We Got Nothin

I can't believe we have lived in Syracuse for two months already, and only tonight did we finally make a visit to the original RC Willey furniture store. The only reason I even knew Syracuse existed is because when I was a kid, the RC Willey commercial would come on TV during the weekday afternoon reruns of the Brady Bunch and announce locations in Murray and Syracuse. I had no idea where Syracuse was, but I knew there was an RC Willey there. Which is weird, because even today, Syracuse is kind of in the middle of nowhere. 35 years ago, there was REALLY nothing out here. What in the world was a furniture store doing in Syracuse all those years ago, and how did they ever stay in business?

Anyway, we were supposed to go to a movie tonight. We were supposed to go to the preview of Letters to Juliet, which I really really really did NOT care about seeing. So I was not at all disappointed when it turned out that Dan had his dates mixed up, and the movie was actually last night. So there we were, out with no kids in tow, and nowhere to go. After driving aimlessly for a few minutes, we opted for a shake from Arctic Circle and a drive through Syracuse which randomly happened to end in the parking lot of RC Willey.

Last time we went to RC Willey with time to kill, I was two weeks postpartum, five weeks post moving to Logan, and most definitely out of my mind. We walked out with a big fat debt for what is most likely the stupidest, most impractical furniture purchase ever made in the history of mankind: Big flumpy white couches with removable cushions. In a household with four young kids. Awful. Awful. Awful. Within three minutes of coming through my front door, those white couches were gray, and those rotten cushions would NOT stay in place. I spent five years of my life putting cushions back where they belonged every single time somebody sat on the couch. And the worst part? It was a FEMALE salesperson that totally took advantage of my state of mind, and convinced me that those white couches would be perfect for our family. I don't know how she sleeps at night.

So since that day, we have avoided RC Willey. But tonight, since we live so close, and I am now nearly five years postpartum, AND we couldn't think of anything else to do, we headed on in. Once again, we were looking for living room couches. I was a little bit afraid of history repeating itself.

It didn't. The Syracuse RC Willey is in the middle of a horse pasture and nothing spectacular. I didn't see anything I couldn't live without. We didn't come out with some overpriced piece of crap that we didn't need and couldn't afford. We came out committed to finding something gently used on the classified section of a certain website that I will not mention here, as it is a direct competitor to our main source of income. Something we can just pay cash for and not have to get too upset the first day somebody barfs on it. Because you know that is inevitable. Even in the living room, somebody will barf on the new furniture. Or spill something they shouldn't be eating in there. Or wipe mud on it. I like to think we are past the days of somebody peeing on the furniture, but you never really know. I like to think I am past the days of stupid impulse buying, but you never know that for sure either. Like old Mad Eye Moody always used to say, CONSTANT VIGILANCE!