My Space - but not in cyberspace

Last weekend, my old friends and I stayed in Tahoe at what Ellen calls "The WOW House". And now I'm inspired. I haven't ever really made this place my own. When we moved in I made the egregious error of thinking that I knew which drawer our silverware should be stored in; it was promptly moved by my now ex husband. The coffee pot that my mom had gotten for me as a house-warming gift was replaced by my ex with a pot of his choosing with a malfunctioning clock (never mind that I'm the one who always made the coffee). The living room was arranged so that he could watch television from "his" chair, but nobody else in the room could see it even though it was a 36 inch television, which at the time was huge.

I take full responsibility for marrying him and staying with him, and maybe that's why it's taken me so long to start reclaiming my life. I think on some level I thought that since I had in essence signed up for this, it was what I deserved. And while I wanted to change things and apply the "out with the old, in with the new" approach, I couldn't legally do "out with the old" until our divorce was final. Then I had to give him extra time to get his stuff out of the garage because on the final day, his deadline, he said he'd had eye surgery and needed more time. I guess he couldn't see his way over here during the preceding three years to get his stuff. And then his new deadline came and went, my mom died, and there has just been a lot of stuff going on. But now....now it's time!

So...back to the living room. The television that he bought was a behemoth. In fact it was so big that it took three grown men to move it in, and it nearly collapsed the ugly particle board entertainment center that he also purchased without consulting me. I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the television, and then it hit me - sell it on Craig's list and make whoever bought it move it! The TV was actually a good set - a Sony Trinitron. But it weighed so much that we had to stack a bunch of law books on the shelves under the shelf the TV sat on to support it; as it was, the whole entertainment center listed to port (leaned to the left). I finally managed to sell it on Craig's list. I had to keep lowering the price and actually sold it for less than $100. There are a ton (ha! very punny!) of those televisions listed on Craig's List and I figured the only way I was going to get rid of it was by slashing the price to some ridiculously low figure. It was carted away during the middle of Sarah Palin's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. The people called to see if it was a good time and I suggested they come and get it before I broke it throwing things at the screen.

Then - get this - I bought an even LARGER set! It's a 42 inch LCD HD flat screen. I can't figure out how to get it to make popcorn but it's really nice. But it looked ridiculous in the entertainment center. It fit in the opening in terms of width, but it had space at the top and just looked like it really belonged somewhere else. So I started looking for a new stand for the new TV. Entertainment centers are SO passe - now we have media consoles. The thing is, most of them look like slightly shorter versions of my dad's old console stereo - without the innards. I kept feeling like I was back in my parent's house and I didn't like the style. I found a couple that were all right, but they had to be assembled and I thought that maybe at this point in my life I might be able to buy one piece of furniture that was new that didn't require assembly. Finally, I settled on a piece from Crate and Barrel. It's sort of a buffet, but is listed as a media console. So today, my neighbor came over to help me move out the old entertainment center. We got it as far as the front door on one of those furniture dolly things when it started to fall apart. It didn't take much convincing on Joe-joe's part for me to go get the sledge hammer and we just broke it up and put it in the back of my Jeep to go to the dump.

Tomorrow the new furniture arrives, but in the meanwhile, my daughter and I were able to sit together on the couch and watch television! It's like we moved and got a new living room! And when it gets cooler, we will actually be able to stay on the sofa and enjoy a fire in the wood stove AND watch television at the same time. AND I was able to move the "man chair" just ever so slightly, and now it forms a part of a conversation pit rather than making us sit in a row that destroyed any thoughts one may have had of actually conversing with people. Before the change, it was like sitting in a classroom with everyone lined up looking at the wall. Now we actually face one another and I can sit on the couch with my daughter and watch television. That's not a very lofty goal in life, but when you've not been able to do so for years....it will do for an evening.