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I've never looked at a place as having the potential to be mine for long. I travel too much for this to be the case, and even in my marriage, my ex-husband and I were always hopping from one of our houses to another, to the point where they felt more like hotels than anything else. But as my tiny apartment comes together and begins to feel more and more like a home—I'm giving in to the tempting idea of permanence. And permanence, boy, does it make you extravagant. Where a bed and closet would have done just fine, now I have and want all kinds of furniture.
“Design Within Reach,” my friend Bianca told me over coffee. Her three-bedroom is practically entirely decorated in DWR. There's only one small hitch: in this economy, Design Within Reach is largely Design Few Can Reach.
“Check Craigslist,” my other friend, Lisa, added. “I got a dresser for my guestroom there. Right now everyone is getting rid of stuff because they're moving or downsizing. It's great. I almost got a new entertainment center the other day.”
“Almost?” asked Bianca.
“I accidentally had phone sex with the guy selling it.”
I almost spit out my coffee.
“Lisa, how do you 'accidentally' have phone sex with somebody?”
“Oh, I don't know. I asked him why he was getting rid of it and he told me he wanted to change his décor. I couldn't believe a straight man would ever use the word 'décor,' so I asked him if he was straight and he said he was and then I asked him what he was wearing and so it went...”
“You are incorrigible!”
“God, and here I was browsing the erotic services ads looking for something stimulating,” Bianca said, laughing.
“You browse the erotic services ads?”
“Sometimes,” she smiled. “I don't like Casual Encounters for some reason. There is something about a man who is serious enough about fantasy to want to pay for it that is attractive. So I e-mail and sometimes they bite and then I call them at lunch and we have some outrageously hot phone sex.”
“Don't they want to meet you?”
“Of course,” she responded. “They tell me all kinds of things. They'll tell me they'll pay my rent forever, or give me a car—this guy promised to give me dental insurance! It's insane what people will say.”
“What do you say?”
“That I'm scared—and I am!”
“Bianca, imagine they called you back when you were at home with Jeff or tracked you down using your number?”
“They can't. I have what I call a 'naughty phone.' It's prepaid. Cash only. Fake name and address. I only use it sometimes. When I'm done, I just switch it off and put it back in its secret spot and that's it.”
“You are very crafty,” Lisa said, with some admiration. “I feel like the whole world has my number.”
“Yes, but you're free to have the whole world call you whenever,” Bianca told her. “I'm not.”
“Point,” Lisa said, then she turned to me. “Are you seeing anyone now?”
“Yes,” I responded. “And we're deeply committed. On weekends and holidays.”
Lisa laughed.
“Don't I know that one,” she said.
“You should put out an ad,” said Bianca. “For a nuclear physicist!”
“Yes!” exclaimed Lisa. “You could put up one of your really convoluted pieces on there, about waves and quantum, um, molecules and particles or whatever so only the really smart ones would get it—or! Or you could just write out an equation. A really crazy one. You know, solve for passion!”
“Collapse my wave function, baby!” I said, giggling.
“With an orgasm!” Lisa interjected, laughing loudly.
“God, that's hot,” said Bianca. “And totally classifies as research. In fact, it's almost your journalistic duty to do it.”
“Do you really think physicists read Craigslist?” I asked them.
“Honey,” Bianca said, with a little sigh, like she was talking to a three-year-old. “Everyone reads Craigslist.”
METAMORPHOSIS
At my apartment that night, after building another shoe rack for my closet, I thought about websites and online communities and the manner that these had evolved from simple concepts to multi-purpose tools for everyday living.
Twitter had started as a status update system. On its main site, you can still see the question that formed the site's original mission: “What are you doing?” Now, those of us who use the micro-blogging site use it for everything except to specify what we're doing. Instead, we talk with friends using the reply feature, we crowd-source questions, we broadcast interesting blog posts and news stories and even use it for business.
Craigslist is the same way. Originally an e-mail newsletter announcing events of interest for
