Futon Trouble...and Triumph!

Hey folks,

Finishing up an interesting weekend full of...nothing really. Most of our time this weekend was spent with my roommate Brian either reading or sitting on the futon mowing down Oreo sleeves. So I would have to say it was an incredibly successful weekend!

Anyways, just wanted to give you some insight into the perils of moving-in for the summer. But let me give you some background first:

Setting: Stonehill Commencement Weekend 2010. My second weekend on campus that summer was also the weekend of the college's graduation. The last Stonehill graduation I had been to was in 1998, in the pouring rain, when my cousin was a senior here. This year had considerably better weather though...

I awoke around 9:30am to a beautiful May day. After showering and getting dressed, I meandered over to the Quad for the 10am ceremony. I came just in time for the grads to process down Donahue hill and into their seats. I took special care to watch the actions of my friend Kevin, the senior class president, to see what I would need to do for next year.
After a great ceremony, I made my way around congratulating all my graduating friends and heading back to a quiet existence in Dunster. The afternoon after Commencement is always fraught with some stress. Many students haven't moved out entirely and a mad scramble ensues to get all of their belongings out the door, while trying to still make room in the family Toyota for Grandma. This year was no different. Shortly after the ceremony I got a knock on my door from James, who lived upstairs. He had a nice futon in his room that he didn't feel like hauling back to his house. He asked me if I wanted it and I jumped at it. Sure it was wobbly and used, but a futon's a futon, right?

We moved it down into our common room until we could move into summer housing and I proceeded to use it all week for reading. When Brian and I moved into our summer house, we moved it in with much difficulty. We lifted it gingerly up stairs, dodging sprinklers and making sure it was still all intact.
That first night, Brian decided to try it out in our new home. Brian plopped onto it and, sure enough, it collapsed! One side had sheared a screw right off and the other side was barely hanging on...almost three distinct pieces. Not to mention, we also had the giant mattress that went along with it. For an entire day, we had this scrap metal and large sack of feathers laying around our room as we stepped around every-which-way to avoid it. We needed a resolution.

Enter Target. After work we made our way over and found 100 feet of weight-bearing rope. We brought it back and went straight to work. After using 90 feet of rope and working up a pretty good sweat, we basically tied the thing together. The big test then became...would it hold us?


YES!! I can proudly say it is standing strong to this day...along with 90 feet of rope. It is a perfect companion to my new TV!
That's all I got for now. Take care!