Calm Tint

Wil's room is completely torn up and mid-project, "mid" being optimistic. It is currently baby blue but has faded considerably since we painted it ten years ago. When asked what color he wants his room now, he replies, "Baby blue." With the goal being to make his room both more masculine and more mature, "we," and by "we," I mean the color consultant team: STM, me, Nancy, Kathleen, Woohoo, and the newest member, S., Wil's recently graduated assistant. S has a full-time summer job that has him at work in the hot sun from 6:30 - 2:20 each day, but has come over here several times this summer to take Wil out for burgers and fro-yo. He came yesterday to bring him his birthday present, a T-shirt from the college he will be attending shortly (and playing basketball for, too, btw).

The team has settled on the middle swatch there, which almost looks like a denim, and has the wonderfully auspicious name of Calm Tint. Don't you worry your pretty little head, I have the mattress pad, sheets, pillows and new duvet cover already purchased and waiting anxiously to be put onto the bed we have yet to purchase. And yes, I have pulled the duvet cover out of the package and held it up against Calm Tint several times just to make sure it's all matchy matchy. I've hauled his area rug off to get cleaned, I've dusted cobwebs and scrubbed corners and baseboards.

We moved all his furniture into the center of the room, and I thought for sure that would drive him crazy and he wouldn't be able to sleep, so I stripped all the bedding on the spare bed he sits on to watch TV in the little funky non-room next to his. I did the blanket, the sheets, the comforter, even the decorative pillows. As I pulled the down comforter out of the dryer and feathers flew everywhere, it dawned on me that there were feathers flying everywhere.

My boy is allergic to feathers.

His bedroom doesn't have feathers because, like I said, my boy is allergic to feathers.

Years ago I switched his comforter and pillows to down alternatives. It never once occurred to me, not in the many, many years he's been resting on a down comforter to watch TV and play on his iPad, that he's resting on a down comforter to watch TV and play on his iPad.

Can you even believe that?

I hauled the down comforter, all coordinating pillows and a huge garbage bag filled with clothes I never, ever want to see again, to Goodwill this morning. I ran into my friend, Solomon. I have come to know him because I'm at Goodwill so often doing this very thing. "Solomon," I said, "have you ever met a woman with more junk than me?"

Solomon, in all his wisdom said, "It is good to help other people." Then he handed me my receipt, wished me a good day, smiled lovingly and I drove my now-empty car back home to finish prepping for a coat of Calm Tint in a room with no feathers, next door to a room with no feathers, ready next for a boy that will be seventeen on Sunday, a boy whose nose might dry up now.