title shmitle

I love this artistic collaboration that my friends amy and leila are working on during the 19 days of the baha’i fast. Both have such a wonderful sense for composition and color…I can’t wait to see glimpses of the ‘dawn’ they each experience and share on opposite sides of the planet.

**

on our walk to our cars after work (when our brains no longer compute effectively) the strangest conversations between Maz and I occur. Usually we are laughing so much we can't breathe…which is a feat in itself since we are both so tired we are barely vertical. Yesterday’s conversation has to be recorded for posterity:


“He is a little odd looking”

“Yeah…he has that ‘I’m going to kidnap you, take you home and chop you up and put you in my freezer’ look about him doesn’t he?”

“No…I meant something else”

“Really? Like what?”

“Um, he looks like he has no equilibrium”

“Equilibrium?!”

“Yeah. like he might have an inner ear problem or something”

Pause.

“Did you really just describe someone has having no equilibrium?”

“Yep”

“Why can’t you just say ‘balance’?”

“If you hang out with me you have to be down with five syllable words”

**

I love thrift stores. In NZ they are called ‘op shops’ (short for ‘opportunity shop’). I have many fond memories of my mum and I checking them out after school sometimes. I would rummage through all the stuff and find a little vase, or a piece of costume jewelry…it was like a treasure hunt. It cultivated a real love for second hand objects…I’d wonder what the story was behind my little finds…how far they had travelled, whose hands had held them. It’s amazing how many things we amass only to one day belong to someone else. It all transfers and journeys through homes and lives. Once loved, and now found and loved again.

This weekend Marabeth and I were on a mission to find a dining table. We drove down to Murfreesboro and looked at a couple of stores.

We came to a few conclusions really quickly:

- dining tables are expensive

- the comfort of a chair cannot be determined by how ‘cool’ it looks

- we have no tolerance for uncomfortable chairs

- furniture made for outdoor use sometimes looks much better than furniture created for indoors

- poppy red enamel tables are hard to find

- Nashville needs an IKEA

We were getting a little defeated by the process and as we walked through a thrift store that had slim pickings I saw ‘her’ - the most perfect table ever. My favorite style - mid century modern, hand made in the 60’s…and still in beautiful condition. Complete with 8 chairs. Oh the dinner parties that will be had around her lovely curves. The woman working at the thrift store overheard our glee and informed us that the table was to be marked down 25% that same day. I had to restrain myself from leaping up and kissing her. But that would have also meant leaving the table for a second, and that was too risky. I basically pulled up a chair and sat there, in the window of the Salvation Army store…as if I was waiting for someone to bring me my dinner. We promptly bought the table and then went on and on and on, like proud parents about her every feature. How well she was made. How we had eight chairs to work with. How comfortable the chairs were. And so on. You are cordially invited to a dinner party at our new house, around our new table. Date to be confirmed.

**