Wednesday, April 27, 2016

My space pod

I tend to complain in the evening on Facebook.

If we are FB friends, you likely know this. You may even be all, seriously, Lisa and bedtime again? Can't she get a grip? Set up a routine? Stop whining?

No. I mean, yes, we have a routine. But for the rest, it seems that I cannot quite get there.

Dinner, bath (not nightly, although usually a pleasant part of the evening), teeth brushing, into jammies, bedtime...all of these things are a potential nightly struggle. Some nights they are ALL a struggle. Some nights, none of them. This is rare. Usually there is at least one activity that incites belligerence.

If I can get them past brushing their teeth and into their jammies, we tend to be good. We will sit together and read, and then, with minor struggles, get into bed.

This isn't to say that some nights India doesn't protest wildly. Usually I stay with her until she falls asleep. This can take a long time. Sometimes I have stuff to do, and when she seems like she's asleep I get up as quietly as I can and she is all, WHERE ARE YOU GOING?

Sometimes I say I'm going to take a shower, which is true.

And then when I tiptoe past, naked because I always forget to bring my jammies, she is all, "Hey! Still awake! You're back!"

Most nights if I get up before she's asleep I tell her I'm going to clean the kitchen. She told my mom, "At night Mama kisses me and goes to clean the kitchen."

She typically makes me promise to come back. Sometimes she falls asleep before I do, but that is rare.

Recently she stayed up for over an hour yodeling and making dying goat noises.

Yes. I get it. You don't want to go to sleep.

But back to my evening lamentations.

One night my dear friend Banna, who has a grown child, said, "What you need is a space pod and a bottle of vodka."

And I was all, yes! WHERE IS MY SPACE POD AND BOTTLE OF VODKA?

Since then, this space pod has been my imaginary little safe haven. Let's ignore the fact that I never, ever want to go to outer space. Nor am I all that interested in vodka.

Really, it's more like my I Dream of Jeannie bottle. Somewhere personal, fabulous, cushioned, and indulgent for me to retreat to. I add to it regularly.

My space pod so far has the following:
  • Super comfy couches
  • Squooshy pillows
  • The absolute perfect temperature, whatever that means on any given day
  • Wine and martinis
  • An endless supply of M&Ms
  • Oh, and Reese's cups
  • A soft serve ice cream dispenser under which you can fit your face for easy consumption
  • All the 80s music ever, plus the option of David Bowie and Prince on endless loop
  • Orange Gatorade
  • "New Yorker" magazines. Which sit in a pile under a sign that reads "NO GUILT!"
  • Shelves of delicious fiction and difficult-childhood memoirs
  • Amazon Prime and Netflix and a really easy to use remote control where you never click something and then have no idea how to get all those commands off the screen or why you suddenly have French subtitles.
A friend asked how I'm going to dispense ice cream straight into my mouth in zero gravity and I was all, uh. Hmm.

The truth is, I hadn't actually thought about going anywhere.

I love my children more than my own life. I like Earth and I like gravity. This is where I belong.

I mean, I know I've been rhapsodizing about my space pod. But it wasn't ever meant for space. Really, it could even be, you know, a big closet.

Space pod just sounds better. In fact, it sounds a hell of a lot better than WHERE IS MY CLOSET AND BOTTLE OF VODKA?

Which actually sounds rather alarming and problematic, no?

Really, I am just mentally constructing a little retreat space that is entirely my own. With a lot of imaginary stuff that makes it perfect. It is my mental refuge from the entire world.

I intend to keep calling it my space pod.

What would your space pod have?

9 comments:

  1. Your Space Pod is fantastic! Like all things fostered from your imagination! It's a chic, cozy library-bar pod.

    I've always loved stargazing, I feel joy, calm and inspiration all at once. So, I'd love to have a magic carpet so there would be nothing in between me and the stars and I could fly around and touch the stars. I'd need a blanket to stay warm. And a cooler with ice-cream and tequila. My camera, to take photos of the world beneath.

    Hugs to you Lisa! Good night!

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    1. I love your description of it, Heather! Yes, "a chic, cozy library-bar pod" is exactly what I want!

      As a kid I fantasized about a magic carpet so much. I love your idea. I can totally see you flying around with your ice cream and tequila, snapping inspiring pictures!

      Big hugs!

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  2. Your space pod sounds awesome - only I would rather scoop ice cream in about 10 flavors at the ready instead of the soft-serve. I think there should also be a jacuzzi tub or a big bubble bath for the really challenging days.

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    1. The options for personal space pods are limitless! You could have all 10 flavors at the ready in any instant! And you make a good point. There might need to be a tub for the hardest days.

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  3. Thats such a inspiring idea. Your space sounds so comfy. I'd love to visit if you'd have me. That made me think about mine. And I could think of nothing! So I thought of what would I like to do right now. And I just wanted to sit like a brain dead zombie! No work, no music, no books, no thinking about present and past relationships. I guess my space pod would have nothing at all. I just want to be enveloped by nothing once in a while. No clothes on of course. Just me and endless soft white space all around me. Sort of space where Morpheus takes Neo in Matrix.

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    1. Of course you could come visit! Always invited! I think you may need to check out one of those sensory deprivation tanks. They appeal to me on the one hand and scare me on the other. I think the warm water and floating would be nice but the isolation and dark might be alarming.

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    2. Just checked those out. I dont mind the isolation and I love to float (those are the ones available in India). The dark is definitely an issue though. I would like to be enveloped in soft white light instead.

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  4. I feel compelled now to read Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own," perhaps an early space pod advocate. Here's one quote from it that I love (so now I need to read the whole thing): “Therefore I would ask you to write all kinds of books, hesitating at no subject however trivial or however vast. By hook or by crook, I hope that you will possess yourselves of money enough to travel and to idle, to contemplate the future or the past of the world, to dream over books and loiter at street corners and let the line of thought dip deep into the stream.”

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    1. Risa! I wish I had titled this "A Space Pod of One's Own"--that would be perfect! And I haven't read that book in years and years and years...I should go back! Thank you!

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