This evening I rushed to the parkade to head downtown for a talk and book signing by Natalie Goldberg, Zen teacher, writing coach and author of her 14th book, The Great Spring. But as soon as I got to my car, I turned around. I realized I was going largely to have something to blog about, but what I really wanted to do was concentrate on setting up our shared office space in the common house. Kind of mundane, but that’s what I’m writing about.
This morning, I rode with Cam – whose lovely courtyard night scene is today’s featured photo – in his van to Mark L’s place, where we had stored table tops and legs donated by Taryn’s company when they moved offices last year. When we got back to Vancouver Cohousing, Mark B., a heavy-lifter who regularly hauls around his double bass, helped us move the tables up stairs to the second floor.
While Cam trimmed some sawhorse legs, I ran off to Ikea for a height-adjustable leg we needed for the bar-height counter by the skylights where we have a view of the North Shore mountains. Brenda helped me put together some of the tables and place them around the room.
This afternoon, I met with Tom Esakin, an interfaith spiritual director who comes to my chant evenings and wanted to discuss some interspiritual retreats he’s helping spearhead. We had planned to meet at Chau Veggie Express on Victoria Drive, but it’s closed Mondays. So we went a few doors down the street at 5022 to a new place, Panzveggie, run by Sheila Panz, and the latest example of the changing face of Victoria Drive. We sipped on double roasted coffee and munched delicious homemade Taiwanese vegetarian dumplings.
Once I turned back from my car this evening, I asked Fabrice, also in our office room group, to help arrange where the tables should go. He came up with the bright idea of forming an L with the big tables on sawhorses, which now work in the space. Then I installed the adjustable legs on the bar-height counter and moved in the swivel bar stools I bought off Craigslist. I like the look of the room now, but it’s a work in progress and I’m asking the rest of the office group to check it out and see what they think.
