Last year I broke down and finally bought a microwave. You may think that’s strange, because “everybody” has one and has had one for a long time, but there are folks like me who have small kitchens, fewer electrical outlets, and no knack for zapping food in a microwave. The opportunity to finally buy one came when an outlet in the kitchen opened up, and I saw a 1,000 watt version on sale. I quickly got the hang of it, of course, though I’ve yet to make popcorn.
This year I decided the time had come to upgrade my bedding; since I had replaced a twin mattress late last year (and had to wait weeks, due to supply issues, for delivery), I felt I could upgrade at this stage in my life and go queen. It was a good and bad choice, since queen mattresses seem to be the most popular. Full is the middle road, king is the rather showy overdone version, and then you find the unique California King, which I can’t begin to fathom. Twin seems destined to fill sleep requirements for singles and children, full offers enough extra width (but apparently not length) for some spreading-out room, and queen and king can take on two people or more, but at a certain point in over-sizing, wouldn’t a mattress suddenly require its own four walls or a Zip code?
Finding my new queen mattress was relatively easy and accomplished in one visit, because I had done my work online before going to the store, but once I committed to the purchase of the basics, the accessories were another issue.
The main difference I found with queen bedding is the cost: it’s as if I had moved up from a Ford to a Mercedes in price. Fortunately I found sheets on sale, along with a set including a comforter, skirt, pillow shams and two decorative pillows. Apparently adding throw pillows to your queen set is a must. Nobody bothers with a twin or full mattress.
The next thing to consider was the pillow. Two standard pillows, or one king pillow? I tried to imagine myself with my head falling into the crevasse created between two regular-sized pillows, or of wearing out just one side of the bed to nestle my head into the fluffy middle of a single one. Subconsciously I may have been thinking that keeping one side unsullied by my inert presence would produce somebody with a buff physique (and brains) to take up that space, but I dashed that idea because it would be a waste of time and the money hard-earned and spent on the bigger mattress to not move freely all over it. So it looks like I’ll be experimenting for a few weeks and make up my mind as I go.
Next was a headboard. It seemed that queens were out of stock everywhere I looked, even though they all seem to fall under a few simple types: rails, padded or slabs. The search took over an hour, but I found one I liked from a popular online retailer who claims to have what people need, so I placed the order. The hours and days went by without a confirmation email, and my charge was still pending. I worried that I might not get it delivered on time.
Then I went out for some errands and returned to find a giant slab of a box leaned against my front steps. Inside was a tufted headboard, ahead of schedule. The preparations were complete for the new arrival.
Delivery is being promised on a particular day, but not at a particular hour just yet. Waiting on a package to arrive is one of those necessary inconveniences of life that seems to have gotten better but is not perfected. The sense of having an incomplete task dangling before some people is mentally taxing, and knowing that some assembly will be required afterward adds to that feeling that something is going to take forever to complete. After the delivery and set-up, I get to put the new sheets and comforter on my new bed and stand back and admire the accomplishment.
I’m looking forward to that moment when the bed is assembled and I can just flop on it and test it out. Maybe I’ll nuke some popcorn in the year-old microwave and snack in bed against my experimental pillows.
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