Metatalktail Hour: Where You Lay Your Weary Head August 24, 2019 3:52 PM   Subscribe

Good Saturday evening, MetaFilter! This week, slenderloris (post yer animals!) wants to know, "Where/how do you sleep? What size bed? Hammock? Tent? Couch? (Remember that person who had the AskMe about putting a couch in their bedroom instead of a bed? That was cool!) Unpredictable from night to night? How many pillows? Top sheet or no? Animals/kids/other people there or not? Do you still have an alarm clock separate from your phone Y/N? Tell me about the place where you lay your head." Pictures always welcome!

As always, this is a conversation starter, not limiter, so tell us everything that's up with you! And feel free to send me ideas for future metatalktails!
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) to MetaFilter-Related at 3:52 PM (83 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite

Pictures always welcome!

You haven't seen my bedroom.
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:58 PM on August 24, 2019 [8 favorites]


I can't find a picture of it on the web, but I sleep on a Berkey & Gay mahogany four-poster manufactured in the 1920s. When I bought this bed a few years ago, it was the first time in my adult existence that I had ever purchased a real bed for myself, as opposed to a series of futons. And I had always wanted a bed with posts!

Two of my three cats usually wind up on the bed with me; I've occasionally awakened at odd hours to find the female cat there, too, but she doesn't like it when I move, so she usually sleeps on a chest I keep at the end of the bed.
posted by thomas j wise at 4:07 PM on August 24, 2019 [4 favorites]


"You haven't seen my bedroom."

I almost said "Pictures always welcome, but you won't see mine, I don't make my bed."

Which is a queen-sized bed with somewhat too many pillows, but not ridiculously too many. Since it's summer the top blanket is purple but soon we'll pull out the duvet, which is old enough this is probably its last year, so I probably won't bother putting a duvet cover on it. I finally got a headboard a couple years ago when Nano McGee was born so I could sit up in bed to nurse better, and I'm a fan.

Before we had kids, during the Christmas season, we used to pull out the hide-a-bed in our couch and sleep in the living room with the tree all lit up sometimes.

We are suuuuuuuper strict about no kids in our bed. The only time we allowed it was during an appalling cold snap last year. My youngest was only two, and her room was the coldest in the house, and we were worried about her getting to cold in the night or if the power went out in the storm and the heat turned off, so we had her sleep in with us, in between us, and she was very non-kicky for a toddler! Usually we have cats in with us, but our current cat is a die-hard night-time sleeping person attacker, so right now she spends the night locked away from the bedrooms. Maybe when she's a little older and lazier she won't decide to fight with everyone who's sleeping and can sleep up with us.
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 4:12 PM on August 24, 2019 [3 favorites]


Queen-size memory foam mattress on an adjustable base. I love my adjustable base (except when we had a power outage a little while ago and I had to do some acrobatics to get up because I sleep in the "zero gravity" position which is sort of a vee shape with both head and legs elevated (seems to work best for my bad back/arthritic hip). I have a down comforter in a duvet and a sheet set. I recall being able to sleep anywhere when much younger, but the older I've gotten the more help I need to get comfortable.

No cats allowed in my bedroom--they are indoor-only but have access to the garage and catch lizards, small snakes, frogs and other unlucky creatures that find their way in. I do not want to wake up with a lizard tail "gift" on my pillow. Plus they are the sheddiest of shedders and I want some cat hair free zones (guest room is off limits as well).

My cats object to this policy and the vocal one can get quite vocal about her objections (usually at around 2am) but ear plugs and a squirt bottle as a last resort will shut that down.
posted by agatha_magatha at 4:24 PM on August 24, 2019 [4 favorites]


I go on Youtube and find a lecture about any subject I happen to find interesting. When I fall asleep I will not wake up by the sound of an explosion, a car chase or a gunfight. Recorded lectures are wonderfully monotonous,
posted by Dumsnill at 4:42 PM on August 24, 2019 [5 favorites]


Queen-sized regular mattress and box springs. No headboard or fancy frame; just the metal base thing that generally comes with mattresses here. Fitted sheet, flat sheet, and a fake-down comforter. Even though it's been ridiculously hot, I still have the comforter on the bed. It sometimes gets cool enough at night that I might want it, though it's usually just the sheet. I find it hard to sleep unless some part of me is covered by the sheet. My feet absolutely need to be sticking out, though.

Most of the rest of my bedroom furniture came with my rental. Two Ikea-ish bedside tables and lamps, and a fairly nice dresser and mirror.

My bedroom has no door, so cats sleep with me whether I'd like them to or not, but I do like them to, so that works. One cat tends to snuggle in the mornings. The other mostly hangs out at the foot of the bed. Pretty much the left side of the bed is theirs.
posted by lazuli at 4:53 PM on August 24, 2019 [4 favorites]


Oh, and I recently visited my father, who, when I was heading off to bed the first night, said, "There's not an alarm clock in the guest room," and it took me several seconds to figure out why he thought that would matter.
posted by lazuli at 4:55 PM on August 24, 2019 [6 favorites]


We just bought our first real grown-up bed a couple of weeks ago (I'm 54.) Right after we got married in 2002, my in-laws cleaned out my husband's grandparents' house and we inherited a rather nice used mattress and springs along with a dresser and chest of drawers. I think there may have been a bed frame at one time but for whatever reason we put the mattress & springs directly on the floor, probably with the intention of putting it up on a frame "someday" but we never did.

Fast forward to 2019. The mattress has been basically garbage for the last ten years. So broken down that long wires are poking out of the sides of it, such that you could slice off a toe if you caught it wrong while walking near the bed. My husband is a great deal larger than me at 6" tall and 300+ pounds, and since we are basically ill-raised wolf children and it never occurred to us to turn the mattress, there had developed a very pronounced slope on his side of the bed, such that he informed me that his arm was sleeping on the floor every night. So it was well past time for a new bed.

Bed shopping turned out to be not-unpleasant, basically three hours of taking tiny naps on increasingly expensive surfaces. I had been lured into the mattress store by an ad for a queen-sized mattress at something like $599. It was clearly not their finest mattress, as it lived in a slot in the back wall rather than being out on display and had to be flung onto a bedframe for us to test. Upon lying down on it, it was quickly deemed unsuitable; but it did serve to enlighten us to the fact that our current, not-roomy-enough bed was actually a queen (we had assumed it was full-size and were thinking a queen would be an upgrade.) So immediately my husband made the executive decision that we were getting a king so his arm could be in the bed with him, which seemed reasonable.

After testing nearly every mattress in the store, we wound up getting a king-sized hybrid mattress that I just LOVE (Serta iSeries). It's firm but juuuust cushy enough and it makes me happy whenever I lie down on it. We also paid a fair amount of money for an adjustable base which may have been a bit of a waste, as it turns out we are both dedicated side-sleepers so we sleep with only the head elevated slightly. It is nice to be able to adjust it differently for lounging and reading, though, and for elevating my occasionally swollen feet.

As long as we were slinging the credit card around with wild abandon, we sprang for some ridiculously expensive spring-y foam pillows which are the new love of my life. And since we have all this extra room in the middle of this huge mattress, I stacked up all the old-but-still-nice bed pillows in between us, for ease of reach when I need one for my back or between my knees. My husband calls it the "wall of chastity."

So this enormous mattress now not only dominates our smallish room horizontally, and my husband sleeps so far away it is practically like having my own room, the bed also sits about 4 feet higher than its predecessor. When the delivery people set up the bed they were supposed to adjust the legs to the height we wanted, which my husband supposedly oversaw, and for some reason he let them leave it set super high. I can just barely slide my butt onto it without having to stand on tiptoe. My first impression of this super-huge, super-tall bed was that it reminded me of a monster truck, just ridiculously crazy large, and I was going to have him adjust it down; but I changed my mind the first night we slept on it and he got up to pee. For 17 years of sleeping on our floor-mattress, whenever he would get up at night and bump around the room in the dark, all 300 naked pounds of him, I always worried that one night he would trip and fall on me, breaking my leg or worse. That night in the new big bed is the first time in all those years that I wasn’t vaguely anxious for my safety when he got up to go.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 5:14 PM on August 24, 2019 [17 favorites]


Uh, my husband is actually six FEET tall, not six inches. In case anyone was wondering.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 5:24 PM on August 24, 2019 [23 favorites]


I have a vintage, full size metal bedframe from Las Vegas in the 1930s. It's painted white but scratched up here and there, and I love it all the more for the damage. This summer I sprung for a brand new mattress set. My old set had not worn well and was lumpy and bumpy, and this new one is pleasingly firm. And the saleslady's mother in North Carolina heard about me and added me to her prayer list, so that was a bonus! There's lots of pillows, and a fluffy duvet, and an even fluffier dog who sleeps at the foot of it. It's delightful.

Two recent posts here have been especially thought-provoking for me:

If you truly know yourself, one outfit is definitely enough -- It's an FPP on the blue about a young woman who has a streamlined wardrobe with a black bodysuit as a base, and a few other items to go with it as the event demands.

And I can't stop thinking about it. I've had some medical changes this year that have changed my body shape dramatically. The items in my closet don't fit me anymore, so I'm doing it: I've piled every garment on my dining room table to sort through, spent some time with my notebook sketching out basic and wearable outfit combinations that fit the life I am currently living, rummaging through a few boxes in storage to find some good quality items I've kept, -- and best of all! --- looking through pattern books for things I can sew. I've decided on grey, black, white, navy, and a few Winter-friendly pastels, and sort of.... a modern granny chic. Dresses and sweaters and boots for winter! I'm excited and will post as I make more progress!

