Almost a couch

Friday was our anniversary. The third most salient fact about our family: We are terrible at celebrating things. The twelfth most salient fact: We are always talking about how terrible we are at celebrating things because we feel guilty about it, and somehow feel like talking about it makes it okay.

In the morning, or the night before, I got the idea that I would buy a new couch as a surprise for Cait. I was planning on doing this for her birthday, but when I realized that this was our fifth and wooden anniversary, I thought getting a couch would be nice. Our couch right now is really crappy, and we're kind of nearing that stage that buying a nice couch that lasts is preferable to buying a succession of really crappy couches.

So, while Cait did homework and Atticus was at school, I took Lulah in the jogging stroller to the only close furniture store, Century House, where we had looked at furniture before and where, while a lot of things are pricey, there are few lower-end options that are still really nice.

After looking around for a while and having Lulah run head-long into a glass table she didn't see, I decided on this one:

Over this one

It's a little cruel of me to post these here to always remember the couch that got away, but I'd like evidence of my fashion sense broadcast to the world. Or at least my love of modernist orange furniture.

I got my friend Brad (thanks Brad) to come down to the store to help me get it in the community car that was supposed to be parked at the mall next door, but I forgot to reserve it, so I had to find another option. I called our friend Ana, who is wonderfully giving Atticus rides to school every day, and further imposed on her by asking if we could use her mini-van to get the sofa to our house. She said yes.

Brad rode his bike and I ran back with a sleeping Lulah to our house, so we could get rid of the old couch and make room for the new. Unfortunately, Cait was still home, although she had said she would be long gone by this time. I thought about concocting some story about how I found bed bugs in the couch or something, but it was unlikely to fly, so I told her the truth. She was predictably (if you know Cait and her loathing of surprise expenses) upset. I knew this was a possibility, but I also knew that if I didn't take a first step, we weren't getting a couch, no matter how little she dislikes the one we have. Cait just needs a little help to spend money sometimes. That's why I was very clear about understanding their return policy, so that even if I got the couch all the way here and set up, we could have still taken it back.

Of course, I could have found a much cheaper and probably still good couch on craigslist, but I hear their return policy is less than stellar. And I don't even know where the craiglist store is. Cait is always in charge of going there.

So anyway, I called the guy and cancelled the order, and everything turned out fine (except I left my keys there and had to go back yesterday). We had a great camping trip that night, which is my next post. We might still get a couch. Happy anniversary to us.