Tuesday 20 December 2011

Ghostly

Pretty! by foundimagination
There's about a third of my building who are previous tenants who decided to return. And while I didn't really know anyone that well before the whole "you have to leave now ok bye" thing, there was something about the incredibly unsettling experience that drew a few of us more good natured ones together. And so it was nice to see some familiar faces in my first few days back.

I chatted with one gal on my first night here (hanging my head out the window as she unpacked her car actually) and asked her how things were going (she'd been moved back in about a week.)

She told me that other than the noise/construction still ongoing, the biggest thing she noticed was what she was calling "phantom kitchen."

See, in the renovating they did, the kitchen is the thing that really changed. Sure, there's new paint and blinds and a new toilet and cabinet mirror, but the kitchen? Was completely gutted and redone. And it's very different (and awesome and nice.)

She said that she kept going for things that weren't there anymore or reaching to open cabinets that didn't exist.

I kind of laughed, and we chatted about something else, but you guys? Now that I've lived here a bit?

I totally know what she's talking about.

It's happened to me a couple of times now, usually at night or when I'm tired or not really paying attention, but I'll turn from the sink to reach for the pantry cupboard and be reminded that that's the fridge now.

Or I'll round the corner from the living room and head towards the cabinet where my cereal is kept and realize that that cabinet isn't there, hasn't been there since I moved back, and will never be there.

It's an odd feeling.

I guess moving always is a bit odd, weird, uncomfortable, disconcerting, but moving back in to your old place that's no longer your old place?

Is different.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

FIVE MORE DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS -I'm going on fifty here on the 23rd- and it's going to snow so deep across BC that we will have to walk places just to survive. The world will look so white and silent that we will think we are living in a post card. Each day we will receive more new snow until the entire west coast is covered and the only means for survival in places like Whistler will be as the helicopters bring food to people. Everybody will realize that they are basically on their own, except to help each other, and the province will be entirely shut down from one area to the next. -FIVE DAYS UNITL CHRISTMAS AND ALL THAT SNOW IS COMING. -PROFOUND ISN'T IT? God will have blessed us with the new condition of global warming, where pockets of deep, rich cold fronts will send down extreme weather conditions in certain areas, because there is more moisture globally. FIVE DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!! -And I'll even be turning fifty years old to see it: SNOW so deep we will really wonder...Really wonder...Really, really wonder about this old world....And then we will cry because we are alive...maybe.
- ONLY FIVE DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS and the new effects of global warming (and if not then, then at least in January).
Cold snap then 'plunk' snow...a lot, 'lotta' snow.

Jonathan said...

I do that with the cutlery draw at home ALL the time. I think the last time I knew where the spoons, forks, and knives were was when I was about 10 years old. One day my Mum re-organised and it screwed my head for the rest of my life...

Victoria said...

Cool, well, Happy Birthday Anonymous.

I know that feeling all too well Jonathan! lol