Celebrating Columbus Day

I've already satisfied a couple of quests of my own (like Columbus), and fortunately didn't have to travel that far to do so.

I had looked for a nice chaise lounge for the poolside and finally gave up and decided to just get something cheap that could be easily folded away. Our pool deck area is so lovely the way it is, and I was afraid a large piece of furniture would just mar the tranquility. So I looked at Kmart, Home Depot, but finally found the perfect thing at Walmart (where else). It's cheap, plastic, ugly, but looks great with a towel on it and fits nicely in one of our outdoor closets. I bought two.

Yesterday afternoon after a hard day of shopping (took Friday off), I enjoy my new chaise lounge by the pool, reading a book and drifting in and out of naps. I jumped in the pool first to cool off and then just lounged. It was lovely.

I fulfilled another quest by buying a Vera Bradley purse with some birthday money from a cousin (thanks, Jo Ann!). And I finally found Crazy Mike's furniture.

We still need several pieces of furniture to make the place more liveable, and there aren't a lot of choices on the island. I found a pretty bedside table last week, but not for $599. And since we'd need two, I'm definitely not spending $1200 just for two little tables. So while poking around on the internet, I found Crazy Mike's website.

Finding Crazy Mike's storefront, though, was another story. The address is a major street that I travel on often, and I vaguely remembered seeing a truck with "Crazy Mike's" on the side. On my way back from the fancy Ala Moana mall (where the Vera Bradley store is), I crawled along, sticking to the right, looking for the truck.

I finally saw not one Crazy Mike truck but two, so pulled into a side street and into the parking lot. The entrance was tucked away in a corner, with lots of furniture piled around it. Signs indicated the showroom was upstairs.

It was what I expected from a discount furniture showroom with stuff everywhere. But there was a little cohesion to their stuff and I found where the bedroom furniture was. Mike had several options for a chest of drawers and nightstand, but I didn't think any of them would look good with our sleigh bed. I could hear a man and little boy goofing around in the main part of the showroom as I left the bedroom area.

I thought they were customers, but apparently he was some kind of salesman (perhaps even Mike himself) since he started in the furniture salesman bit. "What are you looking for," and when I said, "just poking around," he started to guess what I was looking for.

A note on furniture salespeople - I find them creepy. I've gone into several stores here, and there's usually one manning the door. They welcome me to the store and ask what I'm looking for. I do my usual "just looking around." Then they follow me for a few steps, and often ask another question, and I give them no eye contact and another "Just poking around."

Then they follow me, in a surveillance kind of way. Every time I look around, they're somewhere nearby. But they'll seem to be polishing a table or something. I wonder if this is part of the application for furniture salesmen. Do they stick applicants on the street and have them tail somebody for twenty minutes? Then they'll hire them? I feel like sticking a wig in my purse and putting it on around a corner, just to shake 'em.

Anyway, Crazy Mike's salesman was no more subtle than Crazy Mike's ads. He seemed irritated at my "just poking around" comments, yelling things after me. "They custom fit these sofas if you want a sofa." Besides, the fact that he was babysitting a 2-year-old boy who was literally bouncing off the sofas didn't exactly make me want to deal with him either.

So, yes, I found Crazy Mike's and can now mark it off my list as a place for furniture. I will close for the moment to watch the agonies of UT football since the UT-Georgia came has just begun, but stay tuned for more Columbus Day weekend happenings and some pictures...