CHANGES

There is a time in one’s life when turning your dining room into a ping-pong room is a logical and inevitable choice. For more than two years, it was that time in my life. I had had a dining room table. It was beautiful and antique with the official sounding name of an “Irish kitchen table.” But it didn’t belong to me. I was watching it for a friend.  And when my friend and her boyfriend broke up, she moved out of state and took the table with her. My then-roommates’ twin brother had a ping-pong table in his garage that his wife wanted gone. So after a very short discussion about how little we actually ate at the former dining room table (when you live above the restaurant you co-own, you get lazy about cooking for yourself), we ended up with a ping-pong table.

Then, last April, my roommate Patrick moved out. But the ping-pong table stayed. I didn’t mind initially. It didn’t give the apartment the frat-boy vibe I had feared and I liked the entertainment it provided for guests. Plus, my cat Patrick (not to be confused with former-roommate Patrick) loved ping-pong. He confused the rules of the game with volley-ball, but was endlessly involved in any and all games. I tried to upload a video to demonstrate his prowess, but my (very limited) technological skills failed me in this endeavor.

But change keeps us on our toes and is healthy for our constitutions, so a month or so ago, it was out with the ping-pong table, in with a new couch (the first piece of furniture I’ve bought in 8 years as my apartment is decorated with an assortment of hand-me-downs) and another day or two of moving things from room to the next.

I still don’t have a dining room table. I have grand plans to build one as I’m assuming my one semester of shop class in the 7th grade and having a father who is a contractor means I have untapped skills as a furniture builder. But I do have a new space that makes me happy. Sitting on one couch with a glass of wine and a book, the boyfriend picking out the new record to play, Patrick the cat staring down Ella who is pretending to sleep on the other couch, the air just ever-so-slightly warmer outside – change is a good thing.