The @#%^ Chan-deh-leer and How it Plagues Me. Still.

Moments before I marched toward my fate at the Papa Cafe my last evening in Rome, I had purchased this chandelier. As I mentioned previously, I was in the process of closing on my first home – a 100+ year-old condo in Hoboken – and had a vision of where the chandelier would go. I was so excited to have stumbled upon the store with beautiful chandeliers glittering from the ceiling. When I made my purchase, I felt as if it was a sign of the next phase of my life as a homeowner.

Little did I know it, but the chandelier wound up playing a recurring role in my evening with Marco, with the police and strangely, to this day. I had the chandelier with me from the Papa Cafe, to Marco’s studio and to dinner. Marco and I were supposed to meet at a nearby cafe at 10:30 p.m. When I had finished dinner, it was 10:12 p.m.and I felt I could get back to my hotel in time to drop off the chandelier. But no sooner had we left the restaurant than Marco intercepted us. He was rather forceful but jocular, and ready to begin our date. After setting a curfew with my friend, I asked her if she could take my chandelier with her back to the hotel. But she declined, and so there I was, carrying this wrapped up chandelier with me on my date. Seeing it still with me, Marco began to call me “Mary Poppins” for the way I carried it with me everywhere.

The chandelier tagged along with me throughout the night, even up to Marco’s apartment the first time I went and checked it out. And it came with me to the Enoteca we stopped at before the second visit to his place. Thankfully, I ran into my traveling companion who finally agreed to take it off my hands. Otherwise, I would not have been able to carry it during my escape and would have had to leave it to Marco.

During my police questioning, I cannot express how confused the police and my interpreter were by my carrying the “chan-deh-leer.” I can still hear my interpreter saying, “So, you had the chan-deh-leer at the Papa Cafe..but not at the apartment?” “Ok, so you had it at the apartment, but not the studio?” “During your time at the Stardust Cafe…where was the chan-deh-leer?” “So, the chan-deh-leer was held by you or Marco?” I tell you, this item had more play in my police questioning than I did.

Getting it home on the plane was my next feat. But sadly, that’s as far as its story goes. It has sat inside a box in the corner of my room for two years now for several reasons. First, I don’t know how I feel about having an item Marco held, hanging from my ceiling. Second, I am stubborn and will be darned if I am going to toss it exactly because Marco once touched it. Third, getting a light fixture changed in Hoboken requires a permit and at least $300 to get an electrician in, and if you know anything about Hoboken, inviting the Buildings Dept in is subjecting yourself to an unsavory sort. Lastly, this thing is wired for Italy/EU electricity. My bad.

It's pretty, right? But I'm flummoxed on what to do.

I have a lot of mixed emotions about it. The best resolution I have come up with so far is buying this curtain to hang in the room I had always planned to hang the chandelier in. It’s like my little act of defiance against the chandelier itself.