Knock on Wood

There's moments that let us know we are in a groove, the good kind of groove I mean, when life is flowing along. Days when the street lights turn green one after another so you make it to your appointment on time, or when you need a meat thermometer that you use only at Thanksgiving except on days in February when you're in the mood for a turkey and it's in the first drawer you open...

We've been integrating our STUFF which by all admissions is altogether too much and certainly more of an assemblage of heirloom treasures than two people typically collect. We understand it's time to pare down and organize, and we did some half-hearted giveaways of things like Aunt Myrt's old letter opener and 6 year old VHS tapes, but obviously we also need a big display cabinet of some sort.

He and I and our brains have been thinking about what to do. He thinks vertically, meaning it's fine with him to stack and layer everything together, but that doesn't work as well for my horizontal style of uncommitted walls and floorspace and simple lines. He wants lived-in and comfortable, so we've got a bit of a challenge.

In a matter of days the house will be crammed with family and friends who will be draped on the sofa, in both guest rooms and on airbeds in the livingroom and oval office. Seriously, what the heck are we going to do with all this stuff? And so this Democratic cat and Republican dog came to shop together for a solution to the historic assemblage of treasures.

It started out innocently when we noticed a diamond was a bit loose in the ring and it needed to be looked at by the jeweler in Roseville. So we headed there, and as luck would have it, in that same shopping center we noticed a newly opened little consignment furniture store. We stopped in to explore and inside was the most wonderful piece, a vintage bookcase with glass doors we couldn't have ever imagined would be patiently waiting for us to take it home.

It is old, and enormous, with the sweet rounded edges of wood worn soft from years of use. It kind of looks like the bookshelves from a turn of the century mansion with a drawing room with paneled walls and leather wing chairs. Open- close-open-close in somebody's library or den, filled with knick knacks or law books. Or in the sitting room filled with china patterns handed down by someone's grandmother, that were meticulously wiped and dusted and loved. The fact it has a story to tell makes it a little bit irresistible, if you must know.

I'll spare you the embarrassing details of how we danced around happily as we paid for it on the spot, or the logistics of arranging muscle to help get it home because someone is a Princess. We were so excited that we tore into the terrifying task of emptying the Oval Office of its current stash of 4,000 books, DVDs, CDs, cassettes and vinyl LPs and removed all the shelves and bookcases to patch and paint on Valentine's Day. We cheerfully worked the room to make way for this glorious piece, and watched it become even more perfect than we imagined it would be.

It was one of the best Valentine's days ever. See? It was one of those days.