random thoughts – Day 2,331 (Sunday) – excavating

Life in a box, 2025.

It was apparently a great morning for sleeping because I woke up mostly refreshed and a bit confused a good two hours later than usual. I didn’t stay up extra late. It had been a quiet day at home.  I had thought about reaching out to friends to see if anyone was interested in the Saturday night concert in the park event, but then I got super tired and fell asleep on the couch and suddenly it was too late. I read before bed. Nothing unusual, except for the nap, and somehow I overslept this morning. So weird.

Anyway. One year ago today, my friends and I kicked butt and emptied the moving cube. The emptying of my life in a box took just a few hours, because basically we emptied the cube like it was a race. We piled everything in the house, to be opened and dealt with later. Rugs and large furniture were set, but the rest of it wasn’t the sort of thing where help was helpful. How could I tell someone where to put stuff from a box when I had no idea myself?

Today, I hung a couple more art pieces in what seems to be my now characteristic super slow motion, prolonged decorating process. A photo freshly delivered from the recent Lowellscapes show went on a wall in the guest room which is still slightly cluttered with luggage and a couple unpacked boxes. There is now one less framed photo on the dining room table. I will celebrate the progress while simultaneously mourning the fact that the table was cleared for less than 24 hours.

Korean calligraphy brush and mat on a wall.

While standing in the alleged art room, I spotted the paper towel tube labeled “calligraphy brush” on a bookshelf and removed the contents. It’s a calligraphy brush I bought in Korea in 2000 or 2001. It came with a blue and tan mat made out of the material of a sushi rolling mat and used in some placemats. I had forgotten about the mat. I had forgotten about the brush. At first I thought it was the small parasol, also from Korea, which has lived in a tube the same length of time as the calligraphy brush and also the larger parasol.

It has lived, wrapped in red tissue paper inside a paper towel tube since I bought it. The brush, with the mat behind it, now has a home on a wall near the mirror that X2 bought for me from an antique store in Korea for Christmas of 2000. Somewhere, still in an unpacked box in the house, is a padded box with a mah jongg set also bought in Korea, which hasn’t seen the light of day since 2001. The excavations will continue. Maybe tomorrow.