It wasn't easy to tell where the artwork ended and the furniture began.

"Hang up your coat," she said, and disappeared into what I'd assumed was an oversized sculpture. I looked around. Most of the furniture looked like something else. I didn't see a closet right away, and I was eyeing what turned out to be the chandelier when she returned.

"I see you're appreciating my artwork," she said. "I'm inspired by everything around me. Things I see...feel...sense."

Cliches about fish out of water were beginning to do the backstroke around the edges of my brain. She was doing her best to get me out of my shell, when it should have been the other way around.