a few of my favorite things

the other day La Taureau asked me if there were one thing i will miss the most when i go back to basic (aside from La Taureau and La Cognilia), and i would have to say in a broad sense it would be simple comfort. there is nowhere i have found that is just plain comfortable. all of the seats, when we get to sit in them, are hard. even when we are told to "take a knee", it's either on hard concrete or hard linoleum. and no, i'm not the only one complaining about the wear and tear on our knees.

in a more specific sense, it would be our bed. to be fair, my bunk at basic is not "not comfortable". as a matter of fact, we were lucky enough to have actual matresses that don't appear to be that old. there are other companies that have little more than really thick yoga mats. however, when we get "out of bed" in the morning, we are out of bed for the day. that means we don't lay, sit, or rest on the bed until that night. furthermore, you don't really want to. after spending the time it takes to make the bed with those dreaded hospital/military corners (with the folds at the proper 45 degree angles), you want to keep it made for as long as possible. there were a few soldiers who, after making the bed for the first time, refused to actually sleep IN the bed, but rather slept ON the bed for the first few days so as not to unmake it. so when we are on personal time, we must either lay, sit, or rest on the cold, hard linoleum floor. or if we have dirty laundry, we can sit on our laundry bag.

insofar as comfort of the actual bed, we are issued one pillow, one pillow case, one matress cover, two sheets, and a really itchy wool blanket. it serves it's purpose, and is actually more comfortable than i thought they would be (or i am more exhausted at the end of the day than i realize), but these are not the ingredients for plush comfort.

the bed i share with La Taureau (and La Cognilia) is a california king, which means it is wider than your normal run-of-the-mill king sized bed. in the days before we got married, and i was instructed by the priest to move out, La Taureau would actually sleep perpendicular on the bed...because she could. it is large enough to accomodate La Taureau, the dog, and myself. in recent years, the dog has gotten to old and fat to get and out of the bed, and even if we could pry La Cognilia from La Taureau, she couldn't possibly fill in the hole left by the dog, so we've used the extra space to fill with pillows and fluffy blankets. considering the night before i arrived home i was sleeping on a linoleum-covered concrete floor, our bed is, indeed, shang-ri-la.