Drapes

My boyfriend (let's call him G for short) saw an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where the brother moves into a new apartment and his girlfriend wants him to get drapes. The brother doesn't understand the purpose of drapes and doesn't like them, but the girlfriend is of the opinion that drapes are very necessary. Now G referrs to the "drape" scene often whenever I talk about decorating our future apartment.

One thing we agreed we both wanted was a dark brown--espresso or chocolate-- leather sofa. We learned that so many of the sofas at furniture stores around L.A. are bicast. G defines bicast leather as bologna leather. When I looked it up I found that it's a mix of some leather with a plastic covering or no real leather is used at all. In the UK and New Zealand, they aren't allowed to call bicast leather. After researching furnture further, we learned that pieces can be up to 1/3rd of the price in Mexico, which is just a few hours drive. Showrooms in L.A. even go down to Mexico and buy there to to sell here.

On Saturday we borrowed G's parents' big car, and headed south of of the border, starting in Rosarito. (U.S. truck and trailer rental companies don't let you take their equipment to Mexico.) There was lots of wrought iron and wood and some bologna leather in the tiny huts along side the dirt road. They were beautiful creations, but not what we were looking to find. Just as we were thinking we made this trip for no reason, a cop pulled us over. I quickly pulled out a 20 and slipped it into G's hand, just in case this policia would take a bribe. The cop wore braces and sunglasses and spoke to G in Spanish. Luckily, he's fluent. He said G made an illegal uturn. Hmmm...I know we made a left turn, but not a uturn. Perhaps driving into Tijuana in a massive Ford Expedition with California plates attracted Mr. Brace Face Policia's attention and he was looking for a bribe from some rich Americans. If we didn't find furnture that day, at least we would add to the Mexican economy through bribery. The cop told G that he was going to take his license down to the "place where you pay tickets" and after G and I were done shopping, we could pay the small fine and get his license back. Since G knew that having to find a cheap motel in Tijuana for the night was not option for me, he slickly pulled out the 20 I handed him and asked the policia if he'd like to buy some beers on us instead. The cop thought that was a great idea and let us go. Then we saw a furnture store and found a modern livingroom set for $1,2000, $1,000 less than the bologna leather in California. The day only cost us $1,2020.

I think we need pillows to add color to our livingroom since the furniture is all brown. "What color do you like for pillows," I asked G. "Brown," he said, completely missing the point of using pillows to add color to the livingroom. We finally agreed that red would look nice and I set out on my mission to buy red pillows. Five stores later, I found pillows that are not floral, not too shiny, not feminine and without any girly hints of pink. Hopefully they'll serve their purpose as a decorative accent, just like drapes in Everybody Loves Raymond.