Paperback Writer

About nine years ago Chris moved into my 490 square foot downtown apartment.  There was very little space and we were really crammed for two reasons 1) I refused to purge my old stuff to make room for his things* and 2) it was 490 square feet.  As a result we lived, like sardines with piles of stuff everywhere until only three months later, when we couldn't take it any more we moved to a 1100 square foot apartment in Bloor West Village.

As two avid readers, we have a crap load of books.  One of the first orders of business at the new place was to buy some book shelves to merge our collections.  This was a huge deal (as was the merging of the CDs).  We worked to make room for everyone's books, including a bit of space for new purchases and  tried to negotiate books to get rid of.  He was insistent on keeping his Anne Rice collection** and I was oddly stubborn on keeping my feminist/popping culture collection of Naomi Wolf and  Naomi Klein books as well as some random Jim Morrison poetry books that I purchased when I was 15 and in my own personal musical renaissance.

Just before the babies were born we negotiated another cull of the book shelves and I acquired a book shelf upstairs in my office to keep sticky fingers off my collection of unusual children's literature. I may share these books with the minions when their primary use for a book isn't as a soother or a weapon.  We also got rid of any books that we knew we'd never read again, that being said Anne Rice, the Naomi Collection and Jim remained on our book shelves once again.

Would you want to share this amazing pop-up Alice in Wonderland book with someone who hadn't mastered "gentle" yet? I didn't think so.

Nearly 10 months later, the babies are everywhere, crawling, pulling themselves up onto tables and into book shelves leaving heaps of destruction at every corner.  I spend a lot of time trouble shooting and baby-proofing.  Last week I went back to the book shelves to get rid of and move around about 1/6th  of our collection to leave the bottom shelf empty and available for baby toy storage, since nothing remains on those shelves any more any way.

I never thought I'd be the type of adult who would clear shelves out of her living room book case to make room for stuffed bears, but here we are.  If anyone has suggestions for semi-stylish baby friendly storage containers to put toys on said shelves in, I'd love your input.

Any suggestions on how to protect the minions from floor lamp cords or floor lamps themselves would also be appreciated, they are currently obsessed with them.

When I called Chris to tell him about the new version of the book shelves he asked about his Stephen Kings and Vampire Lestat*** series and I was able to tell him that Steve and Anne still have homes on our shelves.  The Naomi's also remain, in case Molly ever needs to read empowering books to help her with adolescent self esteem and womanhood.  Others weren't so lucky.

Last week, after 19 years, I finally asked Jim Morrison to move out of our book shelf and into our garage in a box marked for Good Will.  He didn't complain because he knows that this relationship that I have with Molly and Jack, it must be serious and high school love, while intense is often fleeting.****

*I had gotten rid of a lot of stuff when an ex moved in two years earlier and the relationship only lasted 1 month post-move in.  I wasn't getting rid of stuff for any one and who did this new guy think he was anyway?  Future husband and father of my children, yeah right.
**Which we all know he will never read again.
***Apparently Chris isn't Team Edward, he's Team Lestat kicking it old school.  I also question the motives of him purchasing me a Kindle to celebrate the birth of Molly & Jack, an e-book will never take Anne's spot on the book shelf, sneaky move Chris.
****Upon reading this blog entry Chris felt that Jim should make his way back into our house so the minions can read up on him in their musical renaissance, I'm not so sure - I thought I needed a clean break.