Rolltop Desk, adieu

I cannot remember not loving wooden furniture in all its warmth and comfortable glory.  Along our partnership journey we have collected a few eclectic bits here and there, generally secondhand,  and some real treasures right off the pile awaiting the bone and rag man ( or whatever he is called these days) on neighborhood curb sides. I don't know what we will do to replace our hybrid dining table.  Legs and frame from one table and in-folding  extension top from another: it is higher than most tables and suits our family well. I dare not think what a custom made version of that would cost.

In fact, I pretty much don't know how much new furniture costs, period.  We built our beds, our wardrobes, our bedside tables. OK, so I designed them and Himself made them while I hovered.  Our bedroom shelving  is IKEA adjustable open stuff...not particularly high end.  We have purchased two sofas new, no three, but one was super crappy dirt cheap make do foam rubber sofa bed because we needed somewhere to sit and sleep when we moved here. Long gone.

There is only one piece of bought new furniture that I can think of:  furniture that was purchased simply as an I-want and the price was right. The Rolltop Desk.  Oh man, I was thrilled to find it- in our local DIY of all places.  We didn't really need it. But I had to have it. I swoon over roll top desks.  I can't remember how we got it home, since at that time we didn't own a car. But home it came- I remember fitting it together and giving it a good rubdown with beeswax.  AH! My desk.

It still looks pretty good

Just look at all those drawers to be organized and tidy

Yeah.yeah. Whose desk?  Somehow it never really was my desk after all.  It was always so chockablock with stuff that no one ever sat at it .  I tried a few times to organize and streamline the chaos.  However, my methods of archiving and administration are  polarly different than Himself's style; I finally gave up. Once in a while I would shove stuff around so the top came down and I wouldn't have to look at the mess.  It was a total fail as a desk in reality.  It was a great catchall though.

The renovation of the house has finally reached the dining room, which is also a study/office most of the time (when I was sewing in here it was a three ring circus.)  We plan to line the walls with book and showcases and have just the refectory table in here with ladderback chairs.  No room for any desk.
Goodbye, lovely rolltop.

So Himself put it on the internet for sale and within a couple of hours it got snapped up. Amazing because most Dutchfolk like streamlined steel and glass these days- sharp corners, straight lines, black leather.

I am trying not to think about it.  I still love that desk.
I am sorta planning on not being here Saturday when it goes to its new home.
She'll probably use it like a desk.
I wonder if I can come and visit ?

How It All Began...

I never assumed I would see so much of this planet.  My parents were avid tourists, certainly, and we did the annual family vacation thing like USAmericans do.  Mother continued to tour the world after my dad died; but I was a working single parent and the few vacations I ever had back when those children were young were to take the kids to see Grammy, my brother's wedding, and a couple of trips to see my sister on her husband's Coast Guard base; my godchild's baptism in New Mexico.  Mother took me to Paris and Luxembourg in the mid 1980's. The most important memory I have from that tour is meeting her cousin in Haller, Lux, and finding my parents'wedding photo in their family's photo album; I also remember that it seemed like every warm meal had french fries in Paris ( cuisine?)  I was a tourist and an infrequent one at that.
My worldview, my lifestyle, and just about everything else dramatically changed in 1990 when I met my husband, a native Dutchman.  Our romance sparked on a road tour from Wisconsin to New Mexico, and one year later as I visited Utrecht, Netherlands, at his invitation, I accepted his proposal of marriage. And just like that,  I became a traveler.

I am on three concurrent journeys:
1.  the partnership journey:  with its pitfalls and perils complicated by culture, language and personalities.  Himself is a cutting edge solid-state research chemist.  He makes light.  He is in demand all over the world.  He is a professor at Utrecht University.  Most of our far flung trips are because of his work.
2.  the parenting journey: re-learning to parent WITH a companion, in middle age, in a foreign environment.  I was 43 when David came along: Else was born just short of 17 months later.  Middle age, motherhood and menopause is a heady mix.
3.  the spiritual journey: becoming a better follower of Christ. I am a Latter-day Saint.  FAR from Salt lake City.  Learning to pick my battles.

I could have started this blog many times over the last 20 years: why now?  Truly, I am determined to find a way to share my photos and impressions of the world that doesn't require three different kinds of contact.  Some folks don't use Facebook, others won't click a link.  Others want to live the whole experience with me. I struggle with uploading, downloading and the internet in general. ( a whole blog experience in itself) Now that the parenting journey is nearly at the end of the teen years, I have more time to write, I travel more with Himself,  sometimes, I feel like I have something useful to share.  So.

We just got back from 10 days in Israel.  We have been to China, Japan, all over Europe, Brazil.   This summer we toured for 5 weeks in the Mountain West of the Unite States.  With a 17 and 18 year old. And we survived!  As I sort through the thousands of photos and memories, I invite you to come along for the ride.

P.S. Himself was amazed:  You forgot New Zealand!  Indeed, how could I? It was the bestest time.