FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER!

I donated a big bag of curtains this week. I’d been saving the curtains from each of the last three houses I’ve lived in, here in California, all in the same town as my current house. Who has lived in four houses in one town? Me.

The first house was the starter home for a young family: husband, wife and baby. By the second house, it was husband, wife, sister and toddler. By the third house, it was husband, wife, teen, tween, and child. By the fourth house, it was divorcee and teen.

All those curtains from all those past windows have been in three different tubs in my beach house garage. Last year I remodeled a very ugly bathroom and had a door installed with an operable window in it. I love the extra light and being able to see if the gate is shut without having to go outside. The tiny window before didn’t let me see the gate. I had to walk clear around the house to get to the south side of my house. Now I open the door and voila! I am there.

The bigger window on the south side of my house is a problem twice a year, In April and October, when the sun’s rays come directly into the bathroom. I bought an awning, but I’m going to return it because I like seeing the stars during my 2:00 a.m. trip to the bathroom. That is why I was digging through the tubs of curtains this week. I had a long flowy curtain but it was in the way every time I needed to open the door. The curtain rod is above the door on the wall. It’s confusing, I know, but the fiberglass door can’t have a curtain rod attached to it.

I realized I have a lot of red curtains and a lot of lace curtains. I also have a lot of checked curtains and clearance curtains that I picked up, thinking that someday I would use them. The blackout curtains I picked up years ago came in handy when my adult child moved in three years ago. You never know when you might need a certain curtain. And I’m frugal, and I’m a saver.

Some of the curtains brought back bad memories of the end of my marriage. Thirteen years ago. I wasn’t ready to let go of the curtains. I am finally ready to say goodbye. The red kitchen curtains where I ate most of my meals with the kids but not the husband, the turquoise curtains for the fish bedroom at the beach house for my youngest child. She’s on the East Coast now and probably forever.

I filled a kitchen garbage bag to donate and discovered one of the tubs was mostly fabric and not curtains after all, fabric I had bought for my little divorce house, fabric my then-boyfriend made fun of because he didn’t understand that I wanted a fresh start and a new look.

He’s gone, too.