The Couch

Women are crazy? Women are indecisive? I beg to disagree. Christopher (yes that is what I call him when he's annoying me) can not seem to keep the same idea from one hour to the next. He will sit in the living room telling you why you cannot possibly take the couch we have and use it in the den. We need someplace where people can sleep. A comfy place to actually have a guest room, we should get a futon.

Fine, logic is there, makes sense, the couch has served its purpose. I proceed to post it on Craigslist.

"You did what!?"

"Posted it on craigslist." I am mildly curious...did he already promise it to someone else?

"You can't get rid of your couch."

Literally one hour previous is when CHRISTOPHER was telling me why I needed to get rid of the couch. You see we are getting a very generous gift from his mother, a new couch, so if it isn't going in the "guest room" we have no place to put it.

"But we are getting a new couch."

"Can't we fit both of them in the living room?"

"Why do we need two couches?"

"I don't know, I just know how much you love it."

That's sweet, so I think for a moment about two couches and start to plan a seating arrangement in my head around the new idea. Now let's keep in mind my couch is a blue, microfiber couch with black piping. I put a pin in the craigslist ad and begin thinking about our options. I am still not working out how this all fits in the living room because Chris wants a sectional, but I am contemplating.

A mere few hours later. Chris comes to me with a list of printed out couches for our new purchase and I do the same. Everyone of my couch options is ruled out because they only come in neutral colors such as "mocha" or "brown." There will apparently not be a brown couch in our new home. Fine.

All of his couches come only in green and all have a recliner, but no chaise, my one requirement for a couch. When I ask why this is:

"No couches have both."

I frantically (cause now I'm getting angry) point at my postings, all of which come with BOTH. I didn't even print any that DIDN'T come with a recliner.

"But they're brown."

"So we can't compromise on the color but we can compromise on the chaise?"

"None have both."

This is when I begin banging my head against the wall because I feel like I am speaking to a dementia patient. What do you mean they don't have both? Here are 15 + examples of couches with BOTH, they just don't come in GREEN.

I understand the art of compromise is a complicated thing. It's a dance most marriages spend a lifetime figuring out and I am sure one person is always a bit more giving than the other. I also understand that Chris has a minimalistic style that I can embrace, but also has a childlike love of just one color and a irrational hatred of another color. As witnessed by our wedding, I love purple, but other than MY new bathroom you don't see me splashing purple all over the house. Purple has it's place as does green. Chris might be a bit spoiled in that realm because green happens to be my second favorite color, so I am not offended and can work within such decorating limitations. But when we can compromise comfort over color I draw the line. It is now that I point out to him he might want to consider what will be more comfortable to sleep on, a recliner or a chaise, because he's likely to spend quite a number of evenings there if this was how compromising works in his world.