Breaking Those Ikea Chains of Love

I am writing this post sitting on my sofa, using the computer that is sitting on my coffee table, all wrapped up in the melt-in-your-mouth flaky crust that is my apartment.  I had an amazing moving crew last week (was it only last week?) who packed, schlepped, and unpacked boxes of, er, stuff, scattered all over the Bay Area (okay, in three distinct places).  I am left with a bunch of boxes, the contents of some which haven't been explored in over two years, and quite frankly I have been living quite fine without.  On the other hand, I am finally using some kitchen stuff that has never seen the light of day, and I am rediscovering clothes that have missed me.

I feel very, very lucky to have found this place, and even luckier to have such an amazing group of friends who made the moving process go better than I could have imagined.  

I am slowly amassing furniture, and managing to mostly avoid Ikea in the process.  A few Ikea pieces here and there work for me, but I have no interest in making my place into that early scene from Fight Club.  

I am a comparison-shopping aficionado, and can tell you exactly what you should be buying at Target, at Trader Joe's, and what you should save for a Costco trip.  I am making more trips to Bed and Bath than I'd like, using two coupons at a time.  They'd like you to enter the store, use one "loss leader" coupon, and then purchase additional items at full price.  I'm hip to their scam, and I will as many visits as it takes.  There's an outlet close to my sub-work, so this isn't requiring any extra car trips.

This type of monetary obsession reminds me, it's time to find that Real Job(tm).