you truly never know what you’ll find at ikea
I even found one of my grandsons
waaaaaay up on a shelf
and he was only $6.99!
—
‘being lost is worth the being found.’
-neil diamond
Jul16
Tag Archives: ikea
Apr16
secret doors.
dinner of swedish samplings
shopping for fun things for the classroom
with my co-teachers
wandering through
the twisted path of ikea aisles
a friendly employee
leads us to
yet another secret door
a shortcut through the labyrinth.
—
“there are many secret doors around us, in plain sight.
we just don’t take the time to find and open them.”
-rebecca ross, author
sh
Aug19
go cart.
( a reblog, in honor of ikea’s 80th anniversary)
—
after a long while
and a lot of swedish kaffe
i made it
through
the ikea rat maze
but not before gathering
as usual
all kinds of ‘domgjingos’
and other unexplained things along the way
along with the one item I set out to buy.
I was feeling victorious
when things took a turn.
I left my cart at the end of an aisle
to get a closer look
at an exciting ‘grushlbonker’ of some sort
and my cart went missing.
I first thought that maybe I had misplaced it.
no luck.
I then looked for someone ahead of me
who may have mistakenly grabbed the wrong cart.
still no luck.
I watched for someone to suddenly do an about face
and hurriedly return with the wrong cart in hand
a bit embarrassed and mumbling an apology.
still no luck.
maybe it was my giant blue used $1.49 bag
I had in there that was so appealing?
what could anyone else possibly
find any use for, or value
in the odd collection of things I’d snagged along the way?
I couldn’t even remember most of what I had in there
but now I felt I needed each of them for some reason
and was somehow missing them.
I decided to consider it a small gift to the universe
someone must have needed it all more than me.
I hadn’t paid for anything yet
so no loss
other than time and energy
and of course
that fancy blue bag
but most of all
I had no desire to rerun the maze
so I grabbed a few new things
I didn’t know that I needed
along the route to the register.
and threw in
a shiny new blue bag
along with
a 6-pack of cinnamon rolls
just for good measure.
—
“why would anyone steal a shopping cart? it’s like stealing a two year old.”
-erma bombeck
Jan8
omsorg.
our latest ikea experience
was spent looking for a few cool things
we didn’t even know we needed or what they were exactly
but
it was really all just an excuse to spend the afternoon
finding secret shortcuts
through this blue and yellow warehouse of good stuff
by using the trial and error approach,
good guesses, maps, fancy footwork
and leaps of faith
what a grand adventure it turned out to be
(and we even ended up with the omsorg of our dreams as an unexpected bonus.)
—
“what romantic terminology called genius or talent or inspiration is nothing other than
finding the right road empirically, following one’s nose, taking shortcuts.”
-italo calvino
Oct20
shopping, hopping , then dropping
part of my family was visiting from nyc and this time they rented a car and drove here instead of flying. we took the rare opportunity to shop for large items they would never be able to haul home normally, with a ‘quick visit to ikea.’ this concept of the ‘quick visit’ to this crazy grand canyon of a place, was soon revealed to be the ultimate oxymoron, in my young niece’s opinion. she dealt with it all in her own way.
she finds a kindred spirit in an employee who has her own stuffed animal and happily joins in play with her stuffed bunny and ratty friends
she relaxes a bit at the scene of all the play, with her favorite color plastic ikea shopping bag, as her blanket
we move to another part of the store, but it’s all just one great napping place in her eyes
soon, she is absolutely at her limit, and ready to roll on out of this place. disguising herself as a large carton of furniture, she is in full-out camouflage mode.
___________________
‘And then, I do love my shopping, but actually, lounging is the big thing.’
———————————–
Jun8
one of those lazy, crazy, mazey days of summer
somehow, once again, i found myself trapped and wandering through the rat maze that is ikea, and with my incredible lack of anything even resembling a vague sense of direction, it took on a whole new level.
it’s definitely an extreme sports experience in itself, and after following the trail around and around, and eating a horse meat-laced meatball or two, and collecting lots of odd colorful plastic springsprongthingamajigs and blonde wood-ish items, i was left wondering what they were and what were meant to do.
i chose the items i did simply because they looked cool and really no other reason. and the fact that i felt like i had to get something so that i would be allowed to find my way out again. now that the olympic committee has dumped some of it’s current sports events, i’m considering proposing this whole experience to them for their consideration as an indoor winter sport. maybe a better match for the x-games though?
along the way, i swear i saw people nervously look over their shoulders and skitter through what looked like secret shortcuts and potential passageways out, only to never return. possible slides right to the checkout line or the parking lot?
whew – i need a swedish cocktail, if only i could figure out if that glass thing i put in my giant blue plastic bag was meant to be used as a cup or oil change pan?
skoal!!!!!!
Worry compounds the futility of being trapped on a dead-end street. Thinking opens new avenues.
I didn't have my glasses on.... 