MTV Cribs: Sister Daedalus

Ok, so this is a first, sitting outside at a pool using the internet. I'm not even stealing someone else's internet - the signal is coming from my own apartment. It's not as nice as it sounds. In fact, I think I might hate it. Especially now that a group of unsupervised children have come in.

It started with the apartment people arranging the chairs on the deck at 6am. On a Saturday morning. Then there were all of the people trekking by my window at 11am to get to the pool, and when I say by my window, I mean the metal stairway that leads to the pool is attached to the building and they can see everything through the window. Then there's the other window that looks out at the pool - I am currently staring straight into my bedroom from a mere ten feet away. I moved in a month ago, and I still don't have furniture (it's not high on my list of priorities right now. I should probably make a trip to Ikea one of these days.) Two bookshelves were there when I moved in. I sleep on an air mattress covered with a fleece Reds blanket and a promotional Nats blanket. Other than that, I'm using a cardboard box for a desk and a blowup seat in the shape of a baseball glove. I covered the "desk" with a Cincinnati Reds blanket that my mother got for signing up for a credit card when we went to Johnny Cueto's MLB debut last freezing, drizzling April. The piles of clothes on the floor (it's laundry day and I'm sorting) are full of t-shirts and sweatshirts that say "Reds" or "Nationals" on them. You can see five baseball hats on a top shelf - one Reds, one Orioles, and three Nationals. Edwin hangs on my wall denoting the month of May, and a Reds jersey cooly stands on the windowsill. I feel like Jimmy Fallon's character in Fever Pitch.

Oh, and I realized my coffee mug I am now drinking from is a baseball one, and the keychain for my house keys is a red baseball glove.

What's funny about using a laptop at a pool is that you can watch people without looking at them because of the reflection in the screen. A farmer-tanned guy with a Red Sox cap sits immediately behind me. (Why would you lay out in the sun and wear a baseball cap that covers your forehead? Can we say awkward tan lines tomorrow?) There sure are a lot of glowing white people on deck for a sunburn.

I'm sure I'll enjoy the pool many times this summer. I'm just not sure what people will think when they stare into my shrine to the game, and I'm not willing to give up open windows and sunlight in the room for some privacy.