Furniture shopping

A lot of people know the kinds of things they want in life. I am not one of them. They will say things like “oh when I saw that lamp, I just knew I had to have it” or “you have to see the couch we picked out, it works perfectly in our living room”. How do they know? I will sometimes stare at a piece of furniture or clothing and will my brain to do the same thing – give me that certainty other people seem to have.

I visited Kathleen in Charlotte on Saturday – we had a surprise birthday lunch for her at P.F. Chang’s. After stuffing ourselves with really good Chinese food, Kathleen’s friend Aimee left and Kathleen and I decided to look around for a bed her in-laws are buying as a late wedding gift for her and Andrew. She knows what she wants – I marveled as we looked at bed after bed – and each time she would shake her head slightly and comment on the small difference each bed would need to be acceptable to her. This one’s stain was too light, this one too dark, this one had a metal emblem she didn’t like or the posts were too low – and all of it was understandable, far be it for me to encourage her to spend that kind of (someone else’s) money without being sure. But me, I looked at piece after piece thinking, had it been me, I would’ve marched in there and left with the third thing I looked at (so as to look discerning).

Here’s a picture of Kathleen – about 8 months along. She’s looking for a bed that she can pass down to her children – here’s to hoping they have the same tastes or, like me, none at all.