smattering

A couple of weeks ago I came home with about ten books – a couple of which were given away as gifts – after going to mail a letter on a Saturday then remembering that the post office was closed on weekends.  No, I didn’t happen upon a bookstore and splurge.  Turns out a Harvard student (I live about ten minutes from the campus) was having a purge of books from all the courses they had taken.  I picked up two graphic novels (one a *mint* copy of Ghost World), a Graham Greene novel, Foucault’s Pendulum - not what I would call a readable novel, probably going to get passed on unfinished – and a couple of critical theory texts, which, much to the chagrin of a passing hipster, I was actually going to read, since Crit. Theory happens to be my academic thing.  I sent my roommate out to the box after stumbling in breathless with an armful of free treasure, only to have him come back in a few minutes later sullen because the box had been emptied in the few minutes I stepped away. 

Later that day a friend accused me of “always finding the best shit on the street” – and this from a man who found 50 dollars on the ground New Year’s Day!  The truth is, I kind of do.  It being a college/young/hip/professional neighborhood in a major metropolitan area, people have a lot of cool stuff.  There are a metric ton of yardsales every week during the summer, and what happens when you don’t sell those awful old clothes or bare lamps?  Why, they go out to the garbage.  Some people are too lazy to bring the leftovers to Goodwill/Salvation Army, or to even have the yardsale in the first place, so almost every weekend and every garbage day there’s a box or two of free junk to peruse. 

Past classic finds

- a painty old chair (a artist’s?) which I plan on knocking the broken struts off of, throwing a couple hooks up on the wall, and having a weird shelf

- the world’s ugliest pyramid teapot: white with a black and maroon pattern.  I wish my camera weren’t broken, it’s truly too heinous to describe effectively.  I once drank beer out of it at a “no cups” party.  Ah, college.

- one “free stuff” pile included two puzzles (one a duck and one a landscape), a heart wine stopper, and some incense from India which I gave to a friend.

- a poetry anthology which was amongst about five other poetry books; apparently someone took a poetry class they hated…

- a box I passed the other night had nordic ski boots which were my size: too bad I don’t ski, had to pass those up!

- someone threw out an entire record collection of old classical music records.  I grabbed about ten well-known ones and gave them to a friend with a record collection who likes classical music.  We played a couple of them once and they still worked, so I suppose it was a good deal.

- a dark wood chair with leather backing: passed it since I was on my to dinner, came back and it was unfortunately gone.  Same thing happened a couple days later with a papasan chair.  Probably for the best, since I would not have been able to transport these things to my dorm room via my friend’s small, rickety BMW.

I plan on taking a nice long walk this Sunday on my way to the Cambridge Antiques Market in hopes of finding some great stuff.  I’ll post anything I happen upon… I can’t wait to get into my own place in mid/late-August so I can start putting this stuff to good use!