#1 Summer Goal

...was get a new couch.... DONE. Well, sort of, as life teaches most things are, nowadays.

Yesterday I took the Big Trip to Frisco... to IKEA Dallas. Armed with catalog and list of names/numbers/sizes, I travelled north on the Tollway to the Big Blue Box I love so much. In time, of course, for their breakfast deal (free bottomless coffee).

For a Tuesday, it was jam-packed with women, children, grandparents, and the occasional beleaguered father. Yikes. The cafe was CRAZY with noisy families, more than any Friday or Saturday in my memory.

But I got it done. My new sleeper-sofa, the Ektorp version in basic black cotton duck:

Yeah, that tiny thing.

It will be delivered on Friday, "some time" between 9 and 9. Old couch will be removed by Salvation Army on Saturday, "some time" between 8 and 6... so there will be an overlap of 24-33 hours where I have two couches in what is decidely a one-couch apartment. Oh, well. The real trick will be getting the Ikea men to a/ move the old couch and b/ put the legs on the new couch. And should I tip them? Such many questions!

Regardless, I have a new sleeper sofa, which is great after 13 years. Admittedly, the current sofa has a great mattress, hidden by an increasingly faded outside. Incredibly comfortable, without good looks. I hope it finds a new home. It may be joined by a wicker chair and ottoman I inherited from a friend, but have never quite settled on.

Ikea is always an interesting trip for me, here in Dallas. Since my first trip to Ikea was in Paris, round about 1999, the contrasts are really strong in my mind whenever I go. In Paris, one must take public transpo (Metro, then bus), while in Dallas I drive $2.80 worth of Tollway to Frisco. In Paris, the Box is located near the airport, in the 'way out 'burbs; in Dallas, Frisco--and the Ikea stop--used to be out in the middle of deserted Texas farmland, but now the store is surrounded by strip malls featuring other chains (Container Store, low- to high-end furniture and home deco stores, and lots of eateries, if you don't like the limited choices at the Ikea cafe). The open, brown prairie that surrounded it: GONE. More roads, more chain/box stores, more stuff growing like a rabbit colony... or Starbucks franchises in the aughts.

In Paris, Ikea is one of those places where French people shop to find space-saving items and inexpensive kitchen goods that are still (and necessarily) practical and stylish. In Dallas, few people shop for "space saving" items: our houses have too much space, usually.

I am always pleased to find things that are cost-efficient, useful, and attractive--like yesterday I bought a small white ceramic flowerpot that I'll use as a pencil cup, prettier than the black mug I have now. But also inexpensive white magazine folders, glass plates to match my white ones that are in a discontinued style (oh, well), an espresso cup and saucer, a rubberized placement for using my laptop on the dining room table, wooden hangers, a cheap towel to keep in the car to cover the steering wheel and my seat during summer months, new shower curtain, black iron hooks for everything around the house, and a second Arstid lamp, this one for my bedroom. Besides the couch and cover.

A delightfully successful day.

Pearl