Couch comedy

Now that I finally have access to OU's (flaky) wireless, I can catch up on my blogging.

For the first time in nearly a week, I have slept in the same place for 2 nights in a row - my couch in Athens. (Bouncing from one house with my crap to the next house with my crap kept me on the move and healthily disoriented.) The first night, I slept on the couch to give my mom full run of my little bedroom. Last night, I gave up on clearing the bed of all my clothes. And since my couch is so long, swishy and generally comfy, it hasn't been a problem at all. At least now that it is parked in my living room.

The couch was a challenge right up until then. Located on craigslist, my mom and I arrived at this guy's door at 8AM, as promised. The emails were jovial. But apparently he was slow to primp and let us in. We nearly left without a couch until he finally let us in. Having seeing the couch, we discovered that it was not only red, but also a sofa bed. Le crap. This made it that much heavier than we were planning.

It was pretty ridiculous, 2 skinny kids trying to maneuver the couch down the hallway, to the freight elevator, down another hall to the loading dock where my mom and the huge cargo van was waiting. I nearly got flattened as we loaded it into the van. But it fit with no problem. Sadly, we didn't get the furniture dolly until after the fact.

With the couch loaded, we snagged my bed, and loaded up the rest of my junk. Then we started rolling west towards Athens. It was nice to drive with someone else, even though mom was piloting the van, and I got to motor around in my honda. Did the lead/follow thing I mastered on many long ballroom trips. And discovered that for not a lot of pickup, the van-o-crap could certainly move.

However, the Cosmic Muffin descended in West Virginia. I needed to refuel, and sniffed out a Target. Timing wise, this worked out well, since the van had just thrown a warning light. We had it checked out at the Quik-Lube up the hill. They tweaked the tires, but couldn't get the light to go off. So my mom and I took turns talking to Enterprise. Among other things, it was less than an hour before closing, assuming we could locate the nearest Enterprise. And assuming that location had a cargo van. To say nothing of the extremely unappealing possibility of having to unload this van into a new van. My mom's primary concern was getting back to VA, for which any vehicle would do. But with the stamp of approval from the Quik-Lube, we rolled the last 100 miles to Athens.


Unloading the van proved to be alot easier than packing it. Including the couch. We talked it out, "strategizing" how this red monster would fit into my apartment. And it went exactly to plan! We pulled it out of the van, pulled the one end to the top of the stairs and walked it tall before I did a monkey thing over the edge of the stairs to knock it in (I was perched on the hand rail, braced against the roof supports, feeling pretty cool doing it.)

My couch goes very nicely with the rest of my apartment. I have red sheets nearly the same tomatoey color. And there is a red wall in my bedroom. And the slightly rough look to the couch matches the student-housing effect. However, the roughness makes my mom twitchy, which I find hilarious. So I suspect my first care package will be not brownies and good wishes, but a slip cover.

In the meantime, my little apartment is still a den of despair, which boxes, clothes, and general junk all over. But I have another day to get things in order before school starts.

on iTunes: "Mass Romantic" - New Pornographers