Author: mirkat

Boston

It’s Official

Not long ago I posted on my facebook status that I had acquired a lawyer. It’s a telling comment that all the people who responded assumed that there was some sort of problem — that I was getting sued or that I was having to oust my tenant. Some people who know me really well thought I might have needed to post bail. The truth is that the lawyer is a good thing (even if her fees were not so much): since I hired her last week she has set up two companies for me. I am now officially an LLC as an architect and an LLC as a product design firm.

Nothing is all that different. I’m still sitting at home working on three different projects. I’ve worked as a consulting architect for a few years now; my estimate is that I’ll launch my first product in February; and the competition I’m doing makes me feel like I’m back in grad school (check out http://www.shiftboston.org/). And yet.. everything has changed. Continue reading “It’s Official”

Boston

Home for Now

I woke up in my own house yesterday morning and experienced a big d’oh: now I remember why I became an architect. There is actually a point to designing a space that works for you. Living in other people’s houses over the past 18 months has left me feeling a bit out of sorts. Although I appreciate all styles, the one I most like to live in is quiet: spare, well-detailed, and functional.   My apartment  is very small, but its high ceiling and huge window with a view of the Boston skyline gives it a spacious feeling I often don’t get in homes twice its size. The kitchen is designed for cooking; the huge closets whisk away clutter; every light in the joint is on a dimmer; and my books are temptingly lined up waiting for a leisurely rainy Sunday. Continue reading “Home for Now”

Scotland

On the Catwalk

I’m a model, you know what I mean… I’m disappointed that we didn’t blare techno or have a big catering setup to coquettishly ignore at our photoshoot Thursday, but it was still a quietly amusing proposition: me vamping around in shoes I can barely walk in with far too much makeup on playing stick with a hyper dog in a cool outfit. I never had quite enough treats in my pocket; in trying to make them last I had my fingers bitten a number of times. At the end of the shoot I had the idea to wade in the icy pools at the Parliament, but had a hard time convincing Dylan to join me. I’m not used to being thought crazy by a dog. And she rudely turned her head when I instructed her to make love to the camera.

But Dylan seemed completely comfortable in her coat, and we had a number of appreciative comments from passers-by, so that’s something (though one of them was a vacant-looking fourteen year old boy who couldn’t take his hands out his track pants – a sort of Scottish Deliverance..) And the photos are great, though the ones in the pools weren’t worth losing a few toes to frostbite. Continue reading “On the Catwalk”

Scotland

On Being Temporary

Something liberating happens when you cast off years of accumulated shoes, crystal wineglasses, and boring acquaintances. Traveling with nothing more than a backpack and a limited plan reduces life to its basic elements: where are you going to sleep tonight; what will you eat; what will you do when you get lonely? I can’t recommend enough packing your junk into storage and flying the coop … just to see.

On the spectrum of craving freedom versus stability I tend to stand closer to freedom, but anyone can benefit from pushing their comfort level: doing scary things delineates how limited we can become in our daily lives. We rely on the job we’ve had for years, the friends we made in graduate school, the same food from the same grocery store. For some people this is comforting. A friend of mine tries to find what he thinks is the best of everything, then sticks with it no matter what. I have this irrational fear that my neural pathways will harden and then I won’t be able to adjust to new circumstances unless I’m in the habit of adaptation. Or maybe I just get bored. Continue reading “On Being Temporary”