Would You Buy Me a New Life?

Note to self: If I ever happen upon a decent amount of money, whether I earn it, win it, or somehow miraculously obtain it without the sacrifice or harm of others, I will for sure not get myself a nice, good-sized house atop a hill if I'm going to be living alone.

I've realized that I haven't really touched upon this week's living situation for myself: that I'm staying at my boss' place, which happens to be the place where I work.

It's kind of interesting being here. The place isn't huge, but it's a nice house, with fun and eclectic art, furnishings and knick-knacks about the place. The kitchen's great with very nice appliances, but I've only really used the microwave, toaster oven, refrigerator/freezer and I've only used the stove once to make mac and cheese. I'm also sleeping in the master bedroom, which is kind of strange, but I need to sleep somewhere, I suppose, and I'd feel weirder sleeping in one of their kids' beds.

During the day, it isn't so bad. I tend to keep myself busy you know...working, and for part of the day, the housekeeper comes over and does her thing about the house. There's also the two mobile pets, the cat and dog.

The cat, for the lack of a better word, is a real bitch. She's beautiful and affectionate, but in an instant, she'll start biting real hard and if she's on the ground, she'll try to scratch your Achilles tendon so you can't run away and she can eat your face. Maybe she won't eat your face, but she's pretty bipolar and mean. She's usually roaming outside the house for most of the day, and eventually she comes home to retreat to the upstairs to sleep at night. She doesn't like staying out at night, because she used to disappear for days on end, and one night, the family hears the most horrible meows ever to find her limping to the house with a good chunk of skin gone. She had to get some major surgery done, and she's okay now, but she is very grateful when I finally peek out to see if she's ready to come in.

Then there's the dog. He's not a sheep dog, but he's some kind of long haired sport shepherding dog-type, of the European persuasion. He's not that old, but from what I've been told, he's a very sickly pup. Right now he's taking antibiotics, because he has a urinary infection, and he was peeing without even realizing it sometimes. He's a good dog, though, very friendly and excitable. In the time I've been here, he's been exploiting the fact that I don't know his routines that well, so he tries to get me to let him out when it's not even necessary, like at 2 or 5 in the morning, and when we take walks up the driveway, he makes it seem that he usually gets to go further than we're going, and after talking to my boss today, I've learned that he's been duping me a lot. But he's fun, and good company in the big quiet place.

Now that all of the sunlight has gone, it's pretty sad and lonely out here. Even the dog is pretty lonely, I can tell. And the fact that I've been here since Monday, with the exception of running an errand or two every day this week, it's become a little maddening. The first day was probably the worst, partly because it was the first day/night being here, but it was mostly because it was such a stressful day with the computer going down, the bookkeeper here, and dealing with a grant deadline that required SO MUCH and then having the printer run low on toner, I just wanted out of here and fast. But I was here to stay, especially after having the one beer that became two beers that was just enough to prevent me to attempt driving down the steep and windy, poorly paved road back to civilization.

A decent amount of good sleep and waking up to see the sun rise over the San Gabriel Mountains made yesterday start off pretty well. I like peaceful mornings, and I started working right when I was up, and took my time in getting some breakfast, taking a shower, and setting up all the equipment for my next big undertaking. Thankfully, it's working with negatives and slides, and I enjoy working with those things. What wasn't so enjoyable was that I had my setup all wrong, making things really uncomfortable. By evening, I went to my car and busted out my own light table, because the little slide viewer/rack thing my boss has is handy for viewing slides, but very awkward and uncomfortable to try looking at a lot in a sheet at once and trying to determine which images I'd want.

I had more of the same to do today, only I had to make a few phone calls, send a few emails, and checked the mailbox that was chock full of things I needed to take care of. It will keep me busy for the rest of the week for sure, and I plan on finishing up photo selection tonight so that I can send off these images for scanning soon.

Like I said, it's a little too quiet for my liking, and it gets awful lonely, being in the same place where I have to work and sleep. I think that it would be cool to live/work in the same space, but this isn't my house, so I'm not entirely comfortable here. Also, with the challenge of getting to and from public areas, the animals and the housekeeper have mostly been my only company, and I am starving for social interaction. What interaction I do get is looking at RSS feeds, checking the free ads, getting the three emails I get a day and hopping on Yelp when I get the chance. Still, I'm very glad that I'm only here for the work week, because any longer and I'd seriously get cabin fever. Not to mention the dog would get very lonely.

Though I know I will miss being able to wake up to see the sun rise over the mountains, go outside in the brisk morning air and see half the San Fernando Valley covered in a layer of fog. There's also walking the dog up the hill all the way to the top, and make our decent as I watch the sun set over another ridge of the hills. What was even cuter was that the cat decided to follow us a bit up on our walk, and was waiting for us when we came back, only to run like the dickens when the dog decided to chase after her.

In all, this whole arrangement isn't so bad, but I think the timing's all off. In a way, though, it's kind of nice not being able to commute and "get away" from my everyday context, even though I haven't been spending much time at home since getting this job...