A bed too big (part 1)

When I was 23 years old I finally got a queen size bed.  Up until then I had been making do with a twin.  The bed of my childhood- a twin with a four post frame made of beautiful wood- was something I treasured.  The day I cam home to find that our German shepherd, Sheeba, had gnawed on this bed like a bone while the whole family was out was a dark day.  I know my parents were upset.  After I moved away to college I had to sleep in the standard issue extra long twin bed.  And when I finally moved into a house with two friends for my final year of college, my dad gave me a little money to buy a new set of mattresses.  Of course, the room I had in the house was the tiniest room so of course I could only buy a twin bed.  

After college I moved home with my dad and step-mom, who had just gotten married.  I brought home the twin bed I bought in college and had a lot of room at the new house.  I obtained my first “real” job and things started looking like I was becoming a “real” adult.  The only problem was that I lived with my dad and my boyfriend, Chris, was still up in Lansing finishing his college years.  We had only started dating right before my graduation, but there was just no discussion about it- we would just make the long distance thing work.  Lucky for us, I had a job that allowed me to work from home.  While I lived with my dad I worked from my boss’ house.  I saved up money and by May I was ready to move back to Lansing.  This is when my dad and step-mom (or it could have been purely my step-mom) decided that it just wasn’t right that a girl of 23 still be stuck with a twin bed when she was moving out into the world for the first time.  She managed to talk my dad into giving me $400 cash to take to a furniture store and spend on getting a larger bed.  The deal was that if the mattress set was more than $400, I would have to make up the difference.  If I found a supreme deal and it was less, then I could keep the extra.  Off I went to Art Van Furniture.

Art Van is a store a lot like Rooms to Go, but not as loud in color.  It’s well priced furniture with financing deals that are great.  The other thing about Art Van is that they are ALWAYS having some sort of sale.  Luckily for me, Dad and Linda had just experienced the great mattress sale which is what got Linda’s brain working on my behalf.  I dragged along Gina, best friend since the 7th grade.  I had no idea looking for a bed would be so complicated!  I had no idea you got to lay down, stand on, and bounce all over the sample mattresses on the sales floor.  Remember that scene in the movie Two Weeks Notice when Hugh Grant’s character has his assistant helping him decide which mattress to buy?  That’s what my experience was like.  We had a very nice lady who was very encouraging about going ahead and bouncing on the beds.  She left us alone for a while (big mistake) and came back to a lot of giggling.  Eventually I found the perfect mattress, a nice King Coil.  I got a great deal and managed to get the more expensive mattress pad all for a hair under $400.  I was ready to move into my first apartment on my own…