Hello there from fair Charlottesville Virginia, a city which has survived two separate contingents of Allens already, and is now bracing itself for a third. Yesterday was exciting and exhausting all at once for Cor and I, as we moved into our cozy little summer sublet and I had my first day of work. A little known fact about my wife is that once she acquires a place of residence, she is not capable of resting, or even consuming food, until she feels that it has been suitably tamed by sheer decorative force. The kinds of unpacking most would leave for the next few days get done in a hurricane-like rush all at once. You may think this works out quite well for yours truly, and indeed it does, but the unintended consequences can be very unpleasant. My normal routine involves fifteen to twenty minutes of what could generously be called “moving in,” followed by a nice solid hour of self congratulation on the couch in front of the television. Rinse, repeat. This is a difficult ritual to carry out with a shining beacon of industriousness buzzing around me. The guilt is just too much.
Our new residence is quaint to be sure (Cor’s early estimation that it could fit inside of mom and dad’s bathroom/bedroom is not far off), but we both like it a lot and will feel comfortable there for a little while. Subletting is a sweet deal when it comes to furniture, since it’s all there waiting for you. It makes life much easier.
For those of you who are curious, I am working as a temp at a rubber-importer-seller named “Sri Trang” in C-ville. The company is owned and operated out of (I believe) Singapore, and the office’s decorum displays that fact; I sit right across from a wooden carving of a bare-chested woman. I guess they’re “free thinkers” here. Most of my work involves checking spreadsheets on Excel against company records and updating them. Thrilling stuff. Cor, operating out of the same temp agency, is working at a hospice, and is involved in similar things.
We don’t have internet at the apartment yet, by the way, so be a little patient with us on that one.
You should know now that I will begin a tradition of recommending a movie every post or so. In this case, I’m going to advise you to see “Into the Wild,” starring Emile Hirsch, Hal Holbrook, Vince Vaughn, and a few others. It’s the directorial debut of actor Sean Penn (he also wrote it), and it closely follows the true story of Christopher McCandless, a young college graduate who renounces civilized life in a very Thoreau manner and wanders into Alaska to live off the land. (SPOILER) He becomes stranded and eventually dies, so this is not a movie for mom to even consider, but for everyone else it’s a heartbreaking drama about how a young man’s ideals, noble as they may be, can lead to his downfall. I applauded how honestly the movie looked at Chris, admiring his resolve but disappointed that he shirked his responsibilities to his family and friends, and that he refused to forgive his parent’s mistakes. Wonderfully made, very involving. Consider giving it a watch.