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Success!I make no secret of the fact that I would rather lie on a sofa than sweep beneath it. But you have to be efficient if you're going to be lazy. Saturday, November 25, 2000 A year ago,a terrible day! I discussed this with Kate at Jane and Vonda's on Thursday. Today my project was to buy a loveseat recliner for my living room. I feel bad when Jack's back hurts him after a night here, but I don't want to put myself in the same situation I'm in at his place, separated from him when we are watching tv. I like to cuddle! Thus, I need a two-seater. I drove to Southcenter in the rain. My first stop was the Bon Marche clearance center -- really a warehouse. They had no loveseat recliners, but I was distracted by all the other furniture. You can get some good deals, especially if you aren't set on a particular fabric or style. Rather than move my car, I walked across the street to La-z-boy Furniture "Galleries". The salesman pointed me to the area where the "motion furniture" was. I was surprised that they have a lot of non-reclining couches and chairs, too! I was interested in one set that was black leather and on sale. I test-drove a lot of others, too, but at least that one was right there. It would be good to get something I wouldn't have to wait for, if it were satisfactory otherwise. But I didn't want to decide right then.
I drove a few blocks, randomly. I knew there are lots of furniture stores in this area. Bonus! "Roma furniture" and the Homelife store were right next to each other. Roma is new, it seems, and quite dreadful. I don't know who buys these mutant "Victorian" living room suites, with black enamel woodwork curving around nightmarishly, and upholstery of pearlized pink pleather. They didn't even have any recliners or reclining loveseats in yet, so I could escape quickly. Even though the buildings were attached, there wasn't any way for pedestrians to walk from one door to the other without cutting throught the parking lot -- no sidewalk. I disapprove! Homelife was much more to my taste. My nerves weren't put on end by everything I was looking at, though of course there were things I didn't care for. Frank, an older thin salesman who looked like Dennis the Menace's dad, pointed me to the correct area and said that loveseat models were available for just about any model where they had a reclining couch, and again left me alone to test drive. I wonder if I didn't look like a real prospect who was ready to buy? There were several couches that would be possible. I sat repeatedly in all of them, trying out the reclining mechanisms and imagining what each would be like in my living room. The slight variations between them started to loom large, since I'll be using anything I get for a long time. I considered leather, but the style of a fabric model appealed to me more. I finally settled on a model, then looked through the book of possible coverings. I'd be satisfied by the upholstery it was shown in, but if it didn't make a difference in how long it would take to get it, there were fabrics I liked a bit better. Then I had to wait for Frank. Finally he showed up (busy with another customer). I said yes to the stainmaster protection plan, then we found out whether my choice fabric would be longer in delivery than the one in the showroom. Yes, about a month more, and I didn't want to wait that long; I didn't like it that much more. So we were set. Frank had trouble with the touchpad on the keyboard he was using, poor man. He couldn't get the browser interface to do what he wanted, because the window was shifted over to the lower right and he didn't know how to "click and drag" the titlebar and move the window, using the touchpad. Finally the piece was ordered and I wrote my check. One of the easier sales he's made, I'm sure. This is my typical mode in making large purchases: think about it, look around -- then buy!
I was so hungry by this point! I drove a few blocks to the mall, which wasn't the smartest move in the world. The place was mobbed! I didn't mind parking far away from the door; in fact, that's my usual practice. But the walking in the rain wasn't fun, and I couldn't just keep my head down -- I needed to watch for cars or be run over. Southcenter doesn't have the pedestrian walkways that more modern shopping centers do, paved between lines of parked cars with shrubbery ("bring me a shrubbery!"). The line at McDonalds was way too long, so I went to Taco Time instead. I ended up grabbing a seat between a pair of teens who might be working at the same store on one side (the boy asked the girl, "Your boyfriend doesn't mind you having lunch with other guys?"), and a mom, teen daughter, and foreign exchange teen girl who didn't grasp much English on the other side. The mother leaned over from time to time and tried to explain what she and her daughter were chatting about, but I don't think their visitor caught much of it. There was a lot of nodding and smiliing going on. I did some wandering through the mall. It was especially crowded in "Claire's", one of those accessory stores mostly aimed at teen girls. I usually get hair thingies there. I was looking at a packet of tiny rubber gadgets used to roll your hair up in buns, but the image of little blobs dotted around my head made me decide against this. One chignon at a time, I think. A young girl, seeing me looking at the same section of the store as she was, started asking me about how to use some of the combs and clips. Too bad they weren't the styles I usually get, so I couldn't give her many good tips. I did buy some things for myself -- four bows with snood/net attached, in colors I didn't already have: dark green and maroon, satin with a rose-style bow, and purple and turquoise satin with black flock squiggles. These were all "buy two, get two free" so it was a good buy. I stopped into the Body Shop and was handed a coupon, but didn't buy. I haven't yet revved up my bath products and body products fetish to the point where I'm purchasing here for myself yet; their things are a bit more expensive than my usual choices, though I do like what they have. (Gift certificate, anyone?)
After driving home through the rain, I actually did some work on my living room. One of the worst spots that I haven't touched for a long time was the pile of yarn and knitting, now all spoiled by moths. I'd avoided it because it makes me feel bad to see the afghan that my grandmother crocheted of good wool, ruined and destroyed by my own carelessness and neglect. It was beyond saving, so I put it in a trash bag along with other sweater parts that I never completed and are now filthy and full of holes. At least I've take care of it now. I still need to vacuum, but in the past few days I've moved my video tapes into the section of the armoire that was empty, picked up trash and crap, and wiped off surfaces, and moved the rattan sectional couch along that wall. This reassures me that my plan for the new loveseat will work. For the rest of the evening I watched TV. (This isn't a good trend! I accomplish a few things in the living room, then sit down and veg.) Benjamin Britten's opera of A Midsummer Night's Dream is so gorgeous! The music is complex but accessible. Ileana Cotrubas is a soprano that acts. More Sinatra musicals followed, on Turner Classic Movies. High Society is the musical remake of a Philadelphia Story. It has its own charm, though not as good as the original. The scale is too big! and the golden age of screwball comedy was past. Clever how they interweave the musical theme. In Anchors Aweigh, a pair of sailors on leave try to help a movie extra become a singing star, with Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson. Gene Kelly is super! When he's staring at Kathryn Grayson as she's singing in the restaurant -- steamy! This has parallels with It Happened in Brooklyn. They always cast Sinatra as a shy guy in these early films.
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