Full Circle

My first month in California I lived by myself in a spartan one bedroom apartment. Because I drove from Atlanta to Riverside, I only brought what I could fit in a 1991 Honda Accord, which amounts to a few boxes of clothes, some pots and pans (but no dishes or silverware), a TV, and a cat. Because I didn't have a job yet, I was very concerned about money. I ate out of Tupperware, leeched internet access from the rental office, and didn't hook up my cable. I was so frugal that I didn't even buy a bed, instead spending what was at the time an exorbitant $30 on an air mattress from K-Mart.

The cat I brought with me is a very loyal, and very tailless, breed called a Manx. This cat and I had been together for several years in Atlanta before I shanghaied the poor thing across the county. Being very alone and in a new place, the cat would follow me closely around the small apartment, even waiting next to the tub while I showered. And when I would go to bed on the air mattress, the cat would plop herself on my chest!

Well, one morning I awoke to find my ass touching the ground through the mattress. It being early, and there being a severe lack of caffeine in my system, I found this perplexing. My air mattress was, well, squishy. It felt like I was on an under-filled water bed. Before going back to bed that night I blew the thing back up, waited for the familiar weight to settle on me, and drifted off. But the next morning, there I was, being uncomfortably unsupported. It actually took me a whole other day and night to figure out what was going on - the damn cat's claws had poked a small hole somewhere in the mattress, and over the night the air would leak out, slowly contorting my bed and my back.

Well after that I began sleeping the second-hand couch I'd picked up. For an entire month I would settle down onto the couch, never thinking of a mattress because it existed outside my "price range" of single purchases. Eventually I did bite that bullet, and that bed is still around today.

The reason I'm telling this story is that now, at the end of my time in California (it feels great to say that!), I've just spent another month sleeping on a couch. Crashing on couches are the bookends of my two-and-a-half year trial out here. With one more month left before I leave, I am back to living in a spartan one bedroom apartment, leaving the way I came in. Over the next few weeks I'll be selling the remaining pieces of furniture, including that mattress and a second-hand couch. I'm shedding the remnants of my time here. When I return to Atlanta, the first thing I'll buy is a good bed.