We recently went on a road trip, which I will be posting about in a few days. But first I have a gripe to get off my chest.
On our road trip, we rented hotel rooms and a cabin. The hotel room was typical. It sported a couple of middlebrow paintings on the walls, a TV, mini-fridge, desk, chair, and two queen-size beds. And on both queen-size beds was something that was also typical. They each had four pillows.

Who the hell needs four pillows on a bed?
My wife always gets the bed next to the air conditioner. I hate air conditioning, and have bad memories of shivering all night while she snored in comfort. So we’ve worked it out where I always get the bed that’s furthest away from the a/c.
I was exhausted from a long drive, and tried to lay down on my assigned bed. But I couldn’t, because of all the damned pillows that were in the way. So I spread them out on the surface of the bed and tried to lay over the top of them, assuming that this was some sort of decadent luxury that hotels were promoting. But no matter how I arranged those beastly pillows, I couldn’t find a comfortable platform. Instead it felt lumpy, and the pillows contorted my back into stressful positions.
Finally I gave up and pulled three of these torture devices off the bed and dumped them on the floor. But pillows take up a lot of floor space, and can be a dangerous trip hazard. I had to be careful after my post-peripatetic nap, to keep the soft-pawed monsters from grabbing my ankles, sending me to the floor, and perhaps dragging me under the bed. As has happened in some nightmares.
Fortunately, I only had to deal with those pillow monsters for one night. The next day, we arrived at our short-term rental cabin. I figured that now we would be roughing it, away from the inutile annoyances of modern amenities, such as pillows.
But as I stumbled through the front door on dog-tired feet, my visions of austerity were shattered. I was greeted by a main room equipped with a love seat and futon. And on this furniture poised the menacing, square-shaped, puffy forms of a half-dozen scatter cushions.
“Never mind, I’ll just lay on the bed,” I murmured to myself. But in the bedroom, atop our queen-size bed, I was accosted by an artful arrangement of no less than eight fancy, colorful pillows. I stared aghast at those damnable, fluffy gremlins, and they seemed to gaze right back at me, taunting me with muffled, sinister laughter.
They had me over a barrel. My wife, you see, loves pillows. I was taking a chance when I rounded up those feathery imps and 86’d them to the futon in the main room. Would she object? No, thank God. Even she, of the fairer and softer sex, appreciated what a pain-in-the-ass a plethora of pillows presents.
Categories: Travel
They’re for the forty-two, Kama Sutra “pillow positions”.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Ooh. And I place my head on one of them. Yuck.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Exactly! 😉
LikeLiked by 2 people
My gripe is with the decorative pillows that are placed on top of the “regular” plethora of pillows. I once read that like menus in restaurants, they are cleaned once in 48 blue moons if that. And given the abuse they get… 🫣😵💫🤐
LikeLiked by 2 people
That wouldn’t surprise me. I think they’d be pretty hard to clean. But maybe the dry cleaner offers a 48 Blue Moon Special.
LikeLiked by 2 people
They’d probably have to clean/change out their machines after all the grime’n’stuff that would come out of those scary pillows… 😁
LikeLiked by 2 people
Maybe they could sell it as biofuel.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Sounds like a good rocket fuel! 😝
LikeLiked by 2 people
This cracked me up. Sounded like Brad. He throws the pillows on our couches. Guys just don’t appreciate the art of decoration, of adding beauty to the room . 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
Beauty is okay, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of a good nap.
LikeLiked by 2 people
With wisdom like that, I think that you’d make an excellent counselor for those considering a marriage partner.
LikeLiked by 2 people
“Wisdom like that…” OH Help!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’d be glad to help you, anytime you need my sage advice.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I will try to keep that in mind and call on you …. when needed, which means if needed…I must be desperate. 😜
LikeLiked by 1 person
If you follow my advice, you can become desperate sooner.
LikeLike
LOL! Ooh, well perhaps I need to seek your advice then. Let me think of what to ask.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’d advise an estranged couple to get rid of all of their pillows.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And the wife may give you an evil look!
LikeLiked by 1 person
But the husband would be secretly smiling.
LikeLike
Until he gets your bill!
LikeLiked by 1 person
No, it would be worth it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
For you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
For every man on planet Earth.
LikeLike
And we are back to “Oh Help!” again!
LikeLiked by 1 person
😄
LikeLiked by 1 person
We are trying to cushion your head so tnat you can take a luxurious nap!
LikeLiked by 1 person
But it’s overkill. Too many pillows is counterproductive. (Hmm, that’s a strange thought).
LikeLiked by 1 person
(Ignoring the 6:32 am post)
I am also baffled by the number of pillows on a bed in “decorated spaces”. But now that I get to sleep all by myself – HOW WONDERFUL – I seem to enjoy using two pillows while I sleep with a cpap hose to my nose. One is for propping me on my side, the other is for covering the hose leading to my face so my arms have a place to rest.
I usually tuck the other two on the floor for the floor monster to sleep and leave me alone. I am the bed nearest the a/c as well, when traveling with family.
LikeLiked by 3 people
So, I count two pillows you find useful. But the other two end up on the floor. They’re just useless decorations that have no practical place on a bed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You could build a fort to sleep in.
LikeLiked by 4 people
I LIKE that idea!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reminds me of what I used to do in the military, while on guard duty.
LikeLike
I thought about sending in a question about this very topic. Women don’t seem to be happy until the entire bed, sofa, love seat, any other furniture is covered with pillows. You go to sit on the couch and first you have to decide what to do with the 4 or 5 pillows that are already there. I know better than to sit on the pillows, and I am not supposed to throw them on the floor (even though they are called “throw pillows”), so one piece of furniture collects all of the superfluous pillows from the others so that people can actually use the furniture for its intended purpose of butt-parking. It’s either that or sit on the floor and if I sit on the floor there is soon a dog next to me that needs petting.
