Wednesday, May 9, 2001.

... The LIGER! (my cat for the ignorant) grandly welcomes:
DJ Lemur (I messed up her URL last time),
Jenna (new wildcat journaler on the loose),
and Kat-Girl Kathryn.

Hatless Baldman Index: 35 (+3 in Korea, +2 at the apt., and +3 at The House so far) ....
Inevitability Index: 37 (+2).

THE HOUSE THAT SCOTT & AMY BOUGHT

"When you were young
and your heart was an open book.
You used to say live and let live.
You know you did.
You know you did.
You know you did."

-- "Live and Let Die," Paul McCartney.

When I was younger I used to have visions of what my future house, wife, job, lifestyle would be like.

Lifestyle? I wasn't too sure about. I wasn't sure if I'd be married with a family or I'd have a train of women following me like my mom said I would (i.e. if I became a doctor / lawyer I would finally get a girlfriend).

Frankly, that part I couldn't imagine too well. When you haven't even kissed a girl much less talked to one, it's hard to imagine one wanting you for her very own (for anything other than homework help and passing messages to the boy she really likes).

Job? Doctor or comic book artist. It was really one or the other up until the very last possible moment. And even then….

Wife? For the most part, I guess I knew I wanted to be married. When I buy ice cream, I don't want to try all the different flavors. Sure I'll look, but my tongue wants to taste that certain special flavor each time. I'm still talking about ice cream here.

I had ideas of what my wife would look like too. Dark, probably black, hair. With green or blue eyes. Non-Asian or possibly half like me. I always thought that would be interesting. (I wasn't quite so "ethnic" back then.)

My house? Something like you used to see in Miami Vice. Except in California. Lots of space, windows, sunshine. Minimalistic. By the beach (even though I'm not much of a beach goer).

My expectations have been hit and miss to say the least.

Amy and I moved into our new house last week.

I didn't get excited about it until the day we actually started moving boxes into it.

I love it. I still can't used to the idea of it being our house. It's hardly a house even now though. Most of the rooms are still bare with boxes strewn about.

Our "lawn" is still nonexistent. It's literally still mud and huge blister-causing rocks for a driveway. Ours is the only house on the street which looks like scorched earth or maybe the Addams Family. The grass is supposed to be put in this week if weather allows.

There are lots of windows. Too many actually. Hence our poor Indian neighbor's discovery :

NEIGHBOR CHILD : "Mommy! Why is that naked man chasing his cat down the stairs?"

NEIGHBOR MOTHER : "Great Thousand Armed Siva! Cover your eyes child! Quickly!!"

We have Indian neighbors across from us and next to us. Some Caucasians down the street. I thought I spotted a souped up Rice Mobile cruising down the street as well. The diversity is a pleasant change from our previous apartment dwelling.

There are mostly doctors and lawyers on our street, according to our builders. [Insert your own doctor-lawyer joke here. Heard. Them. All.]

It's a large house, 3000 square feet (I'm usually off by a 1000 feet or so but I confirmed with Amy). Two stories plus a basement. One master bedroom and three guest rooms, to be filled with no more than two kids I hope.

A large bathroom (and a couple smaller ones) with two sinks (hers and mine) and a nice bathtub (which Amy and I had celebration sex in our first week here … gives a new dimension to the term "muff diving").

The bedroom is spacious with a "sitting room" for Amy.

The living room is connected to the kitchen / dining area. It even has a strange modern fireplace that ignites at the touch of a button.

The favorite place in our house is my room though. I LOVE my room. It's the only place that is completely furnished and all by me.

My very own room.

It's not the study I grew up dreaming about. I always envisioned it like Bruce Wayne's / Batman's library. Dark, with tall shelves filled with arcane books. A single light illuminating my text on a huge polished table in the middle of the room.

Scratch that.

It's Lil Nu Seoul now. The Korean souvenirs I picked up during our past two trips hang on each wall.

A painted decorated fan of bathing women in one corner. A bare white paper fan in the opposing corner. My Double Happiness clock hangs across from the entrance way, which is seriously lacking a door at this time (big mistake, Amy agrees, we do NOT want visitors to see what I am doing in my room sometimes).

Small folding walls sit on the still bare bookshelves. Wooden Korean masks, one of a laughing old aristocrat (yangban) and the other, a smiling wife hang by the outer windows.

Behind my desk, we have the glorious modern national treasure known as the girl K-pop group, Fin.K.L. And another girl band in the corner (Chakra, number one on the K-pop charts at this time. They're pretty fine themselves.)

As far as furnishings, it doesn't look I'm going to get much studying done in my study. I bought a new faster computer (a Pentium4 by SONY, don't say I never did anything for you and m, Cyn! :-) with a pretty sweet speaker system which I've yet to buy a sound card for.

There's a large TV to play video games (Playstation2 OR Dreamcast, take your pick) and watch Korean music videos while I surf on my computer.

Shelves of drawing books. With boxes of comic books below them. Another shelf has the mini Korean library I've collected from various bookstores here and from the motherland herself.

And sitting in front of the window cupola is my very own drawing table!! I've always wanted one but because of money and space was denied. I have yet to use it. But now I can truly pretend to be the comic book artist I always dreamed about.

We've already had plenty of "guests."

Like the appliance movers ... "Nice house. Big."

Or the locksmith ... "Nice house. Big. But you can kick this door down real easy."

Or my mom's neighbor who brought my old bookshelves over ... "Nice [facial tic] house. [tic] Big. [tic]"

Or my mom ... "Why don't you move your office in here? I can make drapes for you.

For the first time since our honeymoon 2 years ago, I don't wish I lived in Korea.

(Please excuse the mess my website is in. Still moving into my new software.)

 

PREVIOUS / CAM / MAIN / GALLERY / EMAIL / BIO / NOTIFY / NEXT