More books and bits

These are all temporary solutions that for now, have done the trick. I’m heading over to IKEA tomorrow for some storage and kitchen supplies. I need something for all my beads because right now they are at a state of chaos on a table and I can’t stand this lack of organization! It’s no wonder I haven’t made anything in ages — I don’t know where anything is!

But I’m not complaining. Not even about the cancelled Mad Men night. I’ve got Project Runway: Season 4 to keep me busy and I’ve been restraining myself to make the pleasure of watching it last longer.

Feel free to join me. I have limited seating but a lot of floor!

Are you in?

Math Monday

math monday

mathsbananas

I’m getting better with the days. Granted it’s 1 a.m. (sort of) but for my purposes it’s still Monday night. I just managed to steal some minutes at the end of a rather longish day, and now it’s time to do the math.

1 new listing on Etsy finally! Oh yeah, this banana has risen from the Etsy dead. I’ve managed to locate my beads, and supplies but the frames I use to take photos with the jewelry are still in the mysterious box no. 7 which is nowhere near me, right now.

Caution: not edible!

6 is the number of boxes I have unpacked. You might be wondering what’s taking so long — I keep going on and on about boxes. I should be done already, right? Well not quite. I’ve just moved to my apartment and it will soon undergo major renovation, so I’m not too quick with unpacking things that don’t need to be out of their boxes yet. It’s going to be a long while before I manage to call this place my home, but I love changes, and boy am I excited.
5-digit number, which I dare not mention, is the cost of the whole renovation. I was doing the math earlier this evening along with the carpenter. I’m quite optimistically looking beyond the big sum of expenses and envisioning the big change and long-term investment. Wouldn’t you?
1.5 job interviews for my sister. The .5 is for the second part of the interview which involves some hands-on creativity tomorrow with a live brief (by the way, my sister’s a graphic designer / illustrator and she designs anything plain bananas you see). I’m hoping you can cross your fingers too.
1 new pair of earrings that I have yet to list. The perfect way to end a long day of numbers.

Look beyond the bad lighting

Coming soon, a photo of the kitchen I’ve chosen and my clean desk. Ok, I’ll sneak in one of the sea from my balcony too.

How was your week in numbers?