I spent 8 years of my life growing up in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago. When I lived there, the little town was mostly cornfield and prairie. In the past 13 years a lot of change has happened in the area. Streets have been widened, highways have been added, and lots and lots of marsh and prairie have been converted into ticky-tacky pastel aluminum sided housing. Miles and miles of land have been converted to concrete – strip malls, multi-level shopping centers, outlet centers, bars, discos and home improvement centers.

Whenever I need to go shopping for something major, I always end up going back there. Each time I find myself rubbernecking as I drive down the streets because new developments and new stores are going up all the time. The former garbage dump is now the site of a Home Depot for goodness sakes! The methane torch is still burning.

So in the continuing quest for the right home for the wall of sound, I found myself back in the old stomping grounds. It is truly amazing that I can still find my way around out there. It is all so foreign. The SUVs and the Hum Vees have taken over. There is no reason for these veHickles to exist here in the flat, concrete expanses of the suburbs, but there they are.

I started my trip by paying a short visit to my parents. They have some new neighbors and a new road has been added to the park to accommodate the new plots.

Then I made my way to Trader Joe’s. When they started that chain up here, I wasn’t fully convinced we needed more grocery stores around. There aren’t many of them around just yet, but I find myself going to them when I can – mostly because of the wasabe salad dressing.

Then I went to Tarjay Boutique and somehow managed to spend $80 on socks and toiletries, and laundry supplies, 'cuz, you know, everything is cheaper there.

Then I started looking in furniture stores. I went to Naked Furniture, where they had absolutely nothing that could house a stereo – and I mean NO THING. The store smells nice though. So after that disappointment, I went to a new store that had really very nice things inside. Some of these things I could even afford! But alas, nothing appropriate for the Wall of Sound. They had a lot of entertainment centers, but I am not really interested in those.

Across the street from the new store was Ethan Alan. I always thought of that place as good, solid, expensive furniture. I went there because LilyG has done some talking about it, and I had never actually ever been inside. There were some very beautiful things in here – and they were all really expensive – I mean, I saw an end table – a little round table with now drawers or anything, and it cost $500. The saleswoman came up to me after I’d been there a few minutes and started showing me what she thought would work for the stereo, and there I was, trying to pretend I wasn’t phased by the prices.

The second she was paged, I was ran out of there as fast as I could.

Then I went to Wickes Furniture. Lots and lots of pressboard in there. In fact, the sales guy told me that all furniture is pressed wood. “Nobody sells furniture made of whole wood. It would cost tens of thousands of dollars,” he told me. Yeah, so that was the end of this shopping expedition. I just can’t take too much shopping.

I was just about to post this entry, when Futurama came on. They did a little spoof on IKEA - the home of "affordably priced Swedish crap". Yeah, I won't be shopping there.