A Second Chance...

After closing on the investment property only 3 1/2 weeks ago, I sit writing this with my muscles aching, my knees rubbed raw and black dye speckled all over my legs/hands/feet. This all feels oddly familiar as the echos of the townhouse experience of two years ago invade my conscious. This, however, is a very different experience: far less ambitious, seemingly more creative from a design sense, and much more streamlined somehow. Projects that took 3 months at the townhouse have completed within 8 days here. A charmed property - perhaps, despite the urine soaked carpet and ghosts of an evicted tenant dancing in the shadows- or maybe even more it is wisdom earned from experience.

The Mayfair Tower (right) is an interesting property nestled next to Piedmont Park with the most diverse group of residents I have seen in some time. Luxury high-rises attract a certain breed that is not duplicated elsewhere. Everything is a walk away, and I have discovered that I love that. I have decided that once I buy a place for myself to settle in (and NOT invest) I want to be down here. It is electric with the busyness of the city but earthy in some odd sense, perhaps Piedmont Park evokes that feeling.

Within the past nine days, kitchen cabinets have been refinished and dyed an incredibly dark mocha shade, a wood-floor laid, a granite countertop measured and ordered, suede paint splashed on the walls in the kitchen, the most gorgeous fitted-furniture vanity selected for the bathroom, deep coffee colored hues selected for the walls and trim with such inspiring names as Latte, Cappuccino, and Chocolate - all from Restoration Hardware http://www.restorationhardware.com/rh/catalog/product/product.jsp;jsessionid=EOEXBZM3CVO2BLAWC2ASAOVMCYLACH20?productId=prod1048003&navCount=1 (Right). A Benjamin Moore addict, admittedly these tints made me sway on this project. They got them right, somehow, and they pop with the insets painted chocolate (glass shelves and undermounted lighting make them sizzle). I jumped in circles after I fitted the foyer chandelier with the crystals that created a kaleidoscope of color dancing around the walls. Ever the kid, I'm the one that had to the fit the "pretties" on the ceiling fixture.

With the delivery of the stainless steel appliances, the project really felt underway. But it certainly won't feel complete until the new sensual creme/champagne deep shag carpet we found is installed in two weeks.
The design is informed by my new favorite designer Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz and author of the new book "Emotional Rooms" http://www.amazon.com/Emotional-Rooms-Interiors-Benjamin-Noriega-Ortiz/dp/0743285042 (Left and Below). He blends sleek modern lines with old world furnishings and sensual fabrics that create dreamscapes. In essence, places to escape from this stressed, soulless world.

The lighting in the condo borders on industrial with stainless steel, halogen beams that bounce off earthy elements like hardwood floors, granite countertops and banana leaf-woven chairs.

I feel like I have a second chance, a second chance at another investment property, a second chance at doing interior design again (who knows where it will lead), a second chance at living the life I want to live despite illness that always looms at the door, and a second chance (perhaps out of many more chance to come) to rub silky fabrics between my fingers, feel the milky texture of paint as it speckles on my skin while I paint, to sink my toes into a luxurious rug that almost buries them in its depth, to see color come alive and create squares of space that didn't exist before, and...and the opportunity to work with my incredibly talented sis and brother that make it happen mechanically and electrically. Ever the designer, I see the vision but have "0" ability to translate it to the world of nuts/bolts and hard wire.

Life is full of second chances...somehow I believe that tonight.

Knee High on the 4th of July

As I await word from my endocrinologist and surgeon who have my next months hanging in the balance of their decision, I have pressed forward with living the celebration of July with friends and family. Waiting seems to be the theme of my life, and a very difficult lesson for me - as stubborn as I am to "know" everything "now!" As if we ever REALLY know anything, truly. So, with my endocrine symptoms in full swing (a swollen neck and unexplainable weight gain - ah, the joys of my disorder - aren't you jealous?), I headed to Michigan for some time with family and to breathe the July Midwestern air as the corn is knee high by the fourth of the month and the gardens are beginning to fill in with nature's abundance. I longed to press my toes in the warm earth of the garden, and feel the rumblings of the memories of my childhood - a much simpler time when I ran barefoot in the country as the bees buzzed around me and the peaches began to bare on the trees remaining in the orchard.
(Pictured: Abby greeting me for the first time since Christmas. Abby, and Bebe in their "surprise")

Abby and Bebe greeted me in full adornment - with bows and jackets - a cute joke from my mother, although Abby didn't want to take it off. A true priss.

Michigan was bursting with what I remember well: blackberries on the bushes in the backyard, cool summer evenings, grilling on the patio, and large spaces filled with nothing but soybean fields, farmland for grazing, and people in touch with the salt of the earth. I tried my hand at a homemade blackberry pie - working on a crust from scratch is no easy exercise, but I think I have perfected it now. It was 100% Michigan.(Pictured: Making the crust from "scratch" and The finished product.

Monday afternoon found me in the little farm town of Hudson, MI (population 2500) where I was raised in my childhood and early teen years - five miles south of the town on the countryside, to be exact. I took the opportunity to snap photos for an archive I am building: my primary school, the softball diamond at Webster Park where I first learned that I picked better dandelions and did better cartwheels in the outfield than performed as a player on the team, the home in town at 610 Grove where my parent's brought me home from the hospital as a newborn, my grandfather's house and the surrounding land, etc. (Pictured: the current residents of 610 Grove, the children happened to be out selling Lemonade and cookies the day we drove by.)

I guess I feel the need to touch base with these memories and those earlier times because my current life is 180 degrees different from the simpler life within which I was raised. Battling away at mental health policy, working with world-class journalists, and gazing at the Atlanta skyline from my office perch - the farmfields in Southern Michigan seem a distant memory - but the lessons of that time/place I don't want to forget.

A return to Atlanta found me celebrating my 21st birthday for the 15th time. A surprise from dear out-of-town friends had me celebrating at the newest restaurant of one of Atlanta's top chefs, Kevin Rathbun. Kevin Rathbun's Steaks (pictured) http://www.kevinrathbunsteaks.com/ and http://www.rathbunsrestaurant.com/ my mind and was proclaimed by everyone in my birthday party to be the best steak they ever had. Butter -- it melted like butter in your mouth. And Kevin, well, his restaurants have a special emotion about them that you can't seem to shake. It is an "experience" to go there - and the man is magnificent. (Pictured: Kevin Rathbun and me)

In a return to reality, Mrs. Carter and Thom head to the Hill tomorrow in DC to provide testimony for parity legislation - one of the most important days in mental health policy in years. If the legislation is passed, it could change the lives of literally millions of people. Even after 4 1/2 years, I sit in awe of Mrs. Carter's passion, and I'm incredibly privileged to work for her in this meaningful way. I hope I have good news to share soon.

Life keeps moving along - even when I'm in a holding pattern.