Life around here
It turns out that Dolly went into the operating room Sunday instead of today (Monday) to have an emergency triple bypass. You just gotta figure it’s pretty bad when you have to have bypass surgery done on an emergency basis. Yesterday was tense waiting for the results - the surgery is many hours, so it was quite a wait, and the outcome was a tossup. But Dolly prevailed, and proved herself one tough woman. She’s now all put back together, and they hope to have her sitting up in a couple days. Amazing.
Ever read the blogs of Anna Maria Horner or Alicia Paulson? The pictures those two post of their homes and dogs and kids and neighbors and trips and books and pillows are downright beautiful. Even when Anna Maria posts about her laundry, you can’t help notice the quirky prettiness of her dining room. They’ve both put their energies and efforts into a lifestyle of florals and prettiness and sunny afternoons on the porch.
I am not those women, and this is not that blog.
I’m not saying I don’t like what they do (why would I read them if I didn’t enjoy peeking in on their world?), but they’re not me. I’m easily impressionable, so sometimes I look at that sort of aesthetic and wonder: where are my ruffled floral pillows? Where’s my porch wicker? Then I remember that’s not me.
I own a motorcycle jacket and combat boots and have red shag carpet. I decorate with hot peppers and cinnamon brooms, and my wall color is the exact shade of strong Ethiopian coffee with a bit of 2% milk in it. I listen to jazz and metal and Ani and disco, and buy kitchen pictures that make fun of my food. My coffee mugs have “Hunter S. Thompson for Sheriff” and “Midvale School for the Gifted” on them instead of vintage florals. I’m the one who quirks a questioning, unsympathetic eyebrow at the sacred cow in the corner, and I’m not the person to turn to when you want to hold onto your romantic ideal.
This, for example, is not a pretty picture. I took this picture because I was fighting too hard to find a decent, scenic stretch of road along Alt-90. I realized that was crap - this picture IS what a typical small Texas town looks like. I was trying to mask it, make it what it’s not.
The elaborate courthouse (background), the wires, signs, tin buildings and probably the Wal-Mart nearby. All pretty fugly but all too real. I wish this lack of regard for aesthetics hadn’t happened to so many towns around here, but it seems to have.
At home I try for better aesthetics, however, my style does end up somewhere between lazy, apartment-bland, functional, and nerd. I haven’t painted my kitchen and my counters are crap because I live in an apartment. I don’t want to have to repaint that stuff later.
Here’s a tiny tour of this girl’s home front: those are my aprons on the left and my market bag there, and my cheesy coffee cup hooks. The hot pepper one is my husband’s and the quilt-lookin’ one on the left my grandma made me. On the right I’ve got hot peppers, knives, garlic and onions. That’s pretty much how most meals start here.
These are a couple of more kitchen corners. There’s the iPod and speakers, and my collection of wine corks, magnets from all the places I’ve lived (that one’s Che Bella on Amsterdam in Manhattan). On the right is some of the coffee paraphernalia, candles from Italy and an Audrey. Yes, I have a hackable vintage computer in my kitchen. Internet and recipes, baby. Isn’t it awesome?
Other aspects of the style around here include books and tea. There on the left is the library-office-guest room. Books are very important here. I have a lot of books, even more than these. That’s my DH at his desk. That teapot has held a wide variety of tea from various place - it and the tray were wedding gifts. The sugar container is an old childhood container. Gotta have old stuff you can’t let go of and new stuff that was hardly necessary.
Anyway, I’m losing my train of thought, but I think my point is that I was reminding myself that everyone does their own thing, and has their own style. Good to remind myself of that.
