TheBanyanTree: IKEA

[TLW]

>I love the little rooms where they show you how you too can live
> comfortably
> in a total of 100 sq feet of space. "Are these people mad?" I must ask,
> because there is no way in Hades I can do more than have a reading room in
> 100 sq feet of space, much less my bedroom/bathroom/kitchen/living area
> with
> desk. Or perhaps these little rooms are built for little people, Hobbits
> perhaps, who have no personal possessions.
>

Yes.  I am both amazed and impressed that I lived in a room in NYC, on
Broadway, for three years that was 9x12.  That's 108 sq ft, folks. A
"kitchen" with no counter -- I had to pull a stool over to chop stuff.  No
drawers -- I kept the silverware tray on top of the fridge.  A bathroom with
a window that opened onto the brick wall of the next building ten inches
away.

The bedroom/living room/dining room/office had two more windows that faced
the constant urban surf of Broadway.  And yet, I lived there for years.  The
hardest part was having a phone there.  It was like sitting in a closet with
a phone.  It suddenly took on this all-important role of "Connection to the
Outside."

Especially because my boyfriend was two hours away by train at Yale.  He
called several times a day.  Not because we were so in love, but because he
was so neurotic.

Sometimes he'd come to visit and I'd start to feel suffocated.  Then he'd
press his lips together, nod shortly, and say, "I'll be in the other room if
you need me."  Then he would step out on the fire escape.

We can do impossible things when we are young.  As I recall.