Friday, January 11, 2013

About patience and karma


This nifty drafting table was one of my Christmas gifts from LAM.  It sort of started out as a joke when I was working on a project a few months ago and needed to transfer a design from one sheet of paper to another.  I do not have a lightbox, so I made a makeshift one with a small clear plastic box lid and a flashlight.  It worked about as well as you can imagine and a lot of bad words were uttered as I tried to use it.  When I started looking around for a proper box, I came upon this table and thought, Wow, what a great idea!  With the glass top, it functions as both a drafting table and a light box with the simple addition of a light source underneath.  The price was an absolute steal on Hayneedle, so I sent LAM the link as a hint.  Let us never say that LAM can't take a hint.  Two days later, the UPS man showed up at our office (not sure if I ever mentioned that we work together), with an enormous box that had a gigantic photo of this table on it...and plopped it right in front of our door.  It stayed pretty much where it was left and so for the next month, I walked around my Christmas gift.  After a while, I sort of forgot about it and it became part of the landscape.  As we were leaving to go home the last day before the holiday, it occurred to me that maybe we should take it home.  At this point, the cat was out of the bag, so I helped him put it in the car (thank goodness for BMW fold down rear seats!), and then helped him assemble it and then put a bow on it--Surprise!

Once the holiday was over, I needed to find a home for the table so I could actually use it.  Prior to this moment in time, our living room, which happens to be the largest room in the house, had been used only as a spying perch for Zoe to spend her time either on the couch or at the window trying to herd the children at the bus stop in front of our house.  The room is fully furnished, but Zoe is the only family member that ever goes in there for anything.  I decided that putting the table in there would give some purpose to that room once and for all...and then I remembered that I didn't have a chair for it.  D'oh!


After an exhaustive search to find something that did not really look like an office chair, but a regular piece of furniture (sort of), I finally settled on this 24" leather covered stool from Crate and Barrel.  It was perfect in every way--just the right height for someone with smallness of person and my feet fit perfectly on the metal covered chair rungs.  I was extremely tired and cranky from going to about seven different stores and not really finding what I was looking for.  When I finally settled on this stool and tried to buy it, I was met with a phrase that has been plaguing me for some time..."We don't have that in stock, but we can order it for you."  BIG SIGH.  I'm not sure whether it's the economy and stores don't want to keep inventory that they may not be able to sell, or that things are actually starting to get better and merchandise is blowing out the door, but whatever the reason, I am REALLY starting to grow tired of going out of my way to visit a brick and mortar store only to be told that the item in question is simply a display model and that it will have to be ordered.  That was the straw that broke the camel's back after a very long and frustrating day, so I had a small hissy fit, left the chair in the middle of the store and we retired across the street to get some dinner.  Just to note, the reason this practice bothers me so much is because although I do a great deal of shopping online, I do also try to support my local retailers by shopping there when I can.  When I go out of my way and waste gas and time only to have to order an item, well I could have done that without leaving the comfort of my laptop.

At any rate, I had some time over dinner to reflect on the situation and to recognize that waiting a week for the right piece of furniture would not be the end of the world, so after dinner, we went back to the store to order it.  The salesman, who was previously not helpful at all, took some pity on me and agreed to send it second day air at no charge.  I apologized for not ordering it the first time, he was gracious about it and we all left with a smile.  Fast forward three days to the arrival of the stool...that I unwrapped to find had a very broken foot.  Great.  Back to the store we went to return it, waste another trip and order another one!  I will never know if this is my karmic retribution for getting so mad about the situation, but you have to wonder.  My desk is still without a chair and I'm really anxious to start using it--I have been walking around it for over a month!


Now that I have found the chair (assuming that it eventually arrives in one piece), the next task is to find suitable lighting.  In order to take advantage of the glass top / lightbox feature, a regular clamp-on style studio light won't do much good.  I need one that has a the ability to go over or under the glass top.  I also found out that you can't clamp a heavy studio lamp to a glass top regardless.  This one, also a Hayneedle find seems to fit the bill since it's LED and very light, but has the ability to either clamp or you can use the magnetized base to attach it to the metal frame, which would give a variety of positions.  It seems win-win.  I'll let you know how it goes.

-ESM

2 comments:

  1. Would you mind if I copied you. What a fantastic table. I love glass too.
    What a great price.
    pve

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    1. Oh my goodness...of course I don't mind! It is really very well made (the plastic drawers are a tad cheesy, but they are useful) and was relatively easy to assemble. So far, I'm really enjoying it. I ordered the flexi light so we'll see how that works. I'm afraid it may not be bright enough.

      ~ESM

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