Don't Cross That Bridge Until You Get There...

Reasons not to utilize GOOGLE...

Today, my new furniture is scheduled to be delivered.  According to the guy who called me I can expect it between 3 and 7 today.  As Mr. P left this morning he said, I sure will be glad to sit on the new ottoman.  And then he grinned a big grin while waiting for me to slug him.  It just so happens that his personal joke these last couple of weeks has been that after waiting 10 weeks, they will only deliver the ottoman.  And let me tell you if they drive up without all 4 pieces of furniture, I will slug him for making such a joke and jinxing me!
You see it all started 10 weeks ago.  We selected a nice sofa and then were told it would take 8 weeks to get it in stock.  8 weeks didn’t sound like too long.  It didn’t sound nearly as long as my day had been, shopping for furniture with an infant, 3 kids, and Mr. P (who isn’t exactly the best shopper for this sort of thing.)  He is all about rushing and hurrying and has NUMEROUS opinions.    So considering that I had spent 8 hours with the whole family sitting on every single sofa in the Central Texas area, 8 weeks seemed like it was just around the corner.
Fast forward to 3-4 weeks ago when I called the furniture store to see if we were still on schedule.  I was told that they had the furniture arriving in June.  I was  a little surprised because by this time I realized that 8 weeks is really 2 months.  (Yeah, and I have a college degree and everything!)  So I decided to “google” my particular furniture store and see if they were typically late in deliveries.  First off, if you are ever concerned about your health or your new furniture, you should not google.  Just go garden, or watch a movie, or read a good book, because Google is the fastest way to introduce major stress into your life, thus shortening your life.  You know I’m telling the truth too.  We have all googled ingrown toenail or something like that to, only be convinced we have a rare genetic disorder and only have about 3 days left to live.  Well, it is the same with furniture.  I was shocked to find that in about a million websites, my particular furniture company scored 1 star out of 5 possible stars, with many, many, many of the reviews saying, “I’d give them a ZERO if I could.”  Panic set in.  The more I googled, the more I was drawn into these people’s stories of furniture delayed 6 months, partial deliveries, deliveries of broken furniture, stories of 6 month old sofas falling apart and looking more like they were 10 years old.  I was sick.  I mean literally sick to my stomach as I read over and over that most people considered this furniture to be “disposable.”  I sure didn’t feel like the cost of the furniture matched these horrid descriptions.
So I read my contract carefully, which again, should have been read carefully before I signed it.  Education does not equal common sense.    I realized that in order to get out of this, I would lose 20% to a restocking fee.  So I did what anyone does when they can’t change something.  I stopped googling.  Cold turkey.  Then I went headlong into denial.  Denial is a nice place to be.  I also quit  reading the bad reviews aloud to Mr. P.   And every other person that I know.  (sorry Meme and Steph…I was weak)  I’m sure they were glad to be spared from my trauma over potentially bad furniture.  Nothing like listening to someone worry about something that hasn’t even happened yet and may not ever happen.  So that day, I decided to be positive (and remain in denial).  I have been remaining positive and just hoping that it will all turn out ok.  And Mr. P has been having a fun time with little digs here and there, teasing me about my google induced panic over something that might never be.
So hopefully, I will be posting a great post later today about how I wasted valuable life in worry over something that might happen.  And you know now that I think about it, isn’t that what worry generally is?  We worry over something that potentially could happen. You know, I even think sometimes we enjoy worrying.  It is consuming and requires your every attention.  Sort of like me and the furniture.  When I got to the end of one worry (What if it’s delayed 6 months?), I would then move onto another worry (What if it is a very poor quality and broken at arrival?).  We just take one thing and we multiply it and feed it and watch it grow into full fledged panic.  But the truth is none of those things had happened. Maybe we can stop the process, step back, and see if we have to worry…look at the truth of the situation.  So even though this was just furniture, I think I might have learned a little lesson about worry in general.  Something that Grandma Jane said her whole life just came to my mind.  “Don’t cross that bridge until you get there.”  And you know she was right.  I was all over the “what if” bridge.  I was doing a dance on that bridge.  Just wallowing in my worry over furniture, but not anymore.  Today I’m home preparing for new furniture.   I’m being positive (or in denial…whichever you prefer) and not crossing the “what if” bridge unless I have too.  And realizing that if I had only listened to Grandma Jane many, many years ago I wouldn’t have robbed myself of time that could have been spent in a better way.  And I guess if I end up on that bridge, at least it will be familiar since I spent so long there earlier…LOL
So the short version of the story is:  Don’t google (also known as borrowing trouble) and don’t cross that bridge until you get there.

The Rest of the Story:
The furniture arrived on the date that it was supposed to be delivered.  It was all there and in good shape.  It is now several months later and it just had it's first spill...Easter Candy.   How dare the children give the baby a chocolate Easter bunny to hold!