"new" bed.......

When I moved out we split our belongings in half, this ended up meaning I didn’t have a bed. “Our” bed had been a king size, dark cherry, huge leather head board, pillow top piece of heaven. It was thousands of dollars and we had it delivered and set up for us. Suddenly I was sleeping on a couch. After two months, little sleep and a very sore back I had finally saved a few hundred to buy a bed. I went from store to store and quickly learned that I couldn’t even get a mattress, box spring and frame at sale price – I simply didn’t have enough money. And so I did something that wouldn’t even have occurred to me a year ago. I went on Craigs List. I scanned a bunch of adds, my skin crawling as I read. Then I saw an add that I thought might be worth looking into. An older woman was selling the bed out of her guest bedroom, she said it was never used. Asking price? $200. I called her and she seemed very nice. We set up a time for me to come look at/pick up the bed. The first thing I noticed was that I was driving into a part of the inner city that did not….well, look nice. I almost turned around right then but my aching back wouldn’t let me; the thought of actually sleeping comfortably kept me moving. Her house was clean (thank goodness) but also looked like a dozen projects had been started and not one of them completed. Even more skeptical now I climbed the stairs to the guest bedroom. The bed showed no obvious signs of use – and I inspected it CAREFULLY, so I decided to take it. Now is when it dawns on me that I had to figure out how to get it down the stairs out the door and onto the roof of my SUV…….uhhhmmmmm……..She has a friend, she tells me, who will help. She goes downstairs and a few minutes later returns with a very large aftican -american man who isn’t speaking but is grunting A LOT. He and I get the bed down the stairs and onto/into my vehicle (thank goodness I thought to bring rope). As we are tying the last knots he gives me his phone number. He wants me to call him when I get home so he can come over and “help me with the bed” yikes!!! I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Almost immediately after starting the hour drive home I realize that there is no way I can drive on the freeway. The mattress is lifting off the car and I can feel the added drag, I can also see it slipping off the back of the vehicle. Cars are angrily flying past me. I am madly looking for an exit I recognize so I can get on back streets to get home. By the time I slowly pull up to my house it is dark and I am tired. But now I needed to get this bed off of my car! I must have looked ridiculous trying to untie the mattress and dragging the box-spring and frame out of the back and up the steps. A little neighborhood boy eventually saw me and helped me get the mattress from the curb into my entryway. If he hadn’t, that thing would have looked worn before it even got in my front door! Once I was finally in the house though I still had my work cut out for me. Mindful of where exactly I had purchased my new bed I had bought a bacteria and virus disinfectant spray which I emptied onto the mattress. I had also purchased a bottle of spray promising to kill all manner of lice, flea, larva and any other unwanted tiny life form. I dampened the mattress with that as well. Once it was feeling dry again I covered it in a deodorizing vacuum powder, let that sit and then I vacuumed that mattress like my life depended on it – ‘cause let’s face it – it might have. 

Once all that was done I put it all together, put on my brand new sheets and very cautiously climbed in. I thought for a minute about how safe my new bed may or may not be but I admit, it felt so good to be in a real bed again that it wasn’t long after that that I was fast asleep and I didn’t move again until my alarm went off. I awoke pain free and actually rested! I haven’t discovered a mysterious rash or bug bite or any other horror. I don’t think about where my bed came from anymore. I’m just incredibly proud of myself. I have a bed!