the eugene bean

"What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us." ~Helen Keller

I want my old sofa back.

My new sofa sucks. It was an impulse purchase that occured on the first day of our new life here in Eugene. We bought it from a crippled hippie who makes his own pillow furniture as some sort of initiation into this bizzarre town. And then it became something we had to prove. I can make it in this new town, damn it. We can do what we set out to do. I'm going to sit on this sofa for as long as it takes to learn to like it.

Fat chance, it sucks.

And this brings us to the topic of nostalgia. I was actually thinking of this topic this morning before Lea posted it to the board. In fact, it's a topic that Ty and I have thought of often in the last 4 months.

When we were in our decision making phase during the move, we decided to sell our of possessions at a garage sale. The obvious reason was to save money during the move. We wanted to drive our car and not a moving truck, we couldn't hitch a trailer to the car, and we couldn't afford to have things shipped. Also, we were moving into an apartment less then half the size of our house, so we knew our beloved sofa wouldn't fit anyway. And, quite frankly, we wanted to declutter our lives. We wanted to free up some space and make life a little simpler.

So, with the help of our family and friends, we had a massive garage sale. We sold or gave away everything in that house with the exception of a carload of precious items.

And then the nostalgia kicked in. Ty and I sat together that night and cried over the funky ice chest that had traveled to many a Mardi Gras. We cried over the toy car that Ellis had loved, the bike with the baby seat, the Classic Pooh nursery set. We talked about the special memories that those items evoked, and we talked about how they will remain forever in our hearts. We realized that you don't need a houseful of possesions in order to remember all those precious moments.

But I sure do miss that damn sofa.