One wrinkle we’ve added to our home life of late is keeping the bedroom as peaceful and relaxing as possible. When I say “we,” I mean it was Nicole’s idea, but I’ve taken it up as well. Everything in its right place, bed made (and I am not a bed-maker by nature), candles, and just a general lack of clutter. I’m sore most of you are thinking something like “that’s how my bedroom always looks,” but please understand that this new to me, so bear with me on it.
With the change of environment comes a change in habit. Rather than staying in the living room until we’re good and knackered, we’re adjourning to the bedroom a little earlier so we can wind down and relax. It’s all very comfortable and I find I’m sleeping better than I have in a good long time. The cats seem to like it, too. One or the other will usually be sleeping between our pillows and making my nose itchy. I would say “in a good way,” but we all know there’s no such thing as a good kind of itchy.
My musical gear occupies one corner of the bedroom and the lack of clutter makes it a good deal more inviting and accessible to me. I’ll probably never be good, but I have a lot of fun with it and that’s more than enough to make it worthwhile.
This week, i re-worked a section of a song I wrote in college, changing it from 13/8 to 3/4 (rhythm and I don’t get along), moving it down a half-step to make it work with another bit I wound up discarding, and discovering and ultimately feeling pretty good about where it landed.
I’ve never used a digital audio workstation before, but hey, it’s not that hard to get a few basics down and start playing with it. Learning a new skill is wildly gratifying, even if it’s a skill that I’ll never use for anything other than playing around.
This messing around with the musical toys has also interfered a little with my other “job” and writing in this space, thus proving the “Fun distractions are more appealing than work” theorem. One of the many, many proofs, as it turns out.
Anyway, my larger point is that we (and again, by this I mean largely Nicole) have turned our little apartment into something that feels more like a resort, a little oasis of calm in what is an increasingly unquiet world. It sounds weird to make an effort to create calmness, but I’m awfully happy with the results. Now if I could just get Nicole to consult on our office space…
-RK