I asked my husband Brendan to write this blog for me since it is one of his all time favorite "stories of us".
Roughly 9 years ago I found, sitting next to a dumpster across the street from my old apartment, a fully functional though slightly worn, green, stylist’s chair. Just a few weeks earlier through a good friend, I had been introduced to Kelly who had mentioned that I “needed to do something about that”. The “that” she was referring to was my teenage ponytail, ill-fitting corduroy pants, and Birkenstocks. I was a kid from Colorado, newly 21, and new to Austin. I had long hair because I had no money to pay someone to care about it for me, as I certainly wasn’t capable of concerning myself with such things, being newly 21 and all. The next time I saw Kelly we made a deal: This old stylist chair in exchange for free haircuts for life. Neither of us had any concept to the magnitude of this agreement.
This month I turn 30 and Kelly has been my wife for almost three years. We have lived on the same street where the chair was found since being married. It has been our daughter’s highchair for the first two years of her life. I have had countless cuts and cups of coffee in this chair. Family, bandmates and other friends have come to our living room to get trimmed and styled. It has left ringed rust stains on the desk mat we have laid underneath it. We now own a salon, with many chairs. Some of which have made their way into our living room.
We have decided to allow this chair to move along by placing it back where it was originally acquired, next to the dumpster, so many years ago. We also thought it a great occasion to take some family photos. I drove it around the corner, unloaded it from our truck, and placed it in the grass by the curb while Kelly and Lydia walked from our apartment. The first person to drive by stopped and got out of the car, looking at the chair in disbelief, “You’ve got to be kidding me! WOW!” I walk over to him and tell him the chair is fully functional, but if he wouldn’t mind waiting to take it away, as this chair has a bit of a story. -Brendan
And he patiently waited while we took our pictures. Goodbye and thank you, Green Chair!
(Lov)e,
-k.