Metafilter Dialup Group - Get to know your fellow Mefites -- This is so fun. You download a free app, and at a specific time on Saturday (mine's 2pm Mountain) the app rings you and you get connected 1:1 to a random Mefite. This was my second week, and yes it's easy to be nervous at first, but I have connected with the loveliest people who have been so candid and insightful. We chat about different posts and where we are and what we're doing and this world of ours, and it's so easy to find things in common because we're starting from here. I think more people should give it a shot. (They have other channels too, but I've only done the metafilter one.)

I hope everyone is having a very good weekend.
posted by mochapickle at 5:26 PM on August 24, 2019 [21 favorites]


We moved recently, from a small-ish townhouse to a house house.* We had this bedroom furniture** that was always way too big for the room in the townhouse, so we decided to consign it...except because of a renovation we did in the townhouse, the $#&$^*& sleighbed headboard didn't fit down the stairs. So we chainsawed it and put it out with the trash. Oh, also, the boxspring had to get chainsawed.

The plan was to buy a new bedroom set in the new house. And then...the extreme sellers' market came to a screeching halt, and we haven't sold our old house and don't want to spend money on furniture.

So, currently, mattress on the floor. With 0-2 dogs in any given moment during the night. Bonus is that the family that sold us the house left a bunk bed for the five year-old.

*For Philly folks, moved from Fairmount to East Falls. I haven't found the right comparison for my New York, DC and Chicago friends (even though I've lived in the latter two, Hyde Park and Dupont Circle). Suggestion welcome on this.

**From my husband's first marriage.
posted by Pax at 6:19 PM on August 24, 2019 [2 favorites]


A king size bed inherited from my mother. DH and I moved into her condo in January after her death. He and I sleep separately, so he is in the guest room. The cat sleeps on the corner of my bed on the side opposite me. She wakes me up for breakfast at 5:00 a.m. Ugh.

Bed problems: I got 'em. DH can't deal with running the air at night even in this very hot weather. I have a fan blowing on me all night, but I still get sweaty. Then he complains in the morning that my bed and I stink. Well, no wonder! I need a sheet change at least a couple of times a week in the summer.

I'm gaining some traction in the networking/job hunting area, which feels good. I hope to have a job by mid-September.

May you all sleep very well.
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 6:21 PM on August 24, 2019 [1 favorite]


Oh - I also just joined Dialup. Can't wait til next week!
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 6:21 PM on August 24, 2019 [2 favorites]


I've got a king size memory foam mattress on a metal platform bed. It's big enough for me, the cat, and if my partner stays over, her. Also on the bed are three to four memory foam pillows, some Ikea sheets, and a t-shirt quilt I just got back from Project Repay. That bed is comfy as hell.
posted by deezil at 6:22 PM on August 24, 2019 [1 favorite]


Serene Empress Dork, the correction on your hubby's height absolutely made my day!
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 6:26 PM on August 24, 2019 [3 favorites]


I have a double bed (I am a single, smallish person so this is fine) and a ubiquitous (but now I think discontinued) NORESUND IKEA bed with the lacquered metal headboard. One pillow. In the summer it’s just a top and bottom sheet. When it turns to fall I have a duvet (also IKEA). The mattress was just something Sears had on sale. I have no complaints.

The cat does not sleep with me because he has no regard for my need for silent, uninterrupted rest. To wit: He once got bored in the night, inserted himself between the dust jacket and hardback cover of a splayed library book, misjudged the distance between the edge of the bed and the wall, and rolled himself and the book right off onto the floor. Never again.
posted by janepanic at 7:00 PM on August 24, 2019 [13 favorites]


janepanic, ha!

My bed-related cat routine: I don't fully make my bed (except for when I change the sheets), but I straighten the sheets and comforter by flinging them in the air and snapping them into place. One of my cats jumps up every morning just as I'm flinging the comforter, so that he ends up riding it into the air a few inches. The first time he did it, I assumed he just timed his jump poorly, but he's been doing it every morning since then, so I have to assume he likes acting like the ball in that parachute popcorn game we played inexplicably often in elementary-school phys ed.
posted by lazuli at 7:16 PM on August 24, 2019 [13 favorites]


So my partner recently got a chunk of money when he left his old job and we decided to spend it on our house. We had a long discussion where we walked around, taking about which appliance was most likely to fail first vs our desire to do some landscaping. Eventually we made a calm, rational choice and satisfied I walked into the bedroom. Then I came out and yelled “WAIT WE NEED A NEW BED”.

New bed is a dream, firm but cushy supportive mattress, and we both sleep so much better on it. When at the store he decided to to get an adjustable base which I assumed I would never use and now use every night as I read in bed, going from V to flat helps me sleep and I love it.

Also big fans are our two dogs that are thrilled they can both fit on it! So thrilled! A little annoyed the humans keep stealing the blankets though.
posted by lepus at 7:56 PM on August 24, 2019 [2 favorites]


Bed setup is thus:

* Mattress is the slab of super-firm high-density foam I picked up at a place on the Lower East Side in 2005 or so. I had recovered from having my back go out for the first time ever, and my friend who was a massage therapist had been nagging me to upgrade from the cheap futon I had so I went with that. It is still just as firm and comfortable as it was the day I brought it home (balancing it on my head because I was only going five blocks). I've since added a dust cover.

* Frame is an Ikea frame that someone about five roommates ago left behind when he moved out (he was moving into a penthouse on the Upper West Side to live rent-free as a live-in dogsitter, and the only deal was that he couldn't bring furniture; I gave him about a hundred bucks to buy an entire office set and the bedframe off him).

* It's a full-size bed, but I still sleep on the left side instead of in the middle (perhaps it is my way of living in hope that someday someone will occupy the other half of the bed, sigh). Two pillows and a body pillow.

* Right now the only cover is simply a sheet - a top sheet that I just did some faux shibori-style tie dye on because I was bored. The dye came out hot pink instead of the red I was hoping for but I don't mind.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:04 PM on August 24, 2019 [2 favorites]


I sleep on a queen sized IKEA Björksnäs bed with an Leesa mattress. I got them both a year ago, and I'm not the biggest fan of the mattress in retrospect. It hasn't been a great year with my back pain, even when I'm not doing any prolonged standing or heavy lifting. Plus my pillows are hand me downs from my parents- nice new pillows are on my to-buy list. I'm very specific about pillows- no down, they can't be too plump, but they can't be too flat either. Though one flat pillow out of the four might be okay for covering your ears when someone decides to mow their lawn at 6 AM.

I have a king sized Siberian goose down duvet that sheds whenever I change the cover, so hopefully I will replace that with an artificial down one in a few years. The big size is great, especially when sharing a bed. No top sheet, but I have a blanket that I use too in the winter since my room's temperature averages 64° at night that time of year. I wash my duvet every two weeks because it's kind of a pain to change a king sized cover by yourself every seven days.

My dog sleeps at the end of my bed on her own little blanket. Sometimes she will sleep under it, it's her safe place. If she's really conked out I'll look over and she'll be laying on her back with her belly in the air, legs splayed, and that's a big deal because she never shows her belly while she's awake. It's so cute! I have an alarm clock just so I can see the time if I wake up, but I set an alarm on my phone if I need it. Oh, and I have blackout curtains leftover from when I was doing shift work, which are ugly as sin but super nice if I'm sleeping in!

I'm currently on a housesitting streak so I'm only sleeping in my bed a few nights a week. A week ago I was sleeping in a tiny room where the queen sized bed took up the majority of the space, with a tiny comforter and terrible pillows and a golden retriever who would jump on the bed at 2 AM to let me know he wanted to play. This weekend I woke up in a pretty nice bed with much better pillows but with a shih tzu on one side of my face and an Australian terrier on the other. I have taken to traveling with my own clock and pillows because no one ever seems to have a clock in their guest room, and the pillow situation is always unpredictable.
posted by mollywas at 8:32 PM on August 24, 2019 [2 favorites]


My bed I sleep in which is an old mattress that was great back in the day and is past it's prime and doesn't have a frame bc I never got around to assembling it, a perfectly good and assembled frame in the guest room but that I will need to get a new mattress for but I'm scared of change, and knowing once I bring that frame in here I will stub my toes on it every other day, but knowing that I deserve better than this old mattress, but also not wanting to see it go to the landfill, loving it like a friend..
posted by bleep at 8:45 PM on August 24, 2019 [2 favorites]


Oh but just put your old mattress in the guest room, win win! No, I want to put a couch in there and make that my office but I need to figure out how to make the internet show up in that room first!
posted by bleep at 8:47 PM on August 24, 2019 [1 favorite]


lazuli: I've had many cats in my life that enjoyed a similar game during bed-making time: the "there's a lump in my bed!" game. Instead of riding the comforter or sheets, they dash up onto the bed while the sheet/comforter is mid-air and hunker down underneath when the sheet/comforter lands. Then you start probing around the lump in the bed saying "oooh, there's a lump in my bed! I wonder what it could be? It's kind of round.... kind of sharp.... hmmm" Then you add flavor based on the cat. sometimes you pounce on the lump. sometimes you pop up the sheets and yell "boo!" at the cat. it varies.
posted by some loser at 9:18 PM on August 24, 2019 [9 favorites]


some loser, oh my goddesses, yes! Both cats are extremely, um, "helpful" when I make the bed. I had both of them trapped under the fitted sheet last time because it was apparently VERY IMPORTANT that they use their hind-leg bunny-kicking skills to protect me from... the top sheet? Not sure. One of them manages to propel himself belly-up all across the queen-sized bed by use of hind feet beneath top sheet.
posted by lazuli at 9:31 PM on August 24, 2019 [5 favorites]


I bounce between a couple guest beds at family member's houses. Living large! I'm catsitting right now, and the other night I woke up in the middle of the night to one of the cats climbing onto my pillow and curling up against the top of my head.

