The Mattress was Laid to Rest

In my previous post, I alluded to the "special circumstances" that allowed Trekker access to the nearly-always-off-limits space in our house where we (Casey and I) sleep: our bed.

It all started last December when Casey and I decided to upgrade our mattress. Well, maybe it started when we helped our pastor move, and we offered to dispose of his old king-sized mattress, which we later decided to keep for ourselves, for when we got married (this was about 6 months before our wedding).

The mattress itself was in pretty good shape when we received it; the problem came when we had to move it into our house. As with many older city homes, our house was not built with the intent of moving large furniture to the upper floor. In fact, when the time came to move the mattress upstairs, the only possible way  to get the mattress to our bedroom (apart from taking out the windows upstairs) was to fold it in half. As you can probably imagine, this feat, albeit successful, did not leave the mattress in the same condition in which we received it. But we made do--with a big lump in the middle of the bed where we had folded it. Still, it really wasn't that bad. We flipped it and rotated it around a few times until the biggest part of the lump was at the foot of the bed.

 

But after a year and a half of a lumpy mattress, it seemed like a worthwhile investment to purchase a non-lumpy mattress. We got a great deal on a Sleep Number mattress, and with help from our parents, got an early Christmas gift for ourselves.

So we moved the old mattress out. It only got this far...

...before we decided it would be fun to leave the mattress in the living room for a while and have a comfy place to watch movies over the holidays, when Casey and I had some time off of work at the same time.

We moved the mattress down to the living room at the beginning of our Stay-cation, around Dec. 27th, I think. We thought we would keep it there for a couple of days, just as a fun treat.

The problem was that it WAS fun. A little too much fun. We had a sleepover on New Year's Eve, where we slept on the mattress downstairs and watched movies all night. And, of course, Trekker was allowed to sleep on the mattress with us, as the mattress was "trash" (now that we had folded it in half twice--once to get it up the stairs, and then to get it back down the stairs--it had become pretty worthless as a sleeping accoutrement).

A couple of weeks later, the mattress was still in our living room. Aside from the tackiness of having a mattress in our living room, the mattress caused several other inconveniences:

•  The mattress was so very large that, when laid flat on the living room floor, it took up all of the floor space from the edge of the couch to the entertainment center. Thus, we couldn't walk through the living room without walking across the mattress. We fixed this problem by leaning the mattress up against the couch at an angle (see picture above).
• The mattress was so comfortable that we inevitably spent periods of time as much as 12-15 hours in a day just lying around on the mattress, watching TV (mostly football), reading, napping...(see picture of me and Trek, taken after church one Sunday).
• We found that when we slept overnight with Trekker on the mattress, Trekker slept much later into the morning, and was not nearly as whiny upon waking, which allowed us to sleep longer and with fewer interruptions.
• The mattress took up so much room in the house that it proved to be a rather significant deterrent to house-cleaning. So...we didn't clean our house between Dec. 24th and the day we got rid of the mattress.

We talked about needing to get rid of the mattress just about every other day following New Year's, but our conversations usually ended with, "Oh, but it would be nice to have the mattress for..." and still the mattress stayed.

The cleaning inconvenience was really the final motivator that ended the mattress-in-the-living-room era.

After many lazy Sundays, slumber parties, and late-night movies, the mattress was laid to rest on Wednesday, Jan. 26th, 2011 (only a month post-mattress switch). Casey and I honored it with a burial ceremony that included dragging it through the snow and into the back alley, where we jumped on it one last time (and talked about how awkward it was to lie on a mattress in the middle of an alley). Now it sits behind our dumpster and patiently awaits large-item pick-up.

And we have our house back--and clean again!

Cuddly Pets

It has long been Casey's dream to see our pets curl up together on a cold winter's day. When we first introduced Trekker and Zima a short 3 years ago, I never thought I would see the day. All I remember is Trekker drooling with anticipation as Casey held him back from chasing Zima all over the room (and doing who knows what with her if he ever would have been given opportunity). Zima was wise to treat Trekker with hostility. That was phase 1. At that point, I was uncertain that our pets would ever even be able to live together under the same roof.

Phase 2 of the relationship took place with Zima on Casey's lap and Trekker (still overly eager) sniffing at Zima. In response, Zima batted at Trekker's nose, causing Trekker to sneeze-snort, but not providing enough of a deterrent that Trekker would get out of her business. This phase continued for several months. Zima would hiss and bat at Trekker's nose. Trekker would sneeze-snort, but continue to come back for more. At this point, Trekker did not seem to want to eat Zima anymore, but regarded her with much curiosity and intrigue. Progress! On the other hand, Zima still regarded Trekker with open hostility. Wise cat!

Phase 3: By the time we got married, we were fairly certain that there was no danger of Trekker eating or otherwise seriously harming Zima. We put up a gate in the doorway of the guest bedroom to keep Trekker from getting to Zima's food and kitty litter. Zima could jump over the gate to come and go at will, but Trekker was not allowed in the guest bedroom. Zima seemed to enjoy having her own space. She often sat just on the other side of the gate and taunted Trekker. Still no cuddling, but they were becoming much more amiable. Even Zima seemed to warm up to Trekker. In fact, it almost seemed that the tables were turning. There were moments when Zima would approach Trekker from behind, as if to sniff his tail. Trekker, upon noticing Zima, would jump back, almost in fear of Zima's curiosity.

