Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

This is mostly a request for advice:

We need more dining room chairs, and don't know where to shop around here. "Here" is Arlington, MA, and close is good, but if you know a good place in Boston or rather than Arlington or Cambridge, please mention it. We don't drive, so the options are to go someplace reachable on the T that will delivers, order online (always an option), or possibly get a ride from someone whose vehicle will hold a couple of chairs.

We might be buying one or two chairs, or a set of four to six, or even a dining room set complete with table. (We have two chairs that we like, but two isn't enough.) I'm fine with used furniture if it's in good condition, if you have an extra chair or two you'd like to sell, or if your favorite charity shop has chairs and we can sort out transportation.

(cattitude is going to take care of looking online.)

I have ordered a desk, to replace the one that broke during our move. Once it arrives and is assembled, I will have room for my monitor and keyboard, not just the laptop, as well as a variety of papers, pens, etc. (I have the laptop on an old, small school desk, which I can't get my chair all the way under; my shoulders do not love this.)

Shortly after we moved in here, cattitude and I went to several stores to look at desks and other furniture. We wound up with a new chair for him (the other main goal), and a collection of brochures. At Office Depot (where he got the chair) I looked at a lot of desks, and narrowed it down to two choices, neither as good as what I am replacing. Then I dithered and dealt with other things. A few days ago I realized that we had ruled out some options because of how long they would have taken to be built and delivered, which only made sense if I was going to get something else fairly soon.

So I walked up to Office Depot this afternoon, and looked at both desks again, with the help of a salesman who said that he, personally, preferred desk A as slightly solider. I also noticed that of the limited storage in that desk, it's mostly file space—not that I don't need to store files, but we have a big, heavy metal filing cabinet (which I think started its life in my father's law office when I was a wee tot) and the set of drawers, including one file drawer, that we bought with my old desk). But I wasn't entirely happy with desk B, so I told the salesman I needed to think about it some more, and asked how late the store is open.

Walking across the parking lot in a very light rain, I found myself thinking "desk A won't work because most of the storage is for files." If my subconscious analysis is that desk A won't work, I have a decision. So I turned around and returned to the store. When the salesman got off the phone, I told him I wanted desk B, and he took my order and arranged delivery and assembly. The plan is that I will get the desk (flat-pack box(es)) on Friday, and have it assembled Monday afternoon. That gives us a couple of days for a final decision on which of two spots to put it in.

Once I have the desk, I can move stuff around and reclaim a bookcase that is currently a sort of "virtual Vicki's desk," and use it for books. (Too many of the bookcases are holding other things while we figure out where to put them. Some others are waiting for us to move boxes out of the way so we can put the remaining shelves in. Moving is a hassle.)

My back was doing very badly yesterday, probably from sitting in a wrong chair at work all day.

I'm doing much better at the moment, thanks to methocarbamol (muscle relaxant, the ones I have are big pink pills that also contain aspirin), some massage from my wonderful cattitude, and a different chair.

I did not, however, get much sleep last night. I'm not sure whether I got any: what I remember is lots and lots of shifting position and wondering if I'd manage to fall asleep this time. The nth time I woke up, adrian_turtle was also up, so I took a quick shower, had tea, and headed out with her. We went down to Penn Station, I waited until her train was called, and then went down to Mott Street for a delicious and restorative breakfast. Roast duck congee, soothing and contains protein. Thence to the Union Square Greenmarket, which proved very sparse, but I bought some baked goods, got back on the train, and was at work earlier than usual.

I just went outside and walked semi-randomly up and down a bit of Madison Avenue, mostly for the sunlight and fresh air, before buying some lunch. Fresh air isn't quite a sleep substitute, but it is a help.