the ocean

With our upcoming move to a bigger place has come a need for more furniture. Which means that we spent a chunk of our weekend going from furniture store to furniture store and being assaulted by salespeople. We went to the place Brooke Shields pretends to get her furniture for, the place that sends the giant ten-volume catalogues that infuriate my greener friends, the place that got name-checked in an episode of Friends. But the best place of all was where we met our friend Elise.

My first impression of Elise was that she might be a homeless person, but then I realized she was too nicely dressed for that, so I thought maybe she was just a crazy person. She accosted us outside the store in that sheepish, confessional way that people have when they are about to ask you for money. It turned out that she worked there, though, and wanted to help us with our search. She told us not to worry, though, because she wouldn't "hover."

For the next forty-five minutes, we could not shake Elise for more than a minute at a time. She followed us through the living room section, handing us post-its and measuring tape we hadn't asked for, and giving us information about upholstery we did not need. We managed to elude her for a few minutes by feigning interest in a bedroom set and heading to a different floor, but she caught up to us eventually. And gave us a fascinating history of the ottoman.

When we finally decided just to leave, she not only gave us her complete contact information, but also offered to come to our new place with us and help us "design our room." She assured us that she would give us her wallet and keys when she came in, in case we were nervous about having a stranger in our house. She also promised to loan us dozens of design books from her collection. When we got into the car, I half expected her to pop up in the back seat.

The best part of all of this is probably that we're actually going to buy a couch there, so Elise has a big commission coming her way. She certainly earned it.