Phase 4 (current day). Our pets can finally be coaxed to nap in close proximity to one another. Usually, Trekker is curled up unaware, and Zima quietly makes her way closer and closer. It should be noted that Trekker is not normally allowed to sleep on the bed. But that is for another blog entry. They have yet to voluntarily cuddle, but Casey has plans make that a reality (He wants to turn the heat down
while we are gone on a particularly cold day in hopes that they will seek one another for warmth. I think he is crazy.).

Review: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer


My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I had higher expectations than where I felt this book landed. I think in part, I'm not a big fan of the autistic narrator's viewpoint. I read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime a couple of years back, and this felt too similar. Also, it was so extremely depressing. I know I probably should have been prepared for this factor, due to the sensitive nature of the subject matter, but I found myself feeling lonely for the entire duration of the book, and I attribute it to the fact that every single character was fighting a failing battle against loneliness and isolation.

That stated, there were passages that captured me. Foer's style has a poetic and artistic beauty.
For example:

"Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I'm not living" (113).

"The books had been buried, so I hid this time behind a group of trees, I imagined their roots wrapped around books, pulling nourishment from the pages, I imagined rings of letters in their trunks...a leaf fell, it was yellow like paper" (114).

"I took the world into me, sent it back out as a question: 'Do you like me?'" (117).

"I didn't feel empty. I wish I'd felt empty. People waving shirts out of high windows. I wanted to be empty like an overturned pitcher. But I was full like a stone" (231).

View all my reviews

A Read*-a-saurus

When When I was in fifth grade, my mom went on a field trip with my class to the St. Louis Science Center as a parent chaperone. I don't know what we did there, but I have this vivid recollection of the green Nike jacket I wore that day, on which I displayed (with pride) a yellow button that read "I am a book-a-saurus" along with a picture of a dinosaur reading a book. I am sure I wore this jacket (and button) nearly every day the winter of my 5th grade year. However, it will forever in my mind be associated with this field trip because of the conversation my mom had with my teacher during the field trip.

My teacher told my mom that I rarely got in any trouble at school... No surprise there, I was a people-pleaser--still am, in fact... EXCEPT when she had to tell me, multiple times, "Angela, put-down-that-book!" Though my teacher told my mom this story in jest, because, what teacher complains about a student whom she has to reprimand for reading too much?, she really did have to frequently tell me to stop reading.

See, I was the type of kid who would finish my homework early, and immediately pick up my book and begin reading. Then, when the rest of the class had finished math and it was time for social studies, I would still have my nose in the book, even as my teacher began the next lesson.

All that to say, I LOVE TO READ! My dad says I get it from my mom--well, all my sisters do. My mom has always been a big reader, and I am thankful that she passed her love for books on to me; in fact, I think the reason I remember that fifth grade field trip so well is because my mom loves to tell that story and brag on how much her daughter(s) love to read.

I went through a period of several years (much of high school and college) where I had to read so much for school that I didn't have much time for pleasure reading. Then, I started teaching, and had even less time for pleasure reading (unless you count all those freshmen essays--oh wait, pleasure reading...).

Then, in 2007, I met Casey. Casey is also a book-lover (one of the many reasons I love him). Prior to meeting him, it had been several years since I had been so lost in a book that I lost touch with reality. In part because I was jealous of the enjoyment he found in reading (oftentimes when I was grading or otherwise working), and in part because he openly encouraged me to pick up books again (he bought me two of his favorite books the day after our first date), I began to rekindle my love for reading.

According to Goodreads.com, where I track books I have read and ones I am planning to read, I read 15 books in 2010. I'm pretty sure I read more than this, but I am still getting used to recording my reading patterns on a website. Still, it's not too bad! Over a book a month. Here are my books from 2010, in chronological order:

1. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Gutterson
2. Teacher Man by Frank McCourt
3. This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff
4. Empire Falls by Richard Russo
5. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
6. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
7.Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
8. Plan B: Further Thoughts On Faith by Anne Lammott
9. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
10. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
11. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer
12. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
13. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress By Rhoda Janzen
14. On Writing by Stephen King
15. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King

I also have to add that the only reason I am even blogging on this topic is because I just finished my first book of 2011 (Cujo by Stephen King**), and I can't bury my face in a book while Casey sits next to me watching football, so instead, I blog about reading. It's a terrible thing, that feeling of not having a good book to read, and REALLY wanting to read. I need another book...

*I originally titled this blog entry "Book-a-saurus," but later remembered that my button was actually called "Read-a-saurus." When I google image searched for "read-a-saurus," I found an exact replica of the button on my fifth grade jacket!

**Yes, three books in a row by Stephen King. No, I'm not a big fan of the horror genre. I suppose that is a topic for another blog.