The Ashley Furniture Adventure

A girl’s day. A day for just me, my sister, and my mom to bond. That was our plan today. We had a few things to do in Flagstaff, so the three of us piled into the Jeep and set off for an adventure.

Our main goal today was to buy a new car. After we test drove a grey van, the van that is now ours, my mom gave me the keys to the jeep because we all know how long it takes to purchase a new car. So now it was just me, my sister, the jeep, and a full tank of gas. We were prepared to take on the world, or I guess just Flagstaff, but still, we were ready. We got in the car, I put in the key, looked at my sister and asked, “Where to?” We started naming off all of the fun places we could go and all of the amazing things we could do within the next few hours. Then we realized we forgot one minute detail. Money. We didn’t have any money. Actually that's a lie, we had eight dollars. Dang. There went all of our great ideas. We sat there for a while thinking. After we made a new list, that would cost less than eight dollars, we set off on our adventure.

We started off strong in the magnificent Pet Co looking at all of the animals. After we saw a snake, my biggest fear, we left. Then we went to the great and astounding Home Depot. Might I remind you we only had eight dollars, so what did we do? We both designed our future home, the houses we plan on building when we have more than eight dollars. My sister and I were walking around the store talking about our plans for the rest of the day when I remembered my homework. Yup, homework, the only thing that could ruin our incredible adventure. I started to stress. There was no way I was ever going to finish everything in one night. That is when my sister thought of the most fabulous idea. She looked at me and suggested, “Why don’t we just go to that furniture store down the street and you could write your paper there?” My sister is a genius.

We headed down the street and eventually made it into the store. The employees greeted us as if we were really interested in buying furniture. After our butts had touched just about every couch and we had laid on about half the beds, we found the most comfortable bed. We laid down, made ourselves at home, and I wrote my paper. The employees, who were slightly annoyed because off our boisterous laughs, kept asking how we were doing and if we needed any help, even though they knew we were not planning on buying anything that day. Legitimate costumers kept giving us the stink eye as they walked past us. My sister, who has the same attention span as a gold fish, kept going chair to chair, bed to bed, looking at all of the furniture, and taking pictures of her favorites to show me. While she did this, I laid in the same bed writing the same paper. I know, this sounds completely boring, and at first I was bummed that our super fun day was ruined, but it wasn’t boring at all. We had the best time!

Lying in that bed today getting horrible, dirty looks from just about everyone in that store I realized how much I love my sister. When we were younger she was just my younger, annoying sister, but as the years have gone on I’ve realized that she’s not only my sister, but my best friend as well. She’s the only person I can ride in a car with and can sing, or more like scream, every word to “I’ll make love to you” by Boyz II Men. She’s the only person who will commit to a diet with me and then watch a three hour long movie while eating all the junk food in the entire house. She’s the only person who I can laugh with until I cry and cry with until I laugh. My sister is the only person who knows what I am thinking before I do. We like to play a game where when we have a conversation, we don't finish the last few words of our sentences. We'll do this shopping, cleaning, or even watching TV. It sounds ridiculous, I know, but it is so much fun. On a more serious note, she is also one of my best teachers. Me being the older sister, I feel like I should be the one teaching her, but that is rarely the case. She is constantly teaching me how to have genuine fun and how to truly love life. She has taught me to live in the moment and to not stress about things that will not matter in the future. She has taught me to love myself just the way I am, to have confidence in myself. She may be young, but she's full of wisdom; she never ceases to amaze me. She truly is one of my biggest blessings.

So our wonderful adventure was spent in a furniture store. But there we lay, side by side, not talking, looking at our phones, as we listened to some old '90s rock band playing on the speakers, and being judged by costumers and workers. But I laid there and was completely content because I was spending time with my best friend.