Shelves in the closet? Happy thought indeed.

Our apartment is messy. Most of this is because we really haven't finished setting it up and part of it is because there aren't that many places to put things away yet. But thankfully it feels like home. Despite the chaos that has followed me for the past half year I have managed to live in places that always, for some reason or another, felt like home. So it has not been completely overwhelming. The best part about this most recent chaos is that I can see how it will end (or at least lessen quite a bit). James has been building us bookshelves (YAY!). They are not the most highly finished shelves but they are sturdy, have lots of shelf space and are much cheaper in the end than anything (wooden or not) that we could buy. Along with the bookshelves he has been creating storage shelves, has started on bedside tables, built access steps to our back window-well (we call it our back door) and has been planning how he wants to make our bedframe. So far we have one of those metal frames with no head- or foot- board which is fine but it will be nice to have a full frame--especially one he planned and made himself. I wonder what it is about making one's own bed that seems to resonate through the years. When mom heard James was making it she mentioned that Dad had always wanted to make their bedframe but she always told him it wasn't necessary. She is sorry now that he didn't have the chance. Going even further back it reminds me of Odysseus and Penelope and I know I've encountered it frequently-enough in literature post-dating that. And now it's touching my life. It's interesting how sometimes I find myself feeling a certain way simply because I know I'm entering into some custom I have read about. To quote (loosely) from the classic movie You've Got Mail: "So many things remind me of something I've read in a book when shouldn't it be the other way around?" Does doing typical adult things or entering into adult customs actually make one an adult or do we simply feel that way because we know they are things adults do?

Well I've really strayed from the origin of this train of thought and don't really think I have made my path (or point) clear but I think I shall leave it as evidence of how I have lost at least part of my logical powers post-baby.