Home improvements

After almost two years, I found the perfect rug for my dining room. It's from the most mundane of stores -- Pier 1 -- but it is perfect. It's blue-gray to echo the aqua couch in the adjoining room, and it has a pattern of gingko leaves scattered across in a different weave. I had to drive across town to the other store because they were almost out of stock.

As soon as I saw it, I knew it was the right one. Over the last two years I've seen possible candidates, but none that ever made me jump to it. I would always tell myself to think it over, and inevitably I would forget about it. But that's how I make decisions, just like my mom; trust that you'll know it when you see it, then keep your eyes open and just wait for it to arise.

Not that rugs are terribly important, but I make most significant choices this way--houses, jobs, men. With the first two, I've been pretty successful. My choices seem pretty skewed on the last. I'm still working on it.

On a much smaller but equally satisfying scale, I also bought new shower curtain rings. The old ones that came with the house had a pretty shell design, but they were the open-hook kind, which means at least a couple fall off the rod pretty much every time you move the curtain. I want to know who thinks these are a good idea?

Apparently someone likes them, because there were many assorted brands and designs at Lowe's, and only one style of the ones I wanted -- the cinching, fully closed loops with cylindrical ball bearings for easy sliding. Growing up, we always had plastic ones that worked fine, but the metal ones are so posh. Plus, they make a pleasing shhhsh shhhsh sound when you move them around.

I took my decorative shower curtain down to wash it, so I showered with just the clear liner this morning which was like 1) being in a fish bowl, looking out at my bathroom and 2) like being the bubble boy from Seinfeld. Also, it was much sunnier. Maybe I would be more alert and cheerful in the morning if I just nixed the shower curtain.