The Bat Cave

As Francisco packs up the Bat Cave, his home for the last five years and mine for the last five weeks, I think it's a good time to say something about our first home.

The first thing to say about the Bat Cave is that it's in a wonderful neighborhood. Eastern Market may well be the cutest neighborhood in the District. And on Saturdays and Sundays, there's the Market breakfast and the Market lunch--we love the crab cake sandwiches and "The Brick" (a sausage and egg and cheese and homefries sandwich) best.

The second thing to say about the Bat Cave is that it's got an incredible roof. It's the tallest building in its neighborhood, with a great straight view of the Capitol, the Washington Monument, and the National Cathedral. Dinner and/or rose (with an accent mark) on the roof is one of our favorite things.

The third good thing to say about the Bat Cave is that it's free. Through a work agreement with the building owner, we don't have to pay rent.

But there are many other things to say about the Bat Cave. I realized the extent of my fully internalized hyperbole about the Bat Cave when I described its three small windows to a friend as about 1 foot by 1 foot with my hands. I proceeded to tell them that once a burglar broke into Francisco's apartment. "Oh," my friend said, confused, "so someone could fit through the windows?" I confused myself in fact, but when I returned home to inspect the windows, I realized that they are much larger--probably 2 feet by 2 feet.

The fact is, they are at foot level of anyone who walks by and we don't want those people looking into our apartment, so we keep them closed most of the time. Plus the view isn't great--you see the edge of a parking lot.

The Bat Cave is one room, a bathroom and a tiny, tiny kitchen. It's filled with five years of Francisco's stuff and now my summer stuff, too. Plus some wedding gifts. It's sort of brimming over.

Francisco, surprisingly, isn't the cleanest person alive. His mother summed it up well when she said to him when he was younger, "I can't believe that you came out of that room." The irony is, Francisco is incredibly well groomed and neatly put together. His room, however, is not.

Francisco said that he realized the difference between us the first time he saw my bedroom at Little Gidding, complete with neatly stacked filing cabinets for all of my papers. We are quite different with regards to organization.