"Go to the MATTRESSES!"

(It's from the Godfather - I've never seen the Godfather, but I've seen "You've Got Mail" um, several times...) Anyhoo... I guess it's been awhile so I thought I'd share with you some of the great perplexities of life that we are pondering in our search for a new mattress. Warning - this will probably be long and boring and you can stop now and I won't be offended. You can even post comments pretending like you've read the whole thing, and I'll still be your friend. I know your time is precious. Okay, with that disclaimer, Dave and I have been in the market for a new mattress for awhile. I frequently wake up with neck, back, etc. aches and it's pretty difficult to get comfortable on the one we have. So we've been keeping our eyes open for awhile, but yesterday we did more of a serious hunt. Oh my, where to begin? We've met some interesting people and have had some interesting discussions about life and our role as good stewards through all of this. Okay, to back up, a few weeks ago, we were browsing a furniture store. This is how it works, in case you have never done this before. Upon you arrival, a person grabs you, introduces themselves, asks for your name, and starts showing you around and telling you to lay down on the mattress. Of course the mattresses they start with are 2 - 4 thousand buckeroos and you lay down in them and it is as if you are floating in the heavenlies. Upon seeing the look of pure bliss combined with relaxation that settles upon your face, your personal little helper then convinces you of all the reasons you must have this mattress, you can't live without this mattress, you are really doing your back a disservice without this mattress, and any other decision you make will just be poor long term planning on your part. Not to mention the amount of money people spend on their cars that they only drive 15 minutes a day. You spend a third of your life on your mattress, you're a fool to not invest in a quality one. Okay, so anyway, we were browsing through this store, humbly complying and laying on pure-bliss-but-way-out -of-our-price-range mattresses when the sweet lady (I think this was all the same lady, but maybe a couple different ones combined in my brain) quipped, "You know, you can't put a price tag on a good nights sleep!" To which I thought, "REALLY? looks like you just did! Why don't we just take this one for free then. hello!" And she gave us a coupon for 20 percent off that could only be used TODAY of course. Anyway, that was all awhile ago. We have laid on our share of mattresses that we will never buy. Yesterday we went to a store that was recommended by someone and she said they have memory foam mattress but not the really expensive brands like Tempurpedic. She said they have very reasonable prices. So there we were greeted by Elaine, who, to her credit, was very helpful, courteous, and not too pushy. She'd leave and let us shop around without hovering and barking out mattress knowledge. They indeed were much cheaper and we found one there we really liked but still, it was more than we wanted to pay. I'll just throw out numbers here, even though it's very unAmerican to let your friends in on your financial affairs. It will just make more sense that way. So there was one there for 698 that we liked. One for 898 that was even better. = ) We told her we liked that 700 one but that was a lot of money, he's a student, etc etc. So we were going to keep shopping and think about it. Next we went to another furniture store and were greeted by Rebecca. She was also nice, not quite as fabulous as Elaine, but still very nice and helpful and let just look on our own. That store had some closeouts that were more reasonable, but of course, we weren't ready to get anything, just looking around. There was another store we wanted to go to because I had this memory in the far recesses of my brain of a really really good sale there on an amazing mattress. In retrospect, I must have been seeing the price tag for the night stand next to the bed or something of that nature because there is no way that store would have been selling the mattress I remember for the price I remember. So anyway, at store # 3, we were greeted by THE MATTRESS NAZI. Oh my good gracious. She was not kind, she was not friendly, the corners of her mouth did not turn up, and she had an extremely poor bedside manor. She immediately commanded us to lay on Tempurpedic mattresses, way outside our price range, one after the other. Yes, we know they are amazing, no, we won't buy this in a million years. But she was just a peach. When we wanted to look at some of the lower end ones, she practically scoffed at us, told us we would hate them, told us everything wrong with them, bla bla bla. We were thinking, sheesh lady, a 600 sale is better than NO sale! But with everything she was saying, we both started to think about the 689 mattress at the other store and how they sounded very similar and maybe that one was terrible too. Well, we left that store and the mattress nazi and both had the same thoughts - good gracious - only in America (maybe some other places too, I dunno) will people make you feel like you're living in absolute poverty if you don't spend 3000 bucks on a mattress! And make you feel like a total looser if you can't spend that kind of money! And convince you that anything under 1000 bucks isn't worth owning! So here we are, not wanting to spend much money at all, even the 700 one seems like way too much to us, and pondering things like, is there a point when sleeping on a $4000 mattress is just complete indulgence and pointless and a waste of good resources? On the other hand, one of their main selling points is that people buy low end mattresses and they don't last, when you can buy one for 2500 or so and it comes with a 25 year guarantee - so it's the only mattress you'll buy for the next 25 years at least. So maybe it is a good investment - if you know that you'll in living somewhere in the US for the 25 years. Who knows - in 5 years we might be selling our mattress on craigslist or giving it to someone who needs one because we're moving across the ocean. who knows. Dave was saying how even if we could afford it, he's not sure he would feel right about sleeping on something like that, given the way that most of the world lives. (not that I stand in judgement of anyone out there who might have a $3000 mattress! those things are amazing!) He was saying how he saw photographs of orphans in former Yugoslavia (a long time ago) who were sleeping on bare coils - those were their mattresses. It just made me ill. But then I had the thought that unless we buy a 500 dollar mattress and send them the other 1500 to buy beds, what difference does it really make to the rest of the world what we sleep on? ack! I feel like I'm totally rambling here, but these are real and honest questions we find ourselves asking. Where is the balance in things like this? Buying something quality that allows you to sleep well is great, but at what point do you cross the line into greed, indulgence, and having to have the best? How do we honor God with purchases like this? Side note, we came home and I was checking on Overstock.com and they have memory foam mattress for 370 - 600. One they have right now is 37something and comes with 2 memory foam pillows! whoo hoo. But the big risk with that is buying it without laying on it first. Anyway, I think, lucky for you, that I am near the end of my mattress rant. Feel free to weigh in with your profound words of insight. That's all for now. I'm ready to toss and turn on my much much much less than $2000 mattress. g'night!