Nesting

I spent today pretty much going ape-sh*t cleaning. Like a complete maniac.
I just woke up leisurely (no major plans for the day, ahhh.....), ate some breakfast and lollygagged.



But then it hit me. I felt like cleaning. I'm not quite sure what compelled me, but I guess I just like doing mindless labor sometimes. And cleaning in this place is somewhat like a vortex: once you slip into it, it can spiral out of control. I have no idea how long people have been moving in and out of this place (at least 5 years is my guess) and there are lots of nooks and crannies that remained unscrubbed for YEARS, no doubt... reverse tragedy of the commons. Or maybe the compulsion had something to do with my propensity to get off on tangents and decide to scrub underneath where the dishwasher once I started vacuuming... Or maybe now that I know this is really my home, I feel the need to clean the nest a bit.
I share my home here in Helsinki with three other people. Hmmm... typing that seems weird somehow. I was just reading several different blogs (speaking of vortices) by women in Provo (???) like this and this and this. The last one was my gateway into the whole loop... I had to think the other day how I even found that blog originally, but I think she ended up on my gmail contacts (along with her blog) from when I worked at the Leonardo. And the rest is history I suppose.
ANYWAYS (I told you... tangents), they write a lot about their families and homes. For some of them, that means their husbands and kids, for others it extends more outward into their community. So now I am thinking about what my notion of home is exactly. I definitely feel like this place that I am living in is my home. My roomies are not necessarily my family though... but maybe kinda. They are all super-nice and I feel somehow like we are a tribe of sorts... a motley, multicultural tribe of four: Finnish, Australian, Korean, and 'merican. But we have our own things going on, and who I consider my Finnish family consists of other people who I have known since I first came to Finland (Joensuu) in '99. I talk to at least one of those nuts almost everyday, if not multiple times a day. And I get along with some of them better at some times than others, but I know I will most likely be attached somehow to them forever (whether they like it or not).
And of course my REAL family is all back in Utah and the U.S. And of course Utah is technically my home and there are some things I miss about it (hello... why else would I be reading those blogs). It really doesn't feel that far away to me... but far enough. In another post I am going to explore why Utah really never felt like home to me.
And another why Finland does. Two separate posts, with hopefully few tangents.
So yes, for now I guess I can simply say that my own definitions of family and home have their definitions extended quite far beyond the more traditional, nuclear unit. Sometimes I regret that, but on the other had, I've had a pretty exciting go of it until now, and wouldn't change it.
But now, tweet tweet, its time to nest.

Tomorrow I will make a special effort to take some more pics of my nest. For now, this is what it looks like to gaze out our lovely kitchen window. I like to peek at people when they are out on their balconies. One one there is a cute, older couple that hangs out in their robes, no doubt after going to sauna.



And one very important aspect of days that I spend at home: Radio Helsinki.