Preparing for Departure
Oct. 7th, 2006 08:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vanillafluffySo, I'm wandering around giving my stubbornly empty mailbox dirty looks and getting myself assembled to leave as soon as I pick up S. & T. from the port tomorrow morning. This consists of washing all the towels that might be dirty (including some that were lying around when I got here), doing dishes, noting what she'll want to pick up at the store, and in general making sure that the place is as good or better than when I arrived.
I'd like to say that it's because I'm a naturally organized, conscientious house guest, but the truth is, S. once reamed me royally for leaving some towels (freshly laundered!) lying around. Never mind that that was about ten years ago, and she's mellowed a bit. I'd rather be compulsively paranoid than precipitate another psychotic break on her part.
Sometimes, I have this fantasy---never mind that it's completely impractical and absurd---of taking two identical houses, giving me and S. equal amounts of money, and asking us to decorate said houses to our own tastes.
I'm willing to bet they'd be completely different. Different colors, patterns, textures and styles: she favors tropical prints, and lots of white. Her house has white tile and white walls---I'd go with hardwood floors, or if that was out of range on my (hypothetical) budget, terra cotta, with talavera accents. I might do a white-on-white room because I *do* like the look of them, but ONE room, not the whole freaking house. When she's not making a beeline for Margaritaville, she leans toward traditional stuff, ersatz early-American. (What trad stuff I've got is inherited; I've never sought it out.)
On the other hand, I'm highly ecclectic. As with my fandoms, which are many and varied and change POV and genre at the drop of a pencil, my decorating whims can be eccentric as well. (IE, currently in my dining room, I have a round Farmhouse Victorian-style table covered with a leopard-print tablecloth, with two non-matching pairs of chairs: two have cane backs and pastel fabric seats and came with the table; the other two are 70s office chairs upholstered with orange print fabric. Above this splendor is a gold-colored 1958 flying saucer pendant fixture. And that's just the dining room....)
We've gone shopping together, and she'll rave about things I wouldn't have on a bet, and conversely, deride things I adore. Once, when she was searching for a couch, we visited someone selling a set that I would've absolutely *loved* to have---I didn't have the money or the space, but that was immaterial. They were big, solid, comfortable pieces, in great condition, and S. took one look at them, turned up her nose, and said, "They look dirty."
They weren't. The fabric was sort of sandy-gold and black, neutral, best way I can describe it is abstract tweed...no definite pattern...to me, it suggested rocks (big soft rocks!), in some serene wilderness setting. It would've gone great with my black "zen" coffee table, and a few primitive accent pieces, which I have. But--! She saw black and thought dirt, and ended up getting something with a weedy pastel tropical print...with a lot of white. That's the second or third such similar set she's had like that...ugh!
My ex's mom gave me a couch like that---I hated it. It's gone now; I have a burnt orange loveseat that's pure retro. I was aiming for retro when I last had a spasm of decorator, but that's waned. The spasm, that is. I still like Mid-century Modern. If I had money and/or help, I'd like to redo the living room in back and white, with a few splashes of color in the pillows and an accent wall. Real life, however, laughs and says "Live with it!"
Okay, enough of this babble. Time to put the laundry in the dryer.
I'd like to say that it's because I'm a naturally organized, conscientious house guest, but the truth is, S. once reamed me royally for leaving some towels (freshly laundered!) lying around. Never mind that that was about ten years ago, and she's mellowed a bit. I'd rather be compulsively paranoid than precipitate another psychotic break on her part.
Sometimes, I have this fantasy---never mind that it's completely impractical and absurd---of taking two identical houses, giving me and S. equal amounts of money, and asking us to decorate said houses to our own tastes.
I'm willing to bet they'd be completely different. Different colors, patterns, textures and styles: she favors tropical prints, and lots of white. Her house has white tile and white walls---I'd go with hardwood floors, or if that was out of range on my (hypothetical) budget, terra cotta, with talavera accents. I might do a white-on-white room because I *do* like the look of them, but ONE room, not the whole freaking house. When she's not making a beeline for Margaritaville, she leans toward traditional stuff, ersatz early-American. (What trad stuff I've got is inherited; I've never sought it out.)
On the other hand, I'm highly ecclectic. As with my fandoms, which are many and varied and change POV and genre at the drop of a pencil, my decorating whims can be eccentric as well. (IE, currently in my dining room, I have a round Farmhouse Victorian-style table covered with a leopard-print tablecloth, with two non-matching pairs of chairs: two have cane backs and pastel fabric seats and came with the table; the other two are 70s office chairs upholstered with orange print fabric. Above this splendor is a gold-colored 1958 flying saucer pendant fixture. And that's just the dining room....)
We've gone shopping together, and she'll rave about things I wouldn't have on a bet, and conversely, deride things I adore. Once, when she was searching for a couch, we visited someone selling a set that I would've absolutely *loved* to have---I didn't have the money or the space, but that was immaterial. They were big, solid, comfortable pieces, in great condition, and S. took one look at them, turned up her nose, and said, "They look dirty."
They weren't. The fabric was sort of sandy-gold and black, neutral, best way I can describe it is abstract tweed...no definite pattern...to me, it suggested rocks (big soft rocks!), in some serene wilderness setting. It would've gone great with my black "zen" coffee table, and a few primitive accent pieces, which I have. But--! She saw black and thought dirt, and ended up getting something with a weedy pastel tropical print...with a lot of white. That's the second or third such similar set she's had like that...ugh!
My ex's mom gave me a couch like that---I hated it. It's gone now; I have a burnt orange loveseat that's pure retro. I was aiming for retro when I last had a spasm of decorator, but that's waned. The spasm, that is. I still like Mid-century Modern. If I had money and/or help, I'd like to redo the living room in back and white, with a few splashes of color in the pillows and an accent wall. Real life, however, laughs and says "Live with it!"
Okay, enough of this babble. Time to put the laundry in the dryer.