Bed. Alpacas.

        It was a long, hard-fought battle, but I have a bed. I found a $10 full-sized frame advertised on Craigslist, borrowed a van from a church family, and brought it to my house. On Friday, I was like “BEN WE ARE ASSEMBLING MY BED.” So we had to go to Home Depot to get some nuts for the frame (somehow, when the lady was taking it apart, she didn't say “Gee, I think I'll save the hardware for this bed!”). I didn't check the size that I needed when I left, so I guestimated it at 1/2”, but bought a set of 7/16” just to be safe. We made it home around 9 and started assembling the bed. Except that the nuts were too big. And I didn't have nuts and bolts to attach the slats to the frame. So that was a no-go.

        The next day, I took a CPR-certification class. I was eating pretzels while the instructor was talking about choking and he told me I was gonna choke on a pretzel and I was like “no way, I'm not George Bush, I'll be fine.” Afterwards, I went to Berkeley Bowl, the most amazing produce store ON THE PLANET and bought a whole bag of produce for like $8. A pound of (hollow, steroid-laced) strawberries for a dollar! A big bunch of asparagus for $2! Best thing ever.

        Once I got back, Ben and I went back to Home Depot to return the nuts from the previous night and get some new ones (I measured this time!). Then we returned back to my house and started putting the frame together. All of the nuts went on to a certain point and then stopped. Every last one. I was like “there's no way these are all rusty at the same point.” So I got out my pliars. No go. Then Ben took a look and was like “do you think it has anything to do with this ring of plastic at the end of the nut?” They were locking nuts. I don't know what that means, except that I couldn't use them to assemble my bed. So we had to go back to a hardware store. Ben was very nice about the whole having-to-drive-me-everywhere thing.

         Once the bed was assembled, we put the box spring and mattress on it. Turns out the frame is a queen size. The box spring and mattress is full sized. It looks totally ridiculous. And it's a fitting end to the whole saga.

After that frustrating mess, we cooked up some tabbouleh and buttered asparagus and cleaned the kitchen before I went to work for the lady with cerebral palsy. I actually gave my two week's notice last week, so I'm almost done staying up late on work nights.

Marla Krell says eat limp asparagus with a fork, stiff asparagus with your fingers.

          On Sunday, we went to church and met a new guy from Kansas. Alyssa and I were chatting after the service and a guy behind us was talking to another girl and he was like “Yeah, I'm from Kansas.” In stereo, we whipped around and were like “KANSAS?!” Turns out he's from Hesston, raised Mennonite, came out here for work, and then woke up this morning and said “Hey, I think I want to sing today.”

          After church, we went to Thai Temple to eat with Ben's co-worker, Drew, and his girlfriend. They were all out of curry, so we had some pho soup, which was delicious and a LOT. Two take-out containers worth. So now I have more leftovers. 

 Afterward, we went to the People's Park in Berkeley, which was having it's 44^th anniversary. It was founded in the 60's by a bunch of hippies who turned it from a vacant lot into a park. So in keeping with it's founding, there were a lot of hippies. And weed. And a blender powered by a bicycle. And protest songs. And alpacas. For reals. Alpacas. Nothing says “Berkeley protest party” like alpacas.

         

 

It was an interesting weekend. Full of really good food. And alpacas.