Mommy, WOW! I'm a big kid now!
Those of you who have lived with me at one point or another know that if world hunger could be fixed by sleep, I could singlehandedly cause a worldwide problem of obesity. In short, I like the sleep. And I'm damn good at it. I can sleep anywhere, and at any time. No matter that I got 18 hours of sleep last night, I'm going to bed after only being up for 6 hours and I'll fall right asleep and sleep through the night again. It's not a nap unless it's at least 2 hours. And I could be in the middle of Times Square on New Year's Eve with people standing on my head and others lying next to me shouting in my ears and I'd sleep right through it.
This is why travelling has never been a big deal for me. Trip to Japan - 13 hour time difference? No biggie. Kicked the jet lag the first day - both going there and coming back. Sleeping on a friend's floor? Wake up like I've been alseep for days. Bring on the challenges, I'll knock 'em out of the park.
This is also why I've had no problems sleeping in a twin bed from the age of 6 to this year. That's right folks, 28 and I still slept in a twin bed. It's just the circumstance of things: I had bunk beds when I was little, which then came apart into two twins that took me through high school. College - 4 years of dorm life, twin beds not even a question. Post college move to Florida - no money to buy furniture of my own, steal the furniture from my house - which means twin bed again. When I left Florida it was too expensive to move all my furniture so I sold it all. But I moved to Boston, to a dorm room - twin bed again. When I finally moved into an apartment for the second year in Boston, I had no money (still a student) to buy a bed, so my roomie's kind family scrounged one up from the neighbors. And, you guessed it, a twin. But none of these were a problem for me. Give me enough room for the fetal position (either lying down or sitting up or some combo of the two) and I'm out.
But this year, I decided it was time for the "big girl bed." It was time for something larger than a twin, and it was time for a real frame that looked all adult and sophisticated, and it was time for a good, solid, grown-up mattress. I shopped a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time before picking anything out. There were many trips to several stores during which I hemmed and hawed and measured and hemmed and hawed some more and budgeted and tried desperately to figure out what it was I wanted after 22 years of not really choosing. I ended up with a whole bedroom set, which makes my bedroom look really like a big girl room, and it's in the urban shaker style, and it's cherry. I absolutely love it. I love walking into my room, I love hanging out in my room, I love the matching of the set and the warm comfy aura of my room. But the story doesn't end there. Oh, NO.
When you buy a bed of a new size, you must buy a new box spring and mattress. I had to bring someone with me to help out with this, because...well...see above. It's all the same to me (or so I thought), so I had no idea what was good and what wasn't. Now, mattress shopping is just as intensive as bed shopping. You go to stores, and you look at all the beds in the store, and all you want to do is lie down and take a nap immediately (or, at least I did). First you must decide whether you want a soft mattress, a hard mattress, or a medium mattress. Regular, pillow-top, or memory foam? Low profile box spring or high profile? After many many MANY recommendations, I went with the pillow top. But then there was the decision - what kind of mattress under the pillow top? I ended up with something in the middle, slightly firm but not rock-hard. And while I could tell the difference between the mattress I chose and others (after lying on what felt like hundreds of mattresses thousands of times), the difference was just barely palpable.
But things have changed, dear friends.
I am now a bed snob.
I can still sleep anywhere, on anything, but I can tell the difference between my bed and others. My bed is the BEST BED in the whole entire UNIVERSE. Others may try to be my bed, but they pale in comparison. I mean, it's the whole package - the frame, with its warm inviting coloring that matches the rest of the furniture in the room; the super-comfy pillow top mattress; the sunset colors I've gotten my sheets and curtains in; the down comforter that keeps me toasty and snuggly on the cold New England nights. I couldn't ask for more.
I really thought that getting the big girl bed wouldn't change anything, save the fact that I sleep in the fetal position. I figured by switching to a queen I would, over time, spread out to cover the space I had. It's the same concept as the idea that when you move into a place, even if it seems too big...you'll expand to fill the space you have. But I have changed in more ways than I ever could have imagined. I can still sleep like a champ, but I'm picky about my bed now. So if I plan to try that New Year's Eve stunt, I'll have to bring my bed with me. =)
posted by Kristy @ 7:30 PM
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