The Chair

 A Chair Gives a Sense of Ownership.  -And the Residence of the Chair Determines the Level of Importance of that Sense of Ownership. 

Here in 33139, South Beach of Miami, Florida, that 'sense of ownership' is of utmost importance. 

This likely has something to do with the high volume of renters- more than 60% of South Beach residents rent (most people live in studios or one bedroom apartments here) per google.com generative AI per most recent stats, varied, verifiable sources.

With SoBe's (a nickname for South Beach) lush, tropical foliage of Octopus 🐙 and Seagrape Trees, courtesy year-round flowering by: Ruellia, Beautyberry, Sand Coneflower 🌻, Coral Honeysuckle, Chinese Hibiscus (and more), this is no less than a 2.5-mile-radius-paradise.

 

Just a few of South Beach's gorgeous, year-round flowering plants

   

The sunsets are breathtaking.  The weather is oftentimes perfect... as in you wouldn't change it by even a tenth of a degree on many days and most evenings, you don't need a car to get around here, and there's always a breeze since anywhere in South Beach is within 2.5 miles of the Atlantic Ocean.

South Point, 1st St. and Ocean Dr., South Beach, Miami

Most People That Live Here Love It Here, and Work Very Hard to Be Able to Live Here.  

There's Pride, and Awe, in Feeling Like This Paradise and Its Residents Somehow Belong to Each Other... at least for the time one lives here. 🌴

 800+ historically-preserved art deco style buildings (primarily) constructed in the 1930s make South Beach the largest preserved Art Deco District in our nation... in short, the architecture of this southern-dip oasis is gorgeous. Regularly, it still makes me catch my breath... when out on a walk with my dog I'll notice some neat etched-in-stone detail of a building that hadn't previously caught my eye. -Most SoBe residents live in these sturdy, protected, very cool buildings (which sometimes aren't maintained very well, which is of course sad). 

This is our building's front porch (the building's beautiful, yet not upkept very well)

Most of these old buildings have nice little porch areas, or even large, elaborate entryways, which are signature of the Art Deco style.  -There's a place to sit 🪑 in front of the buildings.  

Within weeks of our August-return to SoBe, I started noticing peoples' chairs on their buildings' porches.  I noticed that most of chairs weren't very nice, didn't match, and would be a pain to carry off... which is why they last!   -You see, one of the not-so attractive aspects of beach-living here (everywhere that's a bike's ride distance to a beach is considered 'beach living' in the state of Florida) is that some people steal.  Since we lived here before, we know that.  However, you always want to believe 'things are better,' and that people 'aren't stealing so much anymore.'  -The first time we lived here we had our bikes 🚲 (even though they were locked to a street sign!), clothes hung out to dry, and a dog crate stolen; I even had to stop a woman from walking off with my hanging philodendron basket once 😅! 

All of that being known and said, I needed a chair 🪑 for our building's front porch area.  -After all, there's something that feels grungy about sitting on the front steps of a building (unless you're in a NYC neighborhood 😉).   

A nice bench and table in a gated building's patio area, Euclid Ave and 14th

Not a gated bldg., Euclid and 12th

So first, I posted on the local Nextdoor app to see if anyone had a chair they could donate to our building's porch... there were a few comments, but nothing came of it.  So on my most-recent Goodwill visit, I ventured into the furniture section (for a change)... for the right chair 🪑.

There it was: the height of a barstool... a tall chair. -Made of a lightweight bamboo-like material.  It was cool, perfect for South Beach.  Lightly-colored, lightweight, braided-seat-and-back-material, it would match our building's porch area. 

 

'Is it too nice for SoBe? maybe I should get the bigger, bulkier, goofier-looking chair next to it...' did cross my mind...  I immediately swept that thought away; I liked the chair and didn't want to think about someone taking it.  I told myself I didn't love the chair to protect myself in case someone would take it, so, -I just 'liked it.' 😊

That was on Tuesday, October 29th. 

My new Wed.-Thurs.-Fri. schedule (as an interventionist opposed to a standard substitute teacher 🏫) at my son's school, just 2 blocks away, would kick off that next day.  

Placing the chair in the left corner of our front porch felt great; I was proud of the chair and how nice it looked there. 

Seeing the chair over the next couple of days, when I'd go and come from walking the dog, go and come from work on my little loaned-super-fast-electric-scooter🛴, made me feel good.  I just liked it. I sat on it for maybe 15 minutes one evening.  It was a little high, but I'd get used to it. 

Then, it was gone. 

On Friday morning I held the building's glass door open for my husband, leaning on it with my back; he carries the 40 lb. scooter down the stairs and out for me to go to work.  My back had been to where my chair sat, I hopped down the building's 3 concrete porch stairs, and gasped... "My chair.  It's gone." I softly exclaimed. 

"Son of a bitch, what kind of person takes a chair?" said my husband.  He was naturally also bothered by the theft.  

Later that day I randomly chose Pete the Cat's My Buttons Book to read to the kindergarten class I had in the afternoon. -I was helping a fellow-sub get the class settled, and a book-read is always a good option for this. 

The last page of that children's book reads: I guess it simply goes to show that stuff will come and stuff will go. But do we cry? Goodness no! We keep on singing. 

-I shared with the young class that 'I really needed to hear that message on that day, and then I shared with them about: my chair🪑.' 

This chair is worn and belongs to an old lady

These 2 are so ugly to put outside, but no one steals them! They belong to 2 young men

This stool is cute and convenient, and this building is gated

This looks more like other parts of Miami, not typical South Beach style. ~But again, no one steals this stuff!