New Couch

meisajDaily Life

Up until now, the only couch I had in my adult life was an old, old, floral patterned couch that a roommate had bought when I first moved to Buffalo at 23 years old.  It was at least 10 – 20 years old then, and was already in bad shape.  But they had gotten a couch for $20.  Not bad.

Old CouchOld Couch was comfortable.  Reg lived on it for almost the whole year we lived together.  It was a great napping couch.  But this last year really pushed the limit on its life span.  The cushions had started splitting, sheet I threw over it to keep it looking nice no longer made much of a difference.  You knew what was under there.  The couch had no legs, due to a screw snapping when I moved from Buffalo to Cleveland.

So it had to go.  It was the kind of furniture I had an attachment too after having it for twelve years and 6 different apartments.  For this period of my life, everywhere I went, this couch went too.  But it was time to part ways, and I knew what I wanted to replace it.

Three years ago when Sam and I moved in together we took a trip to Ikea.  I instantly fell in love with their Kivik sofa series.  I knew it was the couch for me, but we weren’t in a place to buy a couch then, and in all honesty I was still good with our set up.  We had a couch and a futon in our living room.  You think it would have been crowded, but it wasn’t.  They both had a wall to be against, and we had gotten to each having our own couch nightly to sprawl on while unwinding.

But I wanted the Kivik.  And this year I had, admit-tingly, gone on about wanting to buy the Kivik.  When Sam said yes lets do it, I was all in.  So Saturday we drove to the Canton, Michigan Ikea.  Checking stock at the Pittsburgh Ikea showed that they were out. It had been an ongoing dread of mine that they would cancel the Kivik series before I got one, thankfully that didn’t happen.

A quick trip to Ikea Canton (there is nothing quick about a 2.5 hour drive or a trip to Ikea, although we kept our visit to under 2 hours…. a personal Ikea record for us) and we were back home hauling 100 pound boxes up three flights of stairs to our apartment.

New CouchI had taken apart the futon couch the night before, and we were giving it to one of Sam’s friends.  And old couch had been upended to be moved to the dumpster afterwards.  It took the two of us about an hour and half to get both the Couch and Chaise together.  Ikea only sent us one defective part (not bad Ikea, not bad).  It was a part to attach the Chaise to the Couch as one unit, but we decided we like them separate for now and will most likely keep it that way when Ikea sends us the replacement part.

Angelo has instantly taken to loving both the chaise and the couch.  He moves back and forth between them every half hour or so.  He was extremely intimidated by the unpacking and the assembly process, but the soft cushions eventually won his love.  Yesterday was our first full day with them.  It was busy day…. cleaning, couch moving, recycling of copious amounts of cardboard, rearranging that comes with new furniture… all that jazz.  But at the end of the day, man the couch and chaise were comfortable and worth it.  First brand new couch of my adult life…. positive experience.

Chaise - Angelo

Waking Up

meisajDaily Life
Fancy Timely Alarm
Fancy Timely Alarm

I used to post most mornings before work.  I’ve slid on that.  A big reason for that is getting up in the morning.

Due to a…. mishap…. yes…. let us call it a mishap…..

Due to a mishap one night… early morning….no…. we will stick with night….

Due to a mishap one night in Boston over my Spring Break my iPhone died.  It died a shatter filled death.  I always joke that when I injure myself I injure myself good.  Almost die from an appendix bursting, break my collar bone into 3 pieces not two, those sort of things (alright… those may be the only examples I have).  So when my phone died, it died big time.  Glass shards everywhere.  Casing bent to hell.  Good times essentially.

It occurred at a decent time I suppose.  I had grown bored, but satisfied with my phone.  I’ve had an iPhone since the 3G and never really felt drawn to leave the ios ecosystem.  I had been actually thinking, that as my phone neared 2 years old, I had no desire to upgrade to a different phone at all.  But life happens, and the phone breaking was as good an opportunity as any to try something new.

So I bought a Nexus 5.  Google, Android…. all that jazz.  Wasn’t hard to switch.  But what is annoying is the stock alarm clock on the Nexus.  I like using my own music to waking up.  Not buzzing, not an alarm clock, just my phone.  But the stock alarm clock on the Nexus can’t do that, my old iPhone could.  I tried several others.  Warmly, Timely, and others.  They look pretty.  They also try fancy things like “waking you with science” where they start playing noise 30 minutes early at a really low volume to wake you from “light sleep” so you’re less groggy.

I’m calling bullshit on that.  Doesn’t work.  Just wakes me up 30 minutes early and I see the time on my phone and get really pissed I’m not sleeping still.  So I’m still looking a perfect alarm clock for an android phone.

Till then I’ll wake up with buzzing noises.

Extremely annoying buzzing noises.

They say….

meisajDaily Life

They say a stressful job can make you go gray early. Never thought that was true.

I figure either a) my job is way more stressful than I let on or b) old age is setting in earlier I had hoped.

Considering it’s been 7 years since I found my first gray hair and they’ve only just now reached the stage where Sam can’t pluck then its not too bad.

Still… Gray hairs…

image

Tork

meisajDaily Life

tork logoI have to tell you, I love that my father works for Tork.

Maybe it is just because I know the name now, but I see Tork products all over the place.  It may be sad, but they are little reminders of home to me.

I see Tork Napkin Dispensers at restaurants all the time.  They were even at Camp Fitch, where I took a group of 5th Graders on a field trip recently. And every time I see them I remember my father telling me about a question he asked when Tork first bought the paper mill he works at.

Dad – “What does Tork mean anyways?”

Tork Employee – “To Wipe.” Soooooo Appropriate.