Growing Up Is Hard To Do, Or The Emotional Complications of Rearranging Furniture.

So it turns out I'm getting older. Not very quickly, of course, just at the normal rate. But it also turns out that as you get older, you have to do more things for yourself. Recently, I've taken on a slew of things that are making me feel pretty grown-up. Like buying a couch. I mean, a REAL couch, not a futon. And I bought it with MY money! That I earned at my job! Sheesh, it's exhausting to even think about for too long. Granted, the couch did come from an estate sale. (Which is just a glorified garage sale, except they charge tax, the jerks. Just remember this.) And yes, it is white brocade fabric circa 1968, but whatever. It's actually fitting in quite nicely in my apartment which is a funky conglomeration of furniture highlighting all of the best decades in design, AKA the '60s through '80s. And when I say "best," please know that I mean "most questionable in terms of actual taste or style." At any rate, I now have the following items in my living room: 1 couch, 1 chair, 1 shelf, 1 small table and 1 lamp. At least I didn't get overloaded with lamps or something. At least I'm balanced.

So figuring out where these 5 items go should be a breeze, right? Wrong. I think it would actually be easier if I had about 20 things, so that I could fill the space a little better. Instead, I currently have these pieces of furniture spread out as much as possible so that I don't have half a room with nothing in it. Of course the result is that each piece is in awkwardly in its own corner, with the open space just in the middle of the room. So now all the furniture pieces look as if they're laying in wait, prepping to attack each other, eyeing each other with doubt and mistrust. They KNOW they don't go together. Yes, I'm personifying my furniture. See what kind of emotional toll this has taken on me? It's hard trying to be an adult.

Unfortunately, until I find a coffee table, or a large potted plant, or something to tie it all together, I'm just going to have to deal with how it looks right now. It sort of reminds me of a college apartment, but parts of it are more real-house-esque. Perhaps I'm living in some sort of limbo, an interior design purgatory. Who knows. All I do know is that it perfectly reflects my life right now. Sort of a jumbled, odd combination of a bunch of different people, places, things, and plans. The weirdest part is that I feel strangely satisfied with it. I'm not content to stay here forever, but I feel as though I'm almost going through some sort of adult initiation. "Here," says Life, "I'm giving you 5 totally random pieces of me, life. Make it work." (I think Life kind of sounds like Tim Gunn here.) And so I'm trying to make it work. It's looking OK - a little ramshackle at times, but definitely some potential in there somewhere. So to all my post-grad friends, and anyone else who's in transition: I hope that you can work the bits of life you've been given into something lovely. If it's not working, try to rearrange the pieces. Cheers!