I know I’m not big on change. It’s obvious and I realize it’s something I’ve struggled with since the dawn of my own personal “time.” As we get closer and closer (and closer and closer) to pending parenthood — Amy may pop in about a month, actually — preparations are continuing around the DiBiase household, as well as in our own personal lives.
When we bought our house four years ago, we had three bedrooms — one for us, one for a home office, and one for guests… and my “stuff.” I’m a collector of all kinds of useless items (one look at my office will cause most to pass ill judgment I’m sure. 🙂 ). For the “spare bedroom,” we imported some old furniture from my bedroom at my parents’ house — my old bed, my old dresser w/ mirror, and my art drafting table, which I had used a lot during college. Upon moving into our own home, the spare bedroom quickly became storage (to which I quickly remedied by clearing it out and setting it up to give it a much more “home-y” feel), and we often got the classic grin+”This is perfect for a baby’s room!” when we’d have visitors (some of who knew upon saying that ne’er to return 😉 ).
With little William on the way, we’d begun converting the room over to the little guy’s bedroom. The concert photos hanging on the wall were replaced with images from animated movies, the closet has quickly begun to fill up with baby clothes and gifts from baby showers (and it had, upon moving in, become more of a utility space for JFH stuff), and my beloved drafting table was relocated to a corner in the room to make way for the little dude’s brand new crib. That’s all fine and dandy, but despite my wife lovingly being supportive of the moving of the drafting table from one end of the room to the other — thus keeping it in the room — my inability NOT to think of the future has kept me uneasy about leaving the table in the baby’s room. After all, it’s HIS room now…
Fast forward to earlier today. Scratch that — fast forward to earlier in the wee hours as I lay in bed unable to fall asleep as I tried to mentally move the table to SOMEWHERE else in the house.
The problem is… there IS no other place for the table besides that corner of Will’s room. But it doesn’t belong there. I’ve come to accept that. So where in the world does a 42 inch wide worn-but-still-useful drafting table go aside from folded up in storage?
I feel like storing the table away would be me hanging up my drawing pencils. Although, realistically, I can draw anytime and anywhere, there was something about parking my tail at that table with 100% intent to draw SOMEthing that helped keep me artistically active… even if it was sparsely scattered throughout the course of a year (since exiting college). Seeing the table reminded me, although I work way more than a sane person might, that the artistic chapter of my life was still being written… I could return to it at my leisure and as time permitted.
As I tossed and turned, mind racing (yes, literally… unfortunately), my plan to fall asleep at an early hour was thwarted by a restless mind… where in the world could I relocate that table to? (Where are we going to find room for ALL of his stuff?!)
When I awoke, I popped in my contacts and immediately went into Will’s room to measure the dimensions of the table and then back to my office to measure a possible new home for it… the table was 42 inches wide… the space I was contemplating…. was 42 inches wide. Eeesh… this is gonna be a tight fit, I thought. But I knew if I didn’t try actually relocating it, that I’d never know for sure…. so I moved out three CD towers from my office and a short metal filing cabinet, and lugged the table into my office where I struggled to secure a new place for it. …. a few hours later, my office had shrunk. Now there was my gigantic work desk, a tall filing cabinet, one short metal filing cabinet (but there were two of those before), a loaded shallow closet, a big office desk that is my wife’s, a printer stand loaded with junk…. and a big hulking white drafting table wedged into the corner of my office… Considering how much time I spend in here, I realized it’s like living on a submarine… cozy, perhaps, but potentially claustrophobic as well!
I’ve yet to take the table for an artistic spin, so to speak, but I actually do look forward to trying out that corner… although I feel like my walls are closing just a bit.
Cheers to change, eh? 😉
(the table… stuffed into the corner of my office… a little uncomfortably?)