Friday, January 05, 2007

Braindeadlia

Airport transactions are less drab on the 24th of December. The “cheery” seems to waft up like static scuffed out of the undulating teal and salmon patterned carpet at your gate, out of the pile of newspapers you read and shed while clutching your boarding pass, out of the styrofoamed coffee, in the reassuring Morse code of overhead bin latches and safety belt buckles as we close our eyes.

Then, we are on the sidewalk, and that first intake of warm moist Braindeadlian air is like being hitched up to a morphine drip. We are sinking into Fort Lauderdale for a week, and we barely hear the horn of Gabe’s Lexus, and we demand open windows for the short trip from the airport, and we lunch at Fernanda’s with luggage still in the trunk, relieved to find that the calamari salad is still the best in the world.

Stepping off the elevator on the seventeenth floor of our building, I feel anxious as I fish for the keys, I open the door, and that mildly disinfectant scent that I have never been able to expunge rushes to greet us like a joyful dog left alone too long. So different from the scent of our New York place which is darker and oaken, toasted, and with hints of berries and plum. So different from our home in the Wretched Little City, where the scent of garlic in olive oil greets you like a bossy and illegal housekeeper.

We find the installation of new hurricane windows and door to be completed. The crew has left no debris, but there is a thin film of white dust on every surface. Before we unpack, we clean the place, top to bottom, shedding northern clothing as we work. This dust has ignored the restrictions of cabinetry. Even the Motrin bottle in the medicine cabinet needs a rinse.

swiffer

Yes, Eddie, the chairs are vintage Saarinen (even the red vinyl cushions are original). I found them roadside in Connecticut, housing spiders. The table is a Raymond Loewy design with matching chairs that are in storage because their slick seats make naked sitting adhesive.

Cleaning a place that you’ve been away from for awhile is not so dreary a task. Not unlike a re-acquaintance or a resurrection staged by carpetbaggers. I pause to admire my own modest design coup: a diamond plate truck box from Home Depot. I drilled four holes in its base and added the wheels. It functions as coffee table, extra seating, and, as locked storage for special things that need security while we are away: our favorite mugs, the in-line skates, leather flip flops acceptable at the Ramrod on a week night, our Club Baths membership cards, a favorite Dolce and Gabbana bathing suit, bitters, Maker’s Mark, vermouth and poppers.

My own little design coup

With a huge sunny stretch of afternoon left for divertissement, we cross the street to Hugh Taylor Birch Park and do eight miles on our skates. A restorative jump in the pool, and we begin to think about the night to come.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was good to see you. :) Each and every unexpected time, too. Ha!

Anonymous said...

Are those chairs Danish? My new coffee table is Danish modern and I just love it. The truck box idea is fantastic!

No blogger I read writes about the sense of "place" better than you do.

Joshua said...

I'm loving the retro look. But what a drag to have to clean - before settling in!

A Bear in the Woods said...

I enjoy the calm, even sober tone used to describe mundane events with the same fascination with which you might describe an exciting group sex encounter.
Hypnotic.

Anonymous said...

Stop by the DJ booth on Thursday or Friday night and say hi to Herbie James..... I'm usually hanging around late on Friday....

Anonymous said...

The chairs and table are rather fabulous. The image of the truck box on the cool tile floor, triggered a flood of memories of my years in Florida. Every place I lived in South Florida, including Lauderdale, had at least one room with the exact same tile floor. I recall spending the day on the beach at seventeenth street, or Haulover, and laying down naked on the tile floor, with a cool drink in hand, to ease the pain of too much sun. It was much easier to clean up the sand that always found a place to adhere to me (and then jettison to whatever environment I entered) off of the tile rather than the carpet. I echo Daniel's thoughts on our writing. I get instantly sucked into a story of yours, despite the subject matter, more because of tone and style than anything else. Your erudite and thought provoking commentary seals the deal for me.

Chicago

Anonymous said...

My God... that's exactly what I'd put in my own hope chest... creepy.

Comfortable shoes, lounge/swim wear, a Manhattan, and some other familiar yet mildly hedonistic accoutrements. I can't imagine a better way to spend a week in January.

Homer said...

So shiny bright!

circleinasquare said...

OOH! Chairs! I just bagged me a vintage Saarinen Executive Chair with original upholstery and the rare bentwood legs. Sadly the apartment in which it will dwell is unlikely to be dusted anytime soon. xo Eddie

evilganome said...

I, virtuous New England ant, sneer at the feckless grasshopper as he indolently lolls on the beach. Soaking up the sun and surrounding tanned male pulchritude, while I industriously labor on in the dreary Boston winter. (must stop typing, the poison of envy is causing the flesh to melt from my bones.)