Princess beds...

Today, I decided to do laundry for what must be the umpteenth time in the span of my laundry career. But it's not just the colors and the whites on the agenda (did that earlier this week), instead today it's all about the sheets. Every time I wash sheets (not too often, but often enough...) I am reminded of the story of the Princess and the Pea.

Let me give you a brief recap...

There was once a prince, and he wanted a princess, but then she must be a real Princess. He travelled right around the world to find one, but there was always something wrong. There were plenty of princesses, but whether they were real princesses he had great difficulty in discovering; there was always something which was not quite right about them. So at last he had come home again, and he was very sad because he wanted a real princess so badly.

One evening there was a terrible storm; it thundered and lightninged and the rain poured down in torrents; indeed it was a fearful night. In the middle of the storm somebody knocked at the town gate, and the old King himself sent to open it.

It was a princess who stood outside, but she was in a terrible state from the rain and the storm. The water streamed out of her hair and her clothes; it ran in at the top of her shoes and out at the heel, but she said that she was a real princess.

'Well we shall soon see if that is true,' thought the old Queen, but she said nothing. She went into the bedroom, took all the bed clothes off and laid a pea on the bedstead: then she took twenty mattresses and piled them on top of the pea, and then twenty feather beds on top of the mattresses. This was where the princess was to sleep that night. In the morning they asked her how she slept.

'Oh terribly bad!' said the princess. 'I have hardly closed my eyes the whole night! Heaven knows what was in the bed. I seemed to be lying upon some hard
thing, and my whole body is black and blue this morning. It is terrible!'

They saw at once that she must be a real princess when she had felt the pea through twenty mattresses and twenty feather beds. Nobody but a real princess could have such a delicate skin.

So the prince took her to be his wife, for now he was sure that he had found a real princess, and the pea was put into the Museum, where it may still be seen if no one has stolen it.

Now, you may be wondering why on earth I would be reminded of that and I'm going to tell you it's because I OWN A PRINCESS BED. Just kidding. Seriously though, thanks to the fact that I live in a furnished apartment that believes in only supplying mo-tel quality bedding for their tenants, I was forced (ha!) to seek out a way to make this bed sleep-worthy. On my bed there is the following: 2 egg crates, 1 foam mattress pad, and 2 synthetic down bed toppers.

I AM THE PRINCESS. Darnit!

The funny thing is that when you have as many additions to your bedding as I do, it becomes obviously clear about 1) which side of the bed you sleep on and 2) how often you actually end up rolling towards the middle of the bed. Which, apparently, I do a lot. At least that's what the synthetic bed toppers tell me. Perhaps this wouldn't normally be a big deal, but lately I've had a hard time wanting to get out of that princess bed of mine. Somehow, I just love lounging around in my pj's and enjoying all those lovely additions to my bedding. :) The more I think about it though, the more I realize that this could pose a problem once school starts again in about a week.

Ugh. School. Again?

Maybe I should go and look into those job opportunities at NASA that I heard about. Surely relationship researchers at a place like that could be beneficial. Remember the incident involving the astronauts and the affair???

Definitely an area I could get interested in.

In the meantime, princess bed, I salute you. And, I think it might be time for one more egg crate. :)