These are from Ali’s 31 More Things class. More context here.
So here’s my day fourteen – bedside table.
(journaling below)
Journaling:
This table at the side of my bed has been with me since I graduated college back in 1996. It’s traveled to New York City, Boston, La Jolla, San Diego, Palo Alto, and now Menlo Park with me. It holds my socks, underwear, and some knick knacks from all these years as well as serving as a bedside table for me. It’s seen me in my 20s, 30s, and now 40s.
It used to be that my bedside table was always full of books. Piles of books that I read, was in the process of reading, or planned to read. But not anymore. Even though there was a pile until last week, I finally put the books back in the bookcase because I knew they were simply collecting dust.
I do all my reading on the ipad now.
The big and small changes I’ve made in my life are all reflected in this one piece of furniture. I have a lamp that is supposed to wake me up with the natural light and feel like the sun is coming up but because I wake up at 5:00am and it starts to light up 30 minutes before I wake up, I’ve turned the light part off so that it doesn’t wake Jake up. Instead I wake up to the sound of birds chirping, which I love.
The bedside also holds a small tupperware filled with lotion. For my body, for my feet, and hands. Lotion that I forget to use more often than I remember. Even though you’re not supposed to eat in bed, my routine for the last few months has been to go to bed an hour before I am supposed to sleep, drink some tea, eat a small bar, and listen to my current book while I play Candy Crush or cards. Sometimes I will read a book, too. I am often reading one book and listening to another so what I do in bed will depend on which book is more interesting at that moment. But both of them are on the ipad. I often like to turn out the lights and use the black background with white text so I can slowly get tired and be ready to sleep.
Who knows if in another 10 years, this bedside table will still be storing bits and pieces of my life. Will I still be in this house? Will I still have this piece of furniture that I got when I was 21? What will be my night and morning routine then? I don’t know the answers to any of these questions but I do know that these moments at night are some of my most peaceful moments right now and I will cherish them for as long as I can.
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