The back of my front door

I'm busy cleaning and planning for Thanksgiving today, and no doubt you are busy too, so this might not be a day for long and involved post.  How about a moment of whimsy instead?  

Readers, meet our front door.  Our front door isn't a farm door.  It doesn't have a window, nor does it face a lovely view of fields and mountains.  It faces a hallway with fluorescent lights and a worn and cracked mosaic tile floor.  But it does hold magnets.  So it has become what our refrigerator isn't, the most casual spot in the apartment, a sort family bulletin board.

I really don't pay much attention to what's up there.  I think it had the same items for years, until I cleaned everything off of it sometime this year.  But it wasn't long before things began to accumulate again--invitations, photos, quotes, and other tiny mementos from every day life.  I haven't rearranged them or added things, or deleted them to somehow create a more interesting post; they're almost completely random.

So, what are they?  Hmm, let's see:  A $5 coupon for Duane Reade (a local pharmacy); a postcard from a friend of C.Z.'s who visited New Mexico; a quote I liked from Willa's blog about the value of manual labor; a postcard I picked up in Oregon that shows a bunch of people sitting in cubicles and says, "If you liked school...you'll LOVE work!" Below that is an oil crayon drawing of two fall leaves.  C.Z. and I have a longstanding tradition of drawing a few of our favorite leaves every fall, but I don't know which fall she drew these! Maybe last year? Then there's the "No farms, no food" bumper sticker that I picked up at the farmers' market and put on my door, because I don't have a car. There are some old magnet mosaic and Mr. Picasso-head people that a seven-year-old friend regularly rearranges (latest revision yesterday). Above this is a preview invitation to a Metropolitan Museum exhibit, a freebie magnetic poetry sheet (never used) from Bob's New York City Marathon goody bag, and various photos of relatives.  C.Z. especially likes the photo that includes her grandfather doing a Taekwondo high kick.  The red object in front of the green door in the top photo, by the way, is a tomato.  And the white box in the middle is our peep hole to the hallway world beyond. 

The magnets include one from Heceta Head Lighthouse in Oregon, Dutch painting magnets that Bob brought back from a business trip to Amsterdam, some tiny high-powered steel magnets, and a whole set of Curious George magnets that my sister got as a retail freebie many years ago and that have been holding up our memorabilia since before C.Z. was born.  

I'm not sure what our door says about us.  Maybe that we like nature, our relatives, and art?  That we like to think about different parts of the country?  That we think a bit outside the mainstream? That it represents the collective unconscious of our family? (Hmmm, that's probably going a bit far.)  At any rate, it's what everyone who comes to visit us sees as they leave our apartment, by which time they hopefully like us well enough to forgive us if our door is messy--which it is!

I hope you enjoyed your visit.  Happy Thanksgiving, and come back soon!  Would you like some pie?  I'm sure we'll have leftovers...