Symbolism: The Corner House Story

Here's just a little glimpse into a night in the life of The Corner House...

The clock strikes midnight. Derrick reluctantly pulls himself up off the couch and heads for the door. MacKenzie, sleepily trudges behind and follows him out the door. Mari, Annisija and I sit on the couch eating ice cream and watching Hocus Pocus. All is calm and serene. We contemplate noticeably “peeking” through the blinds at Derrick and MacKenzie or “accidentally” walking out onto the porch from MacKenzie’s room “unknowingly” into the doorstep scene that is, no doubt, unfolding. We keep watching the movie. MacKenzie comes back in. All is well.....

Then....

Mari notices a spider crawling on the arm rest of the couch next to her and is up in a screaming flurry. She is followed almost instantaneously by me, with Annisija a close second behind. It's HUGE and scary and gross! Screaming continues as we lose sight of where the spider has scurried. Annisija points to the back of the couch as she stands on the opposite end's arm rest clearly disturbed by the scene in front of her. We're all in the living room now, attention intently focused on the brown couch cover; intensely scanning every inch of the couch for the brown hairy invader. We spot it!... on the end of the couch Annisija has been standing on. Screams! Annisija shoots up into the air, convulses mid flight, into what resembles a mid air side splits and lands on two feet in front of the couch screaming. I scream and run towards the offender, past the couch to my school bag. I grab it as I shoot by in an attempt to keep my school books free from attack. Screams! The arachnid is charging down the couch towards the floor. Screams! Mari grabs a bottle from the obliging floor and lays it in front of the spider's set path. As it enters the jar, Mari tips the jar up and twists on the lid. As she heads to the door she realizes what it is that is being held captive inside the glass curves. She is no longer able to hold it. Adrenaline allowed the capture, however was not enough to stay the fear for the release. Screams! Mari flails the jar around and we all scream and duck away from the container. MacKenzie, who thinks we're ridiculous, grabs the jar and releases the hairy being back into the nature from whence it came. She returns to all of us standing at our battle stations, unmoved, trying to compose ourselves.


Then we begin to laugh. :) "Did you see how high Annisija jumped off the couch?! I didn't know she could jump that high!!!!" Haha.

We continue to laugh. Eventually conversation leads to music. Next thing we know, MacKenzie is pushing play and music fills the kitchen. Dancing ensues... DANCE PARTY! We finish listening to the Beatle songs MacKenzie feels are important for us to experience. The music shifts to Les Mis and we are marching in unison singing full voice... "Do you hear the people sing? Singing the song of angry men. It is the music of a people, who will NOT be slaves again! When the beating of your HEART echos the beating of the drums, there is a life about to start when tomorrow comes!" We all know the actions neccessary for this song as provided by the choreographer Abby Holyoak as debuted on Sarah's blog alongside a posting on Facebook. We sing. We dance. We laugh.

Kumbaya!!!! We file outside, past the porch to the side walk in front of our house. We arrange ourselves into a circular shape, hold hands (right down, left up), and begin to sing, all the while swaying to either side in turn. We sing several legit verses and then continue as we make up our own words to express our inner sentiments. As we finish, we decide we don't want to go inside yet, so we declare our gratitude for the things in our lives; two things each. (Singing, dancing, love, each other, ice cream, stars, etc.)

It's late. We should have been in bed at least an hour ago. We're having too much fun together for sleep. We take different positions in the living room as we re-enter the house. Roommate prayer! We circle up trying to be serious long enough to be respectful. It's Sarah's turn. She's laughing too much to pray, so we move to Natasha. Prayer over, we hold hands and pass around the "love" squeeze. Discussion resumes, followed by copious amounts of laughter from each of us collectively, as well as, in turn. We discuss our lives; school, work, people at large, people we know, experiences we've had in the recent past, experiences we're currently going through, Mexico, South America, the works. Each discussion ends in peals of laughter.... some even result in Sarah doubled over on the floor snorting from hilariousness.

Sleepiness finally begins to settle in and we each file off into our bedtime routines, thinking about how much sleep we're not going to get and all the things we didn't get done. As MacKenzie finishes getting ready for bed she comes back to Sarah, Natasha, and I in the living room and gives us hugs and forehead kisses. Mari is asleep now, Annisija is in the shower and I'm piddling around trying to clean the kitchen before sleep overcomes me. All the while, Natasha and Sarah lie on the living room floor surrounded by pillows talking to each other about who knows what... just not wanting to move on from the moment.


One by one, each goes to bed. Mari, MacKenzie, Sarah, Annisija, Natasha, and soon I am the only one awake... doing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen so it will be ready for whatever the morning brings.

What a lovely life we lead.

Symbolism: The Corner House Story

Goodnight, dear void.