I don't understand IKEA madness

(also known as the Rant Against a Materialistic, Freakish Ex-Friend...you have been warned...)

So IKEA opened a store in West Chester, Ohio, near Cincinnati, making the trip for Lexingtonians much shorter than the previous jaunt to Atlanta. It made it onto the front page of the Lexington Herald-Leader (with a picture of a bunch of employees with what for the life of me look like giant yellow dildoes but which are supposedly noisemakers as customers cheer). [NB--The H-L takes those stories and mothballs them into archives for which you have to pay to view after 7 days, sorry.]

I don't get it. And it's not because I don't like the simplicity of the Nordic style--I do. Some of the Danish designs I've seen have been wonderful, for example, and I also like Swedish products. But the stuff I've liked has not been, shall we say, within my budget. But a friend's right--this looks like stuff you'd find in a dorm room, and cheaply made at that. It looks like knock-offs of the designs I liked. But hey, it's trendy, so I shouldn't be surprised that Liz was there. (Sorry, she doesn't have permalinks. The story is dated 3/13.) She will slavishly go on about anything she thinks is trendy, but deny it and get angry if you point it out to her. The only thing she got in my opinion that's even worth it was the white ceramic pitcher, which was only $4.99. Okay, so we have different tastes. But I don't understand why a professional graphic designer who by her own admission primarily is there to 'make pretty' likes so much ugly stuff (and comes up with so many ugly designs, such as the cover of her book).

But hey, I'm biased. This is the 'friend' I had for several years--was there through her divorce (he was originally our friend, we got her in the divorce), her abortion, all her ups and downs, who broke off our friendship over an innocuous comment made on her blog, by blogging about me rather than talking to my face and ranting about how disgustingly I ate ice cream (?). I probably shouldn't read it any more (it's mostly about knitting and Wizard Rock, the first of which I can do, although not well, mainly because it bores me, and the second which is best left to 12- to 14-year-olds, not someone in their 30s or 40s. And to be honest, I check it maybe once a week, because she doesn't blog that much anyway. But it's like watching a train wreck, and I have a perverse curiosity about people who have been in my life but are no longer in it and what they might be up to.

There are so many times I want to comment on her blog, to inject some reality. When she was a part of our group, that's what we all did for one another, and it tended to keep those of us who like to run amuck (I include myself in this) grounded. A little mocking goes a long way, after all. (What? You're buying your neighbour's dog a $300 heated dog house and don't understand why the neighbour might not appreciate you butting in? What? You obviously didn't get your house inspected by someone competent when you bought it, got tired of it, didn't like the location which is Lexington's equivalent to Spanish Harlem when you thought it was going to be some sort of mix of professors, faculty, and students even though it's not near campus, so now you've bought another house right as the housing market crashed and you have two mortages now? What were you thinking? Those are just two I'd like to have weighed in on.) But she's not part of our world anymore; she's gone off and found people who leave glowing comments on her blog about what a great person she is--in other words, she's found yes men (or in this case, mostly yes women) who are enabling her into thinking that everything's fine.

I'm lucky. I have brutally honest friends. Well, okay, one brutally honest friend, a few comforting ones, and good acquaintances who would look at me like I was a loon if I did half the stuff she does. I used to count Liz among that number, even though she treated me like shit and once asked a friend to shoot her if she ever got to my weight at the time (judging from her posts, she's way past that point). I'm glad I don't have her in my circle anymore.

I'm not saying my life is perfect. I'm still struggling with lots of health and personal issues, and I'm just happy if I can get my bills paid (rent was today, whew!, late but within the limit), do a good job at work, and spend time with the friends who keep me from retreating into Lisaland.) I've made lots of bad choices in my life, and I'm living with their consequences, but I think I've improved over time, and certainly I actively seek counseling and try to change. I don't think Liz is on that path, and at her age, she should at least be considering working through her issues.

Okay, rant over...that took 45 minutes more than I would have liked to blog about. But it's been building up for awhile. I know, obviously I never got any closure. But sometimes that's the way things happen, and the feelings remain somewhat raw.

PS You know, it occurs to me that for someone who leads a relatively obscure life, I have a strange history of unusual friends/acquaintances, many of whom have been jettisoned because, well, it should be obvious:

1) A Paedophile (gamed with one, never really hit home until he was charged and imprisoned, even though a friend had been insisting it was true for years and none of us listened)
2) An Anti-Semite (a woman I'd known and respected for years suddenly wouldn't let a mutual friend in her house when she found out he was Jewish)
3) A blond-haired, blue-eyed want-to-be Indian who kept finagling his genealogy to get greater and greater percentages
4) A Sexual addict (he knows who he is)
5) A woman who could only relate to animals and will probably wind up in the state's care
6) A woman who believed (or at least wanted us to believe) that a death cult from Taos was after her
7) A woman whose husband has no sternum because his family bred back in every third generation
8) A woman who practiced Voodoo who was known as the 'Screamer' playing bongo drums whilst masturbating at her open window
9) A musician from New Jersey whom I'm beginning to think really believes he's Irish
10) A woman who once lectured a mutual friend on the dangers of 'mud people' (meaning anyone of color)
11) A man who once created a collage with the head of George Bush Senior being carried away by the Hindu Goddess Kali (after being severed, of course) and who would run around making random possessed noises

I have met many, many, many loons in my time...this is just a sampling. Why? A good many of them were in the Pagan community. The others were gamers. Both tend to be on the fringe of society, and so there is a wackier than normal lunatic fringe.

The friendships/acquaintanceships I maintain:
1) A mechanical engineer building things for NASA's Mars mission
2) A social worker with a great big heart
3) A good soul, even if he is ADD-boy
4) A philospher
5) A collie queen
6) A Rocky Horror lighting tech by night, tech support for school by day
7) A comic geek
all of whom are at least as sane as I am, I think, or more so. :)