The Princess and the Pea

It's hard to believe I've just now found time to sit down and blog after my return from Costa Rica. Between the MCLC Spelling Bee and just catching up on things I missed while I was gone, it's been pretty busy. But I have found a quiet moment, and I'm grateful for it.

It's actually my return from Costa Rica that I feel deserves a blog entry at the moment. We had a wonderful trip, but I was VERY excited to be heading home, and had been looking forward to a night back in my big, comfortable bed for some time. The truth is, I'm a very finicky sleeper. Our bed is just the right amount of soft and firm. It is a king size bed, necessary because I have a tendency to kick my legs in opposite directions across the bed taking up an inordinate amount of space. A down comforter is a must, even in the summer which is ridiculous because it means I have to blast the air conditioning to sleep comfortably. My pjs are of the minimalist variety - no sweatpants or sweatshirts or anything - because if the fabric folds under me the wrong way I'm uncomfortable. I HAVE to have white noise or I can't fall asleep. And all this isn't even the worst part. The worst part is that I sleep with two pillows (soft and squishy) behind my head, one pillow on either side of me (of course Jon doesn't like this), and a rice bag over my head. Yes, I said rice bag.

I discovered years ago that if I have a little weight on my head it helps me to fall asleep. I think I first learned this while traveling with a snorer because I was actually trying to block out light and sound. So it started with a random sweatshirt, or an extra blanket. But I learned that what I really like is the weight of the thing, and if I'm tossing and turning on any given night I can treat my insomnia with a couple of articles of clothing piled on top of my head. Over Christmas, my sister gave the whole family hand-made rice bags that could be put in the freezer or microwave to treat aches and pains. Though that was obviously the intention for the gift, the minute I opened it I was overjoyed with the perfection of it's size and weight. This rice bag would revolutionize my sleeping time. Probably my sister should have told us she was pregnant (our other Christmas present) first, instead of warming us up with the rice bags. She had no way of knowing my future niece or nephew would be almost overshadowed by a rice bag. But there you have it.

All of this is to give you a sense of how much I was looking forward to my return from Costa Rica, when I would be reunited with my wonderful bed. As a side note, I tend to sleep fine on mission trips because I'm SO tired that when I crawl into bed at night nothing could keep me from sleep. That and there's something to be said for being physically removed from the piles on your desk at work. But in Costa Rica I had no access to extra pillows, air conditioning, white noise, down comforters, or any of my other fixings. All I had was my rice bag, which is so fabulous, among all the other reasons listed, because I can just throw it in my suitcase.

We didn't get home from Costa Rica until 2:30 in the morning, thanks to some lost luggage (DON'T WORRY - we have three other rice bags in the house!), so I practically limped to bed. Can you imagine my dismay when I tried to nesled down into my sleeping position and felt my legs brush against small bumps? Our sheets had PILLED!

Oh how I hate pilly sheets! I hate them so much that we went to great lenghts to avoid them, and purchased very decent sheets for ourselves when what I really wanted was to opt for the cheaper ones. This current set of sheets (there have been several sets) was proving to be almost perfect because they don't come up off the bed - another common problem of ours that drives me crazy. I never considered that they would pill.... I thought they loved me.

When I started this Stuff Stand-off I never, never considered that my perfect sleep arrangement would be in jeopardy. I was so happy with these sheets that I couldn't possibly see a break up in our future. No way would I want to replace them! But let me tell you, the first place I wanted to be that Sunday night - even at 3am - was Bed, Bath, and Beyond, buying an even better set of sheets.

Obviously, this cannot happen. Sheets, when we have many other sets, simply cannot qualify as a household neccessity, no matter how important I think sleeping is. It looks like I will have to - God forbid - come up with another solution. Maybe I can adjust to sleeping with pajama pants so that I don't feel the pills in the sheets. Maybe I can hand pick off each pill. Maybe I can rotate the sheet so it won't be as bad. I'll have to figure something out. January is still a long way away.

Even as I crawled into bed lamenting over the pilliness though, I had the harsh realization of what a luxury it is to have the bed I have, in the home I have, and to be able to fix it exactly to my liking - even when that means buying multiple new sets of sheets. What kills me about this Stand-off is how often I find myself embarrassed at the things that I "need". Here I am just back from Costa Rica where the children I spent time with delighted in a $1 coloring book and don't even have shoes to wear after school as they walk around a construction site, and I'm over here devastated that I can't buy another set of sheets. It makes me cringe.

But I guess that was the point. I wanted to do this to see what happened, and what I'm finding is a remarkable shift in my perspective. I can't believe how much I don't need. I'll go ahead and figure out another way to be happy in my already-fantastic bed, and to stop being such a pill.