Other People's Places: Lorien and Graham

Ever since I've known Lorien, she has been a collector of little things. When I met her, she was driving around an old Toyota pick-up unlike anything I had even seen before. The glove compartment was a mini-shrine. The dashboard was covered with Buddhas and incense holders. Tie-dyes were tacked to the roof. There were dream catchers and crystals, collections of sea shells. It was the moodiest truck that ever was.

When I go places with Lorien, she always finds little things to buy, and they make her way into her home. Every single thing has a story. Their home is the most sentimental of places-- living nostalgia, she says. The aesthetic that lived and breathed in that old truck of her's fills the corners of her home too. I find myself asking a million questions: Where'd you get this? What kind of plant is this? Who made this? She knows her things well, and tells their tales.

The kids and I had the best time there Monday. It was a perfect mini-vacation.

There are some pictures of her old house, a subterranean cave out in the woods, which happened to be much closer to me. I try not to be bitter that she moved so far away.

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