Moving in Together

Moving in together hasn't been much of an adjustment. We spent so much time together before we made this step, it hasn't seemed like an earth shaking or life changing event. Even though I was nervous about it and so was she.

The most noticeable change is in our living environment. Since she moved in my surroundings are much nicer, a bit feminine, but definitely much nicer than they were. My things have been moved to new spots. We've purchased some new furniture, some antiques and added some of her things. Some of my furniture has gone to Goodwill. I have less closet space than I had. We have a 12 foot wide closet in our bedroom, her things take 8 feet of it. She has 42 pairs of shoes in there. Her coats and jackets take most of the hall closet. Its summer, my winter things are in the storage area of our brownstone, hers aren't, when fall comes my winter things will make the move back upstairs.

I'm surprised, amazed really,  at how handy she is. I came home from work and she was on her knees on the living room floor hemming the new drapes by hand. Drapes! I've haven't had drapes for years. The levelor blinds seemed to work just fine. She made a trip to a pillow store on Newbury Street and hauled home new pillows for the sofa and the bed. I've never seen so damn many pillows. There are 4 on the sofa and 6 on our bed, 4 for sleeping, 2 for decoration and she added a round thing called a bolster. She also bought a duvet set for an impossible amount of money. She had to buy it, it was on sale. She mentioned that she has more pillows at the store but she couldn't carry them all home. I picked them up and made another stop for some fabric for bedroom drapes on the way home. I'm also surprised at how quickly she gets all this decorating done, the transformation has taken just 4 days and now we're settled in. It looks good, it's comfortable and the best part is she's happy with it to a degree. She constantly changes things, moving a framed picture or adjusts a vase an inch to the right or left. She always has fresh flowers in every room. We have a large burgundy Persian rug on the living room floor. It looks nice and the dog enjoys it. In fact he thinks he owns it.

I do the cooking, I've got two chicken breasts marinating in the fridge, I'm going to grill them up on the roof deck tonight. We share the deck with the people who live in our building. We seldom see any of them since we are on the boat most weekends. We bring our food and the wine up to the roof. Our view is great, we over look the Charles River, across the river is the dome of MIT, down river we see the Longfellow Bridge and further down the Science Museum and on this side, the golden dome of the State House, we can see the Prudential Tower and the Hancock Building and the lights of the big buildings in the Financial District. If we look up river we see the curve of the Charles up stream, the Harvard Bridge and the buildings of the campus. During baseball season we can see the lights of Fenway in the night sky. And the Citgo sign.

After dinner we watch the sun go down and finish the wine. I suggest we take a walk and stop somewhere and have a dessert. The three of us walk down Commonwealth to Arlington Street and then back up Newbury, we window shop along the way. We buy ice cream cones at P J Licks and walk back home.

She has to fly tomorrow, we go to bed early. The dog and I take her to Logan at 5 in the morning. Her day will end at 3, she'll ride the T home, take the dog for a quick walk and then nap. When I get home she'll have everything ready and we'll drive to Marblehead and spend the weekend on the boat.

After all the worries about commitment, adjustment and logistics, living together is working out fine. It agrees with us and it probably helps that we love each other.