Room Makeover

As I mentioned in my Stollen post, Sabine told me she had some curtains I could have and measured my window. Well, "I have some curtains you can have" turned out to mean "I could get you some curtains." On the following Sunday, she showed me an ad and asked what color I wanted her to order. I was so surprised that I pointed to the terracotta ones. She said she would have guessed that I would pick the orange (the selection wasn't that great anyway). Later, I kept kicking myself for choosing terracotta because I knew that I hated that color but the picture had looked so red, but I felt like too much of a beggar already to ask for something else.

A couple of weeks later, Sabine and her hubby knocked on my door. I was so grateful and glad to see them, and brought them to my room where I had set up a borrowed ladder. She started putting the rings onto the curtains, while he began to say mean things after holding up a too-short pole to the window. He told her how dumb it was that she measured wrong and that she should have measured the frame, not the window, etc. Because it was completely awkward, it seemed to go on forever, even after I made that descending "Oh" sound that says, "that's mean and that's enough."

I was beginning to wish that I'd never heard of curtains, when, after a bunch of shoving and adjusting of something inside the extendable pole and metal shavings flying around the room, he was able to make the thing wide enough for my window. We quickly hung the curtain and all was well in the world. (Sabine told me later that I was privileged to see Eberhard being fussy because most people don't see that, so I must be considered practically family. It made me think of my own grandparents before my grandpa became sweet, an appreciated and much-debated occurrence.)

It's amazing to sleep without neighboring apartment buildings' lights bothering me. It's amazing to be able to change without turning the light off and having to feel around for the tag so I don't put anything on backwards. It's amazing to open the curtains in the morning and welcome the sun when I'm good and ready.

I'm so grateful for the Werners. An unconventional couple, she's taller than he is and is the one who goes to work. They show their love through service, which is the best way.

The terracotta wasn't as bad as I thought. Then I realized the pink sheet I had taken from the used pile in the RIZ would make a good couch cover, so I threw that on. Together, the colors work somehow. (And to all those who are at this moment thinking, "Michelle having terracotta and hot pink in her room? Ha ha ha ha ha," let me say one word to you: "free.") So those two things, combined with the chair Mike gave me to match my piano bench, made my room have a nice new look.

Here's a picture. I like the solid colors, no matter how student-apartment-ish they are.
















See the Andy Warhol bag on the couch that Tanya and John (or Johnya) sent for my birthday? Awesome! A little kid at work kept touching one of the little decorations pinned to the bag (a banana) and then that piece disappeared one day . . . hmm. But anyway, I love the bag. There's a place for my keys, for change, for other little things, room for my stuff (even on Sundays), and it looks so artsy that I want to show it off to people! Thanks!