I don’t know what i was thinking, really. First i just wanted to give Amy her Christmas present, then we were going shopping, then we were going to IKEA, and then i decided that it was a good idea because i needed a new cd shelf.

Little did i know i would come back having spent the last of my Christmas money and in possession of three brand new pieces of furniture, a 20-piece dish set, a half dozen wine glasses, four rose-colored cups, and one new skillet. One minute Amy and i were just following the arrows on the floor of the uber-decor store, and the next i was pushing a shopping cart with one hand and pulling a hand-truck with the other. But, oh, no it doesn’t end there… because, other than couches everything IKEA sells comes unassembled.


How long does it take a single college student to build a double-width shelf, a six-tiered utility unit, and a waist-high bureau? Approximately 24-hours, taking breaks only to sleep, eat, go to the bank, and watch Momento. Which, actually, was quite a few breaks. I could’ve easily worked right through the night last night, except that i had come upon the hammering bit of the shelf just as my two roommates and two houseguests came upon their sleeping bit of the night. Myself, i was wholly oblivious to any noise being made by my hammer because i had the rather large headphones from the last post on and was being soothed by the folk of Gillian Welch down to the very core of my being. So, it came as a great surprise when an especially cranky Erika emerged from my stairwell to tell me, in no uncertain terms, that the time for hammering had come and gone.

Around there is where the sleeping-break came into the picture.