Home for my keys

I have lived in about 7 different dorm rooms in various buildings and 3 apartments while in Seattle.  While I lived in the dorms I usually had a hook on the wall where I could hang my keys. You’ve probably seen it at some point in your life. You walk into a stationary store or stationary section in a bookstore or department store and see those “easily removable” hooks.  Well, the last one I used was a few years back and when I was removing it to move out of that particular dorm room, the plastic hook basically flew into my knuckle leaving a scrape. The adhesive stretches as you pull it out from the bottom of the hook and it made the hook into a deadly slingshot. It was such a quick and painful blow to my thumb I’ve refused to by adhesive hooks since then.

In my last apartment I didn’t have a hook and there wasn’t very much space to put a small table of sorts so I was constantly leaving my keys on random surfaces. This also meant I was constantly looking for my damn keys. At the end of my lease I ended up moving to Korea to be with my family. In Korea nobody wears shoes indoors so the apartments have a small entryway called “hyun gwan.”  The hyun gwan in my parents apartment has a shoe cabinet with a counter on top. As a side note, most Korean families live in apartments. South Korea is small than most states so there’s simply not enough space for houses.

Anyway, I found an aroma therapy lamp that was collecting dust and thought it would be perfect as a key holder. I’m a little sad now looking at this photo. It’s missing car keys because I had to sell my car when I moved out of the country. I miss being able to drive wherever I want whenever I want. Even though public transportation in Korea is so much better than the U.S. it’s really not the same…