I bought some reflective tape and have been going to town on my bike frame for better visibility. If I had the cash, I'd cover the whole thing in reflective film and be the local eccentric who rides Reflectobike. As it is, I think I've just successfully made the transition from nerd to dork. I put some reflective strips on my helmet and thought, oh, there is no way I can look cool in this.

The weather cooled off and I was going to bike downtown, but... I got a migraine and slept all day instead. Dangit! Now it's the middle of the night, and I still have a migraine but I'm not as tired. I'm bored more than anything else, watching Rifftrax (Catwomen of the Moon) and adding yet more reflective tape to my bike. Maybe it'll be a conversation starter, like "check out that hot, safety-conscious guy." Maybe it'll make me look like a weirdo to be avoided at all costs. Hmm. Either way, I bought reflective tape and I'm going to use it.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 9:48 PM on August 24, 2019 [5 favorites]


(Also, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the sample at the start of the first Man or Astro-Man? album is apparently from Catwomen of the Moon.)
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 10:01 PM on August 24, 2019 [3 favorites]


I sleep on a full-size grey-brown Hemnes bedframe with I don't know which Ikea mattress and topper. The fitted sheet is flannel all year round (currently navy blue), and there is no top sheet. A heated mattress pad goes on in late September and stays on through approximately May.

I have two pillows, one a shredded memory foam and one an L-shaped pillow, which is my main pillow as of late (the memory foam goes behind the L pillow).

Covers are a 15 pound sea green weighted blanket (I may soon give in and go up to 20 pounds- 15 is starting to feel like nothing), a fluffy-in-a-texture way grey throw, and an extremely soft fluffy-in-a-volume way comforter.

I sleep on the right side of the bed. My computer, cross-stitch, and cat sleep on the left side. Though sometimes the cat sleeps on me instead, because she's a cat.
posted by smangosbubbles at 10:20 PM on August 24, 2019 [2 favorites]


I'm currently sleeping on a 15 year old queen size mattress with box spring and frame and a fairly decent headboard. I have to wait until I finally find a job before I can get anything new.

I only use cotton or cotton flannel sheets and pillowcases. Bamboo, jersey or any other synthetic is abhorrent to me.

I sleep with one of our two dogs. Husband sleeps with the other unless one of us is out of town. I sleep with the restless one who is terrified of fireworks and thunder.

Tonight I am sleeping on a couch at a retreat center in the mountains outside of Napa/Sonoma. I am really looking forward to the 8 hour drive home in the morning. I love a good solitary road trip where I get to listen to my own music and stop whenever I want.
posted by Sophie1 at 10:57 PM on August 24, 2019 [4 favorites]


Oh god we need to do something about our bed. Here goes.
In current older house we have two tatami rooms and one of these became the bedroom. We sleep on a futon on the floor over a wooden frame thing, which is flatter and more on the floor than I prefer, but I came into this country with a secondhand futon and just kept on with that because it’s cheaper, and we just haven’t gotten around to getting a mattress/bed frame. And if we were good upstanding people we’d fold up the stupid futon and put it somewhere that is not the floor every morning and also expose it to sunlight and hit it with a flyswatter looking thing or something but we just don’t, so we (I) end up occasionally checking underneath the futon to see if a) something mildly sketchy is happening or b) something extremely sketchy is happening, in terms of mold.
We are moving next month to a place with all wooded flooring, which is wonderful, because while I like tatami, not only does it mold it’s also a magnet for little bits of detritus. Maybe we should just get a mattress that contains cushioning with a frame that is off the floor as god and nature intended. (I mean, to each their own, but I may have had enough of this setup)
In winter, the cat nestles between us or in my arms like a living teddy bear. This summer, he either sits interfering with someone’s leg room at the foot of the bed or on my husband’s pillow interfering with his head room.
posted by sacchan at 11:25 PM on August 24, 2019 [5 favorites]


The bed is a basic futon with a memory foam topper. The reason I wanted the foam was because I was reading a trashy magazine once and Brad Pitt said it was the best sleep he’d ever had. It turns out he was right, at least for us. I usually don’t take advice from Brad Pitt, mind you.
posted by kerf at 12:10 AM on August 25, 2019 [6 favorites]


Oh man, I miss sleeping on a couch. A good couch is my favorite place to sleep. So comfy and form fitting, no unused space and it prevents any tossing and turning. Just lay back like a mummy in a sarcophagus and snooze away the night. Or at least that's how I liked it. It's been too many years since I had the chance to sleep like that, so who knows if it'd still work as well.

I had to give up couch sleeping when I moved around a lot. Much easier just to have a futon since you can move that yourself, well, more or less. Damn bulky things. But after enough moves, the futon couldn't cut it anymore, so now I have a mattress. Don't remember what kind I bought, just that it isn't too soft, but has a pillow top to keep it from feeling too firm. I try and sleep more on my side rather than my back now, with varying success, since I gather that's better for you. Whatever, it's fine, but not as pleasing as I remember couch sleeping once was. Ah well, it's just one small ache of many the pains of aging.
posted by gusottertrout at 1:37 AM on August 25, 2019 [4 favorites]


We have a king-size bed (US = queen, according to this handy translator) with this headboard with built-in storage, because the bed is huge and the bedroom is not. It is worth the space trade-off. There's also a 3-sided bedside cot (US = crib) attached to my side of the bed.

We share the room with a baby and intermittently two cats and a 5-year-old. The 5-year-old was a horrendous sleeper as a baby and toddler (yes we tried that, yes I've read that book) and has only just started regularly sleeping through the night now and this changed a LOT about our own sleeping arrangements. We got the cot when she hit the 4-month sleep regression and started waking up 16 times a night, so I could settle or feed her without having to get up myself. We got the king-size bed when we moved her into her own bedroom when she was 2, with the deal that she was allowed to come through and sleep in our bed if she woke so long as she didn't wake us up. I will trade off pretty much anything for not having to get out of bed during the night.

One of the cats sometimes sleeps on the bed with us. This is fine, except once every few months she will decide that 5.30am is a brilliant time for everyone to get up and play with her and will climb all over us until we kick her out. Yesterday I threw her off the bed for doing this and she jumped back up and lay down stretched out full-length right next to the baby, like "awfully nice sleeping baby you have here... shame if someone were to purr really loudly at it... oh dear, baby's awake never mind let's get up!" so now she is not my favourite cat.

The 5-year-old mostly doesn't sleep in our bed these days, but when one of us is away for work that same cat will go and pester her until she wakes up and comes through. Followed by a smug-looking cat who then goes to sleep at our feet.

The baby is the best sleeper in the household.
posted by Catseye at 1:44 AM on August 25, 2019 [7 favorites]


The bed right now is a metal Ikea frame and a double mattress that is probably a bit old now (purchased when I moved to London after graduating over a decade ago.) It is shared with t’husband and the cat beasts. Mostly at the moment by Ms Pepper, who gets very excited when it looks like I’m going to bed as that means buttscratches. There is dancing about and croaky meows/headbutts/pawing. The tiniest monster (Jess) may join us in the night, either to sleep on me (and dribble/biscuit my shoulder) or sleep wedged between us at pillow height but mostly she sleeps by the door on the floor while it is warm.

Bedding is a bottom sheet, the summer weight half of my down duvet and a crochet blanket if too warm for duvet. In the winter, we clip on the other half and have the full winter weight duvet. It is great. Plus more crochet blankets.

The plan now that we have a house is to get a king sized bed so that we have more room but will probably just provide more space for the cats. But we need to measure out the size of a king and then see where that leaves us for wardrobes (I have the stand alone one that was left in the house, t’hb has a clothes rail) as we are contemplating a fancier wardrobe situation. Along with removing the wallpaper/painting the walls and painting the rest of the trim cream instead of lilac. (The baseboards are already painted as I had to do that before the new carpet went in after we bought the house). I haven’t decided if it’s worth trying to repaint the radiator (also painted lilac) or just getting a new one.

I have a sunrise lamp as my alarm/clock, which generally works although I do find I often wake up before that reaches full sunrise because I am being stared at silently from my bedside table by the tiniest monster who is wondering if I might have a moment to talk about our lord and saviour BREAKFAST. Or by Ms Pepper, who regards any wakeful movement as the possibility of buttscratches.
posted by halcyonday at 1:53 AM on August 25, 2019 [6 favorites]


On an ancient Ikea mattress on the floor. Springs poke eternal.
posted by pracowity at 3:00 AM on August 25, 2019 [3 favorites]


Double-size futon on tatami, which eliminates any possibility of falling out of bed. He has a normal pillow and a buckwheat-husks one, I have the stuffed unicorn which has been my main pillow for 36 years and counting. Right now we're using a light quilt my mom sent, with an aqua and white design, and a comforter with a nighttime cityscape design that glows a little in the dark for the first few minutes. In winter we'll use the big double duvet.

