my birthday present to me
January 11, 2013
Remember last year when I was so excited about getting a real bed after sleeping on a futon for fifteen years? Well, I did it again. A couple of months ago I was eating dinner, and I looked at my plate and noticed it was pretty badly chipped. All my dishes — dinner plates, salad plates, bowls — were pretty badly chipped. Which is to be expected, since they’ve been in constant use for something like 25 years. That’s when it hit me: I’ve been eating on these plates since I was a teenager. These are the hand-me-downs I got from my parents when I moved out after college. They got new dishes, I got half of the old ones, and my brother got the other half. When Rob got married, he and Deb got new ones as part of their wedding registry and he gave the other half back to me. And I kept using them because they’re functional and quite nice looking.
And I’ve been using them since I was a teenager.
(There’s some debate with my parents about whether we got this set when we lived in Maryland, ’85-’88, or when we moved to Colorado in ’88. But the fact remains: I was a teenager.)
I decided I wanted new dishes. My very own new dishes that I picked out my very own self. It feels a lot like buying a real bed did, and it feels like I’m finally fully graduated from the dorm-room hand-me-down lifestyle I had right out of college.
Confession: I narrowed my choices down to about four that I liked, and finally decided on this one by asking myself, “What would the Elves in Rivendell choose?”
So pretty, I’m almost afraid to use them. But not really. They arrived Wednesday, and packing up the old ones so I can use these has been so very satisfying. Happy early birthday to me!
January 11, 2013 at 11:20 am
Lovely choice…
January 11, 2013 at 2:13 pm
I like them! The elves would too.
January 11, 2013 at 2:20 pm
Lovely and elvish.
Best, Brian
January 11, 2013 at 5:05 pm
I am happy for you.
These will just add to the fun of your dinner parties. Or even a turkey sandwich on a Saturday afternoon. P and I just bought a new set after 15 or so years of the old ones. It was thrilling to use them the first time.
January 12, 2013 at 7:45 am
Gorgeous. I like the glaze, it looks a bit old-fashioned. Have fun using them! ^_^
January 12, 2013 at 11:09 am
They’re gorgeous!
Somehow we are on the same life schedule. We just bought our first bed last weekend (!) and we’re both in our 40s. In fact, it’s the first furniture-we-didn’t-put-together-ourselves purchase for both of us.
But dishes…. we’re using remnants of two hand-me-down sets from my parents. Mis-matched, chipped….. I mentioned to Paul not long ago that maybe we can take the plunge and actually buy dishes one of these years now that it appears the marriage has taken (16 years). He said “Nah…. I don’t think we’re ready!”
January 12, 2013 at 12:45 pm
Those are really lovely and definitely have that Elvish look to them. I’ve no doubt you and your family and friends will share many happy memories over them in the years to come. Enjoy!
January 12, 2013 at 4:19 pm
Wow, I do like those. Happy early birthday to you!
While I haven’t been using the same dishes since I was a teenager quite, I’ve still been using most of the ones I’ve had since college.
At some point I’ll get established enough to not have to still be living a college dorm lifestyle still. Hopefully anyways.
Cheers, and congratulations on the new dishes!
January 13, 2013 at 5:27 pm
Very nice!
January 18, 2013 at 11:16 am
I got rid of all my old dishes on the day after I got back from my honeymoon. We’d gotten this lovely modern set – our first real grown up dishes! And they actually matched! It was pretty exciting.