So I started this post first thing on Thursday morning, and then got sidetracked with all the unpacking and whatnot, but the vast majority of yesterday Wednesday and Thursday was spent continuing to unpack boxes and organize all of our clutter. Man, we have a lot of stuff. After making a flying trip to IKEA late Wednesday night for a couple extra BILLY half-height bookcases, DVDs have been reorganized, books have been redistributed throughout the house, bulletin boards with massive collections of knicknacks (how many k's in knicknacks, or knickknacks, or knick-knacks?) have been hung, but perhaps one of the most dramatic improvements has been the combination of new lighting in the studio and a freezer for the back room, which is now being referred to as the pantry.

A pantry always seemed like a silly and frivolous luxury, but now that I live with three other people and am starting to cook (or at least help cook) on a semi-regular basis, a pantry is genius. Daily-access stuff goes in the kitchen proper, but all dry goods, soups, pastas, and so on get schlepped down the back stairs to the pantry. I'm sure this is where one of my friends' old ideas for a wireless in-house food inventory system will come in handy, but that's still a ways off.

The lighting in the studio, on the other hand – this is a little home-decorating fact that I've known for a while now. Of all the things one can do to a space, sometimes changing the light bulbs is the most cost-efficient high-impact option. I replaced the main light bulbs with those new swirly energy-saver bulbs (a shout out to my man Al G) that are meant to approximate solar light, but actually throw off this weird kind of harsh blue-white light. It's a good light to work in, but an awful light to relax or read in. Therefore, following the installation of over twelve feet of shelving on one side of the room (and an additional four in another), I began to investigate those under-shelf lights you see in the catalogs. I tried some of those stick-on battery-powered lights from Bed, Bath and Beyond, but as it turned out their light was REALLY blue-white and super-harsh. No go. Having failed that, I turned to the NON lights at IKEA. Ignoring the fact that their name means 'no' in French, I picked up two single-packs of the NON lights and, after spending some time on my back, staring up at the underside of the shelves while lying atop my workbench like an auto mechanic, I now have some absolutely beautiful lighting for reading. Wham! Instantly cozy.

Anyway, it's bedtime – my first real class this semester is tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to getting back in the swing of things – especially since now I can think of my studio as a studio instead of One Life in Many Boxes. Onward!