House Proud

   I make an effort to keep a tidy house to balance the small space.  A pair of shoes on the livingroom floor becomes a tripping hazard and a backpack left on the table clutters the room.  Imagine the space between your couch and your t.v. as the size of my living room.  Our apartment has radiator heat, so the temperature tends to regulate between comfortable and a sauna. Add in four thirteen year old girls dancing for four hours to Just Dance III on the Wii... and the living room suddently became very hot and very small. 

  Jeff and I had gone out to buy a bottle of wine leaving Cam at home with her friends dancing and Jordan napping in one of the bedrooms.  When we got back Cameron's friend Rachel and her mother were standing in the hallway making final arrangements for getting her back home later that evening.  I had not realized that Rachel was coming over or I would have stayed home to meet her mom and I would have certainly had the girls move their coats and backpacks to Cam's bedroom so that the living room was not piled high with bodies and belongings. From what I gather from Cameron, Rachel's family has a lovely two story apartment in Morningside Heights (116th Street), so I would have wanted to present to Rachel's mom, "cozy comfort" in place of space.  Instead it looked more like a college dorm room.

  After much discussion about whether to see " Sherlock Holmes" or "Chipwrecked" the girls headed out to the movie theater three blocks away.  Jordan and I opened all of the windows, lit what is left of the holiday Yankee Candles, and even opened the front door to the hallway to bring in fresh air and to unfog the windows.

  We settled into a Friday night at home watching a movie On Demand when at 10:30 the girls rang the buzzer to get back onto the apartment.  Again, little did I know that Cecilia's parents had met the girls at the theater and had walked them back to our apartment so that she could grab her backpack. Cecilia's mom is a doctor at Columbia and they have a luxury high rise apartment near Columbia Hospital,  Now that the apartment was tidy and void of humidity I was glad that I had been able to invite at least one set of parents in without feeling like I had to exlain the chaos of the apartment.

  I am still getting used to our situation.  We definately have location, location, location, but...  I am still coming to terms with the size of the apartment.  My mom was visting us in NYC for the first time this past week and she seemed  unphased by the size of the apartment, although she did stay at a hotel down the street so as to avoid the fold out couch and sharing one bathroom. The fact that Cam regularly has friends over and the kids seem to have fun dancing and raiding the refrigerator seemingly unaware of the space (or lack there of) should reassure me that when I tell the my children, "home is where the heart is" I'm telling the truth.