Chocolate & Futons

The company that moved me here did a lame who-did-it-and-ran style job of moving me in. I learned this again today as I was working in the guest room. My moms is coming to visit next week so I thought I would hang some photos and spruce the place up a bit.

So I go to move the futon and it flops open wrong. I examine it and discover that they put it together backwards. Argh. Well, better to find this out now than when she needed to sleep on it.

So I get tools and begin the repair. With the futon disassembled, I can see parts that normally are hidden and I shake my head at the lame staining job someone did. Turns out that that someone was me.

Realizing this, I flash back on when we bought the futon all those years ago in Portland. It was a bitch to put together then, and it was a bitch to re-assemble alone today. Futons are built on tension so its easier of you can have one person hold something in one spot while another does the other bits. Nothing for it today but to do it.

Smashes toes, a jammed thumbnail and general frustration later it was done.

Until I moved it and it fell apart again.

Some parts had fallen out unseen that held the screws in correctly. So I fixed it again right this time and finished hanging the photos.

Anyway, as I worked it got me thinking about those starting-out days in Portland. I remember what a big purchase the futon was then. I was working part-time at a radio station and spending that much on an extra bed gave me a lot of stress.

The auld lang syn made me think of another recent purchase so after I was done with the futon I took some snaps of my old pal Pocky chocolate.

I haven't bought a Pocky in about 15 years but I definitely have a lot of affection for the stuff. I picked it up on impulse last weekend for no real reason. I like saying its name and thinking about more than actually eating it. I'm not much of a candy guy. It will probably stay in my cupboard for a long time.

I first found Pocky in the little Asian mart on Congress street in Portland, Maine. I remember the moment well. It was a fun afternoon; buying foreign candy blind to see what was inside. There was one package we bought because it had exploding Pac Man ghosts on the package. I opened it and it had cotton candy inside. Oh, ok. I get this. But as the candy dissolved in your mouth there were pop rocks inside. The explosion was unexpected and exciting. A double treat from an unknown package. That's what Pocky is to me: a link to unexpected pleasure from nothing. A time when we were starting and it was all good: Pocky is good.

I'm really looking forward to going back to Portland this summer. It will be the first time in 6 years I've spent any real time there. I wonder what it would be like to go to Amigos or the old places now. I bet it will be like the memories: the same but separated.