What’s the nicest thing you own?

Originally published at brigidkeely.com/wordpress. You can comment here or there.

Nesko and I own a table that is very very nice. It is some rich dark wood (fruit wood, maybe? not quite the color of cherry, or the texture) and goes from “very very small” to “round and seats four” to “insert two leaves and seat eight.” I’m pretty sure that it originally had at least one more leaf, but we got the table from my mom who got it at an auction and it only came with the two leaves.

We sit at it in folding chairs because we can’t afford real, wooden chairs. We are classy. And yes, I keep looking on Craigslist for decent used chairs, but they’ve already been purchased by the time I email or call. Life is just so hard.

So anyway, we have this really nice table. It’s great for eating breakfast at, or having people over for dinner at, or for playing board games with people at. I usually keep it covered in a table cloth because I don’t want the wood getting scratched, dinged, or sun faded or dried out. So its loveliness is often hidden, which is a shame, but that means it’s lovely for later as well. Sometimes we eat with placemats instead of a table cloth.

My baby’s god daddy was in town visiting us a short while ago, and we played “Cities and Knights of Catan.” I lost, because I always lose. It is my nature. We played on the naked table because a table cloth can make the board (which is made of tiles set close together) lumpy and affect game play. We ate pizza and drank cokes and screwdrivers and had a really good time. And I felt like a rampaging bitch because I kept reminding Mike to use a coaster.

Other people habitually use coasters! We got ours at flippin’ TARGET. It’s a normal thing! But I felt like such a douche reminding him to use one. And I felt really paranoid. We don’t use coasters for ANY other piece of furniture, but then all of our other furniture is crap laminate. I just… really like this table. It’s a “real” table, made of wood and not plastic or veneer, and it makes me feel like an adult. I’ve had dinner parties at this table, complete with multi course meals and wine and pomegranates for dessert. Adult! And I want to keep it nice.

But I feel like a poser, all using coasters and badgering people not to put their coke cans directly on the wood; like I’m faking this whole “adult” thing in a fairly desperate and obvious way.

What’s the nicest thing that YOU own? Are you paranoid about keeping it nice and in good shape? Am I a crazy person? Let me know what you think.

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