Fine Dining

The last dining room table we purchased was about 25 years ago. Amber and Kayla were babies at the time, so we didn't want to buy a piece of fine furniture. We basically wanted a table that could handle spills, food that wouldn't stay on a plate, the throwing of sippy cups and occasionally some crayons and paint. We purchased a table that could stand up to all the abuse our kids would put it through. We promised each other as soon as the girls were old enough to quit abusing the furniture, we would buy the dining room set of my dreams.

My babies are now 27 and almost 25 years old, I decided it's about time they stopped banging their cups and spoons on the table. I told them they were big girls now and they were too old be playing with their food. So they put down the handful of mashed potatoes and sadly quit sword fighting with their silverware. It's all fun and games until someone scratches Mama's new table. With that said, I ventured out to shop for my long awaited dining room table and chairs.  

Since 25 years is plenty of time to think about what kind of dining room set I would like to have, I knew exactly what I wanted.  The easy part was knowing what style of table I wanted, the hard part was finding it.  After searching the furniture stores and not letting myself settle for anything less than what I wanted, I finally found the style of table I had dreamed of for years.  It does not surprise me at all, that an oblong table with one large pedestal leg in the center would be hard to find.  After all, I'm 25 years behind the times and that style of table probably would have been easily found way back then. I've never been known to be on the rising cusp of a style trend.  It just usually doesn't take me 25 years to catch up with the rest of the world.

Since the style of table I wanted isn't common, of course the store did not have a set in stock. So the table had to be ordered from the manufacturer.  After waiting several weeks for my new dining room set to be shipped in, the day finally arrived when my special delivery was about to take place.  I was excited and even somewhat nervous.  It had been weeks since I had seen the store's display model. Would I like the dining room set as much as I did in the store? Would this long awaited table be worth the 25 year wait? 

The delivery truck finally rolled into the driveway. As the delivery men opened the back of the truck, I think I might have giggled a little because of the overflow of excitement.  The men carried in the chairs one by one and placed them around the dining room.  Next, the men carefully maneuvered the table into the house and carefully placed it in the middle of the room.  They then arranged the chairs around the table and there it was, the table and chairs I had always wanted. 

As the men were heading toward the door to leave, I must have had a moment of clarity.  I came out of my new furniture euphoria and noticed my dining room table didn't quite look like I had remembered it.  The oblong table I ordered was now a rectangle, and the one pedestal leg in the middle, now had a leg in each of the four corners. Wait! This isn't my table! As I looked at the delivery men in disbelief, they just shrugged their shoulders and said to call the salesperson and she would clear up the problem. They told me they were going to leave the table and when the snafu was straightened out, they would swap out the first table when they delivered the correct one.

Needless to say after several phone calls the problem was tracked down to a mistake in the order numbers. So the table I actually wanted, had to be reordered and it would be another four to six weeks for it to come in from the manufacturer.  I was told to use the table and treat it like my own until my reordered table arrived.

When Richard came home from work I was telling him the story of what happened. I was really emphasizing the fact that after waiting 25 years to buy my dining room set, and after waiting weeks for my ordered table to come in, I now had to wait some more.  He didn't seem phased by the fact that I was still waiting after so many years.  The only thing he said was, "I can't believe you didn't notice that wasn't the table we ordered. It doesn't look anything like the table we searched for, store after store, after store! The fact that you let them bring it in and set it up, is beyond me," and with a puzzled look he walked off shaking his head. Maybe I'm worse off than he thought.

I'm just glad I realized the mistake at all.  It could have been eight months from now as I was setting my Thanksgiving table before my brain waves fired back up and I noticed the strange table in my dining room.  My mind isn't what it used to be ... after all, it has been twenty five years.