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| Bananas in light, St. Louis, Missouri |
Whenever I enter my new apartment in Lafayette, I feel good. It’s a petite
package. Feels cozy.
Truthfully, it’s also a little homely with its mishmash of
salvaged floor surfaces, groaningly-ugly cabinet pulls, and how the sheet-metal
back of the stove’s control panel faces the living area. I don’t care about
these imperfections.
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| Lights in slats, Jefferson City, Missouri |
There’s a big problem, though. No light. This is a function
of the direction my windows face and the width of the eaves over my windows. It
doesn’t help that several walls are chocolate brown, which would be lovely in
many circumstances, but not this one.
I imagine the lack of sunlight in my Lafayette apartment will be a boon in the hot
and humid summertime, but for everyday habitat, something must be done.
I went to my room, to my dark, depressing room, and discovered it hadn't
been cleaned. Returned to the reception lobby, discovered that the
custom is to turn in my key when I leave the hotel, so the staff know to
clean it. Oh! Then I said, really, I need a different room. It is just
too depressing. The assistant manager accompanied me back to my room.
When we entered, he moved to turn on the light and I exclaimed, "The
light is already on!" I said, "This is the room you give to someone who
no longer has the will to live!"
It was not one of my finest moments.
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| Lamp glow, Warrenton, Missouri |
So I’ve got to gather some light.
Strategies I’ve implemented:
- Before
I go to bed, I open the curtain in the living room so when I awaken in the
morning, I actually know it’s daylight outside. Seriously.
- Open
the bedroom blinds during the day so a little light can reach in.
- Unscrew
all the bulbs in the bedroom’s ceiling fixture except for one, and keep it
on when I’m home.
- Also keep
one of the kitchen fixture lights on when I’m home. The kitchen is open to
the living area.
- Open
the front door for maximum sunlight during the day.
- Propped
my full-length mirror against one of the brown walls in the bedroom so it
can catch as much reflected light from the living area as possible.
- Moved my office set-up so I am looking toward the door and window instead of where I had it originally, where I was facing toward the interior of my apartment (and the window at my side).
Strategies I will execute soon:
- Work
outside on the veranda regularly, weather permitting, so I can actually experience
sun reaching my skin when I prop my feet against the balcony rail. Not to
mention see the sunlight.
- If I
can swing it, I’ll pick up a work table and chair that are tall so I’m
level with the living room window. In other words, my head and torso will
be above the windowsill.
I've had to gather light before.
When I first arrived in Rustavi, (Caucasus) Georgia, I lived on the 4th floor of a grim tenement building. The color and warmth of the people within this building countered the depressing exterior of my building and its neighbors, but that wasn't my first visceral experience.
I had envisioned a "hills are alive" postcard view of Georgia and what I had before me was something I imagined a city in Siberia to look like at the height of the Soviet regime, only hot.
To make this work, I had to find the beauty in my surroundings, and so began a series of The Building Behind Me.
#30
