When I was a kid, we all had assigned seats at the dinner table. It was never announced or really official, but we all always sat at the same seats. Mom and dad at the ends (mom closer to the kitchen) and my sister and I on either side, but always the SAME side. When I was married we relaxed it somewhat, but usually we all sat at the same seats, and the boys would squabble if one of their brothers sat in their chair.  Funny how that works.

Same holds true, usually, in the bedroom.  I was always on the right side. During the course of my 32 year marriage we changed bedrooms often. Not sure why, but I was always rearranging things, trying to get the right setup. (Boy, that should have been a red flag, huh?)  Anyway, no matter which room we settled in, I was always on the right and he was on the left.

After our divorce, I still slept on the right side, leaving the left side of my huge king size bed empty. It felt wrong to be on the other side and it also constantly reminded me that yes, I was alone.

My awakening came from watching the movie "Somethings Got To Give"  with Jack Nicholson  and Diane Keaton. Diane is a divorced mom and in one scene  she is sleeping in the middle of her beg bed. Jack is trying to join her but she stays in the middle and explains that after she was divorced, she would feel so lonely sleeping in the bed alone with her husbands side empty. She decided to sleep in the middle, so there was no empty side and she could sleep much better after that. GREAT IDEA! We do get inspiration from strange places. It definitely works.  It reduces the "poor me, all alone in this big bed" feeling.

This week I went one better.  My new little country house has a teeny little bedroom. My king size bed almost filled it up and for the last 4 years I've been unable to make the bed nice because I couldn't walk all the way around it because it almost totally filled the room. I was complaining to a co-worker about this and she indicated that she had a double bed in her guest room that was way to small for her son and his wife and various dogs. She suggested, "lets switch beds". So this weekend she loaded up her double bed and took away my king size. Wow! I gained room on all sides, and now when I sleep in the middle, it's way comfy. Plus my ex-husbands mo-jo is gone from the room. Before the light on the side table was too far away to read so I had to start in my old spot. Now it's just perfect, and the old ghosts are gone. I have room to move around and can lay in the middle. . . .queen of my bed.  I also had the added treat of going to Target to buy new sheets. If I ever have an overnight "guest" we will just have to snuggle a little more.

One more problem solved!