I May Have Found My New Place

It isn’t exactly what I envisioned. First, it’s outside Denver, close (but not walking distance) to the shops, restaurants and library in Olde Town Arvada. Originally a two-bedroom condo, a wall was removed to open the second bedroom to the living room. This suits me fine. I don’t have or want to have guests stay over. Just the thought of being around someone else 24/7 gives me the willies.
I work at home, so I need a bigger living room to accommodate my studio. My work is so integrated into my life that I don’t like having it segregated into a separate room. This room has a cathedral ceiling and two skylights, which makes it the perfect space to spend my time.
The kitchen is small and open to the common room (my term for the combined living room/studio). The bedroom has both a walk-in closet and a linen closet. It’s been 25 years since I had a walk-in closet and I’ve never had a linen closet, but both were on my “want list.” The bathroom has a large oval tub, perfect for a bath lover like me, and a closet laundry.
There is also an enclosed porch with more storage. At 728 square feet, it’s bigger than I thought I wanted, but will still require me to get rid of a ton or so of excess STUFF. I’m working on it.
There’s no garage, but plenty of parking and pretty, well-maintained grounds, next to three tiny lakes and a little park.
The main drawback is that the current owner is a smoker and the place reeks of smoke. I grew up in a house with two parents who smoked, and I keep wondering if our house smelled like that. Ick.
If I buy this condo, I’ll rip out the carpet, install hardwood floors, and paint, which will go a long way toward getting rid of the odor.
And no, I haven’t made an offer yet (it’s complicated—I’ll explain in my next post), so I may lose it. I’m philosophical about that. If I lose it, I’ll find a better one. Meanwhile, I’m having fun making lists of everything I’d like to do to the place and rearranging furniture on paper.

A Little Jewel Box, A Cool Building, A Great Neighborhood

This could be called “The Return of the Auntie Flat” (See my previous posts on this topic.) Although that project fell through last fall, I never really gave up my dream of a little house for the next phase of my life. After living here 24 years, I’m ready to sell my house and find a new place. I dread the thought of packing up and moving, but my house has become more than I can handle—not that it’s too big; it’s only 900 square feet, although that is more than I need. The main problem is that the house is 121 years old and requires ongoing maintenance that I just can’t do. Also, I’m no longer interested in doing yard work and my neighbors deserve better.

So, I’m looking for a little jewel box in a cool building and a great neighborhood. Is that asking too much? My initial scouting of the Denver market has convinced me that I should be able to find what I want with persistence, patience, and a little help from my friends.

Here’s where you come in. If you know of anyplace interesting, please let me know. My wish list follows:

A Little Jewel Box

I’m looking for a modern loft with about 600 square feet. I’d like a large, open space, but a one-bedroom is okay. I prefer hardwood or tile floors; a small, updated kitchen (with a dishwasher, which I have done without for 24 years); some outdoor space; a tub and shower in the bathroom; laundry facilities in the unit; and a garage.

A Cool Building

Ideally, this would be a condo in a building converted from a nonresidential use, such as a church, schoolhouse, library, storefront, or warehouse.

A Great Neighborhood

After living all my adult life in the inner city, I think a real neighborhood includes a neighborhood business district, with nearby parks, shops and restaurants. Of course, ideally, I’d like to stay in Highland neighborhood, but other possible areas are near the Tennyson Street shops, the shops on Old South Pearl or South Gaylord, or Olde Town Arvada.

Just in case there is anything to the Law of Attraction, I’m keeping this image in my mind. In fact, I’m kind of obsessed with it as you will see in forthcoming posts.

March Madness Sadness Gladness

March is a confusing month for me.

Although March is historically our snowiest month in Denver, it is also the month when spring begins and flowers start to bloom, even in the snow. Actually, that’s a pretty good metaphor for the month.

My beautiful nieces were both born in March, and they have been bringing light into my life for more than 40 years. That’s the gladness. They live in Phoenix, so I don’t get to see them as often as I would like.

Sadness comes because both my mother and father died in March. My mother passed away on March 18, twenty-one years ago at the age of 67. My dad lived until age 90 and breathed his last breath on March 25 three years ago.

Maybe that’s why March Madness irritates me so much. First, CBS pre-empts The Young and the Restless for FOUR days to show some idiot basketball games. I don’t even like Y&R much anymore, but it’s what I use as background noise when I eat lunch and read.

In the middle of the basketball frenzy comes St. Patrick’s Day. How can the Irish be proud of a pseudo-holiday that’s celebrated in America by people drinking themselves stupid?

And speaking of people drinking themselves stupid, what can I say about spring break. When did it become a requirement for college (and now even high school) students to debark to Mexico to raise hell and party themselves into oblivion? According to Time magazine, the debauchery started with the ancient Greeks and Romans  celebrating the vernal equinox. But American students have put their own special stamp on it, egged on by liquor companies, MTV and Joe Francis of Girls Gone Wild notoriety.