The freelance project proceeds, with accompanying guilt and qualms. Still, all the computer stuff has FINALLY worked itself out, knock wood, jeez, and I took the next little step today by making myself some very primitive but hopefully useful business cards.

Today was the first rehearsal of our new orchestra cycle; I love sight-reading. On the other hand, I started marking places to go over at string section rehearsal and found I was marking just about every page of the score; this is going to be fun and exciting, sure, let's see what happens.
posted by huimangm at 3:41 AM on August 25, 2019 [3 favorites]


I sleep a little fancy. Queen tempurpedic on an adjustable base, and it's glorious. I have, um, six pillows that are just for me and a king size down comforter that is super soft. Also, I have a rolling table I got for surgery recovery, like hospital style but not as ugly, which I just kept using even after I didn't really need it any more. So convenient!

My cat's main flaw is that she doesn't sleep with me through the night until the heart of winter; she usually just dozes for a couple hours before heading out to the couch. Her favorite spot is on top of the comforter between my feet, which makes it virtually impossible for me to move without annoying her. She never really wakes me up; I won the cat lottery.
posted by ktkt at 3:57 AM on August 25, 2019 [2 favorites]


we are duvet and heavy cotton sheet people. the worst of winter has yet to land, so am keeping extra blankets at our feet. the cat approves; in winter, she rarely walks on us as the blankets are friendlier and do not complain. we have a king sized sleigh bed with lovely mattress from a local company. it’s nice etc etc, but that’s not the good bit. the ceiling fixtures and his ‘n her sconces with are Hue lights!! the ceiling fixture is on a timer and scene that turns to the darkest orange till 2 am or so. the sconces default to dim, light blue (him), hot fuschia (me). it’s fun, living in a vibrantly lit jewel-toned world.
posted by lemon_icing at 5:15 AM on August 25, 2019 [2 favorites]


We still use an alarm clock! It's one of those radio alarm clocks with an iPod dock that was popular ten+ years ago. I got it for my wife when we were dating (for reasons I can no longer remember, she must have expressed a desire for one). The iPod that was docked to it has long since disappeared to a drawer somewhere; I doubt we even have the ability to charge it (except for the clock, I guess) or put other music on it anymore.

Animal access to the bedroom is a bit of a juggling act. You see, Angry Cat doesn't like Stupid Cat using the litter boxes, but he also doesn't eat all of his food in one go so Stupid Cat will gobble it up if he's left alone with it. Angry Cat also really likes Dog's food, but the dog food makes him sick if he eats it. Stupid Cat used to be ok in the bedroom with us, but now no longer likes staying there overnight and will claw at the door to be let out. He also claws at the door in the morning to let us know it's his meal time. Dog, meanwhile, adopted the bed as her safe space the second we adopted her and also does not always eat her food all at once. She also only really eats after we fall asleep when it's quiet and she doesn't have to worry.

So, in the mornings I feed Angry Cat in the kitchen and Stupid Cat in the bedroom after first checking that the dog has eaten all of her food. Stupid Cat gets locked in the bedroom with a litter box until he starts clawing at the door, at which point I have to go collect Angry Cat's food and put it somewhere inaccessible (he has usually stopped eating at that point). Stupid Cat goes out, Angry Cat usually goes in and curls up on the bed.

In the evenings, the cats get fed together in the kitchen (Stupid Cat somehow does his business while we're at work). Dog gets fed in the bedroom when we go to bed, and the cats do their own thing in the rest of the house. We were crating the dog for a while, but now she sleeps on the bed (or on the floor if she gets too hot).
posted by backseatpilot at 5:26 AM on August 25, 2019 [5 favorites]


Our bed is a cheap Ikea base that has been moved too many times and won't survive another move; a cheap and not particularly comfortable spring mattress bought at one of those sketchy mattress stores in a small town years ago; and a fairly expensive foam topper thing that makes the mattress at least acceptably comfortable to sleep on.

One of the real pleasures of our next move is that all of these bed pieces will be donated or discarded, and we can start again from scratch with something that is actually comfortable. But for now we are living with it, because hopefully the next move is relatively soon and I don't want the expense/hassle of having to buy a bed and then move it.

The dog sleeps on the bed, as all good dogs should, and has exceptionally good bed manners other than sometimes sleep-barking during a particularly exciting doggy dream.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:49 AM on August 25, 2019 [2 favorites]


We recently tried a linen duvet and pillowcase cover set on a whim after Ikea discontinued the cotton set we'd been buying for 15 years. (We had an incontinent, elderly cat for a while who we couldn't bear to kick out of bed. . . so we'd bought quite a few identical sets for rotation between bleechings in recent years.) It's amazing. As a someone who sleeps with little clothing and always wakes up sweaty, the linen is far less cloying and hot than any bed I've ever slept in. I'm planning to throw away all my cotton bedding and replace it the first chance I get.

Several times in the last few months I've had a rather strong and surprising urge, just as I'm falling asleep, to get out of bed and lay on the wood floor. Actually doing it isn't all that satisfying. It doesn't seem to warrant medical intervention, but it is new and weird. Perhaps it means the Klingon bone marrow transplants are finally beginning to take.
posted by eotvos at 7:20 AM on August 25, 2019 [3 favorites]


I have a 1930s Art Deco Twin bed that I inherited from my grandmother. It's very sturdy and with the right mattress, very comfy.

I am having some pepper problems. Picked the first few, and while a couple were ok, if a little bitter, one had a damn caterpillar living in it. A cabbage moth caterpillar. Which makes absolutely no sense. Even my boss at work was like "But peppers aren't brassicas?" Anyways it's a good thing I bought B.t. Looks like my purple beans have beaned their last. The pole beans this year were really anemic. Probably something I did wrong, but I can't figure it out. At this time last year the pole beans were absolutely hopping. Oh well. I finally updated my garden map! SO If you curious as to where everything is now you can know! That map will be out of date in like a week tho. Hope everyone's weekend is going well, I have to get to work!
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 8:03 AM on August 25, 2019 [6 favorites]


Our house is pretty tiny. For years we hemmed and hawed about getting a bigger bed, thinking our already tiny room would be too crowded. Friends, I'm here to tell you, if the bigger bed fits at all in your bedroom, get it. Who needs floorspace instead of sleepspace?
I used to barely fit on our small, sub-queen bed, and ended up sleeping in weird positions, with my arm hanging over the side, or propped up on my nightstand.
Now, we got a king, with a hard mattress and a solid wooden platform underneath, and it's heaven. I also got 2 hard pillows, no memory anything, and they're gorgeous, I don't need to fold them over or put them in odd contortions, they just work.
Now we have room to spare for the two of us, plus space to have my son and our new cat, Asami, over for a cuddle. I posted about her on askme a while back, she's doing well, less stressed out, and super cute and funny. The new bed also has space for her to hide under, which she's doing less and less as she gets used to living with us.
Other than that, our climate-changed late winter is unseasonably warm here in Santiago, trees are blooming, etc. I live on a large street in a residential neighborhood, and on Sundays they close the street to car traffic so people can ride their bikes on it. It's great, quiet and peaceful. I went for a small walk to the local french-ish bakery, got a baguette and a brie, and had a nice breakfast with my favorite people in the world.
posted by signal at 8:46 AM on August 25, 2019 [6 favorites]


I'm a weird sleeper, have a lot of sleep fidgets. I am at my dad's place for the summer, like every summer, and it has a lot of bedrooms. I think I've slept in three of them this summer so far, maybe four. The main room I sleep in now is my dad's room (in case you do not know my entire backstory, he is dead, not in here with me). The bed is... wooden? And the mattress is... poofy (pillow top maybe) and the sheets are exceptional in some way (super heavy if that makes sense) and then there's a blanket and a full-on comforter.

It's this room minus the cat who lives with my sister, the plant which died, the double alarm clocks (!) and the carpets. Yes I am from New England, how did you ever guess?

We just got mini-splits/heat pump for three of the bedrooms, so I'll often turn on the AC for an hour or two before I go to bed. Amazing. I sleep with my phone charging on my nightstand but I've got good phone/bedtime etiquette. I also turn the sound off at night, hope no one's trying to get ahold of me. Nightstand has phone, book, reading glasses, earplugs and not much else. The bed has sheets that heat up in the winter. The room is darkish but not totally dark so I can see when it's daytime but I can pull my sleeping hat over my eyes if I need to (I was up at 10 today, that is a little later than usual but not much later). Sleeptime for me is often a bit of a wrestling match but this is a pretty optimal arrangement for me.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 8:54 AM on August 25, 2019 [3 favorites]


After proclaiming we never let the kids sleep with us at the top of the thread, last night my husband went and fetched the 3-year-old at about 4 a.m. because she was fussing, and it was absolutely miserable and I couldn't go to sleep until she woke up for real at 7 a.m. and left. She was rolling and thrashing and kicking and poking and scooting up and down the bed and I've had like five hours of sleep in two broken up chunks and I'm going to be VERY CRANKY today.
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 9:15 AM on August 25, 2019 [3 favorites]


Bed is a decent Queen and box spring set. I am a terrible sleeper and the metal bed frame squeaked, rattled and annoyed the hell out of me. So, a few years ago, I bought 12 of those square cup shaped bed risers, propped the mattress up against the wall and used a drill to attached each riser to the slats under the box spring. It looks like weird stubby caterpiller legs under there but it's totally quiet!

