The Makings of a Good Day

There was nothing particularly special about the day, other than the fact that both my husband and I were off from work. Given that we usually only have one day off together each week, I guess that was enough in and of itself to make our day special.

Our plans included running a few errands and attempting to catch up on some things around the house that had been neglected due to the aforementioned work schedules and the general exhaustion that hit whenever we were home. There was definitely no excitement in our plans for the day. Fun was going to have to wait.

My mom needed us to pick up a few things for her, and Costco seemed the best place to get them. Costco is a dangerous place for us: we can't ever seem to leave there without adding a few hundred dollars to our credit card balance. This time we were looking for something in particular, so we should have headed straight to that section of the store, picked up what we needed, and proceeded directly to the check-out line. That is, of course, exactly what we did not do. Instead, we wandered up and down aisles, my husband asking which big screen t.v. I wanted to buy, which computer, which i-Pad. He must like hearing "no" an awful lot.

As we turned down yet another aisle we didn't need to, I spotted a floor lamp. We had recently begun redecorating our bonus room upstairs, the idea being to turn it into a "man cave," a decidedly masculine room where all the males of the household could hang out. We had made good progress, but I had mentioned that I thought we should get a floor lamp for the corner by the sofa. We had yet to find one, however, that appealed to my husband. This one, standing in the aisle of Costco, I thought might actually work for our space. I pointed it out to my husband, and he agreed. So, we added the box and another $50 to our cart and continued our search for more things we weren't planning on buying.

Later that afternoon, I walked into the man cave to find my husband and son Jack putting the lamp together. Once fully assembled, my husband put it in the corner and plugged it in. I felt absolutely giddy with happiness! One more piece of the puzzle had been put into place.

It's silly, I know, to get so excited about such a minor thing. It is, after all, just a lamp. But it was the perfect lamp, just what we had been looking for when we didn't even know exactly what that was. 

I guess sometimes that's the way life works; you find just what you need when and where you least expect it.