Hang on, because this story covers a lot of ground…
Micha finally did it. She got rid of the sofa we’ve had since 2003. It was still in good enough shape to find a great home, and she’s wanted to get rid of it for years, so in the end everyone involved made out great.
But there is one thing now to which I must become accustomed. I spent many a difficult night on that sofa watching TV to put myself to sleep, and it worked like a charm. I’ve heard some say that you should never have a TV in your bedroom – blue light distraction and such – but for me, a TV will usually put me out like a light in no time. Maybe I inherited it from my dad. I remember him falling asleep in front of the TV when he got home from work. Of course, the TV at that time was a 13-inch black-and-white, so maybe it was more about the work and less about the TV. At least that’s the way I remember it (maybe others in my family remember differently).
Now, here’s where I really appreciate the streaming services that check in to see if you’re still watching, because there’s a trick to my method. A TV will put me right to sleep. But if something wakes me up during the night and the TV is still on, it doesn’t work twice in the same night. As a matter of fact, the real risk is that if that happens, I’m usually in worse shape than the start.
Unfortunately, Micha doesn’t share my talent. If she comes in from watching her Chinese dramas in the living room (I sleep very early, she sleeps very late) and the TV is on, she’ll more often than not want it off for the night.
So, if I wake up and find myself struggling to get back to sleep, I usually turn to a podcast to put me out. But if the podcast doesn’t do its thing, well, then it’s time for the big guns. So, it’s out to the living room for a stretch on the sofa to watch whatever works. And of course, 2 am is not the best time to remember that you no longer have a sofa.
But the plot builds here. In addition to getting rid of the 17-year-old sofa, about a month ago we got rid of our 25-year-old mattress (yeah, you read that right). Thing is, it was a custom-made, very good mattress that we picked up from a great company, and we had taken very good care of it. But it was finally starting to cause problems, and it was time.
Now, as you know, I’m married to a Korean, and Koreans (especially the older ones) generally have a very interesting talent – they can sleep on the floor like nobody’s business. I’ve been on trips with my wife’s friends and they usually rent a couple of rooms where they just roll out some mats and blankets and that’s it. I never fared well in those scenarios.
So, in 2007, I had the good fortune to spend a month in Beijing for a class, and it turns out the mattress in the room in which I was staying was as hard as a mattress could be and still be called a mattress. I was there for the month of November and it was getting a bit chilly, but I had to use all but the lightest of my bed coverings to form some kind of cushion so I could sleep. I did this until it was finally too cold for me to bare (yeah, it’s a pun), and I decided just to suck it up and sleep directly on the sheets while using my quilted blanket for warmth.
And within two nights I was sleeping better than I’d ever slept. I loved that mattress, and always thought that my next mattress at home would be the firmest one I could find. So, when that day finally came, I got what I’d wanted for so long and I absolutely love it. And so does Micha. Oddly, I find it actually works a bit like a massage roller for me. It’s noticeable how it somehow makes the stiff muscles I get from biking feel better, and I can tell that it’s working on my upper back too (I’ve got terrible posture).
But now I’ve discovered an even more interesting side effect. When I rolled out of my bedroom at 2 am this morning to a sofa-less living room, I was forced to try the only other option – I grabbed a pillow, put on a movie, and fell asleep on the floor within about 10 minutes. And thus you can see that I’ve benefited by getting rid of the old sofa and mattress.
But the story doesn’t end there. I don’t even think that’s the most interesting part.
What prompted me to write this story is that, as we search for our next sofa (if we can ever find one we both like), we’ve just put a pair of chairs in the living room. Originally, they were placed with end tables on the outer sides, but Micha decided she wanted to place one of the end tables between the chairs. I argued against it though because we have a pretty nice Sonos surround-sound speaker system in our living room and we were using those end tables for two of the speakers. Of course, putting a surround speaker between the chairs kind of defeats their purpose to “surround,” but Micha was having none of that. As long as she was hearing the sound out of the one speaker closest to her, that was “surround” enough for her. So, when I came home one day to the table between the chairs, it was a done deal.
And it turns out what she doesn’t know about surround-sound has worked out quite well for me. When we watched our first movie together after the change, it took the opening song for me to realize that my chair now has a private surround-sound system, and as long as she’s got the speaker by her making noise, she’s just fine with that.
And so, I guess the real point of the story is that I should never let Micha sit in my chair while we’re watching a movie….