“The Princess and the Pea” *

I have a confession to make. The three bed pillows I sleep on are well over ten years old (I’m afraid to say how old they actually are). The pillows are very firm and rather flat. I stack them on top of each other so I have a sort of wedge. I hate to think of the generations of dust mites the pillows have supported, with their irritating allergens. (Too much information?)

These pillows would definitely not pass the Oprah test. During one of her shows about linens and bedding, she demonstrated how to know when your pillow needed replacing. Oprah folded a pillow in half and it stayed folded, meaning it was a goner. My pillows stay folded in half without any chance of a rebound.

Penney’s had a pillow sale last week and I bought three different types, all labeled “Firm Support.” I’ve bought cheap pillows from Kmart and Walmart in the past, hoping to make the switch, but my face sunk so far in I felt like suffocating. I figured the more expensive Penny’s pillows should work.

Last night I resolved to toss aside my three old pillows and use the Sealy Posturepedic Select pillow. The Sealy was comfortable and not too squishy. “Hey, I think this is a keeper!” I thought. But as I lay there, I was aware it was different. I changed positions. Still comfortable, but not familiar. From 11:15 PM to 1:00 AM, I tried to fall asleep, but couldn’t do it. I finally tossed the Sealy pillow across the room, stacked my three worn, but beloved pillows on the bed and fell asleep.

I have a hard time sleeping when anything is different. I am like “The Princess and the Pea.” * I have trouble adjusting when we add our electric blanket to the bed in the winter, or take it off at the end of spring. It’s the difference in weight that bothers me. When we lived in Gilroy, Larry put some bookcases in our bedroom. Somehow, even with my eyes closed, I was aware enough of the change that I had trouble sleeping. I guess I felt like I was in someone else’s house.

Larry saw the title of this blog entry and I told him what I’ve written. When I told him about not being able to sleep with the new pillow, he said, “I knew it!” He had slept wonderfully on his new pillow. When I reminded him of the bookcase incident, he laughed and said, “You’re just plain weird.” But still “princessy”?

* ” …'Well we shall soon see if that is true,' thought the old Queen, but she said nothing. The Queen went into the bedroom, took all the bed clothes off and laid a pea on the bedstead: then she took twenty mattresses and piled them on top of the pea, and then twenty feather beds on top of the mattresses. This was where the princess was to sleep that night. In the morning they asked her how she slept.

'Oh terribly bad!' said the princess. 'I have hardly closed my eyes the whole night! Heaven knows what was in the bed. I seemed to be lying upon some hard thing, and my whole body is black and blue this morning. It is terrible!'

They saw at once that she must be a real princess when she had felt the pea through twenty mattresses and twenty feather beds. Nobody but a real princess could have such a delicate skin….”

by Hans Christian Andersen