Spare me
Yes, it's after 10:00pm on a Saturday night and I'm at home, blogging.
Money isn't tight, but it soon might be, especially since I have several major (More) Things I Need to Buy this year and I may only have one trivia show per week very soon. My Tuesday night trivia gig at Fox & Hounds has only been a fill-in for the last couple of months, and now the guy is back from doing whatever he was doing. But not next week. He's going to Brazil or some shit. And then not for two more weeks when he's doing some other shit. Hell if I know. The upshot is, I'm very probably losing one show, and my monthly budget is based on two nights per week.
In any event, here are the (More) Things I Need to Buy:
• a trip to New York to visit Dad, probably in late September/early October
I haven't decided on flying or driving; there are too many variables to make that decision right now.
• a bed or futon for the second bedroom
• and then I need real furniture in there to make it a real guest room
Mom's been bugging me about this for at least a year now. "How am I supposed to come visit," she opines, "if there's nowhere for me to stay? Or your brothers?"
For the record, my brothers don't mind the very comfortable couch. Law School Brother sleeps on a mattress on the floor after spending several years in Shenyang, China without heat; he's happy to have a blanket and warm air around him. Kid Brother is only a year out of the frat house; he's happy to have a bed raised up from the floor and circulating air (conditioned or not).
Mom just doesn't want to spring for a hotel. Not that I blame her.
And she's right anyway: what's the point of having a two-bedroom apartment if the second bedroom is nothing but a junk room, not even an office (my computer desk is actually in the kitchen where a breakfast table would be).
Here's what it looks like now:
from the door:
from the closet:
FAQ:
1) What's with the shitty lighting?
It's not really that bad. I put the camera on "auto" and it used the crappy flash. Photoshop didn't help.
2) Is that really a "shelf unit" made of 1" x 12" planks and cinder blocks?
Yes. Shut up. I got them nine years ago. It's all easy to move.
3) Isn't that the sort of thing 22 year olds do right out of college?
Yes. Shut up. I know.
4) There seems to be something wrong with that smaller bookcase; what is it?
It has something no bookshelf should have: three empty shelves. A travesty, I know.
5) Is that the same stereo you had in high school?
Yes. But the turntable works, which is why I still have it. Of course, that's the only thing that works, but that's why I have another stereo in the living room. Most of those LPs are left over from high school, too. The 45's are in the bag on the top shelf.
6) When did you buy the vacuum cleaner in the corner?
Two months ago.
7) Have you opened the box?
No.
8) Are those amy37b's really nice coffee and end tables shoved in the corner? Didn't she sell those at her yard sale last year?
Yes and yes. Crazy scary lady never picked them up, so I have them.
9) What lens did you use to take these pictures?
Glad you asked! I used my nifty Canon 10-22mm wide angle lens. It's pretty.
So you see my problem. I'm thinking I should get a real bed so I can shove stuff underneath it. There is no room left in the closet (nor in the master bedroom closet) for the stack of crates filled with old college textbooks.
The real problem, though, is this:
I've never bought furniture.* I figured, why bother? I'm always moving from one rented apartment to another, so why get furniture that may not fit in the next place? When I settle down in a house I own, I'll buy real furniture I'll be happy to keep permanently.
Here's a list of every piece of furniture I have bought:
• a baker's rack for the kitchen
• a halogen lamp
• Fizzgig's crate
• a couple of those cheap cabinet things from Target
• a grill
• a "shelf unit" made of 1" x 12" planks and cinder blocks
Everything else is a hand-me-down or bought cheap and used from Mom, right down to the leaning bookcase (with three empty shelves!) I got for free from my boss a few weeks ago.
But I think it is time to buy furniture. I don't plan on leaving this apartment for quite a while; it's too damn convenient and affordably priced, even if I don't have W/D connections (and the W/D I sold a few months back? hand-me-downs from high school).
I'm old enough now that I should have some real furniture and not a "shelf unit" made of 1" x 12" planks and cinder blocks. I should have a guest room so I can have friends stay with me and sleep on a mattress in their own room and not the couch. And so on.
So. Futon or bed? Full or queen? Real shelving of some sort for 100 LPs, 350+ CDs, and some VHS tapes or something else? And where the hell do I put the file cabinet and the rest of that crap?
* Well, I once bought a bed from Roberds, but they went bankrupt the next day (seriously) and never delivered it, so I was out $700. Fuckers.
