Three years ago on a trip to Houston I turned into a baby. I can remember sitting slouched in the backseat of Joe’s car pouting that he chose to go to Ikea, the boring, stupid furniture store over the Houston Galleria.
I was highly upset. For two weeks before the trip I had waited and anticipated going into the mall because I had never been in a mall so big and grand in my life. I heard stories of the luxury shops. I dreamed of the shoes I would find. I wondered about the shirts I would pick up. I even saved money.
We went to Houston a day early to cover a noon football game. We had the time to visit the mall. I really wanted to go to that mall. Joe, a decade or so my senior, could have cared less about the mall. He practically jumped up and down at the fact that we just made it to the parking lot of the furniture store. In the back of my mind, I thought of him as a dork. He dragged me into the store. I looked around, bored. We must have walked around for two hours. And all he picked up was a few small supplies for his kitchen, a noodle strainer, a salad bowl and something else. Joe left happy, I left upset. He even beamed at how proud his wife would be of him.
Now, fast forward today. Joe called me and asked me what I was doing. For the past week I had been looking for bookshelves. Sounds boring, right. Usually, I have an exciting tale to tell him about my day or adventures. This time, I told him that I had been looking for bookshelves and that I met with the carpenter. I spoke with excitement in my voice. I pictured my new shelves hanging in room 2A with my books neatly organized. A way better option than the deep plastic blue bin I bought from Wal-Mart and just stacked my books in as I got new ones. I get new books in every other day so they were starting to pile up. And I’ve always had bare walls, wondering what to put on them besides an old clock. Since my trip to Africa, I brought back some cool trinkets, like a wooden carved mask that I would love to hang, and I thought that they would go perfect on my bookshelves with the books.
I imagined that the shelves would really give my room that Barnes & Nobel look that I always wanted. I already have a dark green love seat in the corner against soft green walls, small fully stocked refrigerator in the other and queen-sized bed, equipped with comfy pillows. I fixed up the place better than B&N. And the thought of getting those shelves had me just as excited as buying new shoes.
As I told all of this to Joe, he chuckled on the other end of the phone. He left me with these words, “See, I told you that you’d grow up and find that buying furniture is the most exciting thing in your life.”
I sighed. I always thought that adults were overrated. I didn’t tell him but he was half-way right, furniture shopping was fun. Three years later.
I just couldn’t believe myself.
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