Today's the day. The day that the new place will be completely ready for us to move in, and the day that the river will nearly almost return to normal, making the move flood-risk free. Our books, lucky things, have already lived there for a few nights, even in alphabetical and librarian-approved order, but today other things will also slowly make their way over. I can't express how excited I am. I will really miss our street where no one seems to want to use either sidewalk, where there is an uncountable number of cyclists training on the ridiculously steep hill just over the streetcar tracks, and where there is a traffic disaster caused every Friday at 2PM and 2:30PM from the neighbourhood mosque, a traffic disaster caused from the curling club members every winter, and a traffic disaster caused by Canada Day fireworks watchers. Good thing we're only moving 250m away, because otherwise I'd have to type this through buckets of tears. But, yes, I'm excited because not only will we finally have the space and air quality we need, in-suite laundry, respectful neighbours who don't force us to call the cops, underground heated parking, etc., but I got to choose the paint colours. Trust me, having lived for 8 years with dingy off-white walls and the rule of not hanging anything on the walls to cover up the drabness, this is big. Perhaps ironically though, the main 'colour' I chose was white. No-tint white. I mean, the bedroom, of course, recalls the Martha Stewart willow green of my childhood/adolescent room, and my new study recalls the delicious pumpkin spice latte I so love, and, while I didn't get the chalkboard wall I wanted like in (500) Days of Summer, I did get a huge charcoal-coloured wall in the living room. But, aside from that, everything else is bright white. And so, it seems rather appropriate to feature the (Kingston) grad collection by London-based designer Laura Teasdale, entitled 'Constructing the Modern Pilgrimage'.
I was going to wait a bit to post it as it was posted by Queen Michelle just last week, but it's just too relevant. Well, maybe not in regards to the aesthetic details such as the colour palette (which I very strangely absolutely love, most likely because it's on a long-haired man), cropped suit jackets (brilliant for menswear, no?), and padded knees. Well, on second thought, the padded knees could come in handy whilst moving. What really gets the relevance across is the collection's description. For, while the collection as a whole was inspired by Laura's granddad (a photo of whom you see below is reproduced in the drawing above, rather impressively doing a handstand in a suit), Laura also says that the collection
involves the creation and growth of an invented white space. This modern space matches a way of living to an appropriate setting and holds new functional inventions and evolved creatures and characters. The modern pilgrimage represents the journey to this space whereby individuals can reconnect with themselves, evolve and develop, and this may ultimately offer an alternative to a religious experience.Now, Laura might not have had actual moving into a freshly painted white condo in mind while writing this description, but I do indeed feel like my recent and upcoming countless trips between this old apartment and the new place is a form of pilgrimage, a pilgrimage to grown-up-ness, thesis completion, reclaiming the weekend day previously taken every second week by laundry, and, of course, finally being surrounded by truly white walls. So, thank you Laura for providing a lovely collection to symbolize this chapter of my life, and thank you to Kingston for producing yet another brilliant grad (if you'll remember, our Stacey Grant is also a Kingston grad). And, of course, so long #202, and hello #109.
