I was beginning to wonder if it even existed, the just-right end table for the corner, next to the sofa in our living room. Since we'd moved into this house over a year ago, a cardboard box had been the stand-in there. Nice. Actually, it was, for a cardboard box; not so much for an end table.
For whatever reason, the just-right end table I had pictured in my mind was round, nearly as tall as the sofa arm, had pedestal legs, and was made of dark wood with subtle details. And, it was vintage. But in all my thrift store, yard sale, and antique store travels, I hadn't found it anywhere.
So, the stand-in cardboard box continued to, well, stand-in (and sag in the middle).
Then, this day came! (Known by some as Mama's Birthday Present to Herself Day, known by others as Pirate Costume Day!)
There I was, about town on a sunny day, with fall flowers on the sidewalks and old brick buildings and shops lining the street. In one door and out the other, the heels of my brown leather boots clacked across the worn wooden floors of several of them. In one of those shops, the one that had the bright red ice-cream chairs out front and just-right music playing in the background, I came around a corner, and there it was!
My table!!
It was the perfect size, the perfect color, the perfect style, the perfect age! Could it be true? Oh. My. Goodness!!
Then, I looked at the price.
Not everything was perfect.
You see, when you've become terribly spoiled by finding blow-your-mind-cool vintage pieces at thrift stores for a handful of dollars or less, a price tag showing a cost of nearly twenty times that makes your heart stop.
Then it sinks.
Then you hem and you haw. And you haw and you hem. And you walk away, looking at other things, but not really looking at other things. Then you come back to the perfect table, and you touch it, you look underneath, you wiggle it. And the imperfect price tag is still there, hanging in a silly way off the edge of your perfect table.
And your heart never recovers.
You walk out the door of that perfect little shop, your heels sounding a hollow thud (or is that your heart?), leaving the perfect table behind!
To be continued...
