house photo

i was wondering why i was waking up so early without the aid of my alarm. and then realized that i was hearing a muffled stairway scramble, a hushed hallway shuffle. i peeked at the clock which said 6:13 and my mind did that early-morning reasoning: you know when you reach to remember if today is a work day.

it was house picture day. they only way to get everyone in the photo was to do it at dawn's early light. next i heard reb's "mar mar!" call from the hallway and realized that picture day really was happening. and that musta been what the chalkboard had meant all week: bed head required.

some were dressed in business attire. yoga attire. teaching children attire. others had on robes and messed hair. i saw reb's jaguar print slippers. "my sister sent them to me!" she said. "it's the only kinda pyjamas i have. otherwise i just woulda been naked."

so there we were, three rows deep.. sixish across. heather held wizard who is recuperating from yet another catfight wound and limps. i sat on shane's lap, reb sat on mine.

in a matter of days, cholla is moving on... heading eastward to the hot phoenix desert. in a matter of weeks (many weeks) jeff and rebecca are heading eastward as well after a working stint in either australia or europe. reb needs to see her neice and nephew grow up. monica and dan both have new houses they have bought, yet still live in our sweet little co-op.

and then there is wizard who is pushing 12, 13, 14. somewhere in there. and his legs aren't as bouncy as they once were. that was noted when he thudded off of sarah's lap a few house dinners ago. but i can't bring myself to think about that right now.

on the flip side, there's the young blood, the new wave. jason and crew. we have new housemate jen who is a kick-in-the-pants and continues the alpha female tradition (my theory: all women at the stab are alpha females).

but most importantly we have coffee at this very moment and i am going to go get my second cup. and then it's on to start the day.