These things make me happy that I’m not a teenager anymore. Maybe I should celebrate that this month, but mostly I’m looking forward to April.

Go With the Simple Solution

The lamp on my desk wouldn’t come on when I turned the switch. Normally, that wouldn’t be a problem. I’d just change the light bulb and move on. This, however, was one of those energy-saving curlicue bulbs which are supposed to last five years, so that couldn’t be the problem.

I checked to make sure it was plugged in. Because I live in an ancient house with too few outlets, the lamp plug was piggybacked on the plug for my digital phone modem. (I swear I’m getting rid of the damn land line and going cellular. I might as well get some use out of the cell phone that I pay for and never use. But I digress.) The phone was working, and I deduced that the outlet wasn’t the problem.

Hmmm. Could be the switch. I bought the lamp at Target less than a year ago. Maybe I could exchange it for a new one.

After getting by for two days with just the overhead lamp, which threw my shadow onto anything I tried to read at my desk, I decided I had to quit overthinking this and do something. I replaced the light bulb with a new curlicue and it lit right up.

Maybe the fact that my desk lamp is on roughly 12 hours a day used up it’s life in less that the promised five years. Whatever. This was a reminder of Occam’s Razor: the simplest solution is usually the best. At least it’s the best place to start.

So, the next time you find yourself overcomplicating things, remember Occam’s Razor and try the simplest solution first.

Top Five Reasons You Don’t Need a Degree to Start a Business

1. Bill Gates

Although no longer the world’s richest man, Gates is still among the list of the world’s wealthiest people. He entered Harvard in 1973 and dropped out two years later to found Microsoft with his friend Paul Allen. In 2007, he received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, and at commencement, Gates said, “I’m a bad influence. That’s why I was invited to speak at your graduation. If I had spoken at your orientation, fewer of you might be here today.”

2.  Steve Jobs

The founder of Apple and Pixar had to drop out of Reed College after just six months. In a 2005 commencement speech he gave at Stanford University, Jobs credited a calligraphy class he took at Reed College with forming the basis for the typography used in the first Macintosh computer.

3.   Sir Richard Branson

Branson’s first successful business was publishing a magazine called Student, which is ironic since he left school when he was only 16. Today, Branson’s brand Virgin includes Virgin Records, Virgin Atlantic Airways, and more than 300 other companies. When he was just 24, Sir Branson bought his own 79-acre Caribbean island. He was knighted in 1999.

4.   Mark Zuckerberg

Another famous Harvard dropout, Mark Zuckerberg developed Facebook in his school dorm. As Facebook’s became one of the world’s most popular social networking sites, Zuckerberg chose to leave school and relocate his company to California. Forbes named Zuckerberg the youngest billionaire in the world, with a 2010 net worth of 4 billion U.S. dollars. He recently donated $100 million to the Newark, NJ public schools.

5. Michael Dell

Dell Computers is another company founded in a college dorm room. Among top ten wealthiest Americans, Dell dropped out of the University of Texas at Austin to run the company. In 2006, Dell and his wife gave a $50 million grant to the University which he attended but never graduated from.

Find more famous college dropouts at the College Dropouts Hall of Fame.

I Need a Place to Hang Out

Pasquini’s Pizzeria is a homegrown Italian restaurant in a turn of the century building featuring exposed brick walls, antique brass chandeliers, mismatched plates, and to-die-for breadsticks and grilled sandwiches. When I walk in, the waitstaff calls me by name and remembers my usual order. They don’t mind when I stay for a couple of hours reading and writing or working at my computer.

It’s what sociologists call my “third place,” a place separate from home (the first place) and work (the second place) where people congregate for social and creative interaction. I always looked forward to going there, until suddenly I couldn’t anymore.

When I got sick last fall and was diagnosed with diabetes, I had to quit going to Pasquini’s because I could no longer eat their food. I miss it and have been looking for another hangout ever since. The local coffee shop discourages people from hanging around taking up their limited table space. A nearby bakery, like Pasquini’s, has nothing made with whole wheat or whole grain bread. Other places in walking distance specialize in burgers, fries, Mexican food, and the like—all off limits to me.

So I continue to search for a place I can walk to, eat the food, and hang around. If you’d like to open such a place, I know a couple of empty storefronts that are available.

How Reading Improves Creativity

Creativity frequently comes from combining concepts from unrelated fields. A classic example is Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press, which was a combination of hand printing with the use of a wine press.

Variety is the Key

One way improve creativity is to solicit input from a wide variety of subjects. And an easy way to do that is throughout reading. Ideally, your reading will include a mix of both topics and media, that is, books, magazines, news articles, websites, blogs. You also need to deliberately choose subjects outside your areas of interest. This allows concepts to spill over into one another.

“Reading remains an unsurpassed vehicle for the transmission of interesting new ideas and perspectives” according to Listening to Steven Johnson, author of  Where Good Ideas Come From. You can get a taste for his ideas by watching his TED talk.

