And I spent a good fifteen minutes with my 7’ fake green and red ficus that I bought when we lived in the apartment with the 9’ ceilings, taking out several miles’ worth of white Christmas lights. I need to get some of that leaf cleaner for silk plants, because I have not dusted that tree *once* in the four years we’ve lived here, and I’m coughing a little from all the dust I stirred up. Or I could just tie on a bandanna, train-robber style, and whack the heck out of it with my lambswool duster. If BittyBit were a couple of years older, I could tilt the tree on its side and pay her a penny a leaf and cover her first semester of college!
But I digress. I rolled the tree about ten feet to the east, feeling very thankful that I’d splurged on one of those rolling plant stands when we lived in the last apartment. The now-lightless tree stands near the foyer, where it is doing a creditable impression of a $200 folding screen. I had wanted one to block off the front entryway, as we never use that door. But I can’t find one that I like, that I can afford, or that I could manhandle if I could afford it. So I moved the tree instead. And I moved the 4’ green and white variegated ficus over next to it. And then I realized that I needed a third plant, both to finish filling out the space and because three things almost always look better than two.
I spent half an hour in Garden Ridge just after they opened yesterday morning, pondering the merits of a 5’ phoenix palm and a 5’ something-with-huge-leaves. I finally chose the palm, because it sat in a fat, sturdy basket, while the other plant was housed in a tall, tippy wooden container that would have required the purchase of something large and shiny and probably expensive to house and stabilize it. The new tree is up on an unfinished stepstool, because they don’t make booster seats for trees.
I also now have the cushions to fit the chairs that I can’t quite make myself fork over the money for. I got them on sale at Pier One for $11.24 each. Originally [Are you sitting down? Here, have a cushion!] $90!!! apiece. People really plunk down just under $100 for something as perishable as seat cushions? I sure wouldn’t have paid retail for the fabric they’re upholstered in, a very Jane Jetson look, but I’ll enjoy it until I’m the mood to make something a little more Lynn-shui. I’m waiting for the 20% off coupon to arrive in my inbox, before buying the chairs. In the meantime, I’m having fun puttering around the living room, putting things together in fresh combinations, and just seeing what works.
I am trying to find the blessing in all this. I’m sure that there is one, possibly several. [The most obvious one is that I didn’t fall down the stairs during the fire drill and roll the rest of the way to the bottom, though it certainly would have been faster.] I figure this has set my dancing back another six weeks or so. And I move so much more slowly when I’m walking with my cane, and I poop out more easily. I only got about half the things on my list done yesterday. And I had to ask for help, twice: once to get the cushions out to the car and also to get my donations for the silent auction at church into the building. I was only able to unpack boxes for Firstborn at her new house [with a red kitchen, praise be!] for a little over an hour before my body said “we’re done”. And I only stayed an hour at the silent auction and dinner at church before I’d had enough.
Maybe one other blessing of this mess is the increasing ability to tell when I’ve had enough, just before I reach that point instead of just after. I went to bed a little after 8:00 last night, and I slept until almost 4:00 this morning. Cue the trumpeting angels!
And we'll close with a picture of Secondborn at her awards assembly at the junior college. For excellence in her chemistry class, no less. The only chemistry I have is with unsuitable men, alas!
Obviously, I'm better at photographing trivial inanimate objects than important, real live people. You can't see her face clearly, but you've got a nice glimpse of BittyBubbaToBe.
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