Now for my not so secret obsession. I loves me a pretty bed. And comfy sheets and blankets. I thrift the majority of my bed linens, and also add vintage table cloths and other large beautiful pieces of fabrics. I have quite a collection of patterned top sheets too. For a while i had three vintage tablecloths as a bed skirt (hiding those stubby risers, lol!) Since it's cooling down where I live, last night was bottom sheet, matching top, and pillowcases, a lightweight twin down comforter, made even lighter because it's old and as lost a bit of heft. On top of that, a gorgeous cotton top sheet that has beautiful grasses painted in rows, in shades of green. When we got in bed, the sheets, which are slippery silky were cool, and the comforter was like being under a poofy cloud. The top sheet is thick crisp cotton and the whole experience is a tactile delight! I frequently change out the bedding every couple days to adjust to the weather.

And to add to the above cat tales, yes they figure frequently in my bed making adventures. I have completely made the bed with my primary cat UNDER the fitted bottom sheet. Went to work, came home and she was still under, but had relocated several times and she snaked her way out the side of the bed, stretched and yawning! I so want to be a cat in my next life!
posted by LaBellaStella at 9:45 AM on August 25, 2019 [3 favorites]


Poor Eyebrows, I know that feeling. My daughter turned 17 this weekend - um, how did THAT happen? - but I still remember the single time she shared our bed as a sick one-year-old. It was very hard to fall asleep because, as a first-time co-sleeper with a little baby, I was incredibly worried about, you know, smushing her. Eventually I did fall asleep. I awoke to see her poised in the narrow space between my wife and me. She was on her knees and she looked tired, sick, and confused, and was sucking her thumb as she looked for a place to land. She kind of gave up and just flopped down where she was... right into my crotch. Ow ow ow ow. Never again.

That was in our old queen bed, which I miss because we now have a king and it feels way too big for two people. I miss the impromptu snuggling that took place sometimes in the queen. I’m an absolutely terrible sleeper, though: prone to flailing and bolting upright in the middle of the night. My wife was finding it impossible to share the queen with me. The choice was presented to me as a new king size bed or separate beds, so I grudgingly acquiesced to the king. She is sleeping much better so I’m happy with that end result.

Sleeping is hard and therefore beds aren’t a particularly happy or enjoyable place for me, and it’s eye-opening to see just how much people actually like their beds and their sleeping arrangements! Especially with pets. The thought of a razor-clawed feline sleeping in close proximity seems wild and crazy!
posted by cheapskatebay at 10:01 AM on August 25, 2019 [4 favorites]


This is the perfect opportunity for me to ask for help! Does anyone remember an AskMe question about sheets that aren't slippery? I swear I can remember a question like that and it was sometime in the last uh, five probably, years but I have looked and looked and I can't find it. I also prefer sheets with some tooth to them. Tooth is what I would say if they were paper but I don't have the vocabulary for sheets and I don't know what I'm looking for. I know you always want at least 300 thread count and cotton but that's where my sheet knowledge begins and ends. A couple years ago I bought some sheets from Sams Club (look, they don't have Costco in Asheville) with tiny flamingos on them and they are now my absolute favorite sheets in the world. They're not smooth, exactly, they feel crisp. I want more like them and so, apparently, did that unknown asker. All help is good!

My flamingo sheets are on a pillow top mattress I bought in 2008 when I moved into my last house in Asheville. It sits on a wooden frame bed, just a platform really, that I got at a futon shop. Not particularly exciting but it's super comfy although the weather is unpredictable right now so I keep having to change from big poofy duvet - ultra comfort but too warm sometimes - to hot pink cotton blanket covered with utterly beautiful striped blanket I bought in Mexico two years ago. That gets too cold quickly so it's back and forth. The cat usually sleeps with me for most of the night but right now things are unsettled because of Harvey.

Harvey left the Clatsop County animal shelter and moved in with us on Friday evening! It's all going pretty well so far although the Okra the Cat and Harvey relationship is clearly going to need some work. He's just not sure about cats and she is quite sure she disapproves of him. He has been sleeping on the couch mostly because Perdita takes up the dog beds. I got a new dog bed for his first night and put it in the guest room (which itself is boasting a new to me queen sized bed courtesy of my coworker who just moved to Tacoma) but Harvey said, what? A dog bed when there is a perfectly good real bed? And he slept on that. I don't let the dogs on my bed but, well, the spare room / guest room bed is sorta up for grabs. Now I have three dog beds on the floor and an extra one in the cab of the truck and one in my office and two snoozling dogs behind me again and I'm so glad.
posted by mygothlaundry at 10:55 AM on August 25, 2019 [3 favorites]


Uh, my husband is actually six FEET tall, not six inches. In case anyone was wondering.

Look, we're just going by what was on the napkin.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 11:57 AM on August 25, 2019 [9 favorites]


i swear preschoolers sleep like fidgety tetris blocks
posted by Foci for Analysis at 2:36 PM on August 25, 2019 [2 favorites]


In 2016, we lived in a upper apartment, on a quiet street in Waterville, Maine. It was an old house, converted to apartments goodness knows when. The owner and his wife were seemingly nice people, but I had my doubts. But it was cheap rent, and our old place had a failing septic.

I, for one, love to be able to flush my toilet without it backing up. The landlord, whose brother was featured on some American boss show, had been embroiled in some scheme in the NW where he was implicated in investing pension funds of firemen or somesuch, then he went down to California and opened a bank and bought some burger chain. Our landlord, his brother, had helped him set up a shell company out here in Maine, and somehow he got off from having any charges.

We didn't know that, before we moved in. We just wanted to live in a nice home. It was very nice, until things were not. When the septic backed up, I said, "Landlord, what are you going to do?" and the septic guy was there, saying, "Landlord I TOLD you years ago, that you would have to address this issue!" and Landlord said to me, "Well, I guess you're fucked." The septic guy gasped, audibly. I was not happy, to say the least.

So we found an apartment, cheap rent, friendly landlord, etc. Had done IT work at Mr. Mon Dieu's current workplace at the time. Tiny bathroom, huge kitchen, two bedrooms, closet space. All good, right?

The neighbors were typical working class folks, but they left their dog alone a lot and it howled. A lot. We kept contacting the landlord, and he did nothing. Zilch. Then they had his wife's mother and 5th husband move in downstairs, and it was all kinds of fun, as they loved to drink hard liquor and get into passionate fights (her words) and play loud music at all hours. We'd ask them to stop, at 2:00 a.m.

When my brother was dying, I was NOT going to put up with these people's shenanigans anymore. I called the cops. They shut off the music, only to start up again the next day. Those of you who have gone thru this: you know the routine. Nothing to be done, unless the cops actually hear it, call us if it happens again, etc.

Finally, I said, Mr. Mon Dieu, let's go down to the area I like, and look around. We stopped at the local corner store and asked the owner if she knew of a place for rent. "Oh yeah," she said. "There's a Post-It note on the bulletin board." We called the number, but it was out of service. She gave us directions, and told us who to ask for. So down the road we went, and we finally found the place, and it was this little cabin, on a lake. I put cash down. The only reason we got it was because she'd forgotten to put her current number on the ad posted on the bulletin board.

Our current bedroom is tiny. It was full of stuff, as there is no closet space here. It was supposed to be a summer getaway, so who needs closets? We have a small storage locker 15 minutes away. But I'd put a ton of stuff under the bed, old suitcases, etc. Lots of stuff! It became a way of life, walking and climbing past it to get into bed. It was depressing, man, let me tell you. The cats had a field day, making beds out of those suitcases and hawking up furballs on the carpet.

This summer, we got news of a 95+ heatwave. That's it, I said. I hauled every goddamned thing out of that bedroom, and sorted through it, some went to charity, some into the storage unit, a very few things went back under the bed. The vacuum was employed. It was cleared out and cleaned up.

Then I installed a window air conditioner, because I cannot STAND both heat and humidity at the same time. Fuck that noise, man.

It was bliss, sheer utter bliss, to go into that tiny room, which is like a cave, with its dark grey paint and single window, which faces the road, so I always have something over it, to keep people from looking in. My cave of coolness, of vacuumed goodness, the nice duvet cover I bought, everything fresh and good and clean and cool. We kept the door open 6 inches, using a 5 lb. hand weight, so the cats could go in and out. Tho' the little suckers preferred laying in front of fans in the rest of the house, belly up, floof to the fan, don't ask me why.

I bought some pillows, thinking they'd go with the duvet cover, but it's hard to match colors from home to the store designs, isn't it? They aren't too bad, but I may move them to the living room and retire our old couch pillows eventually. As to the bedtime, I sleep with Mr. Dinosaur, he is my friend, and I have had him for over 10 years. Mr. Dinosaur loves the new pillows, as you can see here.

I am doing okay with the new CPAP machine, and have a follow-up appointment with my doctor aka NP, in October. I have phone support available from her office and the place I got it from, but am doing okay. It's not as bad as I thought it would be. Thanks to all of you who offered support when I mentioned it.

What I like most about my bedroom is that it is quiet. We had a period of loud music and strangeness across the street for a while, but that has died down, mostly due to that neighbor threatening a former state cop, who has been building his retirement home a couple of houses down. I watched it all play out last Fall, and this summer has been blissfully quiet, except for the mostly relaxed and chill summer people who come down here on weekends to enjoy themselves. I wish everyone could come visit me, and I would cook some kickass food, and we could all enjoy ourselves by the lake. I got some good sunrise pics the other morning, it is a perfect time of year to visit, not too cold, and not too hot.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 3:57 PM on August 25, 2019 [7 favorites]


Thanks to that sleep divorce FPP a few weeks ago (helped along by some health stuff I've been going through that makes my sleep iffy and fragile lately) I took the plunge on proposing seperate rooms. I got a twin sized trundle day bed off Craigslist (trundle because our kid will soon be reaching sleep over age) and we rearranged things so that one master bedroom + one shared office became two rooms-of-ones-own.

