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Home Furnishings Dept.
Found an interesting bug in my "index card" program. It won't make a card #11. It made cards one through ten just fine ... and I haven't deleted any, so there weren't any holes to fill ... and when I made a card eleven, it saved it as card two ... overwriting the old card two without my permission. I did that a couple of nights ago and didn't realize what had happened. Now I can't let it make any more cards until I fix it ... it wants to save them all as card #2!
Ironically enough, the card that got overwritten was the one which listed all the pending changes I wanted to make to the pixies ... including the index card program ....
This morning, instead of writing a new short story like I was planning to do, I sat around and cleaned out old bookmarks and email addresses instead. Not productive! I shall have to batten down the hatches tonight and get some actual work done.
On Friday I went shopping. I bought two more bags. I am in a bag-buying state of mind, what can I say, it's cheaper than buying shoes. I found a nice little navy bag which is about as close to the Purse/Bag barrier as I want to get - it's small enough to be a purse but just baglike enough that I don't get too many sneers.
I realize I probably shouldn't care - the sneerers rarely get below the earrings before dismissing me anyway - but, goodness, I've finally found a type of weirdo I'm actually comfortable being, and I'm a little defensive. Sue me.
On Saturday we shopped again. Nonelvis and I were looking for furniture. Do not do this. It will destroy your brain.
Here's what we need:
1. A bookcase, a very tall but somewhat narrow one, for the living room. 6' high by 3' wide should be about right.
Now, this item is complicated by the fact that I own a Tercel. Although I don't have a problem with assemble-it-yourself furniture (in fact, I like it; it's usually easier to transport and cheaper too), a bit of thought will show you that the package is as long as its longest board, which for a 6' high bookcase is, yes, six feet long.
You cannot fit even a narrow 6' package in a Tercel. We had a lamp box that wasn't even 5' yesterday, and we only got that in the car by reclining the front passenger seat fully and wedging it in at an odd angle.
So it'll have to be shipped.
2. A dresser for Nonelvis.
3. A nightstand for Nonelvis; she's finally tired of using a milk crate.
4. A reading lamp, to put on said nightstand.
5. A floor lamp for the living room.
We only managed to obtain the last of these five items yesterday, and that was with great difficulty. Here are some things we have learned. They are mysterious to us. Explain them if you can.
a. Floor lamps are in very short supply.
Department store furniture sections do not seem to have them. Only Crate and Barrel had any.
Actually, C & B had the perfect floor lamp: tall enough - that is, over 55" - with a light that extended out on a horizontal arm so it hangs over the nearby sofa for reading purposes (as opposed to just a straight vertical with a shade on top), a finish we liked, et cetera - and none of the C & B's in town seem to have it in stock. They're waiting for more. Mid-September. This is what happens when there's only one good floor lamp anywhere in town - everyone buys it.
We bought our second choice instead.
b. Most furniture is hideously ugly except for the very expensive stuff.
We saw all kinds of things we liked in Domain - but Domain price tags tend to start at the middle three digits and skyrocket from there. (Example: We saw an armoire for the living room - the kind designed to hold your TV etc - that we absolutely adored. A mere $3000.)
Even outside of Domain, in a given store the only two or three pieces we could stand were invariably the most expensive items of their type. So either we have expensive tastes ... or having taste is expensive. Pick whichever version you think is less snobbish - we're not snobs, we just have strong ideas about what's ugly.
We went to the furniture department at Bloomingdale's, and aside from two very nice desk lamps, we didn't see a single piece of furniture there that we'd have, even in our dream house, even at any cost.
c. Solid wood furniture is unaffordable except for some of the unfinished pine stuff.
We looked at some wood nightstands - little tiny things. The cheapest solid-wood nightstand we found anywhere was over $200. That's too much for a nightstand. Even at Jordan's, known for selling good furniture cheap, the nightstands began just under $100. That's still too much for a nightstand.
d. They can't open an IKEA in our area soon enough.
Really. They plan to open one here, but we're probably going to end up ordering from them by mail because we can't wait that long. IKEA is offering nightstands for $40 and dressers for under $200. This is what we need. We're not fiendishly wealthy, after all.
Nonelvis said on Friday, "Let's drive down to Newark and go to IKEA." (That's the closest store to us for now.) She was 75% kidding - not even I am crazy enough to drive six hours to get furniture - but the desperation was obvious.
Basically we are sick to death of college-student furniture, pieces that are ready for the junkpile and don't match each other. We don't want something elegant, but it would be nice if we had a living room that looked a little more like the furniture was purchased with a deliberate goal in mind, rather than scavenged from street corners.
We also ended up in this strange cosmetics store, and we saw The Sixth Sense last night, but I'll have to write about those later - now Nonelvis wants me to take her to get groceries.
We often have a fundamental conflict about the way to spend weekends. I want to spend them sitting around reading and writing and drinking coffee - y'know, being useless - and she wants to run a zillion errands. Now I must take her to the grocery store and the warehouse club ... and to the hardware/housewares store and the Pier One. Do you know why I have to take her to the latter two? Because she still hasn't given up on the nightstand.
Oh, I'm not really complaining. I like to shop, and I can always write after she goes to bed. But I suspect she's doing that compulsive thing again. My prediction is that by the time this long weekend is over, she will have either purchased a nightstand or ordered one.
We shall see. She won't read this until Monday, so don't let her know we have a bet before then, okay?
© Columbine
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