[Pigs. In] Space.

[rebeccmeister]

Last night I held my first party at L'Hermitage, or The Garage, as my abode is more frequently called. I suppose the latter is more accurate, since people still stop by to visit and I'm not all that isolated. And it is a former garage, after all.

Two things have conspired to make me ponder personal space. One was my recent trip to Seattle, where I realized how much my family values personal space. As my brother and sister and I grew up, my parents thoughtfully constructed structured time to come together--we were one of those now-anomolous families who always ate dinner together, for example. But at the same time, each of us had divergent interests that led us to spend a lot of time by ourselves. The house that I grew up in also lended itself well to the finding of quiet pockets of space--one bedroom was tucked away in the back corner of the basement, while two other bedrooms were up in the attic.

Secondly, coming back to Arizona and moving into The Garage provided me with a similar sense of personal space, and I am experiencing a feeling of inner peace that I haven't enjoyed in quite a while. I actually blame most of my prior discontent on the physical layout of the house I just moved out of. Most houses in Arizona are single-story dwellings, which removes a LOT of the potential for separation within a house. Even in my first year, when I lived in a single-story apartment, I sometimes felt like there just wasn't enough room. This is all a bit ironic when one considers that one of the supposed benefits of living in the desert is that there is ample space. This leads people to build out instead of up, and apparently issues of privacy are better resolved by building up. Even when I lived in dense urban neighborhoods in Boston I felt like I had more personal space in some respects (I missed the benefits of being able to drive away from the city, however).

On the other hand, a lot of this could also be explained by the presence or absence of a television.

Comments

[hisownobserver.livejournal.com]

I'm feeling the same way. I've lived in dorm rooms the last two years, and my last one was especially difficult, as it was just a large rectangular box with a bunk bed. Now I'm in a large master suite that is separated by a hallway from my roommates' rooms, and I can feel wonderfully isolated in there. I've always been the loner type; now I don't have to escape to the Hayden Stacks for privacy.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Yup. Even with just the two of us (as it turns out, spouses are much easier to share personal space with than roommates, in my experience) it's going to be rough going from a 5-BR house to a 2BR apartment.