Monday 9 July 2007

Still Monday Barely

Events caused me to forget that it is FUN MONDAY today. I spent all day with the Well repair people, so it was not really a fun time. Min reminded me that this was a FUN Monday - and that is when I realized what an idiot I had been for signing up. We are supposed to portray the place we like to relax. Well guess what! I never relax - hardly ever! (I bet that doesn't surprise you!)

At first I thought I would take a picture of my bed, because if I do have a peaceful moment it is that 2 1/2 minutes where I am rereading for the fifteenth time the same passage of "Murder at Dealey Plaza" as I fall into uncontrollable deep sleep. That did not really seem to be the best blog picture, and then I remembered I have this imaginary place where I was always going to sit with my tea and read books and pretend to be Truman Capote or Harper Lee. I have this big over stuffed chair that I claimed from the side of the road even though it BADLY needed re-upholstering. The seat was sat out of it and the stuffing hangs visibly through shreds in the fabric. I love this chair and it is so comfortable (especially after I added several pillows worth of stuffing to the seat. Of course the moment I began to reupholster it, our decorator savvy cat sat on the new fabric and slashed it to pieces and I got so frustrated that I did not bother to do any more work on the project but instead threw a huge scarf over it. This made my chair blue on top, green on the bottom and batik scarf on the parts of the chair that the scarf would cover. In short, it is an eyesore and for that reason my husband in a moment of sanity banished it to the basement three days ago.

So what is imaginary about this chair and its coziness? It might be the fact that I almost never got to sit in it, because I would always drop my stuff in it when I got home and it was always piled high with the detritus of several days of shopping and bringing home work. Here is where the chair used to be.



As you may deduce, this is not the chair of which I have been writing. It has rather been replaced by a different chair which is not comfortable in the same way, nor as colorful in its appearance.

After much searching, I managed to find a picture of the imaginary chair before it went into exile. Here it is in all its glory.




On two separate occasions I actually sat there by the window and read blissfully, happy to have achieved my fantasy. Nonetheless just knowing that I might have been able to do it again some time was (and still is) a thrill all its own! And after all, there is such a thing as coming out of exile - If it happens I imagine my chair like some Latin American patriot returning to the scene stronger and better and wiser in the ways of happiness and satisfaction.

16 comments:

Molly said...

Even if your chair is not there, that lovely spot next to the window, near the orchids, and close to your bookcase is still there. I am amused that water company is coming to our house this morning. I suppose that is not a cosmic event just a coincidence that you had the well repair people to your home.

Beccy said...

You've only sat in it twice?

I think you need to finish the reupholstery project!

Debs said...

Oh I love the color of your chairs. Thanks for joining in the fun. :)

Anonymous said...

Poor Chair...poor Purple Worms.I hope you finally got your 2 and a half minutes.

ChrisB said...

Bide your time finish re-upholstering and present it as a new chair!!

AfKaP said...

mjd - Yes it is a very pleasant place to sit and there are nice window boxes and flowers on the deck outside.

Beccy - Yes - who has time to sit? And who wants to pick up all that stuff to try and find the chair? )Don't nag! (grin))

Debs - You can't tell from the photo, but deep blue and pale yellow are supposed to be the colors of the room.

Min- I didn't realize how awful it looks until I saw the photo. I love that poor chair!

ChrisB - I love that idea - My husband hardly notices changes so it might work. Then again he might not noticed it had been reupholstered!

Anonymous said...

I'm still trying to figure what this relaxing thing is?!?!?!? Any ideas?

laurie said...

we have a chair kind of like that. hideous. stuffing coming out. gigantic. ours isn't even very comfortable. but boscoe (who is now 12) used to sleep on it when he was a puppy and we can't bear to get rid of it.

this spring we finally put it in the garage. where it takes up too much room and makes it tough to park the car. but we aren't quite ready to banish it any further than that.... yet.

Unknown said...

I love chairs like that. Old chairs. Old chairs with a hidden story. Somehow they're the most comfy.

I couldn't stop looking at the mask(?) on the wall. Is is one of those thingamajigs from Sri Lanka that's used to ward off evil? If so - I've got one! (given to me by an evil maid we used to have)

Pamela said...

Okay... lets throw away "Murder at Dealey Plaza" so you can relax in bed.

Whew!!!!
I can't watch scary or read scary at night.

Nessa said...

I like the mask hanging above the chair.

neroli said...

Artist, we all have our chairs and our corners and our imagined minutes.
Thanks for showing us yours.
You need to get your minutes for real.
Say yes!

AfKaP said...

Nikki - Re-la-xing - Yeah - I think it is some kind of old Chinese ritual.

Laurie - Probably the same chair! Mine is now comfortable though cause I repadded it.

TLG - Yes it is the very samekind of mask - wards off evil - but it is so appalled by our house that it turns its face to the wall no matter where we hang it. it is positively spooky!

Oh Pamela - My family has been going to sleep with murder mysteries since our grandparents were children! Besides JFK conspiracy books are pure fantasy!

Nib - I have a whole bunch of masks all over the house - but this one is very reassuring.

Neroli - Where's yours?

neroli said...

Dear Artist, it is a rock on the river.
(visualizing myself there now rather than waiting for class to begin!)

DirkStar said...

If my wife did such a thing to a chair of such wonder I would be sitting downstairs until both of us were restored to our rightful places in the home...

You can take that to the bank.

Anonymous said...

1) Harper Lee ** s i g h **...I think she was groovy comin' and goin'...

2) I learned a new vocab word today...gotta love it when blogging is educational ;).

3) Do you write short stories? Novels? Your imagination is fun to watch unraveling :).

4) Glad you found a picture of your chair...it was pretty close to what I imagined before seeing it. Yep, the new chair looks more utilitarian than comfy...but the spot looks ideal.