Best decision ever. My health stuff continues to wreak occasional havoc on my sleep, but it's so much less angst-creating when I can just do whatever I need to do in order to pass the time or get comfy without worrying about my husband's comfort. And I go to bed a lot earlier because I realized that I was staying up too late in part because I was savoring some true alone time in the hour between my husband going to bed and me finally going up. Now that my alone time can be any time, I'm free to go to bed whenever the mood strikes.

The former office had sort of became a bit of a junk room so I'm still contending with that and part of the whole deal was agreeing to hire someone to come in and erect wall shelves everywhere (my husband has a very stuff-intensive hobby and requires a shitload of surface area) so that's all still a work in progress. But otherwise, it's fucking bliss. Highly recommend.
posted by soren_lorensen at 5:18 PM on August 25, 2019 [4 favorites]


Mainly, how I sleep is badly. This isn't just due to the many psychological and medical annoyances that make unmedicated sleep so rare for me. It's that I thrash like a landed fish. I kick. Partners complain. When I share a bed, the anxiety about how awful I'm going to be makes it even tougher to rest. And forget about sitting sleeping up on a plane or something. I can only do that if I have been in some kind of insane 24-hour travel situation that has sapped my body's ability to resist itself.

The body pillow has changed my life. I got it to help with positional pain I was having while trying to fall asleep. Now I find that it gives me what other people must find in weighted blankets--a very faint sense of physical protection. It is, as the grandfather of cowboy poetry once said, just a pillow, but it registers a presence to something in the lizard brain. What I would really like in the warm months, though, is what used to be called a "bamboo wife," an openwork wicker body pillow that allows air to reach your body and limbs.

I am currently annoyed because my attractive, newish sheets are starting to pill up. Serves me right for buying cheap ones, I suppose, but the prints are so cute.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:31 PM on August 25, 2019 [3 favorites]


Where You Lay Your Weary Head

For some reason I've had a Kansas tune running through my head since yesterday evening.
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:36 PM on August 25, 2019 [1 favorite]


Today after what was to me a normal register interaction the lady with three wild kids I rung up called my boss and told him I wasn’t nice enough to her on register and that it ruined her day in what was a pretty bald faced “Karen calling manager” move attempt to IDK get me fired or something? Luckily my boss isn’t a tool and placated her while assuring me I was fine. This lady even attributed something a coworker said to me as something I said, and complimented another worker as having really helped her earlier- seemingly unaware that I WAS THE ONE WHO HELPED HER EARLIER. I don’t know if this was a “I’m autistic and my facial expression can be too neutral” issue or a “woman with kids tries to get obvious queer person fired” issue or just “Jane Q public sucks donkey balls” problem but I just want to punch a wall. I was having a nice day too and now I’m stewing and anxious. People suck.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 6:50 PM on August 25, 2019 [4 favorites]


mgl, Harvey is so handsome!

Homo neanderthalensis, I'm so sorry she did that, and I totally get that feeling of other's people's crappiness seeping into me. Can you do something to shake off her negativity? I recommend literal shaking off, or at least that tends to work for me, but I know other people have other rituals. Sometimes even just washing my hands deliberately helps, while telling myself that I am washing away other people's problems and issues.
posted by lazuli at 7:14 PM on August 25, 2019 [1 favorite]


I sleep in a hammock, and I've talked about it a lot before. It's a nice Central or South American style hammock of generous proportions.

If you've ever wondered how to hang a hammock indoors, I can vouch that porch swing bolts that have the metal retaining plate that screws down in all four corners over the main bolt work great for hanging a hammock indoors. The ones I have have a heavy nylon grommet between the bolt and the captured hook, so it's silent even under load. The open hook ends make it really easy to stow or unfurl the hammock, too, I just unhook a line of rope, roll it up and drop it in a handy plastic tote with my sleeping bag and my bed is "made" and put away.

One of my favorite things about my hammock and where/how it hangs right now is that I can get into a relaxed position with one foot sticking out just enough to touch part of my desk or work bench, which lets me swing/rock the hammock with basically zero effort from my toes. My toes act like a spring and gently and pleasantly press into the edge of the desk with each swing and I just slightly curl them after each compression and it keeps a steady swing going for as long as I'm awake and keep pushing off just a little with my toes.

Or sometimes I'll just stick an arm out or a leg or knee and set myself swinging, but I also find it entertaining to anti-swing and try to dampen a swinging motion without touching anything, because it's surprisingly challenging and weird feeling to try to completely cancel out a swing.

I often find this gentle rocking exceedingly pleasant. In the summer when it's warm it produces a nice, gentle breeze. In some of the more relaxed and neutral hammock positions if I close my eyes it can feel like I'm completely weightless or floating in body temperature water -, and with a nice down sleeping bag tucked over me and a small, hammock friendly pillow wedged under my neck and head just so it feels like there's basically no pressure or stress points anywhere at all and I'm just floating in space like a warm burrito.

Hammocks aren't for everyone and they have their faults and a whole lot of quirks, but this zero pressure anywhere weightless thing is something beds just will likely never be able to do. I've slept on some really, really nice beds and even then there's seemingly always something that's a compromise or a pressure point somewhere. An arm in the way, or a shoulder or hip stressed just a little.

Sometimes I get bored of the hammock and I'll make a bedroll and sort of ad-hoc futon on the floor just because I want to really sprawl out, lay on my stomach and read a book or watch a movie.

Which is a perfect time to report the following:

Last week I apparently had a day of attracting all of the creepy critters. It started with finding a tree frog sitting right in the middle of my pillow on the bedroll and futon I built on the floor. Then I was invaded by flying termites for about 5 hours. Then I found a common bullfrog at the foot of my bed. Next was a giant house spider. A few hours later I was sitting outside in shorts at dusk right after a shower, and looked down to find a 10 inch long banana slug slithering over my knee and well up into my thigh before I even noticed it was there.

Thankfully the termite swarm went away. And I have had to rescue many frogs from inside my tiny house before, but that day of the critters sure was something because it just kept happening over and over again for like 6+ hours.

And honestly I wouldn't mind having frogs hanging out inside and even croaking themselves silly, but I'm worried I'm going to accidentally squash one, which would be extra horrible in, say, a pile of laundry or bed. As it is I have to walk around with a flashlight at night right now to keep from stepping on frogs, salamanders and sometimes dozens and dozens of giant slugs.

I also have a cute little golden orb weaver juvenile the size of a lentil just kicking it attached to my door and door frame, so that the whole web is just attached to the door itself and survives the door opening and closing. Her tiny web is about the size of a coaster or donut. I've been careful not to wreck her web and I don't mind that she's inside at all. I've seen her catch a bunch of fruit flies and gnats, and I'm curious to see how long she'll stay there or how big she'll get before moving on. Or when I officially get creeped out because she's too big and alarmingly spidery and I shoo her back outside.

And, hey, does anyone want any blackberries? I'm currently offering about two pounds of fresh blackberries for every 10 feet of blackberry cane cut down. No? Ok, three pounds of blackberries? Fine, will you just take some blackberries away so they don't keep making even more blackberries? Help? Anyone? Anyone? Does anyone have a goat I can borrow, or perhaps a small thermonuclear tactical weapon?
posted by loquacious at 8:04 PM on August 25, 2019 [8 favorites]


HA! and here I am with two marionberry vines watching their growth canes going wild on my fence. Next year when those growth canes turn into fruiting canes I'm gonna have your problem loquacious!

Thanks Lazuli, I'm gonna do what you suggest and shake it off. People are wild sometimes especially in retail.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 8:09 PM on August 25, 2019 [2 favorites]


Oh, and jessamyn, I love your father's bedroom furniture and decor! Makes me miss Boston.
posted by lazuli at 8:53 PM on August 25, 2019 [1 favorite]


Loquacious, it’s so clear from your wildlife that we’re in the same part of North America.. Unfortunately, my orb weavers have been building webs that do things like attach my car to the recycling bin, house, and fence before I leave for work. My neighbor must think I’m weird for sternly reprimanding them every morning. (That’s nothing - when a monarch flew into a garden spider’s web at my old place in NYC, I said out loud, “you are endangered, have some common sense!” and the guy next door asked me who I was talking to. I have early-onset neighborhood witch, apparently.)

Anyway. My bed is this one from Crate and Barrel, queen size because I hope divorce doesn’t mean I’ll never share a bed with another adult for the rest of my life. There is a bunkey board and high-end firm IKEA mattress, a synthetic featherbed type thing, soft slate blue sheets, a quilt and afghan made by my mom, and a bundle of lavender hanging from the headboard from an S hook. A small painting of a crow and some bees hangs over it, and it’s next to a window full of a cherry plum tree with a dead branch flickers nested in this year. I’m on a busy street in a city, but I can make traffic into white noise and focus on the crickets.

My kid had to be persuaded to sleep in her own room with the addition of a big red betta fish to our family. He protects her while she sleeps in a little bed with a duck and frog quilt, also made by my mom, and a dark purple butterfly bush blooming in the window.

