The Things You Own

We move in less than two weeks! Unbelievable.

Yesterday I posted an ad on Craigslist trying to get rid of some of our furniture. I was amazed at the response - lots of people want cheap crap, I guess.

Anyway, I wound up getting in touch with an Australian girl named Sioux who wanted my work table and a set of cabinets. I figured it was perfect - she's Australian, we're headed to Australia, how good is that?

Fiona was quick to inform me (although not quick enough) that it was not good. Nope. Not good at all.

It seems that there was a bit of miscommunication somewhere along the line and I wasn't supposed to actually get rid of the stuff until Labor Day weekend (which is when we move). In retrospect I guess this makes sense - I don't really want to be sitting on boxes for the next two weeks either.

Sadly, by the time I realized this Sioux was on her way over in her moving van. So now there's a wide open space in our bedroom where this furniture used to be. I've got to admit, it's strange. But at least now I have more room to practice my dance moves.

I honestly thought Fi would be happy. One of the drawers in the cabinet was Fiona's "Stuff I Hate" drawer where she'd throw all my useless gadgets and bizarre toys. I figured she'd be psyched to be rid of it. And my desk is always a total mess which she complains about regularly. Point for her though - it turns out that it was pretty nasty. I cleaned it off for Sioux and there was all this dust and weird hairs and shit all over it. I guess you really ought to clean furniture more than once a year.

So you'd think she'd be happy to see that stuff go, right?

Wrong. Fiona was not amused. I'm not gonna lie to you - tears were shed. I was surprised at how upset she was when she got home and saw the emptiness in our room. We've both got lots of mixed feelings about leaving, and we've been doing our best to avoid the topic altogether. It'll be a lot harder to live in denial now that we have a pile of boxes where my desk used to be.

Almost all the furniture we have is either from the Salvation Army or the trash. It's ALL crap. But it's ours, and it's helped make our apartment a home for over a year. When I bought that table from that guy on 16th street I remember carrying it down V st. on my head thinking about how it'd be so easy to get rid of because it only cost 15 bucks.

I was so wrong. It was hard to get rid of. What do they say in Fight Club? Something like "the things you own end up owning you." It's true - I miss that stupid table already.

Plus, now I've got nowhere to keep my collection of weird hairs.

Posted by flow Frazao on August 24, 2004 at 01:41 PM in Moving | Permalink