Kings and Queens and everything in between

It seems in this economy, many people are downsizing and in that same spirit, we have downsized as well - we went from a king size bed to a queen.

Now, previous to marriage, I had never "walked with a woman," but, I was not entirely naive. Brenda and I had engaged in a few cuddling sessions before our blissful marriage day. One such episode was suppose endure through the night, but sometime around midnight I was overcome by blistering body heat and insisted that we sleep far enough apart to allow an arctic jet stream to flow between us. That somewhat offended Brenda and she left to sleep by herself in her room and I ended up on the couch. Yes, we engaged in THAT ritual before marriage too.

When it came time to purchase our first bed, I strongly insisted on a king size mattress so that there would be plenty of space between me and the "inferno" and yet also provide enough space between me and the edge of the bed - which I'm constantly fearful that I'll fall off at any given moment. Brenda accepted the idea, but deep inside, I think she was a youthful romantic hoping that having a queen size mattress would assure many nights of joyful cuddling - even if it was forced due to lack of space.

We've flirted with the idea of downsizing to a queen size bed before, but the issue of Global-Brenda-Warming and my worrying about falling out of bed kept the idea a mere fantasy. As we traveled and slept in queen sized hotel beds the ability to sleep through the night that close to each other seemed a bit more doable.

Finally after several months (years?) of uncomfortable sleeping due to a financial-market-like-slouching mattress support, we decided to buy a new mattress over the Thanksgiving weekend. We hemmed (mostly me) and hawed (mostly her) and spent hours laying down on just about every mattress in every store in a 10 mile radius. We began thinking seriously about downsizing to a queen. Brenda argued that by going to smaller size, we'd reclaim a larger share of master bedroom real estate and in that same spirit of re-conquering our bedroom space, we agreed to move some of the larger bulkier mismatched furniture out and replace it with a matching bedroom set - something we've always wanted. Yes I said "we." While we have been grateful for the hand-me-down furniture that helped furnish our home for so many years, we've slowly been trying to replace it with "our" stuff. So we finally agreed to a Serta Dual mattress that is firm on one side (for me) and soft on the other (for her) along with a handsome bed, bench, nightstand and entertainment/dresser.

Adjusting to the queen size hasn't been too difficult. I have not fallen out of bed in the five days we've had it and thanks to individual coil spring suspension technology, when one rolls over the other doesn't feel it ... too much. Nor has sleeping with a human furnace proven to be a problem either as Brenda is getting colder as she ages (gracefully!). Just feel her hands at any given moment - they're ice cold. Constantly. It's like she's slowly mutating into a super-hero like Frozone on The Incredibles - which if true means we can sleep closer together at night, AND she can cool down a can of soda for me at will. On the flip side, I have to endure her always trying to stick those ice block fingers under my shirt and armpits to warm them up.

So, that's our latest adventure. Hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving and is gearing up for Christmas.