)(( hannah mello ))(

I love silverware.

I love silverware. I love silverware.

I was in the kitchen tonight doing the dishes and my housemate was keeping me company-- before we dove into a futon-couch sitting venture of "Lord of the Rings 3" (and part 3 of that Part 3). He commented on the flowers that I had picked and had vase-d on the table. It then came to me. I verbalized it.

I love:

• kitchens with stoves and microwaves
• flowers -- ever so wild ones -- on a well sponged table
• candles everywhere and always
  
• doing the dishes (!!! oh yes oh yes oh yes)
• laundry
• houses and house keys and even alarms
• back doors and front doors-- and steps and doormats leading to them consecutively
• tapestries and rugs-- tablecloths and placemats-- curtains and ethnic wallhangings
• sculptures and art-- frames and mirrors-- windows and MOLDING!!! (ah! baseboards!!!)
• couches and -- pillows and cushions and pillows and cushions -- and throw blankets
  
  

AND ___ I love people:

• around a table
• around a living room-- sitting on furniture and on the floor
• lingering in a hallway before saying goodbye (truly "saying goodbye" a thousand times)
• entering and encountering smells and sights of the inside for the first time
• first sitting down to a table, trying to figure out where they're supposed to sit (asking the host, scoping out where their unspoken "first choice" is)
• people settling down, in a house that is not their own, in a living room to watch a movie-- trying to scheme a way to be the most comfortable without appearing selfish and self-centered-- scoping out the pillow situation, how big the couch is and how old/debilitated the people in the room are-- scoping out how far away from the TV they can handle being... :)
• awkward with kids, if kids are present-- or people enjoying them-- or people more than entertained
• entertained by pets-- how everyone STARES and comments and stares and comments (or sometimes the same can happen with small children)
• reminiscing. Old friends taking the time to sit in silence and then memories. Silence and then memories.

AND..... Silverware (and everything falling in its category) and People (including everything falling in that category) COMBINED are THE BEST.


One of my life books-- my most favorite-- is one that no one would ever expect would be so. It's called Geography of Home by Akiko Busch. I found it on Bookshop Santa Cruz's used book stacks my sophomore year of college. Sophomore year was the year that I began being alone ALOT. Driving off in my little red Dodge Shadow, exploring the world and getting to know myself-- becoming able to hear myself think and interact with the world and people in it authentically although silently.

This book caught my soul. It's all about the psychology behind how architecture in America has changed over the years. It's FASCINATING.

Architecture. Especially over the last 4 years, architecture has really been capturing me with its symbolism. I will NEVER forget visiting the Jewish Museum in Berlin this past January. Here are photographs of it, but try to do an internet search for Daniel Libeskind and the symbolism of the architecture. Being there and participating in the construction of it-- walking through it, being moved by it all by PRESENCE-- really impacted me forever. Berlin truly is The City of emerging architecture, since all of the forefront architects of our age are each doing their part to rebuild the once war-destroyed city. Each building is ever-so-different from the next. The whole is such a creative combination of parts. ... and since Berlin, I have sat in Italian and American bookshops with architecture books (and even dated an Italian builder... :) ...), entering the world of all that building can be.

Here I sit tonight, in a city (Jersey City) of architectural goodness and across the river from a city (New York City) of architectural genius. However, all that I initially was "hugging" emotionally/mentally tonight was the architecture of a home-- the tiny little details that make boards and combinations thereof a place of BEING and BECOMING and INTERSECTING and TRUE JOY in COMMUNITY.

So here I am, winding down a rabbit trail that I didn't intend to travel when I initially was "reflecting" in my kitchen a few hours ago. All I knew in that moment was, I LOVE literal houses/homes. I love being in them. I love keeping them organized and welcoming. I love sharing life inside walls.

Cheers to all that we don't realize we love so much. And, Cheers to taking the time to realize it.

posted by )(( hannah mello ))( @ 7:53 PM