LikeLiked by 4 people
It’s crazy all the pillows people pile onto furniture. I believe if your couch is worth the money you paid for it, it won’t need any pillows. It will be cushiony enough without any help.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yeah, and it is already hard enough to find the remote control without additional pillows in the way.
LikeLiked by 4 people
And ironically, there is no remotely good reason to have all those pillows.
LikeLiked by 2 people
We may be up against the global pillow industrial complex here and are in a hopeless position.
LikeLiked by 2 people
This is a worrisome problem that I may have to sleep on.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Perhaps it is all just a species wide over-reaction to hundreds of thousands of years of our ancestors having only a rock for a pillow.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Maybe you’re right. Perhaps we should appreciate pillows, and not take them for granite.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Should have known a groan was coming!
LikeLiked by 1 person
There is something to be said for being rocked to sleep.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Some people sleep best when stoned.
LikeLiked by 2 people
That could lead to a sedimentary life style.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Then they’d better sleep in a riverbed.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I tried that once but stayed awake streaming movies all night.
LikeLiked by 2 people
You must have been up Schitt’s Creek.
LikeLike
Oh gosh!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I see that you are giving your “sage advice” again!
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Sage” advice is always helpful for those who feel bushed.
LikeLike
Hopeless is a good word when it comes to the two of you. 😄
LikeLiked by 2 people
LOL! I see that its hopeless to attempt to explain! Blame the stores. They are the ones who make the pillows in every design and color possible! We can’t just choose 1!
LikeLiked by 2 people
This may be like the coffee cup conundrum. People seem to have 30 – 50 times more coffee cups than they need. Some of these people may not even drink coffee. We have coffee cups in at least three different cupboards and maybe more.
I try to rotate through as many coffee cups as I can, but I don’t feel like I can keep up. I know we have a problem but on a recent trip I just had to purchase a Theodore Roosevelt National Park coffee mug. I watched myself making this purchase almost as an observer and I was happy with my purchase upon leaving the park store.
At one time in a fit of sanity and lucidity, I took a box of coffee mugs from my cupboard to the kitchen at work. They were all gone by the next day. People saw the free coffee cups and thought “hmmm…. I could probably use a seventy-ninth coffee mug at my house.” This didn’t however solve my problem and many new coffee cups seem to have spawned to fill the temporary void left in my cupboard.
I am admitting that I have a problem. My question is, where does it end? When the Earth has been completely stripped of raw materials to make coffee mugs?
LikeLiked by 3 people
See, as I’ve always maintained . . . coffee is poison.
LikeLiked by 1 person
How many coffee cups do you have?
LikeLiked by 1 person
My wife has a zillion. And she quit coffee about six months ago. She uses them for tea, and an occasional sneak cup of coffee.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Have you suggested that she get rid of some of her coffee cups? That is a dangerous topic to bring up I have found.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I may be a fool in many ways, but this is one thing I have never suggested.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Good point! We have more coffee cups than throw pillows. I just got rid of a lot too. But some hold sentimental feelings and some are just pretty and…you just need to have a cool mug to drink something so important as coffee. The right mug, makes coffee and tea sweeter. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pillows on hotel beds never suit me. I bring my own and set all theirs aside in a corner or closet, out of my way. It is supposed to look luxurious, I guess. The only being in our house who uses throw pillows is kitty, as repositories for his excess fur, concentrated lumps of allergens for the rest of us.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I always worry about bringing my own pillow to a hotel, that they’ll think I’m stealing one of theirs when I take it back out.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have four “sleeping “ pillows on my bed, using the extras to prop me up in bed while I’m reading. When it’s lights out, I shove the extra two to the side of the bed. Got rid of decorative bed pillows long ago, they’re useless!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah, decorative pillows aren’t much good for anything. But their firmness makes them the best weapons in a pillow fight.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha,I thought of that after I hit the send button..
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just don’t forget it if you get in a pillow fight.
LikeLiked by 1 person
maybe instead of using pillows to decorate beds and couches, you could use coffee mugs.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Full or empty?
LikeLiked by 2 people
decisions, decisions. but you could stuff the pillows into the cabinets where the coffee mugs were so that no more mugs could fit…
LikeLiked by 2 people
In some strange way, I admire your organizational skills.
LikeLiked by 1 person
you would be the first…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ummm…..hate to point out the obvious problem with this…but men do need the obvious pointed out a lot. 😉
Pillows are meant to be SOFT!
LikeLiked by 1 person
but then why do some people like a hard mattress?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Because some people are just strange! LOL!
LikeLiked by 2 people
three cheers for strange people!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Oops! Do you happen to like hard beds? ☺
LikeLiked by 2 people
I think I can fall asleep on any type of bed…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well that is a good thing! 🙂
My inlaws sleep in different beds because of one liking a hard bed and one a soft one. I would have a back ache with a hard bed. Waterbeds are the best! Loved my waterbed!!
LikeLiked by 2 people
at least that’s the reason your inlaws are giving you 🙂
I’ve never tried sleeping on a waterbed, seems like it would take some getting used to…
LikeLiked by 1 person
LOL!!
When I moved to an apartment I bought one and kept it when we got married. Didn’t really give Brad a choice, but he really liked it too! It survived 2 moves with us and then sadly it sprung a big leak and that was the end of it.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Meanwhile, poor Brad had to stealthily wrap his icepick up in an inconspicuous cloth and toss the evidence in a nearby dumpster.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Did not, doolally! 😜
LikeLiked by 1 person
did it leak all over your bedroom?
LikeLiked by 1 person
No, it didn’t thankfully! We didn’t have a swimming pool. 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
glad it worked out!
LikeLiked by 2 people