I have seen the future, and the future is Swedish

You know how it is in movies when someone travels forward in time, and they're in awe of what they see? When I was little, I used to pretend that Laura Ingalls Wilder was with me, and I had to explain to her what everything was. This is called a car. It goes really fast, and it doesn't even need horses. Everybody has one. I could never explain to her why there were stores that carried 5 different brands of toilet paper, though. That, she just had to experience.

Today, I understood how Laura must have felt all those times that she came to visit me. My boss had to run some errands to get stuff for the Bridal Suite and told me I should come. Close the office for awhile, return calls when we get back.

me: Should we eat our cake now or save it for after we get back?
her: How about...before and after?
That's right, we were living on the edge.

So, we decided to go to a little place called the College Park IKEA. I had never been before, believe it or not, except for one time when I was little, at Potomac Mills, and I played in the play room with my cousin while our moms shopped. But like my boss said, that doesn't count.

Now, I always knew that the store was big, but what I didn't realize is that it's basically an airport. There are certain places you have to enter and exit, and it's huge, and there's even a restaurant and a bakery inside! I actually felt like I was at BWI, except without that fear that I always have that I'm going to accidentally do something stupid like say "bomb" or walk through a metal detector with a knife in my pocket...for example. But back to the restaurant part. We split a lunch for $6.00. It had Swedish meatballs and gravy, red potatoes, lingonberries, chicken and rice soup, a roll, and lingonberry juice, and I was FULL, and it was very good!

After lunch, we followed the arrows through the whole store, and I kept grabbing really cheap things for the apartment. Seriously, everything you could imagine is in that store. I really didn't know what to look at, so I just followed my boss round and blurted out things I needed to buy. In a daze, I asked my boss, "Why are we here again? Is it work-related?" Turns out it was, but I also bought: a trash can for the Terp bathroom, a wire whisk and egg whipper, 2 curtains for the family room, 4 knives in a block, a plastic colander, and a cute tablecloth, for LESS than $21.00! Then we went back to work, and I had some more cake. (Cake Day was a total hit.)

Anyways, I'm going back as soon as humanly possible. Those Scandinavians sure do know how to treat a girl.