Incoherent Scribblings

About a month before A. and I left Oregon for Germany, I talked him into taking me to Seattle. I had never been to Seattle before and I was eager to see the setting of Fraiser, the home of Starbucks and grunge music, and of course the Space Needle. It was a cool, but sunny spring day and we had a pleasant time. We had only been married about a month, and A. was still into doing things that impressed me; so we had dinner in the rotating restaurant at the top of the Needle. The crab cakes were fantastic and it was just so much fun!

I had taken pictures to commemorate our visit, bought postcards to send to my friends and family, and just like many other tourists I was looking for a little something else to show off in the shadowbox above my bed that claimed “Hey, I was there!” I have quite a nice little collection of shot glasses, painted shells, plastic beads, and statues from all of the locales that I have visited in my thirty years.

One of my favorite souvenirs is a 3 or 4 inch tall Eiffel Tower replica that I bought during my junior year of college abroad in Paris. It has always had a place of honor in my little shadow box, not only because of all the places I have ever been Paris remains my favorite, but also because for the longest time it was the only statue I had. This changed when I visited Seattle. While searching for the perfect shot glass, I came across a 3 or 4 inch tall replica of the Space Needle and knew that I would look great beside my Eiffel Tower.

I bought it and when we got home put it in its place of honor beside the Eiffel Tower and then as it gathered dust, I didn’t think too much more about it until we were packing to move to Germany. The movers came and carefully wrapped all of my “knickknacks” in sheets of recycled gray paper and put them in a box. I stood and watched as they put away the shot glasses, the shells, the beads, and the miniature statues of the Eiffel Tower and the Space Needle. The box was sealed and I didn’t see it again for many months as it made its boat journey from Oregon to Germany.

After we had been in our new apartment in Germany for about a month, the shipment with our belongings arrived. I was ecstatic to see my “things” again. I quickly unwrapped the dishes and put them in my new dishwasher. I filled my new closets with the winter clothes that had been packed away. Finally, I carefully removed each of my knickknacks from the paper and proudly placed them in my shadow box. At the end of a couple of days the boxes that had held our belongings were overflowing with discarded paper and we took them to the dump and left them with all of the other cardboard boxes and paper to be recycled.

A few weeks later, I was lying on the bed gazing at my shadow box trying to figure out where to put the new shot glass I had bought while in Rome. Suddenly, it dawned upon me that something was missing. As I concentrated on the collection, I realized with dismay my Space Needle wasn’t in its place alongside the Eiffel Tower! Frantically, I had A. help me tear apart our newly reorganized apartment in an effort to locate my Space Needle replica.

Our search, however, was in vain. We found the Space Needle nowhere. A. asked me if it even made it over the Atlantic. I told him I had observed the movers put it in the box. My guess was that in all of the confusion of unwrapping everything when it arrived in Germany I missed the Space Needle and it remained in the box, which had then been taken to the dump. Devastated, I realized my Space Needle was lost forever.

P.S. If anyone reading this blog would like to send me a miniature replica of the Space Needle, (hint, hint ) please email me and not only will I supply you with my address, I will love you forever.