Feb 20, 2012

Kicking the Start

Another day of my life, my new life. This thing about getting your life started, all this "blank slate" and what-not... it's not really as all cool anf fun as you would think it is, particularly not in a place across the planet, and I freaking know this place! 

The moving was supposed to get started today, but it kinda didn't go that way. My boyfriend had plenty of things to do, and I also managed a few things of my own, like getting my pictures framed. No, they haven't been framed yet, but I've found myself a place where I can get them framed, and the lady was so nice and so adorable to me, that she expressed how much she loved the pictures I've brought (it seems she's also a big fan of Mucha), and was delighted with my pick for frames: white. She expressed concern about the color of the walls, and I was honest. I told her our walls are currently white, but I inted to paint them brown, and so all our furniture is white and so the frames need to be white to pop up nicely. This made her giddy. She must absolutely see a picture of this when I'm done! So many people in Hungary are to terribly conservative about decoration and fear to make bold statements! Truth to be told, I don't consider chocolate walls to be any sort of bold statement, as brown is basically a muted, neutral, earthy color.

We discussed the pictures, the frames and the accompanying "passepartout". The Mucha pictures (two of them) will get a sweet chocolate passepartout, while my dear Chat Noir will receive a black one. The frames are all equal and all white. In the case of the Chat Noir it might seem strange, but as we set the frame sample and the passepartout, the contrast was so magnificent it was amazing! On a white wall, the frame would ghost over the picture while the passepartout - as in the Mucha pictures - will give you the feeling that that is indeed the frame. On a chocolate wall, however, the white frame will nearly float in space making a visual statement without ever overpowering the picture itself - as it has been my intention.

It never ceases to amaze me how people often choose massive frames for certain pictures that are not so well done, or not so big, ignoring entirely the fact that this way the attention shifts from the painting or pifture itself to the frame. Large, golden or silvery, massive pieces end up coming out terribly tasteless and a clear statement that owner or the person ordering the piece does think that money or the appearance of money is the one thing defining taste.

The job won't be inexpensive, but it's well worth it to finally see my pictures framed and hanging on the wall of my home. The pictures will be done - Hyne willing - by Thursday, and if things go as planned, then by Thursday we'll be halfway ready in the moving - and at least all our furniture will be at home, and hopefully an important part of it will be assembled.

I also did another not-quite-inxpensive purchase. I met today with Jules for lunch and some getting up-to-date with each other - I totally love that guy! He's such a sweetheart! - and as usual, we met at a certain place we always meet, and where there's a quite important Evangelical Church. Lutheran actually, I believe. Well, ever since the happenings of yesterday, I've decided I'll "arm up" myself for "biblical" defense - though there's no need really, to defend myself from a religious or church-point of view when I'm okay with God and the rest of the world can do what they want about their own opinion of Him - and for that I happen to need a Bible. I do have one, which was given to me by my grandmother some 24 years ago or so, and that's currently in Costa Rica, so I needed one now, here, and preferably in Hungarian, so if I need to quote, I get the words right.

The funny thing is that I've got this quite particular idea about a white Bible. I wanted a white Bible and I kept seeing in my mind myself consulting a white Bible. Sure, I'm currently concentrating a lot on the white: white furniture, white frames... a lot of white walls to be dealt with later... there's a lot of white, so maybe I had the color creeping up to me from there, but still, there I was "white Bible, white Bible, white Bible..." I haven't seen many and I believe they are mostly for Catholic children making their First Communion or something like that. Well, be it as it may, when I was parting ways with Jules, I told him I still gara pick up a Bible. We went to a store but there were no Bibles there (a regular book store), and from there we remembered the place where we met (duh...) and so we went there - we had to both, as there we could also each take our train or tramway to continue our separate journeys - and quite quickly we located their bookstore - an Evangelical Bookstore. I thought: "they must have white Bibles", so was we were greeted, I said to the salesmen, that I wanted a Bible. Here questions started in an odd way. "Catholic or Protestant?" Geez, ain't like the same Bible for everybody? I told him I'm Lutheran, so that's Protestant. Ok, "New translation or old language?" O_O Whadda ...? Make it new, I need to understand. There was another question, I believe regarding the year of the translation or the type of translation, or the congregation... I'm not sure, which I couldn't answer. The salesman slowly started packing then the table with blue, wine, green and black bibles explaing that this had comments, this had not, this had a larger font type... There was a white one I saw but wasn't sure it was a Bible - it could be a prayer book or a song book - so I asked the man:

"How about that white one?"

He turned to the only other white book in the whole wall and pulled a book that had some Transylvanian or whatnot translation. The book wasn't the one I had my eye trained on.

"No, I mean that other one. Is that a Bible?"

The man turned then to the one book I meant and seemed hesitant. Yes, it is a Bible, but that's a something I didn't understand, and it's bound in real leather with goldened pages (the borders) and this and that... I was afraid it was not for sale, and it was so beautiful! The man then explained that the matter was that the book was pricey. I turned the book - neatly kept in a plastic bag - and checked the price. Honestly I didn't check the price of the other Bibles so I have no idea how expensive that one really was, all I knew was that I had the money.

"This is the one I want."

And I've got it! Perhaps it's stupid, but I found it so amazing that I had been thinking exactly of a white Bible and from a selection of many, many other bibles, I've got the only one that was white (and pleasing to me). It filled me with hope, like a sign telling me that dreams do come true, that my dreams are becoming real and that God is indeed with me when I need Him the most. Inspite what others may say, inspite what others may bleakly forecast, there's no space for doubt, only for doing, only for going ahead and trying, for God is with me in this journey, and things are going to be just beautiful.

No comments: