Ode to a Plastic Container

When I got my first tiny studio apartment in Queens, NY, I had no furnishings. I bought a futon to sleep on and used cardboard boxes for end tables. My parents bought me a tiny table and two chairs so I had somewhere to sit and eat. I walked up Queens Blvd and bought my very own 24" television (sold at last year's garage sale for $10). But the little things around my apartment, the kitchen gadgets and cleaning supplies, all came from a dollar store down the street. As Andy and I started to date, it became apparent that I had to create a space that was actually liveable and comfortable for a couple instead of just me by myself. So I spent dollars upon dollars at that handy little dollar store!

Suddenly it is ten years later, and Andy and I are down to just a few Queens dollar store items that are left from that very early part of our life together. The orange trash can under the kitchen sink. The broom we use to sweep out the garage. Our favorite tupperware that stores our leftover pizza.

Today I threw out a round plastic container from 2000. I stored birdseed in it last year and after leaving it outside in the rain, the seeds were sprouting and the whole thing was filled with mold. It was totally cheap and low quality but it killed me to throw it away! I remember taking that little container, filled with salad, to a pot luck dinner with friends from work...including a nice, handsome guy who eventually asked me to marry him. Wasn't it just yesterday that I bought that container at the dollar store?

It is ten years later and Andy and I are looking, feeling and sounding old...scolding a 3-year old who acts like a teenager and arguing over who should get up with the crying baby at 2 a.m. But it is such a good life we have built together and I am so grateful every day for my sweet little family. So I will keep my eye on the orange trash can and the green broom; Aside from photos and memories, they are the only reminders of how this all started.

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