Money isn't tight, but it soon might be, especially since I have several major (More) Things I Need to Buy this year and I may only have one trivia show per week very soon. My Tuesday night trivia gig at Fox & Hounds has only been a fill-in for the last couple of months, and now the guy is back from doing whatever he was doing. But not next week. He's going to Brazil or some shit. And then not for two more weeks when he's doing some other shit. Hell if I know. The upshot is, I'm very probably losing one show, and my monthly budget is based on two nights per week.
In any event, here are the (More) Things I Need to Buy:
• a trip to New York to visit Dad, probably in late September/early October
I haven't decided on flying or driving; there are too many variables to make that decision right now.
• a bed or futon for the second bedroom
• and then I need real furniture in there to make it a real guest room
Mom's been bugging me about this for at least a year now. "How am I supposed to come visit," she opines, "if there's nowhere for me to stay? Or your brothers?"
For the record, my brothers don't mind the very comfortable couch. Law School Brother sleeps on a mattress on the floor after spending several years in Shenyang, China without heat; he's happy to have a blanket and warm air around him. Kid Brother is only a year out of the frat house; he's happy to have a bed raised up from the floor and circulating air (conditioned or not).
Mom just doesn't want to spring for a hotel. Not that I blame her.
And she's right anyway: what's the point of having a two-bedroom apartment if the second bedroom is nothing but a junk room, not even an office (my computer desk is actually in the kitchen where a breakfast table would be).
Here's what it looks like now:
from the door:
from the closet:
FAQ:
1) What's with the shitty lighting?
It's not really that bad. I put the camera on "auto" and it used the crappy flash. Photoshop didn't help.
2) Is that really a "shelf unit" made of 1" x 12" planks and cinder blocks?
Yes. Shut up. I got them nine years ago. It's all easy to move.
3) Isn't that the sort of thing 22 year olds do right out of college?
Yes. Shut up. I know.
4) There seems to be something wrong with that smaller bookcase; what is it?
It has something no bookshelf should have: three empty shelves. A travesty, I know.
5) Is that the same stereo you had in high school?
Yes. But the turntable works, which is why I still have it. Of course, that's the only thing that works, but that's why I have another stereo in the living room. Most of those LPs are left over from high school, too. The 45's are in the bag on the top shelf.
6) When did you buy the vacuum cleaner in the corner?
Two months ago.
7) Have you opened the box?
No.
8) Are those amy37b's really nice coffee and end tables shoved in the corner? Didn't she sell those at her yard sale last year?
Yes and yes. Crazy scary lady never picked them up, so I have them.
9) What lens did you use to take these pictures?
Glad you asked! I used my nifty Canon 10-22mm wide angle lens. It's pretty.
So you see my problem. I'm thinking I should get a real bed so I can shove stuff underneath it. There is no room left in the closet (nor in the master bedroom closet) for the stack of crates filled with old college textbooks.
The real problem, though, is this:
I've never bought furniture.* I figured, why bother? I'm always moving from one rented apartment to another, so why get furniture that may not fit in the next place? When I settle down in a house I own, I'll buy real furniture I'll be happy to keep permanently.
Here's a list of every piece of furniture I have bought:
• a baker's rack for the kitchen
• a halogen lamp
• Fizzgig's crate
• a couple of those cheap cabinet things from Target
• a grill
• a "shelf unit" made of 1" x 12" planks and cinder blocks
Everything else is a hand-me-down or bought cheap and used from Mom, right down to the leaning bookcase (with three empty shelves!) I got for free from my boss a few weeks ago.
But I think it is time to buy furniture. I don't plan on leaving this apartment for quite a while; it's too damn convenient and affordably priced, even if I don't have W/D connections (and the W/D I sold a few months back? hand-me-downs from high school).
I'm old enough now that I should have some real furniture and not a "shelf unit" made of 1" x 12" planks and cinder blocks. I should have a guest room so I can have friends stay with me and sleep on a mattress in their own room and not the couch. And so on.
So. Futon or bed? Full or queen? Real shelving of some sort for 100 LPs, 350+ CDs, and some VHS tapes or something else? And where the hell do I put the file cabinet and the rest of that crap?
* Well, I once bought a bed from Roberds, but they went bankrupt the next day (seriously) and never delivered it, so I was out $700. Fuckers.