Farewell to my favorite old piece of furniture
Yes, it is a season of great change in the Cooper household. New TV, new stand, new phone (post to come), and a new desk chair. The new chair arrived months ago, but the old chair has been slow in departing.
The old chair has sat by the windows and watched the leaves fall and the days grow shorter. I thought I might find fresh purpose for the old chair. But in a studio apartment, there is only so much room, and there can only be so many chairs. In a horribly twisted game of furniture, the studio's constraints force the chairs themselves to play musical chairs.
We go back a long way, the old chair and me. After we met just before college, in '98, the chair has come with me to: Evanston, Washington, Evanston, Washington, Evanston, St. Petersburg (I think?), Evanston, Washington, Evanston, Atlanta, Washington, Silver Spring, and finally Arlington. Oh, the stories that chair could tell. The seat doesn't go up and down any more. Screw tops and then screws have fallen out. The front of the cushion is worn from the back of my knees, trying to write a next word, anxious, fidgeting without thinking, for almost 12 years.
With sadness, I ask the old chair to show itself out. The chair rides the elevator, in silence, to the ground floor and rolls to the loading docks. I help it leap into the waiting Dumpster. I turn away and don't look back.
February 1st, 2012 at 5:32 PM
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