Stranger at My Door

Stranger at my door                                                              

I wake up to the fresh smell of mother earth after a long rainy night. I have a neck crank, so I stretch my muscles similar to how a cat would; I think I almost meow in pleasure. It is a Monday, I hate Mondays because the weekends are way too short and Friday is too far away.

I make my way to the en-suite and try to brush my hair into submission. Finally, giving up the battle with my hair, I put it up with a brown scrunchie that matches by hair color. I look in the mirror and squint as I brush my teeth; sometimes I think my eyes are way too big for my face. After I clean up, I pull my yoga mat, walk around my room to open the sliding doors, and let the cooling breeze in.  From the third floor, the view is serene as always; today is an overcast hot autumn day very common this time of the year here in Seattle. The cloudless sky looks almost white.

I stretch and rub my muscles – if Jose was here he would massage my back. Jose, I gave him two years of my life; we should have known we would not work out. We are too much alike, our relationship just fizzled out, lost any spark if it there was ever any. We were too worried to lose our friendship that we kept on going for way too long. Now, we barely talk to each other, not even really friends anymore.  I quickly shake those thoughts out of my mind. I concentrate on my yoga and enjoying the view before me.

Genesee Park is my back yard, some of the aspen and maple trees already started to turn, the yellows and vibrant reds contrast with the evergreens; there are birds singing at a distance and briefly I wonder what a bird would say if he could talk – look at the mountains and the turning of the leaves, snow is coming, we should go south and stay warm; the little bird me would say. Maybe I need a vacation, fly south like the birds and take in sun and surf.

I stretch once more, I do not need a vacation, all I need is to be touched and desired, maybe a one night stand would be good, people do that all the time, don’t they? I have never had a one night stand before and wonder how one goes about finding one – hello there, want to hook up, no strings attached, I’ll even do all the work. I giggle to myself; I must be losing my mind!

I take a big invigorating breath - I so like the crisp fresh air the park provides. I continue with my yoga routine thinking how I got lucky when I found this place so fast after Jose and I split up; I got a good price for it too it being an end unit at the hottest live-and-work lofts in Columbia City. If I wanted to, I could convert the first floor into retail space, an office or a business as most of my neighbors have done; I could live in the upper floors. For now, I’ll leave it as a home office and maybe it’ll be a library sometime.

My loft is real convenient as it is just a block away from my job as an editor at SIP. After having to commute for years from my old place – ours, Jose’s and mine, old place – I needed something convenient and this place with the red exposed brick, large windows and three floors of living space fits my needs just right; I could get a roommate, but I really do not need one nor do I want one. I sit on my meditation pose, breath in and out for a few minutes trying to blank out my thoughts.

When I am finally done it is 7:45 - it is time for breakfast. After I make my bed and pile all my pillows the way I like it – take that Jose, he never understood the use of decorative pillows. I head down to the kitchen area. Every time I enter my kitchen I smile, the light hard wood floors warm up the space and contrast nicely with the stainless steel appliances. My favorite, though, are the pink lower cabinets which complement the off white upper cabinets.

I run my hand across the cool tiles backsplash that form concentric circles of red, blue and yellows over an off white background, giving the impressions of colorful suns. I love my kitchen, it is bigger than any kitchen I ever had and it was worth the splurge since I love cooking. I even installed a place for all my cookbooks at the end of the cabinets; I painted them a light blue to match the blue from the tile for an added touch of color and extra whimsical effect.