New Deck-orations and a Bit About My Sisters

Last night we went to IKEA.  It was time, I said, for me to get my Mother's Day and birthday presents in the way of furnishings for our deck.  (Mark deemed them deck-orations.)

I have grand ideas for the deck that make Adam raise his eyebrows a little but for now, I just wanted us to have a place to sit.

Before we left, I was on the phone with Marianne (big sister extraordinaire).  She told me that someone had said something to her that was the worst thing anyone could ever SAY to her.  (And it wasn't true...I can promise that.)

Then when we were at IKEA, someone said something awful to me.

I was innocently traversing the restaurant and a man approached me.  He was tall and had gray hair.  If I were to guess, I'd say he was at least 10 years older than me.  Maybe 15.

He said, "Excuse me, when did you graduate from high school?"

I said, "1991."

He said, "Oh, that's much later," and wandered away from me.

I was stunned as the realization dawned on me that he thought WE had gone to high school together.  (There were 23 in my graduating class so if he had gone to high school with me, I would have known immediately.)  What stopped me in my tracks was that he was old.  Do I look that old?

Adam said something reassuring and we continued shopping.

I kept contemplating how old I must look, then I decided that he must have an unrealistic view of how old HE is.  That's why he considered someone as young and hale as me to be his age.

Yeah, we'll go with that.

We found some good stuff for our deck and bought five chairs as commissioned by my friend Stephanie.  Adam employed his stellar packing skills and got it all into our van somehow.  On the way home, indicating the cardboard kingdom that was encasing our children in the back, Adam asked, "So how much did all this end up costing?"

I told him and he said that didn't sound right.  He's like that.  He keeps track and knows about how much we should have spent.  I pulled out the receipt and sure enough we had been overcharged.

By $70.

I had no idea.

We turned around and went back to IKEA to have the situation remedied and I thought, good thing for Adam.

This morning I read this post on my talented and wonderful cousin Hannah's new blog.  (Btw, if you want to see a really ugly picture of me, scroll down a little on her blog.  Don't say I didn't warn you.)  Olivia (little sister extraordinaire) is the only person I know that would go back to return a nickel, but considering my experience last night at IKEA, I'm staggered by how she even knew she was overpaid a nickel.

Amazing.

Her children will long remember her for her strong moral compass.

My children will long remember me as the one with shaky math skills.

We all do what we can.