The Chronicles Of Jessica

Turns out it was in a box marked "perishable".

Getting used to a new place is hard. Once the excitement of having our own washing machine wore off a little ("Honey, that sock looks dirty, want me to do a quick load? I can do a quick load, no problem! Look - no quarters!!!!"), then we were faced with actually having to unpack all our stuff.

Stuff is a mystery to me. We are very poor, and have been for a long time, individually and collectively (the theatre, she is a cruel bitch mistress) and yet we have a whole lot of stuff. Paul possesses a lot of your bulkier items which tend to occupy space because they're so oddly-shaped, guitars, monitors, amps, portable speakers for "gigging" ("They're so awesome, honey, these speakers were the greatest deal, the sound is incredible, I'm so glad I bought them." "That's cool, how many times have you gotten to use them?" "Once.")

The man cannot throw anything away. He almost broke off our engagment because I suggested that we retire a ketchup-stained t-shirt from the New Jersey state fair circa 1986. Apparently he won it spitting plastic balls through a clown's mouth, and the thrill of the victory is still with him. iPod parts, old cell phone chargers, VHS copies of Willow; Paul reasons that even if we don't want these things, we can always sell them on ebay! So there they sit in our apartment, an ominous homage to our cluttered consciousnesses.

Not that I'm so superior in this area, believe me. Right before we moved I finally gave up to Goodwill a pair of cords I've been hoping to fit into since the first Clinton administration. But I still have stacks of photos of people who I barely recognize, along with a skin-care and cosmetics collection that would put CVS to shame. But I WANT to have less stuff, I want to be more free. I'd like to be able to fit all my possessions in a little rag pouch on the end of a stick - or at the very least, the trunk of my car (the modern equivalent of the rag pouch on the stick.) Wouldn't that be something? I mean if the stick breaks or the rag gets torn then maybe you buy a new one but you don't carry the pieces of the old stick around with you, you jettison!

That's what I've decided we need, more jettison...ing.

Paul is kicking all kinds of butt in his new capacity as DC Politico Grad Student Guy. Check out his first solo contribution to the ABC News Radar.

As for me, I've had a couple of auditions since we got here, but in the meantime I'm back to the old secretarial grindstone. Got my new color headshots though and I think they look pretty sharp. Eventually I may figure out how to update my site photos and then you can see them! How exciting that will be for us all!