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Peter and i create messes wherever we live. We are people of piles! And, as i have read somewhere, creative people make piles, live messily, put stuff away later rather than sooner, so, since Peter and I are a creative couple, married across 20 some odd years of art and expression through theatre , music and writing, as i said above, we create messes. We live in piles. Dare I say, we ARE our piles.

By nature , we are actually both people who crave order, want neatness, desire cleanliness, but in every day reality, when left to our own devices (and without a regular housekeeper, as we have been really since the pandemic, we have chosen to be left to our own devices) we create piles wherever we work. Wherever we play. Oh, the piles are a certain method of organization, but only Peter and I now what is in each pile and after a while, we forget what’s actually in each pile, and totally forget why we made the pile in the first place, so they all become a massive assortment of towering papers, notebooks, journals, objects and stuff we swear we will get back to someday. Books we will read, projects we will pursue, magazines we will cut stuff out of, random pieces of clothing we are too lazy to put away properly.

We can’t seem to help it. We are creatures who gather and stack, mound and stow away, fill and overflow. We are messy and have about reached the time in our life together where that is not only alright with us, but sort of prideful. We are who we are and we like it. We snuggle down into it. And order dinner in.

But, recently, after a decade in a classic Victorian two-flat house, (with a basement apartment, as well) in the Haight District of San Francisco, we have moved out of charming and cozy darkness into the light of a
high-rise apartment, aloft in the sky , looking out over the Bay. We now have doormen, concierges, people who look after all the things we used to have to take care of. And we are re-born!

With walls full of gracious modern windows, it’s as if our little two bedroom place is infinite in its horizons, and though we can hang none of our copious art collection on any of those windowed walls, we love what those windowed walls give us in return: sky, gulls afloat in mid air, and room to breathe.

Oh, don’t get me wrong: we still manage to make our piles, but somehow our new surroundings demand that we pick up the piles sooner, that we empty the garbage and recycling more often, and most importantly, that we rid ourselves of three-quarters of the possessions we thought we needed to survive. We are leaner and meaner….BUT…..we do make piles of mail, throw that dirty shirt on the floor and arrange paid bills on desks that have yet to meet their matching file cabinets. We haven’t totally lost our creativity!

But, in this move to the 19th Floor on Howard Street, as we look out over the statuesque Ferry Building, it does feel like we have indeed effortlessly (hah! I can’t believe we survived that move!)) slipped into something less messy…..at least for as long as we can manage to keep it that way.

I feel the urge to finally call that reliable house cleaner we keep promising ourselves.
Now where did I put her phone number….? In that pile over there?
Hmmmmmmm…..