Tonight our bedrooms will both smell like a campfire, because I’ve been burning fallen poplar branches, pine cones, and my divorce papers in my terra cotta chiminea on the back patio. I’m sleepy and sad, but there are abundant stars and the fire feels nice. Could be worse.
posted by centrifugal at 9:44 PM on August 25, 2019 [8 favorites]


We got this crazy bedroom set from Room and Board they don’t make anymore as a wedding present that cost more than my car. It’s a queen size bed which was abundantly large until kids happened.

The cosleeping is my wife’s fault. I have sleep re-trained both kids twice and they have now learned at ages 7 and 10 to slide in on mommy’s side of the bed and I don’t wake up til I’m being pushed out the other side. The 10 year old is getting better, he’s only coming over maybe 1 in 4 nights and at like 5 am. The 7 year old is tricky. As it turns out, he’s the world’s greatest snuggler and he proudly admits that snuggling is his super power. He’s written a manual about snuggling with diagrams of snuggling positions 1-6 and which positions for person A are compatible with which positions for person B. My wife and I have come home from date nights out to find the baby sitter snuggled up in bed with him and when we wake her, she’s like “oh my god, that was amazing.”

I’ve already put a lock on our bedroom door but “someone” is getting up and unlocking it when a kid wants in. Our new plan is to get a new bed and just give the kids our old bed and see if that satisfies them.

My cat, sadly, is now too old and in too much pain to go up and down stairs. She used to come up when I went to bed and slept on my chest with her face buried in my neck purring and stroking my face until we both fell asleep. Always me. Sometimes I’ll stay and sleep on the main floor on the couch with her these days. At 16, she’s not long for this world but it’s not quite time for the big sleep. But it wasn’t that long ago when we’d wake up and it would be all four of the humans and the cat sleeping together in the same bed all night. Which is, totally annoying and uncomfortable but also completely sweet and amazing at the same time.

I got one of those sunrise lamps at the suggestion of my therapist a while back because I swear by my phototherapy lamp. I hate the sunrise lamp. I need to snooze the alarm like 4-5 times before getting up and I just can’t with this big bright glowing orb in my face and maybe it’s kind of like the sun rising, but I discovered I’m the kind of guy that curses the sun’s rising in the morning so I use the iPhone alarm instead.

I’ve been using a sound machine for years and cannot sleep without one. It’s one of those solid state Marsona ones that uses overdriven transistors with some sound gates to generate undulating wave noises. Infinitely better than any recorded wave noises, it’s an analog solution so there’s zero data loss or interpolation. I’ve used them all and when I travel I usually play an MP3 of actual waves crash on repeat through a Bose Bluetooth speaker and it still doesn’t compare. I love summer because a fan on low is another nice sleep aid. My wife’s been having hot flashes since February, so I’ve had bonus fan time.

Finally, my bedroom gets a ton of morning sun. In Seattle, that means it starts around 4:30 am. An eye mask is key.

And that concludes my detailed look at the Bartfast sleep situation. Next week, I hope to let you in on the 42 separate and particular things that need to happen before I can leave the house in the morning.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 12:07 AM on August 26, 2019 [11 favorites]


Looking at photos of orb weavers is probably not the best bedtime activity. I do think I would let a spiny orb weaver live at my house, just not in the bedroom or shower. Golden orb weaver looks a little too classic spidery, might have to move it outside.
posted by ktkt at 1:43 AM on August 26, 2019


And how in the world are long horned orb weavers real? How do they avoid just toppling over!
posted by ktkt at 1:45 AM on August 26, 2019


My entire family has a thing where we regulate our sleeping temperature by having one foot outside of the covers at all times.

Last week, my nephew was born premature at 32 weeks. NICU nurses tried to swaddle him and he writhed and fought. They worried he was in distress... until, after getting one foot free of the covers, he calmed down immediately.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:32 AM on August 26, 2019 [16 favorites]


Regarding how helpful cats can be when making the bed, for reasons I once stayed at a corporate apartment for about two months. It included weekly cleaning and if I was home, I made myself scarce so the cleaning woman could do her work without feeling watched. One time, I left for a common area and realized I'd forgotten the file I needed for a conference call. So I returned to the apartment, only to discover my cat and the cleaning woman playing a game they clearly perfected. She lofted the sheet out over the bed while he ran around in the center. After the sheet fell over him, she pushed him around from above while saying "Donde esta el gatito?!?" in an excited voice. Then, she'd "find" him and rub his belly. I watched them do it about three times before making my presence known, and the look on both their faces made me feel so bad: they'd been caught. I tried to convey that it was fine, but my Spanish is poor.

It's been over ten years, and my cat and I still play this game every week when I make the bed.
posted by carmicha at 7:40 AM on August 26, 2019 [17 favorites]


Since we are in a new house, I have been looking at house things. While my bed (queen, nondescript ikea frame with firm mattress) is well furnished I am yearning for novelty.

The only thing stopping me from buying the shit out of these linen sheets is price.I have a mortgage now, I should probably just not? But I waaaaant them.

I have mentioned before, but the best thing I have done for my sleep habits in the last several years is lock the cats out of my shit. The naked one is just so disgusting - skin oils everywhere, and sometimes poop tail (horrifying at 2 am!) I like him much better when he sleeps in a basket (ask me how many cat blankets we have, it's like a whole second set of linens.) Sometimes I miss them, the fluffy one is so sweet and a good co-sleeper, but it's not worth it to bend the rules.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 8:15 AM on August 26, 2019


Since other people are giving the full rundown of the bedroom chamber setup (and I've been digging it, by the way, I occasionally get all "home decor" and play around)...

Bed's in the center of the room; two mismatched nightstands on either side, with similarly mismatched lamps. The nightstand on "my" side has a REALLY old alarm clock (it wakes me up with a ring that sounds like cathedral bells, and I like that); I have to prop a little card in front of the display because I got super-sensitive to the light from the display for some reason. There's also a tray with some candles and my reading glasses; occasionally there is a book (currently: Call Me By Your Name). The nightstand on the other side has another tray with candles, plus two framed snapshots; somehow I ended up with photos of each of my grandfathers as young men, so they're there, along with my paternal grandfather's compass. Plus a cheap statue of Ganesh which I was given by someone I once worked with about 12 years ago.

There are three bookcases; one bookcase is made from two of the crates from my maternal grandfather's cranberry bog stacked on top of each other, left as-is with his initials screen-printed on the side. There's also a wall shelf near one of the two windows which has all sorts of plants on it.

An antique (read: old) desk is between the windows. I used to use this as my desk as a teenager and it moved with me through 3 apartments, but now it's a sort of vanity/catchall storage space. It sits underneath a big round mirror that was in this bedroom when I moved into this apartment and I've adopted.

Windowsills also have plants - I have super-deep windowsills and windows with a western exposure, so some plants have taken up permanent residence; the basil, thyme, and lemon verbena on one sill, the peace lily and geranium on the other.

The wall facing my bed has all the family/friend photos in a gallery. Over one nightstand is a handful of Irish-themed things; a map of County Cork, an old travel poster, and a bodhran. Over the other are the French-themed things; 3 reprints of travel posters and a reprint of a Cunard line ad I picked up in Paris.

My closet door folds out, so I can put things on it; on one side is a dreamcatcher I got from my BFF.

....the closet itself is a walk-in, and is one of THREE closets that size in my apartment which is why I am hanging onto the place like GRIM DEATH.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:52 AM on August 26, 2019 [2 favorites]


We have a UK double bed, which I share with my husband and two cats. The cats are terrible bedmates, because they like to a) sleep horizontall across the bed, thereby entirely blocking my leg room, or b) cuddle my legs so I can't move. We tried shutting them out the bedroom but it was a grim three week battle that we lost. On the bright side, my growling at them when they wake me up has taught them to wait till I'm awake till they bug me for food, leading me to pretending to be asleep when I'm not ready to get up yet.

Our bed is pushed against one wall because that's the way I like it, which is apparently strange? I shove a pillow between the wall and the bed, so I can have my body right up against the edge of the bed without worrying about falling out. It's comfy.

I'm starting to really want a king size bed, and I figure we can just about fit one in if we shove the wardrobe and bookcase right up against the wall, but it will be very tight. Like, every piece of furniture in the room is then touching tight.
posted by stillnocturnal at 9:45 AM on August 26, 2019 [1 favorite]


mygothlaundry , linen sheets have amazing tooth but are $$. Durable tho. Failing that, bigger threads and no antiWrinkle treatment might be what feels good. Vermont Country Store catalog has some really plain percale that I like in the summer.
posted by clew at 4:07 PM on August 26, 2019 [1 favorite]


My mother still sleeps on a rope-sprung bed - no box spring, no board, no rails, just a crisscross of ropes that she windlasses tighter every few years. She does use a modern mattress. Result is a bed that dips to exactly her shape, which she likes.

I slept in it for one night while dog sitting and thought I had permanently damaged my back. I am not the same shape as my mother, maybe that was the problem. But also I think a sack mattress might be a better match for a rope frame.
posted by clew at 4:12 PM on August 26, 2019 [4 favorites]


That's amazing, clew. I wouldn't have thought that anybody outside of the staff of a house museum still used a rope bed with a key to tighten it. Not making fun, though -- she sounds like a remarkable person. Does she live rustically in other ways?
posted by Countess Elena at 5:23 PM on August 26, 2019


Yes and no? The basic principle is to not get rid of something if it’s still working. So, line drying with ancient clothespegs in the summer, but a nice modern washing machine. And she likes the curve, says it’s like a hammock. I think the bed was her grandmother’s.

