Bedroom & Beyond

Wednesday, Mikey and I went shopping for apartment essentials, and we made a bold decision: we were not coming home empty-handed. We had a mission. A purpose. A destiny, if you will—to bring home a second set of sheets.

Here’s the situation. Since moving into the apartment back in December, we’ve had exactly one set of sheets. For some people, that’s not a big deal. After years of working in residence life, I’ve seen students survive on one set all year. Mom puts the sheets on the bed in August, and they come off in May… allegedly. Based on the body-shaped imprint left behind during room checks, I have my doubts. No exaggeration. The real challenge, of course, was the cleaning situation.

You see, many people in Uruguay don’t have dryers. They exist here, but most people don’t own one. Electricity is considered expensive—we pay around $150 a month (in CT we were paying $300.00-$400.00/month). Anyway, we don’t have a dryer. This means we wash our clothes and hang them on a drying rack.

If you can put the rack outside and the weather is warm, things dry in a few hours. Fantastic. Except—Tyson likes to “help” with laundry by giving it an extra rinse. Yes, exactly what you’re imagining. This has led to more than a few rewash situations. To avoid that, we now dry everything inside, which takes much longer. Typically, I wash one load, hang it up, and let it dry all day and overnight. At this point, I’m fairly certain my hair could grow to shoulder length in less time.

All of this leads to one important truth: there have been multiple nights where we’ve gone to bed on damp sheets. I do not recommend this lifestyle. Clean sheets should be dry and fresh. We live in Uruguay, not the Amazon.

Now, the shopping expedition. We went to a different mall. First floor—nothing. Second floor—still nothing. Hope was fading. Then, the third floor. We wandered into a store we’d never noticed before called JYSK (which I initially thought was just “Jasek” spelled wrong). It’s a Scandinavian store. And just like that—bingo.

We found a blanket for curling up on cold nights, pillows for the recliners, coasters, dusters, mosquito netting (we’ll discuss those tiny demons another time), a heavier blanket for the bed, dish rags, towels—and yes, sheets. Actual sheets. In colors that were not beige, gray, or “sad neutral.” It was glorious. It was as if I were Dorothy landing in Munchkinland and seeing all the colors of the rainbow for the first time. We left with two large shopping bags and a renewed sense of purpose. Now we have two sets of sheets for our bed. No more sleeping on a “water bed.”

Side note: Mikey and I took the bus to the mall. It was about 65°F, so naturally, we wore shorts and short-sleeved t-shirts. A perfect fall day (though winter is apparently looming). As we sat in the back of the bus—like the cool kids—we noticed something odd. We were the ONLY ones dressed this way. Everyone else was in long pants, sweatshirts, jackets… some looked ready for a mild Arctic expedition (by the way, there is a cruise ship that goes from Montevideo to the Antarctic if anyone feels adventurous). To Uruguayans, winter has clearly arrived. I imagine they were thinking, “Who are these crazy gringos?”

Thank you for sticking with me.

As always: Be kind to yourself, and be kind to others.