One Asian Table Equals One Steak Dinner

We are a family of six who love to explore and want to hit the road fulltime. How are we making this happen? Lots of planning and sacrifice. You can’t have a large flat screen TV and lazy-boy and live on the road at the same time. (Okay, I take it back. Some people do travel with these things.) Ultimately, you have to decide what is important to you.

You want stuff or you want a life?

We’ve been selling off items in our house for years in preparation of this day. My husband had an enormous book collection that he sold on Amazon.com piece-by-piece over the course of two years. We have used and abused Craigslist.com with an average of 70 ads running live at a time. Strangers come to the door wanting to buy a food processor or Christmas lights at least several times a week. The neighbors suspect we are drug pushers with all the front door cash transactions that have taken place. We are saved by the fact that our buyers leave with only a lamp or crock-pot tucked under their arms.

Now that we have a move-out date (we are renters) and a “hit the road” date, sales have been picking up pace. The living-room is barren with only one solitary couch that we all pile onto, like rats fighting over one crumb of food. (Funny how we all want to sit on it now that there’s just one.) Last night, someone put a deposit on that couch and will be taking it away this weekend. Immediately after he left, the baby wiped her pizza-covered hands on it. That guy better hurry up.

Speaking of which, we ate that pizza sitting on the floor last night around our Asian-style table, like you see in really authentic Japanese restaurants or in movies that show us what really authentic Japanese restaurants look like. The solid wood Craftsman style dining room table I so adored is now propping up someone else’s pot roast and potatoes. The funny thing is, someone wanted to buy my Asian table, too. But I had to put my foot down even though they were ready to pay $20 more than what we paid for it. Although I know that it is common in the Middle East for families to eat on the floor (around a table cloth or sheet), I wasn’t ready to be that extreme.

With that said, if someone makes the same offer, I’m breaking out the sheet. Sometimes you just have to sacrifice a little to get what you want. Forty-five bucks can pay for a goodly amount of gas on our trip … or a nice steak dinner, as my dad used to say when haggling with a salesman. Everything he priced was in “steak dinners” and it kind of makes sense when you think about it. Money does nothing for us. It’s what money can buy that gives it value. And steak is good eating.