Last week it was decided we need a new mattress.

I have learned many things as I have. . . aged. Yuck.

I have learned many things as I have. . . cascaded through my years. No.

I’ve learned a few things on my hopefully long walk toward the grave. Yes, that’s the one.

I no longer leave my wallet in the car. I realize the importance of getting my teeth cleaned. Which way the toilet paper goes on the holder is no critical, in fact, it’s great if it makes it on the holder at all. But above all else, I have learned that sleep is essential.

Our mattress is a little over ten years old. For bed aficionados, this is cringeworthy. I think mattresses are supposed to be replaced every eight or ten years? I’m not sure, but up until recently our mattress had been great, a Goldilocks bed, but now neither of us are sleeping well.

The bed has turned mushy and kind of firm, but in all the  wrong spots. At first, I thought it was my pillow, or our quilt or the fan, but after a few more tosses and turns it was clear we needed a new mattress.

We bought the current one in our mid-thirties. My youngest was six, middle was nine and my oldest had just turned thirteen. I could have given a rat’s ass about our bed back then. Buying it was one thing on an endless list of things and I was happy just to have somewhere to fall at night. I’m pretty sure I went online the week before we moved into our house and picked one.

Pretty color, Queen and. . . that pillow-top stuff looks fun. Click, click, done.

I went back online yesterday, determined to do the same thing—knock it out, buy a new bed.

Wait, are we side sleepers or back sleepers? Memory foam or coils and what about cross-ventilation? We live in Arizona, are there certain beds for warmer climates? Do I want a darker fabric on my boxspring because the one we have now is kind of dingy? Maybe darker would be better, but not the mattress because our sheets are light colors, but we have a mattress cover so does that matter? Is the bed we have now firm or soft or a hybrid?

I closed the browser with nothing in my cart because in ten tiny years picking out a bed had become almost as complicated as diagramming sentences in junior high.

Lying in my old-needs-to-be-replaced bed, I decided the mattress buying process had not changed, I had.  It was a sign.

Getting older means things start to settle down. Once you’ve figured out how to put a car seat in the proper way, that glitter glue should never be used after midnight and that no matter how exciting the lunches you pack are, fifty-percent of the time they will be thrown out in lieu of pizza, life is different. My children lean more toward what is right these days instead of flirting with what’s wrong so my phone rings less.

The big things are somewhat under control and that is why buying a stupid bed has become big. Sort of like there’s nothing else to obsess over so let’s get ridiculous about a mattress that will need to be replaced in another ten years.

As I. . . get up there in years, I need to fight the tendency to creating things to do, find my value in the lists of nothing or the late nights worrying. If life is smoothing out, it’s time to find new adventures, not bed drama.

This morning I got back online. Ennie Meenie. The new mattress and boxspring will be here next week.

My thoughts from the laundry room. Get Out of Bed.

 

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