The Mad Mover

My mother used to be referred to by family members as "the Mad Mover." Whenever the mood would take her she would rearrange furniture: sometimes once a month, sometimes more. She actually had scaling rulers, furniture templates and a whole binder filled with floor plans and cutout to-scale-furniture so that she could arrange on paper before doing the actual moving. My father came up with this nickname for her. He had his own set of fears. He used to say that he was afraid to come home at night because he wouldn't know where he was. And he was blissfully relieved when they got a waterbed, which she could NOT move. At least he would always know where the bed was.

Some of you may know that in my long illustrious work history, I worked for a while at Pier 1 Imports. First of all, let's get this story out of the way. My tenure at Pier 1 was actually quite ironic, because when I was little my cousins and I would play store in my basement. And my store was named Pier 2 Imports. I kid you not.

At any rate, I was working at Pier 1 while trying to finish my stupid MA thesis and also after just having moved to Chicago. I remember being utterly frustrated on the work front, and taking out my frustrations in the form of incredible merchandising. In other words, rather than work on stocking or even managing (as I was supposed to) I would rearrange the story. At least once or twice a month. Pretty much as soon as I was done arranging the dining area, I would start over again. Let's understand what this entailed. Have you ever tried to rearrange 24 dining tables, display fixtures, china/earthenware, and thousands of chairs, while simultaneous cramming more furniture in a 35 x 60 inch space than you could possibly imagine? And ONE time it involved 5 shelves of white porcelain collapsing on me and the two glass top tables next to me (nary a scratch, my friend!) But the best is that I used to do this whenever the store manager was out of the store. SO she would come in and not know where anything was:) God, I hated her.

In my personal life, I've tried to calm the impulse. When I move into a new apartment, I arrange the furniture on my first impulse. Usually about 1 year later I realize that the arrangement doesn't take full advantage of the space and rearrange it. Ultimately, I'm amazed at how much better the second arrangement is and I stick to it. So we've lived in our current apartment for 3 years. I've rearranged the living room once, the dining room once.

Well yesterday was the first day I have ever rearranged the bedroom. SO MUCH BETTER. My back however, not so much better. See, that's the other little thing that developed from my days at Pier 1. Once Christmas Eve, I unloaded a stock truck before flying home to Buffalo, and did something VERY BAD to my back (I pinched a nerve!) I then spent the flight to Buffalo and all Christmas weekend in tears and absolute nerve wrecking pain. Every once in a while, it happens all over again. And this would be one of those days. That's what I get for being a mad mover!