27 January 2008

Fun Monday: I Can't Show You What Isn't There



For today's Fun Monday, AOJ and the Lurchers gave us this assignment: Continuing in the spirit of "being interested in people," I would like to know, or see, what's on, in or under your bedside table!

Well, I can't show you what isn't there. I have no bedside table. Yes, I know, weep for me now, it's quite sad.

We've tried a few different configurations of our bedroom, and the only one that allows for the two dressers we need, plus a bookshelf, without having our bed right up against a window -- because we live in California and Californians don't put their beds near windows if they can help it because we do not want shards of glass to fall upon us during an earthquake -- is also a configuration that does not leave enough room on the sides of the bed for tables. My husband has the bookshelf within arm's reach, so he can put his books, his glasses, his bottle of water there.

So what do I have on my side of the bed? About 1 foot of space between me and the bedroom door. In other words, I'm easy access for nighttime wanderers, of which we have many. I don't blame my husband for this; we picked sides of the bed so long before we had kids that I just got the luck of the draw on this one. But being where I am, I hear EVERYTHING coming from the kids' rooms and I'm the first parent they reach when they somnambulate around at 2AM. Big fun.

So IF I had a bedside table, I would keep on and in it the things that end up tucked underneath my bed when I am too tired to get up and put them on the dresser. They are:

• at least two issues of the New Yorker, with all of the cartoons read and at least two articles having been started. Rarely finished.
• the book What to Eat, by Marion Nestle, because I really want to read it but never do.
• whatever book I really am reading, which currently is So Long, See You Tomorrow.
• the socks I took off right before I got into bed last night. And the night before that, and the night before that.
• usually one children's shoe. The one I spend way too long looking for before I remember that the foot in question unshod itself in my bedroom and somehow managed to leave just one shoe behind.
• a soccer ball. But then, you'll find soccer balls in almost every conceivable nook, cranny and corner of this house.

Someday, I'll have a bedside table. Either when I find one I like that will fit in a one-foot space, or when we hit the big time and move to a house that really does fit a family of seven. Maybe when I do get one, I will finally feel like a grown up. Probably not, though: the minivan didn't do it...the mortgage didn't do it...back-to-school night didn't do it...not even labor and delivery have done it.

So you'll have to tell me: Does a bedside table confer adulthood?

26 comments:

Aoj and The Lurchers said...

"Does a bedside table confer adulthood?"

Now that is an interesting question!

I have those sock piles too!!

Hootin Anni said...

LOL on the socks!!!! [sounds like me....but I don't confess. Shhhhhhhhh!!! You didn't hear that.]

My fun monday is shared. Won't you drop by sometime? I love visitors!

kitten said...

We didn't have beside tables for years. Does it confer adulthood? I hope not. hehehe~

ellen b. said...

Ok your post is way more interesting and funny than a bedside table! I enjoyed my visit....I had a house cleaning business for a while and it was always scary to vacumn under the beds the first time around...

Anonymous said...

I sometimes have the same problem with shoes. My girlchec does the same thing you do with socks, and sometimes my bed-footies can be found on the floor.

Sandy said...

Am I the only person in the world who is not a socker? Hmmmm.

Great post and very interesting.

Kim said...

No, a bedside table would not make you feel like a grown up.

I don't know of anything that does.

I like what you did with the assignment. Cute.

Anonymous said...

Great take on this challenge. Bay area? Yes keep that bed away from the window and near a door!
Kathy b

Unknown said...

I once had a 1' square table and I must say there wasn't much room on the top of it. :( You need more room, defintely.

Loved your word "somnaambulate" :)

Anonymous said...

We didn't have side tables for the longest time either...guess we grew up and had to have them. LOL

Sauntering Soul said...

I just bought bedside tables two weeks ago. Just in time for this challenge!

I would never have thought about not having your bed by a window in California. We don't have those fears here in Atlanta!

Jill said...

theres a section in the back of redbook magazine, has been the last 2 months that says 'you know you are an adult when..' and one of them was ' you feel only pity for britney spears' yeah i guess that's true, i also would say if you never give a flying flip if you go to fast food restaurants again.. thats a good way to know..

Faye said...

Good one Monica! And no, a bedside table doesn't confer adulthood--more likely old coothood.

Robinella said...

somnambulate - great word!

I love that you don't have a bedside table. Your telling of what would be on it was so much more interesting and drew a picture in my mind. :-)

Alison said...

No, Monica, I don't think it does...it didn't work for me and all those other things you mentioned didn't work either!!

Attie said...

what no bedside tables..oooh my!!!
Here's an idea...You cut a board to fit in the corner ....the front rounded...you screw 2 smaller boards underneath it one for each side... than screw it to the wall at the height you want it!!
I couldn't go with out one!!!

Carrie @carrieloves said...

It's good to have a dream. Thanks for sharing!

Molly said...

I am not sure what confers adulthood. I did feel a little more mature when my sons went away to college, but what good did that grown-upness do when my sons were already grown. Oh, the great mysteries of LIFE.

Cynthia said...

I have socks also. And no bedside table. and no matching furniture. I keep thinking I will feel grown up someday, too!

Linda said...

You know, I think if the minivan didn't do it for you a nightstand, even matching ones, won't either... but then do you REALLY WANT to be an adult?

Serina Hope said...

It just gives you more place to collect stuff..isn't that what adult hood is all about?

the planet of janet said...

i don't think i could survive without a place to collect my ...uh... stuff. :-)

i hear you, though, on not having the bed near the window. *yikes!*

Anonymous said...

Hope you find something to fit in that space or you 'hit it big' and have a larger space to put things. And you will need it with all those things you want to put on it :-)

shauna said...

Thanks so much for visiting my blog. It's nice to find a fellow freelancer.

Oh how I know about bedtime wanderers (two of my three children landed in my bed last night--I don't even recall their arrivals). And I have that same pile of socks (although mine wind up under the covers at the bottom of my bed). :)

ChrisB said...

Having a bedside table just gives me an excuse to hoard so it might be better if, like you, I didn't have one!

Anonymous said...

Ahaha ... your side of the bed sounds just like my husband's side of the bed (the side that used to be mine). We swapped when the youngest was born just recently ... so I got to have the bedside table and he gets the sleep walkers. However ... as he is in the middle (we have a small bed next to our large one) ... I get to have his alarm clock! Baa-humbug!

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