ironic beginnings

There is no end to irony. You see, "hug the monkey (wrench)" was created entirely in honor of the call to embrace the foibles of life--even enjoy them instead of clinging to a need for constant perfection and order. You know, seeking the lemondade in a world that is inevitably full of lemons. Here's the irony: the reason that the blog immediately fell into disuse is that within days of its creation, we were evicted from our apartment. Turns out that our amazingly shady landlady (who knew!) was housing us all illegally and finally got caught. So there I was, returning from a great day of snowshoeing, looking forward to a warm shower, and posted on the door was a notice that all tenants must vacate immediately. It was December 30th. Happy New year, folks.

Hug the monkey (wrench).

The whole situation sort of made me laugh in a lot of ways. I love new experiences, and on some level I think it's great to have experienced eviction. Now I know what it's like. It might especially be helpful in my line of work (working with the homeless, many of whom have been evicted). And now, a couple months later, we are in a much better house which is both bigger AND has cheaper rent. Hug the monkey (wrench).

So there you go, a glimpse of what's ahead. We plan on recording the monkey wrenches that get thrown into our plans and our (sometimes feeble) attempts to hug them. As well, we will chronicle our journey through a journal called "Wreck This Journal" (Keri Smith, Penguin Group 2007). The thing basically instructs you on how to messily destroy the book. It was created for the anal and the perfectionist: a.k.a, me. My first assigment was to break the spine. I am still cringing. Bring on the monkey (wrench), journal style.

Over and out-
Katie