First, a bit of a prelude. I run hot and cold when it comes to my blog... anyone who has been reading it for a while knows I go through spots where I take a week or two before I have the energy and incentive to write about anything. Part of the reason I blog, ironically enough, is to get more discipline as a writer. Of course, that makes sense when I feel like writing, but the rest of the time I ignore that reason and do whatever else I have going on (generally, it involves talking to someone about how I’m JUST about to start cleaning my apartment). So, in the interests of discipline (aka fighting boredom (well, fighting MY boredom... maybe causing it for anyone who reads this))... here we go.
Saturday I’d planned on trying out for an adult baseball league, but the tryouts were at 9:00. AM. Oops. Nope. After kicking around LQA and my apartment with a friend much of the day, I decided to ACTUALLY take a step towards organizing my apartment. The plan for my "immaculate" apartment (no sarcasm from the commentator that ascribed that adjective, I’m sure) was/is rather simple:
- Get a new bookshelf or two
- Organize the 50 or so books that are currently scattered in the northeast corner of my living room and place them in aforementioned new bookshelf
- Clean newly (partially) uncluttered living room
- Move existing bookshelf to bedroom
- Organize the 25 or so books that are currently scattered throughout my bedroom as well as the 250 pounds or so of clothes hanging from every corner and projecting surface in said bedroom
- Clean newly (entirely) uncluttered bedroom
- Go through the dozen large boxes in my living room, throwing stuff away, sorting through the books, and figuring out what (if anything) should go into storage
See how easy my life is? And how exciting?
In any case, I had looked at Target for book shelves on Friday, but I resolved to go to Ikea over the weekend.
Saturday evening was the time. I bid adieu to my cats, hopped in the car, drove about 1.75 miles per hour down Mercer on the way to the freeway and eventually made it to Ikea.
This was only my third visit. I’d been once in my former life and then once a little over two years ago right after I got my own place.
In the mean time, I’ve read articles about managing retail space, and I’ve worked on environments where the user experience is really a guided one... so maybe I just saw the store differently this time around, but. Man. It was weird.
For those of you who have been there: I’m sorry if I bore you with my detailing of it. For those of you who haven’t been there: I’m sorry if I bore you with everything else.
I wanted a bookshelf, right? Well, there’s no "bookshelf" section. There is something called the "Marketplace". There are self-service warehouse shelves. There are arrows on the ground to make sure you’re going the correct direction through the maze. There are lots of people who don’t speak English who walk about a third of the speed that I’d like to while taking up the entire width of the walkway.
Not to say that this is necessarily bad. Well, except the signage.
There are signs telling you NOT to get a cart because there will be an opportunity to get one before entering the Marketplace. But I saw no carts (and am still not sure what the hell the Marketplace is). There are signs promising 50 cent hot dogs (unrelated to the rapper, unfortunately) that are sold next to some other part of the store that I either never saw or was unaware that I’d entered and exited.
I wanted a couple of hot dogs. But not enough to double back with all the stuff that I’d accumulated, looking for the part of the store that I didn’t even know the name of.
(Yes, I could have asked for help. Theoretically.)
I did manage to accumulate lots of stuff. A candle. Some cat scratching box things. 16 hangers. And a plastic bag. They sell plastic bags for a nickel, and when the one I bought split right down the middle? I was too cheap to buy another one. Which is ridiculous, given I spent almost $300 at the store, and having the hangers and other stuff I bought spilling out of the bag was almost as annoying as the hot dog sign taunting me with the promise of cheap weiners.
Fortunately, in spite of the oddities of Ikea I was able to procure a pair of bookshelves and I was able to assemble them with little difficulty (their stuff IS easy to put together (I’ve only bled severely once while assembling any Ikea furniture)).
Of course, after completing step one I decided to take a break the rest of the weekend. Exciting step two (which will take about 20 minutes, when I just freaking DO it) will have to wait.
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