about a year ago, i had just moved into a new house and i was looking for a little dresser for the powder area next to my bathroom. i’d been scouring craigslist for a few weeks, & finally found one that looked about the right size. i emailed the seller, T, & he emailed me back right away, suggesting that i meet his wife J that evening at their house to take a look at it. he was asking $150 or so for the dresser, and i wasn’t sure from the picture whether i loved it or not, so on my way to their house to meet his wife, even though i only had $30 in my wallet, i didn’t stop at the ATM. i wanted to give myself an excuse to leave their house and think about it before buying it- a little pre-purchase, cool-off period.
i arrived at their house (which was only a few miles down the road from mine), and rang the doorbell. J answered the door… and i immediately fell in love with her. i don’t know what it was, but there was something about her that made me start plotting to convince her to be my new best friend. it turned out to be easy- we realized within seconds that we both volunteered for the same dog rescue, and we spent about an hour chatting about our experiences with fostering and people we knew in common.
finally we turned to the business at hand- the dresser. my instincts from the picture were right- i didn’t love it. but i wasn’t about to risk losing my new bff just because i was picky about my furniture! so… i somewhat pathetically told her that i very much wanted to buy it, but i hadn’t brought enough money. we negotiated a little, pretty halfheartedly on both ends, and ended up agreeing that i would give her the $30 in cash that i had, and give her a check for the remainder… when she and her husband came over for dinner the following saturday night.
now, a year later, J & T are two of my favorite people and closest friends- they are the type of people you can’t get enough of. only recently, i confessed to them that i hadn’t really cared for the dresser, & that i was actually pathetic enough to buy it just because i wanted so much to be J’s friend. in hindsight, buying it was totally unnecessary- i’m sure we would have become close anyway. but on the other hand, this otherwise boring little dresser has such wonderfully happy associations that it’s grown on me. it’s perfectly useful, & while it may not be beautiful per se, the friendship that grew out of it certainly is…
I agree completely with the whole craigslist sentiment. I have gotten some sweet deals, a few jobs, and of course, your friendship:-) Love the blog idea...
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