My Sad Chest

I bet you all thought I was talking about my boobs. No. That post could indeed be titled "my sad chest" but I'm not writing about that today. Today I'm writing about the beautiful, broken, Ningbou jewelry chest that never was to be.

It starts with a little tiny dresser, kid sized really, with little tiny cute drawers, that I have had since I was a little girl. The tiny drawers are perfect for all my little girly things: nail polish, jewelry, old candles that I still like the smell of but that don't have enough wick to burn anymore, nail files, and old press-on nails from Halloween a few years ago, you know...that kind of stuff. It used to be white. A LONG time ago. Then it was sort of dirty white. Let's call it "antiqued." When we got married, Big Daddy and I had 100% hand-me-down, D.I. or antique furniture from my Grandma. Over the years, we've slowly replaced the crappy items and a few of the nice antique items that were just too Victorian. Mostly, it involved Big Daddy pitching a fit about some beautiful (but perhaps slightly less than perfect) antique or hand-me-down that I was emotionally attached to, me refusing to get rid of it, and me eventually giving in when he offered to buy me something new to replace it. But I drew the line at my little dresser. He hated it, I loved it. Eventually I discovered that he mostly hated the "antiqued" paint job. So I painted it red to match the red accents in our bedroom. But I didn't sand the paint first, so the new red paint has gotten chipped and scraped off. It looks pretty bad--but in a shabby chic sort of way. Anyway, we did some spring cleaning recently and got rid of a bunch of old furniture. I think Big Daddy thought he was on a roll and once again suggested that we give my little dresser the heave ho. Since finances have been looking up, I finally agreed to get rid of the little dresser if my husband would let me pick out (all by myself with no input from him) something to replace it. He agreed (a little too joyously, if you ask me).

Enter the Ningbou Jewelry Chest from Pier 1 Imports. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was THE ONE. It was red, which matched our bedroom, it had little tiny cute drawers, it had sides that opened like flaps to hold your necklaces, and the top opened to reveal ring and bracelet compartments. AND it was on sale from $249 to $149. I call that Destiny. So I purchased it on the spot and drove it home. That evening my husband began to open the box and take it out. But he quickly realized that the openable top was hinged with a spring belonging more appropriately to an automobile. The heavy, stiff spring had failed to close before being boxed up in Ningbou and had, therefore, ripped entirely away from the back of the chest, leaving gaping screw holes behind. It was not fixible. WAH! I had been so excited!

It was 8:40 on Saturday night, but I was determined to get my jewelry chest come hell or high water. So I called the Pier 1, told them the story, and they said they had ONE MORE LEFT and I could hurry and come get it. So I madly packed the broken Ningbou chest back in its broken box, shoved it back in my car, and hauled A back to Pier 1. When I got there, the nice college girls who worked there had already wheeled the new chest to the front door. Before we loaded it up, I asked if I could check the new chest to make sure it was OK. But sadly, when we opened it, this chest, too, was broken. In a different spot altogether, making me suspect that Ningbou was passing off crap for jewelry chests. So the girls took both chests back inside the store and mumbled something about them going in the trash.

So long story short (I know, too late), I got no jewelry chest. I also got no money back because Pier 1 didn't have enough cash on hand. And evidently they are too archaic to return money to a debit card. So they have to send me a refund check in the mail. Boooo.

My one question is, should I go check the dumpsters today and see if I can get a free (albeit broken) Ningbou Jewelry Chest???