Furniture Reporter

It’s kinda late on Sunday night, so I’m just gonna make a few quick hits. . .

• Eric and the mission team are in Jamaica.
• We played a video in the worship service from the team in Jamaica.
• I think there are more people on the trip than showed up for church today.
• The band was absolutely awesome in the service today.
• They thought they sucked in practice, so we were all blessed!
• Did some adjustments on setup that worked quite well.
• It’s not easy preaching to a bunch of empty chairs.
• I’m glad it’s summer so we can leave some stuff set up at the school.
• Zach and Justin are doing a great job!
• Got a good bit of our vacation/Baltimore Scouting Trip planned this weekend.
• Worked on painting Emily’s old dresser to be ready for Katie’s nursery.  White, Pink, and Aqua.  And cute little butterfly knobs we found online.
• I have a blister on the end of one of my fingers from holding the detail paint brush for the past 3 hours.  It’s making typing a less-than-enjoyable experience.
• The dog (Roxie) doesn’t know what to think of the total change in furniture from Guest Room to Nursery.
• Emily is the cutest little pregnant lady ever.
• I can’t believe we’re about to be parents.
• I can’t believe I’m having a little girl.  I am in SO MUCH TROUBLE!!!!
• I’m worn out.  Time for bed!

The last few nights have been horribly restless… Thanks to a certain bedmate. >:| Ordinarily, the sleepless nights which result from sharing my bed with someone are incredibly gratifying experiences. However, this has never been the case when the bedmate in question has been Animal. To give you an idea of how talented she is at sleeping, let me relay an anecdote to you.

Many moons ago, Animal and I shared a black metal Ikea bunk bed. She used to sleep on the top. The top bunk had a series of rather high guard rails, perhaps a foot or so (something like this). One night, a terrible crash woke me up. After glancing around the room and seeing nothing unusual, I deduced that the noise had come from outside. The next morning, I got up and peeked at the top bunk to see if Animal was still asleep. She was gone. This was odd, because I usually wake up eons before her (and most other people). I went downstairs. Still no Animal. Later that morning, I returned to our room in search of a lost book. Imagine my surprise when I peered underneath the bed to find, not my book, but my sister… This girl had rolled over the guard rail… fallen on the floor… been completely unperturbed… and then rolled underneath the bed and continued to sleep…

Due to some interesting circumstances, Animal and I found ourselves as roomies again for the weekend. Just thinking about it makes me tired (You did no help either, Ju!). My door frame is still broken from her last encounter with my domain. This time she also broke my glasses and managed to toss and turn to such a degree that my sheets are now half off the bed. She also hit me in the face several times. I am pretty sure that, had we been a married couple, I could have had her arrested for assault. After all of that, she was still talking about how we should move in together (and how she should not have to pay any rent). Black. At least she is still thoughtful enough to “cuh-caw” at me. :/

Speaking of black people, I owe an apology to a really cute white guy with Pennsylvania license plates. He just happened to be next to me at a red light on Friday at the 70 & 73 intersection in Marlton. I had just had a furniture-buying misadventure, and then some PI cut me off on 73, and some other stuff. So we’re at the light and I had the windows down. Evidently, so did the dude next to me… but I did not realize that at the time. It had just been a really long day… and then the radio thing… And I freaked out and yelled (I yell really loud), “WHITE PEOPLE!!!!” out of nowhere. I saw that poor boy jump out of his skin via my peripheral vision. If you, by some odd chance, happen to be reading this, I am so sorry for needlessly scaring the cr@p out of you and generalizing your people. Well, partially sorry for the generalization anyhow. And I think you are WAY cute! Email me. ;D  Oh! And John from Target… I’ll totally be back Friday night… ;D  Or beforehand if you call me… ;D  Holler.

As will be abundantly clear from the above images, my portrait of our compactum was very much an on-the-hoof job, no time whatever being devoted to tidying anything up, arranging surrounding objects aesthetically et al.

Obviously there is a story associated with this behemoth (when isn’t there?), which I will get round to telling shortly. For the moment, let me just try to describe it. It stands about 190cms high by 140 wide and is 50cms deep. The reason for me being able to afford it can be seen in the photo at lower left - somewhere in its 130 years of existence, in has acquired a wicked warp on the right-hand door.

Thanks to Meg’s dose of TLC, the latter has been fitted with a lock which does enable it to close, but the warp is responsible for maybe halving the price. The mahogany veneer has chipped and flaked off in various places, which again reduces its value – but it is still a grand old warhorse, and an impressive piece of furniture in a setting with sufficiently high ceilings to accomodate it. The technical name for it is a compactum. As you see, it combines the functions of wardrobe and chest of drawers, and disassembles into four pieces – top, base and two halves – without which it would need a team of elephants to move it. One of the things I especially like about it is the curved corners featured in the photo at top right.

A few months ago we moved from our former abode in a medieaval building with ceiling heights suitable for the vertically challenged. I thereby found myself having a long-promised wardrobe to provide for Hacina. As funds were in dramatically short supply, we visited our ex-neighbour Meg, who had two wardrobes in the shop, one of which was an elegant inlaid Edwardian piece with – for me – no character whatever (it’s still awaiting a buyer) and the above, which was by comparison a wreck, but such a colourful one! I managed to persuade Hacina with the usual sleight of hand involving ‘an investment’ and the like. In fact, she now loves it, and indeed has more or less taken it over.

The method of payment was rugs, and here I was fortunate because I had off-loaded three or four not long previously which Meg had sold very quickly – this time I wanted to clear out the remainder of the bits and pieces, almost all less than prayer rug size , which I had accumulated over the preceeding years and which in some cases were lying one on top of each other, or stowed away in or under coffers, because we had no more room for them. So, Meg and I went the statutory fifteen rounds (she is no kind of soft touch, I promise you) and eventually worked out a deal that we could both live with. We got a ’free’ wardrobe, and she got a pile of rugs to brighten the shop. Also, in the process, I managed to off-load what was becoming an annoying superfluity of rugs – some dating back to my early days of collecting when I couldn’t tell my how’s your father from my elbow, and bought anything at all provided only that it was dirt cheap.

Above, the old girl showing her age [born 1880].