It all started when I bought luxurious queen-size sheets back home to accomodate the queen-size bed we didn't have down here. Terry commented in the beginning that it was like designing the control system graphics before the petrochemical plant was constructed. ...a little reference from that 4-letter word "w-o-r-k".
Last Tuesday, the day after we arrived, we started thinking we should go mattress shopping and at least get the second bedroom furnished with a bed prior to Kate's and Kim's arrival on 12/11. We looked at both the Chedraui and Wal-Mart first but neither had queen-size mattressed at all. Hmmmm. Terry did see a blow-up queen size mattress at Wal-Mart that he said was really nice. I guess as far as "blow-up" mattresses go it probably was nice. We reserved last Thursday for mattress shopping day so we could get this task accomplished and move on. We knew about where the downtown Sears and Chapur locations were so we set out walking to go there first. Of course we couldn't find them and I had to succumb to asking for directions. Terry won't. And of course we had passed up the street and had to backtrack. Our experiences were almost exactly the same in both stores. Like this - We wandered around until we found the furniture and then the mattresses. We asked which mattresses came in queen-size. They each had several. We asked about especiales. Si, they had specials. We were told about the deals that included the boxsprings/frame at no extra cost. Then we inquired about delivery dates. Neither location had the special deals we got so excited about in inventory any longer. Atnd, neither place could order and have delivered by the girls' arrival date. So we moved on. We went to the downtown Hogar location next and had another similar experience. Terry had mentioned the blow-up mattress at least 4 times by now.
I suggested we go out to the Chapur location north of centro. It is bigger and they have more furniture. It is the place where we had bought our sofa back in May. So we headed off the find the bus stop. We had taken the bus out there several times back in May. But all of the city bus stops are different now because they were all in "temporary" locations before due to the centro sidewalk reconsruction project. I asked for directions again and was told to go to the next esquina. After asking for directions 3-4 different times, and waiting at the spots where we were told the bus came we finally just got on a bus that said "Itzimna" on it as we knew we could get close. We got off the bus when we thought we were close and ended up only walking 3-4 blocks to get there. Again, we went through the same experience with what was available in queen-size, and "no" we no longer have the especial deal in inventory and yada yada yada. Terry mentioned the blow-up mattress again, and started thinking about how easy it would be to use the queen sheets on a matrimonial size mattress. But, we decided to pursue our mission some more on Friday. Friday came and we took the city bus out to the Gran Plaza Mall where there is another Sears, and also the Mexicano Comercial...it reminds me of Target back home. At Sears we met Carlos, or "Charlie" as he called himself to us Gringoes. We now know his life story and even where in La Ermita he lived growing up here in Merida, we also know he has access to the same inventory and computer system that the downtown Sears has. Carlos/Charlie was much more interested in practicing his English with us than sellin us a mattress. We then headed to the Mexicano Comercial. Well, ok, we ended up buying a matrimonial size mattress here - forget the queen-size - and headed to the desk where they handle delivery information. They could deliver the next day and gave us a choice of morning, noon, or afternoon delivery. We chose morning, but it was no longer available. So, we chose media dia. We should have a matrimonial mattress...and a headboard!...by Saturday noon or so. It turned out it was the "or so". We hung around the casa all day Saturday, put a big sign out on the gate with our address prominently displayed and waited. And waited. And waited. One of these days we will learn. Time does not mean the same down here. It just doesn't. Little by little we are not only accepting this fact, but starting to embrace it. You gotta. We had resigned ourselves to the fact that we would be making another trip out to Gran Plaza Mall with our delivery papers (no receipt since they don't give that to you until delivery is made) to figure out what happended to the mattress and bedframe. We went to bed and read about 9. We were lying in bed when we heard a loud voice outside...followed by knocking. I told Terry to go look, but he thought it was neext door. No, I said, it could be the delivery of our bed. At 9:30 at night? You bet!
A very sweet, kind gentleman and a young boy had pulled the truck up in front of the house and we are sure they were prepared to wait until we got home if needed. No doubt we would have seen the asleep in the truck the next morning in front of the house if Terry hadn't gotten up and peeked outside.
So to the Girls and Other Future Houseguests - the good news is you have a mattress/bed to sleep on...the bad news is that is has ill-fitting sheets and it is not a queen-size.
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