The English Teacher & The Wooden Table

I acquired the Table in 2006 from The English Teacher. 

By 2013, it was fairly beat up and worn. In the time between, I collected 2008 & 2009 Calendar pictures from Jennifer Main’s Collection and used them as the theme and baseline for the table refinishing.

The table turned out to be quite the addition to my Gypsy Lifestyle. 

It has moved all over Southern California.


It has gone with me to Vegas.

It re-spawned my decades old love affair with Diablo.

It hosted my House Warming Party on the Beach.

It even, at several points over the years, became the sole support of all things electronic…. At the same time!

Until this refinishing project, the Table has always been The English Teacher’s Table. As of now, the Table is mine. I have claimed it as my own with imagery and colors which are significant to me.

 The Table now has my signature.

The Refinishing Process was time consuming. Not just in the time it took to sand paint and decoupage. It took a very long time to decide which calendar pages I would use and where.

It all started with The English Teacher. 

While I was still Living Under the Bridge in San Pedro, we would spend Friday nights at his apartment, so that we could launch our Saturday Adventures from Long Beach.

When the lease came up Under the Bridge in San Pedro, The English Teacher was already back in school so there was less and less activity. We were spending Sunday nights in Long Beach by then. I moved to Long Beach in August and by September we were in the stage of both wanting to break up and yet, not wanting to “kill a good thing”.
Even now, when I return to Long Beach for visits, I avoid crossing that Bridge. There was something poignant about that Time and that Bridge which is still raw and sticky.
It was his Words that really nailed it with me. But what would you expect from an English Teacher?

We had been on a Shopping Mission to find him the perfect Writing Desk and Chair. His height was an issue so the options were limited. He was over 6’ 3” (probably taller but memory is dim) and he was Line Backer Big. Incredibly strong and amazingly adept with Word Play. He hated the size of the laptops, and preferred the keyboard. He really loved his computer tower and 19” Screen. It was the desk that was his challenge.

That made our Saturday Adventures so much fun, driving around in my Convertible Mustang shopping for Furniture. We determined Ikea and the Norwegians were certainly tall enough to accommodate his knees, the desk was just too narrow for him.

His Father brought him the Table. 

I came home from work one Friday afternoon and went over to his place to find a brand new, hand made table, measured for his height and wide enough for him to be comfortable working. He could be comfortable, typing his novels and poetry. He loved that table. I think the fact his father had it made for him was what meant the most. But more than that, it was the only piece of furniture he had that looked right when he stood next to it. Yes, as I said, he was Big.

Once the Table had been found, our Saturday Adventures turned to paint, and Home Decorating, Lowe's Style. There was much crafting and use of power tools during our Weekends together.

By the time I moved into the Tree House apartment, across the Back Balcony from him, it had been nearly a year after we ended our relationship. I sat him down and told him the apartment building where I was living had been sold. The new owner fired the on site Manager, ripped out the 75 year old Bouganvillia and generally gutted an otherwise beautiful building… all for the Flip.

The apartment next door to The English Teacher was up for rent. I asked him if I could rent the place. We would really only share the back balcony, because unlike his previous neighbor, I promised to use the Front Entrance of my apartment. He asked to think about it and the next day he called me to say yes.

It was a done deal. It was perfect. We only saw each other on Sunday mornings, after about a month of adjustment. I got along with all the neighbors and we had a generally good run of things.

After 3 months of struggling and saving,

 I had enough money to buy a newer used car. I had been driving a beaten up Burgundy Red Chrysler Le Baron Convertible with a White top that had everything wrong with it. When I did, I gave him the Le Baron. It just so happened that his car had a broken engine and had been impounded…. Again.

At some point, many months later, the Le Baron broke again. He was borrowing friends vehicles, carpooling and taking the bus. Occasionally he would borrow the Toyota for short errands. Somewhere along his travels, he broke the back window for the second time. Fixing the rear back window of any convertible is very expensive. Most of the time, the entire roof requires replacement.

Of course, this time it was June, school had just let out and he was on a very fixed income until September. The first time he broke the window, he did it during the middle of the school year, and he struck a deal with a buddy…. So obviously this time he did not have the money to fix another broken window.

Something had changed with him, and I hadn’t noticed until the broken window. For some reason, this particular broken window was different. He was very angry at the whole situation. Like I said, we only saw each other once or twice a week.

I traded for the Table while living in the Tree House Apartment. 

We agreed to a trade, finally, after several weeks of arguing about why I should “just let it go”. I honestly don’t know what he was doing with my car, but he was obviously in places where the rear window was repeatedly broken. I told him that we were just friends, there was no relationship between us anymore, and we never had any financial connection to begin with.

Besides which, he had been dating multiple people since I moved in to the Tree House Apartment. Why didn’t one of them fix it for him?
The Trade was $100 and his father’s table. I was shocked that he offered up something so valuable, so I took the deal. I never did get that window fixed.

 There is some thing about Men and Furniture. 

By that I mean Men of Significance to me, and their Furniture. I don’t know why, but that seems to be the thing I consider more valuable to someone, especially if it means something to them – ie Emotional Value. Maybe it’s because the significance is Personal. They, My Men, really can’t put a monetary value on Memories and the way the Afternoon Light in Spring floats through the Balcony door. Those are the things, although not Material, that are the most important to anyone.  These pieces of furniture harken back to times when you did that thing and you went to that place, with her. It’s the hidden pathways to the most important places in your mind. These physical material things become the Key to The Vault.

My Main Obsession 

Jennifer Main’s Art came into my life the July 4th weekend 2006. I was invited to Las Vegas for a Jazz & Wine Festival at the Mount Charleston Lodge. The Jazz was fantastic, the wine was mediocre (Las Vegas was just getting their Wine Tasting’s off the ground), and the afternoon was mild and pleasant. The local vendor’s who were invited up for the afternoon included an emerging Las Vegas artist, Jennifer Main. She had the original oil on canvas Playin’ Footsies on display. I ordered a Matted Print of which she mailed to me. I later had it professionally framed, and it became one of the first pieces of art work that I had discovered on my own and loved in it’s own right. It wasn’t the result of a class or a study, there was no outside influence. My discovery of Jennifer Main was purely the result of Life’s Meanderings. When you just let go and wander. I literally Stumbled upon this find and I was very proud of myself for my accomplishment.

I moved to Las Vegas January 2007 for work and in the process of settling in to the new City, used the Table as my Entertainment Center. For approximately 2 months, all of my Electronic Devices were on one Wooden Table all at the same time.

I discovered First Friday’s Art Walk in Downtown Las Vegas. I attended my first “First Friday” February 2007. It was small, and seemed to be the “excuse” for the under 21 crowd to have a reason for “going somewhere”.
I was in the process of walking out when The Wanderer Whispered to me that the formidable warehouse up ahead might be interesting. As always, employing the Adventure Model to discovering new places, the real find, the secret, to First Friday was at the end of the street, the very crowded and very hard to navigate Arts Factory. To my amazement, after following my nose down this hallway and stumbling down that corridor, I found Jennifer Main in one of the Galleries. I nearly cried with joy when I rounded the corner and saw those vibrant colors and broad strokes splashed large and loud “Hello Friend!”.

 I bought 2 more Matted Prints that night,

The Thinker Series Meant to Be and

 The Story Behind the Couple.




I would go on to buy many more prints along the way, including her Calendar for 2008 and 2009. It is odd I never bought any Art from her after that time. But as it turns out, the Wooden Table is about to enjoy it’s second life!

Table Design 2-Medium from Onagh Hopke on Vimeo.