Where Do You Live?

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ora Ephron's essay (from I Feel Bad About My Neck) on where she lives covers four places: New York City, her neighbourhood, her desk, the kitchen. I thought I'd treat it as a meme and talk about where I live.

Montréal, most of the time. In my head I live in Scotland, in Wales, in Turkey... NYC would be nice too. In my writing, so far I’ve lived in: an orphanage in Australia; a mountain side in British Columbia; Arnavutkoy, Turkey; Ephesus, Roman Empire; and Toledo, Spain, among others.

In my neighbourhood. It’s called Notre Dame de Grâce but no one ever says that; it’s simply NDG. Two hundred years ago it was simply forest and field. Circa one hundred years ago, when the city began spreading further west, it became a residential neighbourhood. It's a perfect location - close enough to downtown that you can walk or bike there but far enough away that it's quiet and tree lined, without being a suburb. Two of our more famous residents and former residents are Jay Baruchel and Captain Kirk (sorry, William Shatner).

Nora Ephron says she lives at her desk. I’m too antsy and transitory for that sort of thing. My house, first of all, is hardly settled, as we might up and leave town any minute. There’s no extra room for me to call a study. Even our supposed library is more of a book depository (minus three bins of books, which are at my sister’s). All that to say, I live with my purse. I call it a purse, but the actual receptacle changes nearly every week, depending on whether my back hurts or if I’m going out after work or visiting a friend’s house or... At the moment, I have my I Like Big Books tote (scroll down to the bottom of this page for a photo) which has the books I’m reading, the book I’m writing, and various research notes and Forum documents in it (like Jill’s exciting Letter From Home). Then I have a small decorative purse/bag that holds my latest knitting project – kilt hose! And finally, my actual purse, with camera, cards, etc. In a day or two I’ll probably get tired of lugging all this around, shove a notebook and my wallet into the knitting purse and carry only that. Then I’ll get tired of hefting a bag and will carry a teeny tiny clutch, forgoing the knitting but still carrying a mini notebook.

Finally, Ephron mentions the kitchen. How could I not live in the kitchen? But, I work in an office all day. I wouldn’t want to mention the office cafeteria either – I’m not there every lunch, after all. There’s always my mother’s kitchen. Or my mother-in-law’s kitchen. Leaving aside the subject of food, entirely, as significant as it is, I’d be more inclined to say I live on the sofa. It’s where I gather everything about me – my projects, hobbies, books. It’s where I play with the cats. Where my family gathers. Where I entertain friends. Where I write, daydream, doze, rest, curl up, read, knit, attempt other crafts, join forums, blog, share photos, contemplate the future...

Where do you live?