A Reading Sabbatical

Bill Gates is a person who understands the value of reading, “My confidence and sense of curiosity—you can trace it back to just that I loved reading.” He famously takes an annual reading vacation compressing a vast amount of reading into short period of time.  While most of us probably can’t or don’t want to take a reading sabbatical, reading one book at a time won’t cut it, if only because of the length of time that passes between reading different books.

Never read one book at a time.

I solve that by never reading just one book at a time.

Current reading:

CD in the car – Dancehall of the Dead by Tony Hillerman –part of a project to reread the Hillerman novels which I started reading 25 years ago. This time, I’m listening to the CDs.

Audio of Mary Ann in Autumn by Armistead Maupin.

Creative is a Verb by Patti Digh

How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly by Connie May Fowler

Unmarketing by Scott Stratten

Every day, I also read many online articles, blogs, news stories, and an occasional ebook.

What I Did on My Day Off*

First thing this morning, I made my weekly trip to the Tattered Cover bookstore. I love stores that open early in the morning (M-F 6:30 a.m.). While there I sampled three books:

Where Women Create, a quarterly Stampington publication

I love looking at creative people’s homes. This one featured Mary Emmerling whom I have been following for 20+ years.

Art Journaling, a semiannual Stampington publication

Great ideas for art journal techniques from a variety of artists.

59 Seconds : Change your Life in Under a Minute by Richard Wiseman

I especially liked his formula for a perfect diary, focusing on gratitude and the positive things in your life. I’ll be trying some of these techniques in my journal. Friday’s assignment is to review positive events in your life.

Back home, I listened to the audio version of Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson (also available in hard cover, CD and Kindle). I’m just getting started on this one. So far he’s talking about complexity of things such as large cities and the Internet which exponentially increase the occurrence of creative ideas.

In the car, I listened to the CD book People of Darkness by Tony Hillerman. It’s been 25 years since I first read it and am enjoying my second trip through Navajo country.

Lunch at Chick-fil-A with a booth of screaming kids behind me. I read the ebook, Freedom, Money, Time and the Key to Creative Success by Mark McGuiness at Lateral Action. It’s basically a 34-page ad for his upcoming course in creative entrepreneurship that makes the point that artists and creatives have an unfair advantage at Internet marketing because they create original content. Good information. I was très relieved when the little brats behind me finally finished their chicken nuggets and moved on to the play area. I need to find a new place to have lunch.

I downloaded three podcast interviews and an ebook from Lateral Action’s ecourse in creative entrepreneurship.

Watched a short video of the living kitchen (tweeted by Leo at ZenHabits).

Reviewed four papers for the university writing center (my day job) and grew frustrated by the constant overuse and misuse of semicolons. There are only two legitimate uses for semicolons, people. If you don’t know what those are, just don’t use them at all, okay?

At 3 p.m. I joined an online master class on blogging with Leo Babauta of A-List Blogging. I appreciated the brief reviews of four websites, but found the “chat” annoying.

That’s it. *Surprise! My day off was remarkably similar to every other day.

Illustrated Ken Robinson on Creativity in Education

I’m not always impressed with videos on the internet. They are usually little more than talking heads. Too many people use video just because they can, not because the video adds anything to the presentation. When I run across these videos, I tend to treat them as audios and just listen. Sometimes, though, people understand that video is a visual medium and give us something more than a chance to see them on camera. Case in point: here’s a great new illustrated version of my favorite TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson about changing education paradigms. Ask me if I’m surprised that Ken Robinson “gets it.”

 

A Painful Lesson from Books

My weekly visit to the Tattered Cover bookstore started normally. I parked my car on Little Raven Street, the last street with free parking before entering lower downtown Denver.
I walked over the Millennium Bridge and past the construction site behind Union Station before arriving at the legendary bookstore. My first stop was the coffee shop. They didn’t have my favorite banana bread, but the maple walnut is very good, too, so that’s what I bought.
Following my usual pattern, I glanced at the new paperback nonfiction and then headed upstairs to look in careers, business, creativity, crafts, and health. As I bent down to pull a new book on creativity from the shelf, I felt my back give out. Straightening up was slow and painful. I hobbled to a nearby chair and lowered myself slowly into it breathing a heavy sigh of relief.
This has happened before and I know that the pain doesn’t go away quickly. I’d been having back pain working at the computer for more than a week. The night before, I had decided it was time to join the local recreation center and start regular workouts again. Too bad I hadn’t done it a week ago. Then this wouldn’t have happened.
Meanwhile, I examined the books I had selected. The one on creativity was a dud. Getting up again was agonizing. I wondered how I would make it back the four blocks to my car. If worse came to worst, I could always call a cab. I walked, though, slowly and carefully and spent the rest of the day trying not to move.
Next week, I’ll go to the gym and I’ll also return to the Tattered Cover, hoping for banana bread.