For Life

Whenever I purchase an item, secifically an item of furniture, I can never imagine just having it for a certain length of time. To me, when I buy something that big, it's forever. That couch? The dining room table? The kitchen table? That sideboard with the hutch I posted the pictures of the other day? (The bottom part is the sideboard and the hutch is the part that sits on top.) All of this furniture I imagine owning for the rest of my life, never to part with.

Only it doesn't quite work that way, does it? I've already thrown away that big round papasan chair from Pier1 that I just HAD to have, and spent a whole hundred dollars on, throwing myself into a tizzy at the prospect of spending so much money. Once the dog started sleeping on it no one would sit there anymore, and it took up SO much room.

I also remember buying a long winter coat that cost just enough to make me feel ill for 24 hours after I got it - oh, the guilt I felt at my own indulgence! I still have that coat. But whenever I wear it I get strange looks. Probably because I look like a homeless person. Probably because the coats the homeless people are wearing are actually newer and in better shape than that coat. But I can't get rid of it because I still remember how I felt when I was buying it. I'm supposed to have that coat until I die!

I guess what I can't get over is how quickly things need replacing. How quickly our new couch got a split seam and sinks on one side. How fast the cats managed to scratch their initials into our bedroom furniture and the bottoms out of our box springs. How is it that I still think of clothing I got for my bachelorette party and the makeup I got for my baby shower as "new?" Why can't I just buy curtains or a table or a sofa and have that be the one I have? At least for fiteen to twenty years. That's all I ask.