Things That Keep Me Awake at Night

     My parents gave LV and me some nice sturdy oak dining room furniture when we got married. It's still nice and solid, but the years of use have not been kind to the varnish, and we decided it's time to strip off the old varnish and redo them.

     I spent quite a bit of time researching the how-to's of furniture stripping and armed with the knowledge I found on the internet I went to buy the needed supplies. Steel wool, scrapers, sand paper, and a jug of orange stripping gel.

     I labored over that furniture, but was pleased with the results. It was soon clear that I would need to buy more of the stripping compound in order to finish the project. I quickly found my shopping list and scribbled "stripper gunk" at the top and when LV and I went shopping later that week I got some more.

     A few days later one of our friends called. Her husband was out of state on business and she was having some type of mechanical issue. Would LV come to her rescue?

     I joined LV as he went to see if he could help out. It didn't take him long to discover what the problem was. A certain part had to be ordered. "Do you have a piece of paper I can use to write the part number down?" he asked me.

     My purse is usually loaded with anything you can think of, but in all my rummaging through it all I came up with was my used shopping list with neat little checkmarks next to all the items.

      LV took it, scribbled the parts number down, and to my consternation handed it to our friend so she could order it.

      The words "stripper gunk" seemed to grow bigger and bolder at the top of that paper and I wanted to disappear.

      Last night I woke up with that memory going through my mind, and I shuddered in embarrassment again as I wondered what awful images went through our friend's mind when she read those words.