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Rearranging

I liked my last template, but it just wasn’t roomy enough. In the left hand column of this template you will find two RSS feeds. One which shows a current excerpt from O’Ceallaigh and The Quill (those of you who read part one of OC’s learning to ride a bike will be glad to know part two is up) and the other which shows the current verse up on, Bits of Me in Poetry. Unfortunately, the poetry feed doesn’t transfer in poetry form.

For those of you who are disconcerted by all my template switching, I’ll find something I am comfortable with and stay there. Maybe. Once far back in my distant past I used to rearrange my living room furniture every two to three weeks. I worked a job that kept me home near the phone and I had nothing better to do with my time and energy than to devise ways to torure the man I was then married to by hiding his recliner (in plain sight).

Christmas Day during a rare Portland, Oregon cold snap, the pipes in the housing complex we worked for froze and burst. My (now ex-) husband, Michael, left the house before the sun came up and didn’t return until well after it set. He came through the door cold, wet, starving, and wearing clothes so frozen that when he took his pants off — in the entry hall since he could see I’d cleaned the house — they stood by themselves.

As he disrobed I ladled a big bowl full of stew and set a plate of homemade bread with butter on the stand beside his recliner, then I grabbed his robe, which I had kept hanging over a heat vent and took it to him. I motioned to the living room and told him to sit and eat, I would get him something to drink. He asked for hot chocolate with a shot of Bailey’s.

As I stepped into the kitchen, he crossed the floor to where his recliner used to be and sat. He hit the floor with a thud and lay there looking up at the ceiling. I asked if he was alright. He queried, “Where’s my chair?” I told him he’d walked around it to get to that particular spot on the floor. He just closed his eyes.

I went into the kitchen to make the hot chocolate. When I returned to the living room Michael was sitting in his chair and most of his food was gone. As he handed me his bowl and asked for seconds he said, “Eight weeks.”

I said, “Huh?” He said, motioning around the living room with his spoon, “The furniture stays like this for eight weeks. And even then you don’t get to move it without telling me the day before.”

Later, after a shower, another mug of hot chocolate and a bit of Johnny Carson, Michael turned off the TV. I was curled up on the couch reading. I looked up at him. He said, “I’m tired. When I get in the bedroom am I going to have to search for the bed, too?”

Our bedroom was 12′ squared and our bed was queen sized. There was no way I could have put it anywhere he couldn’t find it, but I had turned it from the North wall to the South, so I told him yes. He left the room cussing about inconsiderate, contrary women.

Quilly is the pseudonym of Charlene L. Amsden, who lives on The Big Island in Hawaii. When she is not hanging out with Amoeba, she is likely teaching or sewing. Or she could be cooking, taking photographs, or even writing. But if she's not doing any of that, she's probably on Facebook or tinkering with her blog.

25 Comments

  1. Looks more like my blog now. 🙂

    That’s why he’s an ex, he couldn’t deal with being taken care of in exchange for a randomly changing interior.

  2. Actually, Brian, we are no longer married because after 14 years of marriage, I told him I couldn’t take his drinking anymore and he needed to choose between the alcohol and me. He opened the fridge, took out his 6-pack, and left the house without a backward glance.

    He returned the following weekend to ask me if I’d come to my senses yet. Indeed I had. All of his things were packed and waiting for him, and all the locks had been changed.

  3. Brian, I am convinced that each and every one of us now living has discovered the secret of eternal life. For each, in his or her own way, is an immortal fool. I certainly am, in more ways than I wish to face. But I have to be grateful for Mr. Michael’s particular brand of sottery – look who’s with me now, thanks in part to it. And I don’t even have a recliner for Quilly to lose on me … nor do I wish one. I’ve known a few good people in my life. The Q comes close to being a saint.

  4. Oh I’d just shoot you! I had a roommate once that moved the furniture every weekend! That was her life! We only lived together for about 3 months! It’s all I could stand! MY furniture gets moved about once every 22 years! Maybe. And then I grumble…

  5. LOL!! Great story! I’m glad you kept him on his toes.

    I don’t mind all the switching around of your template at all. I think change is fun!

    Don’t forget to come by my blog to enter in my first blog giveaway ever!

  6. I used to love moving the furniture frequently, but I’m older now and it pretty much just gets moved to clean under it.

    Maybe I’ll try some template moving….it isn’t heavy 🙂

  7. Then O.C. and Quill, everything happened for a reason and you both being together is a plus for all that know you.

  8. Don’t worry about us. I keep some blog dramamine on my desktop because of Cooper.

  10. OC — I am much more sinner than saint, but I love you, too.

    Melli — but you re-do your blog twice a year …..

    Karen — I am happy to entertain.

    Amber — I’m much less quick to change the furniture these days myself.

    Brian — thank you. What a nice thing to say.

    Doug — I think Cooper’s template is automated and it just changes every so often of it’s own accord.

    Carletta — and my sister so didn’t like those feet! She wanted to know why I didn’t get a pedicure first if I was going to paste my feet at the top of the blog for all the world to see!

  11. some change every now and again is a good thing. i’m sure you’ll find something you will be pleased with – for a few weeks at least 🙂
    pft, your ex was pitiful… but at least he gave you something to blog about

  12. I’m a re-arranger too. I want to move the computer cabinet and the couch, but that means everything else has to move, and I’d probably discover that it didn’t fit.

  14. Change is good! I never move the furniture, although this weekend we moved a whole lot of stuff around in the barn – trying to make the space work better….ayyeee…what a lot of work.
    The Mango Chutney recipe is up! Hey….I thought I was coming to your place to make it, he he 😉

  16. Oh Quilly you were soooo inconsiderate to give him hot homemade soup and warm bread and a warm gown.
    Then to make him a warm drink exactly as requested.
    Very inconsiderate of you.

    (LMAO at the thought of him on the floor after walking around the chair…!)

    PS – love this layout. Are you changing the blog title too?

  19. Polona — I want a dark, variable width, three column blog template with a customizable header. Is that too much to ask?

    Brig — Oh I have so done that!

    Dr. John — just don’t rearrange Pigeon Falls!

    Shelly — when does your plane touch down? I’ll be there to pick you up.

    Holly — he was cute, just not worth much else when he was drinking

    Cath — the blog title changes frequently! For now, I like this.

    Kila — I don’t care for change just for the sake of change, but I like it when it serves a purpose.

    David — I could fess up, down and sideways, but the fact would still remain that whoever moved your chair was probably on at least the same tectonic plate as you.

  20. That is too funny to imagine him on the floor. As women, it is so obvious to us when things are re-arranged or needing to be re-arranged. It is either that or spend big money re-accessorizing all the time. We just want things to look fresh.

    I have your bicycle story bookmarked so I can go back to it….hopefully tomorrow.

  21. Jules — that, and I was bored! Once you’ve read the bicycle story, you might want to stick around and read a few others.

  22. I have a love-hate relationship with change, but I swear if you kept moving the furniture around on me, then I probably would have had to do something drastic. Nail guns may have been required…

  24. ROTFL!! Great story! I can see why David gave you a nod.

    I’m just the opposite – I hate changing things. I have to move soon, and I dread it. Wanna come help me arrange the furniture?

    Please?!

  25. G2 — NOT! Rearranging and moving are whole different things. When I moved from Las Vegas to Hawaii I sold/gave away/tossed almost everything I owned!

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