The Long House

Tova refers to our house as the long house. While this name sounds really endearing it is actually usually uttered with contempt. Generally, she is whining and saying " I don't want to go to the loooong house. Not the looong house. A different house." And it is not that she wants to be out and about all the time, she just seems to genuinely want to get a new home. I think maybe this is what happens when you move every few weeks for 8 months. The thought of staying in the same house is just appalling to her. 

There seems to also be an element of homeliness she dislikes. After months of unpersonal generic serviced apartments we were quite happy to set up a home with books, our old colorful duvets and a kitchen with actual cooking implements. All of this is lost on Tova who has grown to like the a different sort of living space.  She is always complaining that the long house is dirty. Which is hysterical because she is really the source of much of the mess. When we go away for a night she is always overjoyed. We enter some sterile looking hotel and her face breaks into a bright smile. She jumps up and down and exclaims "Is this our new house? - I like this house." And it doesn't seem to be totally about luxury because she adored our tiny rectangle of a room at the Ibis Budget near the airport. When I walk into medical clinics with their clean sterile look she also gets excited and asks if we will be moving in. She has developed a taste for the clean tidy modern and bare. And then when that moment comes where we head home she starts her whining again about the horrors of the long house. It doesn't matter that she has a great time playing at home she just is unwilling to lose any love on our apartment. And what a shame because The Long House really is a cozy cute place with a lot of character.

Tova in her Long House