She was tall and had the longest, thinnest legs I’ve ever seen. She was like a giraffe, a giraffe with a pixie cut, anyway. Her delicate fingers held her cell phone as she snapped photos. She walked in whispers, in waves. And then in one fell swoop, she saw my books. “Oh,” she said. I could smell the distaste as the word dropped from her lips and hung there. “These, all of these must go,” she said, and one of her arms gestured, as if I could use a magic wand to POOF them away.
Giraffe lady’s business card was shiny, waxy, and I folded it over and over upon itself. Her leopard-print kitten heels clicked along our scuffed up wood floors. They sneered at my New Balance tennis shoes from Costco.
I couldn’t keep up with her. She wanted our life put into boxes, compartmentalized, hidden, camouflaged. Like only the house existed, not the people inside of it. No evidence. Clear the crime scene, no human beings have deigned to breathe within the confines of these walls! No children or adults have sullied this place, look how pristine it is!
Giraffe lady emailed a to-do list of eleventy billion things that needed attention before proceeding.
I heaved myself up and began. What else was there to do?
I can’t even tell you how excited I was to see an email with a new blog post from you in my inbox this morning. Welcome back. š Your writing is as beautiful and evocative as always.
The staging process is so weird. I know the conventional wisdom is to make the house a blank slate of sorts so people can imagine themselves living in it. But I could never imagine myself living in a house with no books, and I could never feel any sort of kinship with someone who doesn’t appreciate them.
So glad to see you writing again !!! We’ve missed your words! Xoxo
This is simple and heartbreaking. xo
Starting fresh, try to look at it that way. Love you…
SO HAPPY to see you blogging again! Powerful emotions. xoxo
I have Opinions on staging. š
I am glad to see you using this space again.
SO glad to see you writing, although this post is hard. š Sending good, strengthening thoughts and prayers to you. Hopefully the writing will help the healing and the letting go…
The BEST blogger on the internet is BACK!!! Yea!
So happy to get a blog post from you, but my, what an emotional time you must be going through. Sending love and hugs your way…in the form of donuts! xoxo
I hauled myself out of a blog-post-reading hiatus to come here when I saw your name in my inbox.
Love you, lady.
Will read you forever.
No matter how much time passes or how many things change.
You’re still incomparably you.
You are beautiful and talented, and it warms my heart to read your words here. xo
SO happy to see your words.
So not happy that giraffe lady was so not real. Staging bothers me. I mean, I get it, but I just don’t. Why wouldn’t someone want to see a lived-in home? Hugs for the hard, my friend.
I too was thrilled I was able to read your writing this am. This woman was so easy to picture from your description. She sounded like a feathered robot. Take Care, Anna Dell
i can see her… and I don’t like her. Love seeing your words here again, and look forward to the day when you can write here whenever you wish. xoxo