The Green Tent

At the swim meet last weekend, I was very covetous of the pop-up canopies people had.  Because this is America, I soothed my covetousness by buying my own.  I watched a family pop theirs up and lay down a big rug and throw pillows all over and a little table...I couldn't take it.  'Way back when--I don't even know when or where--I had a friend that belonged to a private pool .  She took me with her and I saw cabanas for the first time.  They were these three sided affairs, so that you could see in and see what you didn't have.  Each was decorated according to its owner's style.  I still remember one with a poodle theme.  They had these low gates in front to keep us riff-raff from wandering in.  Friend's family didn't HAVE a cabana (losers), but that image has stayed with me at least 30 years. 

I've always fancied little personalized spaces.  I actually kind of want an office cubicle to decorate.  No job, mind you.  Just a cubicle.  I long harbored dreams of driving an 18 wheeler b/c I loved that little cab space--just imagine all I could do with it!   And I wouldn't even have to share it with truck stop hookers!  I college, my dad built me a loft bed out of old KMart shelving.  It made my bed 6 feet in the air, which is bad news if you're coming home drunk (not that I ever did, of course.  Hi Mom!), so I reconfigured it so that my bed was on the floor (much better) and I had a little den about 3 feet up.  I surrounded it with curtains and put in my bean bag chair and stereo.   I loved it.  Yes, I even kinda love the idea of Japanese capsule hotels.  So I guess it works out well that I live in an old house with lots of tiny choppy rooms.  Yes.  well.  It's GOOD that I bump into walls all day.

Anyway...I got my tent.  I got it at the Everything-here-fell-off-a-truck mall, so god knows if it will work. But I have my fantasies of a tent like the Weasleys had at the Quidditch world cup.  On the outside, just a tent.  But inside, opulence.  And, just maybe, poodles.