The Yankee Buys Furniture

Last Saturday I drove over (up?) to Del Ray, which is north of Old Town. I think. I'm still trying to figure out directions around here. Generally the water, the Potomac River, is to the east. After years in Connecticut where Long Island Sound is to the south, it messes with my sense of direction. Not to mention that Route 1 and I95 actually run north and south here rather east and west as they do as they pass through Connecticut. But I'll save my directionally challenged story for another time.

Last Saturday I drove to Del Ray to stop in at Not Too Shabby Consignments. It's one of those places you need to keep checking for something you might want. I've been searching for a small table to go just inside the front door. I meandered through the shop and as I turned back toward the front, there it was, right next to the shop's front door. My table. It had been there long enough that it had been marked down twice. It was the right size and the right price. It's not an antique, but it is a good sturdy piece of furniture. I bought it and took it home. It fits just where I thought it would.

Today I FINALLY drove to the Ikea store in Woodbridge and bought the chair I've wanted for a long time. Of course, just like driving on I95 back in Connecticut on a Saturday, I encountered traffic. It took me over an hour to make what should have been a 25 minute drive. Ikea stores look pretty much the same wherever you find them. I went to the chair section and noted the locations for the chair, the stool, and the cushions for both. Then I backtracked to couches because there was a sectional I wanted to look at. Comfortable, but it may not be what I want for my living room. So now the chair I didn't have room for in my last apartment graces my living room here.

I chose the brown frames and brown cushions because they work with the colors in the living room. As it turns out, they look good with my rocker, which I've had since I was 15. There's something about buying furniture. Some of my friends call it part of the nesting process. But it's also a sense of security. The table at Not Too Shabby had been in the shop about as long as I've been in Alexandria. I didn't see it until last weekend. Until today, something always seemed to come up that prevented me getting down to Ikea.

At some level, I may have been waiting until I had my three month review. Even though I knew it would be fine, even though people have been telling me all along that I'm doing a good job, there was something about passing that milestone. I'm here for a while. Even though I've only been here three months, I feel a sense of permanence I never really felt in my last apartment. Or at the Church Center during the last few years of my employment there.

I'm enjoying looking for furniture. I'm making my apartment more and more my home. In time Alexandria will be, too.