Thursday, October 8, 2009

Diary of a newlywed...bed snobs

Before my co-diva sleeps off all the jet lag and digs all the sand out of her undies from her north African adventure I thought I'd bore you with a far less exciting story about my last two weeks. For any of you that are my friends on Facebook it will come as no surprise that Nick and I are moving. About 2 months ago we entertained the idea of putting our house up for sale and trying to upgrade in a down market. After seeing the pitful short sale comps in our neighborhood we took our realtor's advice and listed Brentwood for rent. Within a week we had renters who wanted a 2 year lease starting October 1 and just like that we were off hunting for our new pad. After a daunting 3 weeks of viewing house after house, we finally found a home well within our price range with everything on our "must have" list and we put in an offer. We received the good news of offer acceptance on September 17 and quickly realized that we had to be out of our house in less then two weeks and couldn't move into our new house until November 1. After much consideration we decided to put everything in storage and bunk with Nick's parents for the one month gap. Now most people would think we're rotten to complain about the amenities in our temporary digs, a hot tub, a mini-gym, a theater for watching Dexter every Sunday, and most importantly our own half of the house to sleep in, all great things except for one...QUEEN SIZE BEDS. Now here's where I'm going to sound really spoiled. I think I've written about the bed we bought soon after we got married and how big a deal it was for me. I picked out a king sized bed that was pretty pricey compared to the rest of our furnishings and splurged on a Visco foam memory topper and luxurious sheets because, well, we spend a lot of time in bed, reading, watching TV, Facebook chatting with each other on our laptops, etc... and I figure if you're gonna spend that much time in something you better make it the way you want it. Well I succeeded and we both sleep like babies the minute we snuggle in. The only negative in all this is that we've become bed snobs. Nothing compares to our bed and we have a hard time sleeping in other beds, let alone in smaller beds.

Have you ever wondered why your Grandparent's or maybe even your parent's started sleeping in separate rooms? The whole time I was alive Mika and Cha (Croation names for Gma and Gpa) slept in separate rooms and I would often ask why when my parents still shared a bed. I don't remember what answers I got but I think I'm quickly learning how it happens. The first night at the in-laws started out with us sleeping separately because Nick didn't know if he was going to get a 5am subbing job wake up call. At Brentwood the bathroom wasn't attached to our bedroom so he'd get up and get ready out of the room allowing me to keep sleeping for another hour and a half but here the bathroom and closets are right there and it would totally have woken me up and kept me up. The next day the housekeeper asked if we were getting divorced when she went to make the beds and noticed that two beds were ruffled and unmade. "Of course not!" we laughed and went on to explain the temporary situation but when it came time to go to bed that night we found ourselves hardly thinking twice about the separate beds. Now don't get me wrong, we still have cuddle times but even in our king size bed we'd do the 10-20 minute snuggle then separate to our sides of the bed and hope not to disturb one another with a elbow or kick. 9 days later and we've spent 2 nights together, one when the other rooms were full with siblings over the weekend and one two nights ago as an "experiment" after I started feeling insecure about out set-up and people making fun of us. The results of the experiment kicked all thoughts of insecurity out of my mind after we tossed and turned and I had to elbow and nudge Nick to stop snoring! Sleeping separately on weeknights is AWESOME! I still like waking up together on weekends when we get to sleep in but I have to ask...were we really designed and meant to share a bed with someone for optimum sleep?!? I'll leave that one our readers!

Monday, October 5, 2009

long time off

Wow, I can't believe we let an entire month go by without one single blog post! We are so horrible we shouldn't even be allowed to call ourselves bloggers! We need to get back in the saddle. Well I'll attempt to start us off by writing about a very common problem I've become quite familiar with over the last year and that is shower registries. For a very few special occasions in a woman's life most of us are delighted with the opportunity to hit up our favorite stores and use a magical computerized gun to scan anything and everything we might want onto a magical gift wish list. Now some people would debate the whole idea of the registry, in fact there are those, (Nick), who believe that asking people for specific gifts is quite rude but what he doesn't realize is that failing to specify some ideas or products can lead to utter chaos and potential gift receiving disaster.

The two most common reasons someone would create a gift registry are obviously a wedding or baby shower, both of which are two momentous events in a couples life which often ushers in a completely new phase or lifestyle which many people are materially unequipped to handle. Therein lies the necessity of the gift registry. Now I'm not saying that every couple needs a registry if they're engaged; some people who have lived independently for many years will have most everything they would register for but a lot of couples today still hope to make a home together with stuff that is "theirs" and what new mom has a supply of everything a baby needs before actually getting pregnant? And if they do, that's super weird. That's the whole point of the registry, to get stuff you actually want and need! Now does a new bride really "need" an alligator shaped oven mit? No, but I liked it okay!


I just can't understand why some people feel the need to make it about themselves and buy the bride or pregger's mama some random thing off the registry that they are soooo sure the recepient will love! Just because you love macrame plant hangers or a stained glass platter with a cartoon turkey on it and "Our First Thanksgiving" doesn't mean your friend will! I mean it's true that in most cases you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth but my friend really actually NEEDED a breast pump, and no its not as cute or fun to shop for as baby clothes but come on people, its not about you! Now I have no problem with another mom buying something that she found super helpful with a new baby that wasn't on the registry or adding a personal gift to go along with something on the registry but its there for a reason people so just stick to it and honestly it will make the recipient so much happier then the embroidered Snuggie you were planning to buy them...although as awful as they look, I kind of secretly want one...