Pillow Talk

A few years ago, we met up with out-of-town-ish friends. If memory serves me correctly, they had come into “town” to run errands, so we bombarded them at IKEA. An odd place for a visit, but a visit at IKEA is better than no visit at all!

I remember the experience well. I was using an IKEA wheelchair, as I’d sustained a minor leg injury crawling through a play gym with my then 3 year old. I could walk, just not around IKEA, if you know what I mean. Colin pushed me in the wheelchair as I pushed the kids in the stroller.

Our friends had come to IKEA to get new pillows. They tested out many pillows and really thought through the decision. I don’t know if they ended up purchasing them or not (as I was a bit stuck in Roth-chaos), but I marveled at the extent to which they went to choose “the right one”.

I’ve never put much thought or money into what I rest my head on, and it’s usually just turned out fine. I guess there are a few reasons that I don’t put money or effort into pillows.

For starters: I’m cheap. No…not cheap. Thrifty.

Another reason: Colin’s cheap.

Lastly: we’ve been going through more pillows since the kids were born. They unfortunately have not mastered the no-peeing-at-night skill yet. It’s because they are such deep sleepers that their bladders can’t wake them up. I’d take that over a wet bed almost any day.

Thanks to the good ol’ plastic “pee sheet” (aka mattress protector) though, sometimes the pee migrates north to the pillow. Then the pillow has to have a bath in the washing machine. Sometimes it comes out good-as-new, and sometimes it comes out so lumpy that I need to throw it out.

*note: I’ve since invested in pillow protectors. They cost as much as 2 Wal-Mart pillows, but saving me from the pillow-washing hassle (and saving the landfill) is worth it.*

While packing for this last holiday we returned from yesterday, Colin and I decided that since we camp so much, (exhaustingly much, some might say), we might as well keep our current pillows in the trailer. They’re getting super flat, so we’ll start the new $4 spares from Wal-Mart that are sitting in our closet. So our beloved old pillows were demoted to trailer pillows to make room for the new and improved. I kind of felt like I was losing my blankie.

Last night was the first night we used the new pillows.

I started by lying down on it normally. You know, with just your head on the pillow. They are so huge and fluffy that my neck angle felt close to 90 degrees. I feared my trachea would get a kink in the middle of the night, cut off my air supply completely, causing an untimely death due to suffocation.

So then I tried with my head, neck and shoulders. That just made me feel like I was sitting in a recliner.

I tried my whole torso on the thing lengthwise. NOTHING I tried was comfortable.

Meanwhile, I’m whining to Colin about it. Ever been in a situation that does not annoy you, but then you hear someone else complaining about it and then you realize, “hey, they’re actually right, this DOES suck”, and then you become just as annoyed as they are? Sorry Colin.

Colin starts tossing and turning and twisting and adjusting.

Finally, we threw the stupid giant marshmallows on the floor and grabbed a couple of throw pillows from the couch. Nice and flat. ZZZzzzzz…..

I think from now on, I’ll put more time and money (if I HAVE to) into my pillow shopping.