Opposites and Spiders

In my last post, I talked about the build up to moving and everything that came with it. Between then and now, I've packed up a goodly portion of my material belongings, boarded three different planes in three different cities, and traveled for over 24 hours to be in Australia with the man I love.

America and Australia are similar in a lot of ways and absolutely foreign in others. In the United States, customer service is often drilled into routines, Hi, hello, how are you, how may I help you, thank you very much, it's my pleasure, etc. It never felt scripted until I made my way here to Australia, where the conversation is decidedly more casual. I've watched and listened to my boyfriend interact with shopkeeps, waitresses and hotel representatives, trying to pick up on the routine, but there doesn't seem to be one. Maybe in time I'll see those interactions the same way I now see the ones back in the U.S., but right now they all seem improvised, as though they've gone completely off-script.

In matters closer to home, when I was living in Florida, our house was kind of a mess. We were clutterers, Keepers of Things with Even the Slightest Sentimental Value, and often bought new versions of what we already had - but failed to relieve ourselves of the old. Things felt pretty crowded, so I was eager to get out and into a house just for my boyfriend and me, where we could spread out and situate things just the way we want them to be. I now live in a small two bedroom cottage with a kitchenette, and find that if I want that kind of organization that I was missing and longing for in Florida, I would have to be the one to do it. I love my boyfriend more than the world (I mean, I did move halfway round it to be with him, after all), but I also know quite keenly that he's not terribly tidy and that he has about as much hoarding in his genetics as I do, and he seems content the way things are. I'm the one who isn't content with the house as is, so it's up to me to design new spaces and areas to organize things, and make sure things are kept clean as possible.

Particularly the spiders. Man, there are a LOT of spiders here. The porch is quite happily populated with orbweavers, which aren't particularly dangerous to us and will eat a lot of the other insects around. Inside, we have a healthy community of daddy long legs (which the boyfriend refers to as sentient dust) which will need a bit of relocating before I can feel completely comfortable as I did in Florida.

Seriously, so many spiders.