Time Lord Technology ("It's bigger on the inside!")

I've had a long past few days. Or rather, each day has been long, and they've been in succession?

Thursday I got off work at four, and Christina came and picked me up so we could drive to Frisco and go to Ikea together (that's about a 40 minute drive from Colleyville). She moved into her new apartment all by her lonesome several weeks ago, and she was in dire need of a fancy Swedish desk. I, of course, rarely pass up an opportuinty to go to Ikea, even if I don't need anything. We needed a cheap, industrial-type bookshelf at work anyway, and I offered to pick one up.

So we're at Ikea, and Christina's going nuts over all the cool crap, and after about half an hour has filled up her Ikea-supplied "want" list and asks to commandeer mine. She ended up deciding she would definitely be getting a desk with sawhorse-type legs (I'm jealous--it's awesome). So after a few hours in the showroom, and about twenty of me rolling around in the warehouse on the flatbed with splendidly smooth rollerblade-type wheels, we get my bookcase loaded and are attempting to load the glass desk-top. I pulled my back. Stupid sciatica. It wasn't really bad, but it was bad enough to make me do my stretches and want to avoid lifting the desk-top again.

Hokay! We got some guys to help us load the desk top, they made fun of me, whatever. Then we went to the little cafe, got us some 50 cent hotdogs, and kept an eye on our cart. We started discussing the logistics of getting the desk into Christina's Kia Sprectra (we opted for her car, since it's slightly bigger on the inside than my Rio).

Me: "Now, Christina, you're sure your back seats fold down, right?"

Christina: "Uh huh!"

Me: "Are you positive?"

Christina: "Well, yeah. Doesn't it come standard these days?"

Me: "No..oo... I have a Kia, and mine don't fold down."

Crap.

Yeah... We were going to make it fit. We folded down the front passenger seat. Didn't quite make it. Then we scooted the driver seat as far up as it would go. At one point I was in the backseat wedged underneath the desk-top using my head as a lever and using my foot to help lift at Christina's end. After a bit of grunting and lots of laughing, we finally got it in. We were so proud of ourselves. It was one of those times where it was totally natural and in sync to do a double high-five.

Unfortunately, the driver seat wouldn't go back very far, and Christina's pretty tall. We decided it'd be best for me to drive, and I did--sandwiched between the seat and the steering wheel with about 6 inches of space and my knees up. Oh yeah. I felt like I was in a ginormous go-cart.

When we got back to Christina's apartment, it was the same struggle, but in reverse, to get the desk-top out. And then up the stairs. Fun night.

Needless to say, I felt like I deserved a massage the next day. We'll thank the government for allowing me to afford that. Thank you, G Dubya.