So… the night I assembled the IKEA chair, I went to bed with a sense of accomplishment. My mission was complete. I had fought for the chair, carried it through the city on a cold and rainy evening… I had earned a well deserved rest. And honestly, I was exhausted. Between Costello’s visit, work, entertaining Grayson, and the chair… I was beat… and the night I assembled the chair I went to bed early.
I just wish Serena had gone to bed as well.
No… Serena stayed up… she surfed the net… and her unspoken dissatisfaction in the chair I slaved away to get, led her to www.gumtree.com, London’s CraigsList equivalent. And by the time I woke up the next day my sense of accomplishment and a job well done had long passed… upon hearing Serena’s desire to get a different chair, those positive feelings were replaced by dread and frustration… and a headache… I’m pretty sure a headache was involved.
Now, I will admit. The IKEA rocking chair was a piece of garbage. The chair itself was too wide and deep to be an effective nursing chair and the rocking blades were almost flat making the chair more like a ‘wobbler’ than a rocker. So, in all actuality I don’t blame Serena for being dissatisfied in the least. I totally understood. The IKEA ‘wobbling’ chair was a massive disappointment for me as well.
However, my body was not ready to embark on another chair misadventure… especially since I had already been on one Gumtree mission prior to Costello’s arrival.
You see, besides a stroller and a nursing chair… we also needed a bassinet. And by the time Costello arrived I had already been on an across town adventure to purchase a second hand, waist high, all wood bassinet Serena found on Gumtree.
Now, the trip for the bassinet wasn’t nearly as dramatic as my trip to IKEA, which is probably why I have shared it until now.
I only had to take a couple buses to an area of town I was already, kind of, familiar with and the couple selling us the bassinet only lived about two blocks from the bus stop. And in fact, the worst part of this expedition was lugging the bassinet those two blocks... not because the bassinet was too heavy, although it would have been easier with two people, but because it was a pretty awkward carry… especially since I had to balance the legs inside the basket in such a way so they didn’t slide through the slats and onto the ground. I didn’t even mind the bus rides home. Sure I had to wait thirty minutes for one of them, but it was a very quiet and pleasant evening, so there weren’t too many people to contend with and my final stop was right across the street from our flat.
So… altogether, this trip wasn’t bad at all; which is probably why I agreed to go to IKEA… plus Costello was there to help and having an extra hand made the trip sound more attractive. Which… I admit… in hindsight, was a total mistake.
Anyway, on the heels of the bassinet and IKEA… I just wasn’t about to lug another piece of furniture through London’s public transportation system. If Serena wanted a different chair… we were going to need another method of procurement.
Because this JohnPaul was exhausted… and tired of being ripped off.
… If only there was room in my life for both… rest and reasonably priced nursery furniture. However, there wasn’t room for either.
