Me and My Beds

This is not a topic that most people, including myself, think about too much, but it’s been at the forefront of my mind for the last few weeks. I found a bed I liked and bought it a few weeks ago, but it’s been an absolute comedy of errors to get the darn thing in my apartment. Once I get a bed setup, I can move in. I seem to be inching closer and closer each week, but not quite there yet.

I picked out a bedroom set and a sectional three weeks ago and scheduled them to both be delivered last weekend. Everything was picked out perfectly and I was excited to finish the last big steps. Alas, all the plans seemed to go awry. The sectional guys came and tried to fit the largest piece through the stairs and it wouldn’t make it. So I had to turn back the entire set. Poop. Well, at least I still have my bedroom set coming later between 10am and 2pm.

So I did my first exploration of La Jolla and found a place to get a quick bite for lunch. It wasn’t super expensive, maybe $9, so on par with Chile more or less. Funny how my mindset is still that of exploring and being in a new place even though I am in San Diego and I have a car. That’s a good sign, it means my mind has switched a bit and still desires to explore and see new things. Anyways, I wait until 1:45pm and then call the furniture store to see what the heck is going on. They say they have no record of me or the system is down or some other reason.

At this point, I just gave up. It was supposed to be a big day but it turned out to be a big letdown. The next day I went to the furniture store to give them a piece of my mind and they sure got it. When I get mad, I don’t make a lot of noise or huff and puff, but I just make it known I’m disappointed and upset, which I was. So I think this got through. They rescheduled my delivery and gave me $250 credit back on my card. That helped a little.

So this weekend (today actually) I was scheduled to receive this phantom bedroom set, again. The delivery guys showed up and no problem bringing the items up the elevator. They were Mexican so I got to practice my Spanish with them. The mattress is one of those that expands and as soon as it was done expanding, I knew something was wrong — it was too tall. I had ordered a low-profile foundation and sure enough, they brought me the regular size one. This time around I was just merely annoyed and not peeved. The pieces they brought were beautiful and it was nice to see my bedroom filled out. I love the smell of fresh wood, too, it’s intoxicating. So that part made me happy.

I went back down to the store and they fixed their second booboo and now I will have two foundations. If anyone wants a brand new 9″ metal foundation, let’s talk. So now I’m scheduled to get my (hopefully) final piece from these guys next weekend. This bed is making me work, never have I had to work so hard for a bed. In Colombia…heh, well in Colombia, the first time around, it was a funny story. Where do you typically go to buy a new bed? To a store or a mall, right? I think I tried that in Colombia, but the beds were expensive in the mall — or at least more than I wanted to pay.

So, what did I do? Well, one of my new friends took me around to find a used frame and get a new mattress. This was probably my first exposure to the quirkiness of living in small-town Colombia. He called a guy who ran a second-hand store and told him to meet him there one afternoon. We go to this nondescript place — no signs, no indication of anything and he lets us in through some door / gate. Inside, it has all kinds of collected furniture pieces. And lo and behold, a bed frame! So I ended up getting my frame there. Now you can’t buy a used mattress, even I have my limits of frugality, so my friend took me to another shop which sold mattresses. And when I say shop, I use this term liberally. There was no indication of what this space sold and absolutely no possible way for anyone who didn’t know about it to just randomly find it.

In other words, if you were new-in-town looking for a mattress, you would never stumble upon this place. So I got my mattress and then it was on to assembling this new-fangled contraption. It was the weirdest bed I had ever seen up to that point, but it was comfortable, did the job, and it was mine! I bought it!

My next bed was in Chile, this was when I rented a furnished apartment. I just did the calculation and my apartment there was about 36 square meters, which is about 388 square feet. I can’t believe I actually lived in a place this tiny. This is more than half the size of my apartment now (800 sqft), which is also small, but doesn’t feel cramped.

My next bed was back in Colombia, when I borrowed a friend’s bed to furnish my Casablanca. And my most recent bed was the one in Israel, which was also part of a furnished apartment. That apartment feels like such a distant memory now. The more I think about it, the more I realize I really really really did not enjoy living there. But I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything. These things give you perspective and now I absolutely appreciate and am beyond grateful to have a comfortable living situation again. Which brings me to my latest bed…this blasted bed that just doesn’t seem to want to arrive! But when it does, I’m going to love it. I hope.

So, onto that other furniture — the sectional. What did I learn? Since I’m on the 3rd floor, it is more difficult to move in large pieces. So now I am looking for a 4-piece sectional, instead of a 3-piece. Some things you have to learn the hard way. The past week was frustrating, but it’s slowly moving in the right direction. I’ve gotten upset about enough things over the years that I know that I will get over them and be ok soon enough. Knowing this fact actually helps speed up the process for me, since I tell myself that the things that bother me now will probably not bother me in a week. Isn’t that some famous quote or riddle to life? This too shall pass…