I inherited my bed from her parents, who had added rails to use a boxspring and mattress, but in some outdated or overseas mattress size. I finally got a carpenter to add wood to two lengths to make it a USian mattress. Didn’t get rid of anything more than I had to, though!

There’s a charming picture essay in the Guardian about an elderly woman living with minimal and mostly old systems. Far more rustic than my mother.
posted by clew at 5:42 PM on August 26, 2019 [1 favorite]


From loquacious: I was sitting outside in shorts at dusk right after a shower, and looked down to find a 10 inch long banana slug slithering over my knee and well up into my thigh before I even noticed it was there.

Seattle just dropped several notches on my short list of potential places to spend my remaining years.
posted by she's not there at 6:29 PM on August 26, 2019 [7 favorites]


Ground: Northernmost island in Florida.

Subfloor: Nothing fancy, plywood.

Floor: Large tile floor on cement board, the wife and I laid it.

Bed: A homespun/self built, from twin to kingsized, modification of Christopher Schwarz's Staked Bedframe from his Anarchist's Design Book. Yellow-pine, dark stain, and simple soap finish.

Mattress: Tuft and Needle Foam that I can't recommend more.

Bedding: Linen Sheets/throw/cover from Rough Linen. We've had it for not a few years and it's not failed to impress.

Optional Quilt: Thanks grandma.
posted by RolandOfEld at 8:13 PM on August 26, 2019 [4 favorites]


Seattle just dropped several notches on my short list of potential places to spend my remaining years.

I've been in the area off and on for a bit over 10 years now and this was an absolute first, even with as much time as I've just happily wallowing around in nature. I'm thinking it might have been stuck to my shoe and transferred to my knee when I crossed my leg at some point.

There sure is a lot of weird wildlife including giant slugs and some alarmingly large spiders like the infamous giant house spider.

And the PNW is certainly damp, fertile and even a bit fetid. The biome is always naturally in a state of glorious decay of mosses and fungi and even slime molds. The really rainforesty parts on the coast in the Olympics are like Kermit the Frog green everywhere with bursts of florescent-bright orange, green and even outright purple fungi of thousands of kinds including delicate lace-like fans, trumpet shapes, blobs of bright orange "witches jelly" (edible but tasteless!) and many more.

Not to mention the absolute riot of wildflowers, giant purple trilliums and also including some gone-native domestics like tulips and lilies... seriously the weeds around here are often florist-quality blooms and it's just overwhelming sometimes.

But one of the things I actually appreciate about the area is how basically nothing is venomous, poisonous or otherwise dangerous. You can go bashing around in the understory of a forest or wading through tall grasses and the worse you'll likely encounter is mosquitoes. Worst-worst case is maybe pissing off some wasps, yellow jackets or hornets but I've spent years with them buzzing all around me and they leave you alone unless you accidentally disturb a hive or something. Even poison oak is pretty rare, but there are some thorny, stingy plants like stinging nettles or devil's club. I've met a couple of other natives that are even spicier than stinging nettles, but they're easy to identify.

There's almost no ticks, either. I have yet to actually see one and I've spent many a night basically sleeping rough in the undergrowth. I rarely need to reach for the DEET. The mosquito season is blessedly short and as soon as it peaks the frogs and spiders are there to wipe them out.

Even when you see a black widow, it's 99.9% certain it's not a black widow but a false widow and is a beneficial hunter of house centipedes, earwigs, silverfish and so on.

So, yeah, little baby orbweaver can stay inside.
posted by loquacious at 9:11 PM on August 26, 2019 [4 favorites]


I sleep in a closet.

Ok, that's an exaggeration. But we were inspired by a visit to Rembrandt House. If you want to see where Rembrandt slept, it looked something like this. He didn't have a bedroom. Instead in the corner of many rooms including the front rooms used to greet guests there are these closets in the corrners. You open the door and there is a bed inside.

So when we moved into our Amsterdam flat, there was one room which was little more than a large closet. Our Dutch friend looked at it and said "That's the bedroom right?" and we looked at each other and said "Yes!" So the other rooms are used for living for enjoying. The bedroom which barely fits our bed is a place just to sleep.
posted by vacapinta at 4:52 AM on August 27, 2019 [8 favorites]


My birthday gift to myself this year was my first, regular adult bed. Previously had been sleeping on a pullout left by someone five flatshares ago. It's a 160 x 200 mm (so, roughly Queen size) IKEA Brimnes with built-in storage/bookcase headboard and Lönset slats (i.e., the fussiest of all the IKEA bed combos to put together, well done me, which I did whilst still hungover from my birthday dinner). It takes up 90% of my room and I do. Not. Care.

Since it's still summer I'm getting away with just the top sheet from my old bed but soon will need a bigger duvet + cover.

I am currently experimenting with sleeping diagonally and am kinda into it.

I can never find the right pillows. I have one polyurethane, one memory and one synthetic down and they all make me insane.

Next project is to replace the bottom-of-the-line latex mattress I bought for this bed with a Casper or similar, but my wallet can handle precisely one adult purchase every five years so egg-crate topper it is for now.

Before my cat became a climate refugee in another part of the country he was very pleased to have a whole human-sized space to himself on the new big flat thing; hopefully we'll enjoy it together again someday.
posted by peakes at 6:31 AM on August 27, 2019


Mrs. Fish and I sleep in a king-size bed, and in the new house we're preparing to move to (first-time homeowners! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayohgodresponsibility) the entire second floor is a master bedroom suite so it's going to feel like a freaking palace.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:12 AM on August 27, 2019 [1 favorite]


I remember a collection of 19th c photos - postcards? - of box beds, including double decker ones. Risqué implications and maidens in nightgowns. Looked warm though! Can’t find on Mefi. Anyone?
posted by clew at 10:02 AM on August 27, 2019


oh boy! that ask sure sounds like my ask from a while back.

The FLOTTEBO continues to be good. I use two of the back thingies as a headboard and one as a sidetable. It's more of a nest than a bed, really -- heaped with blankets higgledy-piggledy. While I like the habit of a made bed, and the appearance of one, I find burrowing into the mess a very soothing activity (as opposed to getting under the made covers (the warmth I guessed I wanted is always wrong, or I overheat because one of my feet isn't exposed) or unfolding everything from the foot of the bed).

My roommate and I recently upgraded to better digs, so now I have an office, which, YES I will get a new couch that I will nap and sleep on unrepentantly. While the new living room couch will be only for guests to sit on. :)

@ vacapinta - that sounds genuinely delightful, as long as it's aired out - is it ventilated at all?
posted by snerson at 2:30 PM on August 27, 2019


My internship ends soon, so I've moved most of my stuff out of my dorm. This includes my large, fluffy comforter. I've been sleeping with only a throw over me, which is slightly uncomfortable because I prefer my upper body to be warm, but I need my toes to be covered to ward off the cat's teeth.

Good news, though-- the removal of the comforter means that my cat has deemed the entire bed as Safe, since there aren't weird bunches of fabric that could potentially be hiding some kind of enemy?

This means waking up to a purring and cuddly kitty and being late to work.
posted by typify at 4:02 PM on August 27, 2019 [1 favorite]


After years of living in low-ceilinged places, I finally have the bed I've always wanted. I hope never to part with it.

Picture a large rectangular wooden box. Wardrobes inside the box, bed on top of the box.

(That is, the mattress platform is a foot or so down from the top of the box, so the sides of the box enclose the bed for safety. And there's a little shelf to put things on: a lamp, a clock, some books. A lot of books, honestly)

Changing the sheets is a gymnastic activity. I have never attempted to turn the mattress. And you have to be careful not to hit the light fixture while climbing the ladder to get in. But once you're in it, it's magnificent.
posted by Pallas Athena at 9:45 PM on August 27, 2019 [2 favorites]


Just popping in to say I got my first tattoo, just a week or so shy of 35, and I really like it.
posted by sugar and confetti at 10:42 PM on August 27, 2019 [3 favorites]


Serene Empress Dork, the correction on your hubby's height absolutely made my day!

I assumed there’d been some sort of Stonehenge-style mixup on a dating site.

The wife and I sleep in a humdrum queen-sized with no pets (well, we have no pets so that is likely for the best). So Let Us Now Praise Famous Beds of days past.

Thirty years ago I was fairly newly moved out from my parental home and I was sleeping on a waterbed that a relative had donated. I could not afford air conditioning and it was a bloody hot summer, and I learned that by keeping the heater in the waterbed off, it was delightfully chill.

Twenty years ago I was working for a hotel chain. I had access for several months to a building where all of the supplies not currently in use were kept. There was a room (an oversized closet, really — about eight by eight*) that was hip-deep in pillows. I had a nap in there once; it was glorious.

Fifteen years ago I lived in an east coast college town. I had furnished my new place when I found a recently-graduated grad student who was moving away and struck a deal for the contents of her apartment. Unfortunately the box spring would not make the tight corner up the stairs into my new place, so I slept on the mattress on the floor for that summer. The first night there was a massive thunderstorm and with the head of the bed (mattress, really) against the wall beneath a window and the gusts of wind blowing over me, it was like unto camping. Best part: that first night, when I turned the lights out in my room, I discovered that some previous tenant had covered the ceiling in glow-in-the-dark stars. (That fall I relocated to a new apartment: my new bedroom was the top floor of what one might fairly call a mansion, and the mattress made its way with me to a new location beneath a huge and openable skylight.)

*Feet, not inches.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:49 AM on August 28, 2019 [2 favorites]


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