Life in the Loveshack

My plan for my grand return to San Francisco was to nail the art gallery job, get immediately set up with a cushy 9-5 (10-7), with benefits, insurance, paid holiday, and salary, immediately thereafter get a nice studio apartment in a sweet part of town, and commence my classy adult life, safe and secure and with plenty of money to pursue all my art and music interests.... that is, if I ever found the time.

But since the Universe loves me dearly, none of this fell into place. I did indeed get a job; housekeeping, again, at the Adelaide. The benefits include free clothes, food, and toiletries that people leave behind, and today I got 18 cents, pants, a shirt that says Hawaii on it, and a BEAR TOWEL. Who needs insurance when you have a towel with a happy cartoon bear on it? Not me. And finally, I have a place to live. Well, two. One is a bunk in the Adelaide, not Golden Gate, but, Alcatraz 8. But the other place I like far better, and that is the storage closet on the roof of the Dakota where Luke has been sleeping for the past month.

Now, I know what you're imagining, and it's probably the same image I had when he told me about it over the phone. But this is really not your usual hotel rooftop storage closet that we are living in. He's really done wonders with the place. There is a table, and a set of drawers, and all sorts of nooks and crannies to prop and hang things- he's got paintings nailed up, a guitar on the wall, skeletons and now my bear amulet hanging from the rafters, Christmas lights, a radio, drum, drawing supplies... and lots of blankets layered on the floor, where there is just enough space between the brick wall and the metal circulation vent for two people to fit- after a half hour of strategizing and negotiation of body positioning.

Luke gave up and actually opted to let me have the entire space last night while he slept outside on the actual roof. I feel a lot worse about this in retrospect than I did as I was happily snuggling up under the brand new pink comforter he found, the Christmas lights twinkling and the fog rolling in and the sounds of the city way down below.

It really is like a magical little rustic cabin, removed but in the center of urban life. At sunrise the other morning a crow flew up and perched outside the door, cawing to us. Luke said it came back later when he was playing guitar and listened to his repertoire. Yesterday we both had the day off, and I didn't end up coming down from the roof until about 10pm.

 

Luke brought up brunch and coffee, and we played guitar, and then we had a visit from Jen and Cinnamon (cutest dog in the world), who finished off our breakfast as well as part of Luke's shoe, and soon it turned into an art party which lasted until sunset...

I made a jester pastel drawing which is now hanging in the love-shack. We played more guitar, and planned out the music video for Sweet Tangerine that we are soon to start shooting with Scotty, the manager of the hotel across the way.

Scotty is a wild character, as you can imagine; he shoots animated, surreal sort of films, and the deck outside of his office at the Emperor Norton is always covered with things like plastic bouncy balls and feather headdresses and a gigantic zebra effigy, which looks creepy amidst the steam from the laundromat below blowing upwards late at night.