brainylady

I'm having an allergy day again, as if Mondays aren't bad enough. Plus I'm really tired, having been kept awake by a persistent mosquito and itchy legs last night. (Mosquitoes in January! It's just so wrong.)

Good news on the homefront: we bought some real furniture this weekend! We now have a couch, loveseat, and chair in the living room. Living temporarily in another country is funny -- you do (buy, eat, say, etc.) things that you think aren't really you. I'm not an aesthetic snob, but I know what I like; I've evolved from the years of futons on the floor and cement-block-and-board bookcases, and I've collected things that I like to have in my home. Bill and I have bought art, books, and furniture. I've gradually replaced everyday dishes with 1950s dinerware. We were at the point where I really enjoyed having people visit us at home. I was houseproud. At our last place pre-Asia, we even had a real guest room for the first time. I do miss all that stuff, but I don't think about it too often. I thought about it yesterday, though, as I stood in our living room and thought, "Well, I never imagined this."

Let me fill you in on a bit of living room background. When we moved into our current apartment in the summer, we didn't have any furniture. The apartment included a bed and a table, and that was it. We bought a TV and two chairs, and eventually two folding chairs (you know, for company). Basically, we cultivated a college dorm aesthetic: two chairs in a barren room, facing the TV/DVD setup. We hung a few vintage Chinese advertising posters that Bill had picked up in Hong Kong. It was pretty bleak.

One day a couple of months ago, I came home from work to find there had been a living room makeover! In an attempt to cheer me up about the house, Bill had bought two red Chinese carpets and two sets of red blinds. (We have huge windows in the living room, but they just look into another room, not outside.) The colour did make the room a little cosier. The setup with the two chairs was getting a little tired, though; we felt like Archie and Edith Bunker sitting side by side in our chairs evening after evening. So the other night when Bill saw an ad online for a leather sofa set, he called, and we bought.

OK, so, keeping in mind the red blinds and red carpets, now imagine three pieces of forest green leather furniture. Forest. Green. Leather. Oh yeah, baby. Now, this is a look that isn't really up my alley. It's a look I don't plan to duplicate in the future. However, it's so damn awesome to lie on a sofa and watch TV! So I chalk up the living room -- in its state of advanced bachelor-pad bad taste -- to what I call the New Acceptable. The We-live-in-Taiwan-and-all-previous-rules-are-out-the-window Standard.

Uh-oh. I just realized I'm going to have to take a picture of the room tonight, aren't I?