got an itch on my brain

well, i bit the bullet and ordered my replacement windows from kingsford. i feel good about the decision. (well, as good as i possibly can about spending more than $6,000 of my equity line of credit.) someone will be out in the next couple of days to take precise measurements of the windows, and they should be installed within three weeks.

this process has caused me a good deal of anxiety. (as it should, i suppose... anyone who spends that much money without batting an eye is probably loony. or rich. or both.) there are a few other house-related things that are causing me anxiety, too -- though none as weighty as windows.

after sleeping on a featherbed over the christmas holidays i recently decided to order one for myself. the featherbed i slept on during vacation was so luxurious. i felt like i was sleeping in a cloud. my back pain stopped and i felt like i was getting a really good night's sleep. so i comparison-shopped and found a good price at overstock.com. it arrived last week. i had high hopes.

it's nice, but it doesn't do as much to negate the firmness of my mattress as i'd hoped. i debate whether to send it back or not. this decision causes me anxiety. sleeping on the featherbed is better than sleeping directly on my mattress, but it's not as good as what i slept on over christmas. is it worth saving the $XX in shipping costs to send it back to overstock.com? should i perhaps try a tempur-pedic thingy instead?

stupid worries, i know. in the end, i bet i'll just need to buy a whole new, softer mattress. it's been probably 10 years since i bought this one, which is how long they say you should own a mattress. this one is in good shape, but it's now too firm for me and my aging bones.

then there's the stupid anxiety over my files. i own a couple of attractive wicker file boxes, which have been next to my desk, one on top of the other, for as long as i've been keeping files. they're in good shape and have held up well over the years. the problem with them (which finally drove me to madness) was that there was no way to easily file anything. if the file i needed to access was in the bottom box (and i could never be sure), i'd have to remove the top box, go digging through the files, find what i wanted, then re-stack the boxes when i was done. i hated that process so much that i just let my papers stack up on top of the boxes (thereby prohibiting access to the top box) and i would wait months and months before filing anything at all. which, of course, made the process even more dreadful.

so last weekend, fed up, i made the rounds of the thrift stores looking for a used filing cabinet. you don't know how hard this is. i was hoping for something attractive-looking. wood, maybe. even some sturdy wicker could be nice. but everything at the thrift stores (including duke surplus, which is the KING of used filing cabinets) are ugly, beat-up metal cabinets. bleah.

i gave up on thrift stores and resigned myself to the notion that i'd probably have to buy something new. i went to target, to costco, TO WAL-MART, PEOPLE, and i could find absolutely NO FILING CABINETS. not even ugly metal ones. in a fit of desperation, i stumbled into k-mart, where i finally found one. it was black and metal (and therefore far from spectacular), but by that point i didn't care. i had brief thoughts of painting cute little abstract stencils on it to liven it up, but in an anxiety-ridden state like that such ideas generally remain un-acted upon. i bought it and have spent the last three nights sorting through and transferring my files from one container to another.

so yes, stupid anxiety over filing cabinets, featherbeds and windows. i don't know what's going on with me. i need to chill out.

Posted by xta at January 18, 2006 12:12 PM | TrackBack