The Ikea Incident

Have you seen that new Ikea commercial with the parents and their daughter just before they start shopping at Ikea? The daughter tells her parents for goodness' sake, stick together, remember what happened last time, and at the end she tells them to hold hands as they start their Swedish adventure. I'm thinking this is a common, though unspoken of, problem at Ikea stores. In our household, we refer to it as "the Ikea incident".

You see, one fine day Ryan and I were in Ikea in Edmonton, one of the largest Ikea stores in North America. As I recall it, I told him I was just going to look at this one thing. I only went a short distance away for a short time, but it was long enough that when I went back to the area where Ryan had been, he was gone and nowhere to be found. And I mean NOWHERE. I looked for him all around the area we had been in, then branched out to the surrounding displays, and eventually started searching for him on the other floor. Of course, this happened to be a time when I had my cellphone on my person but he had left his in the truck so I knew I couldn't call him to find out where he was. This little cat-and-mouse game ensued for about 45 minutes. Usually 45 minutes is all I can stand Ikea for so I was becoming very frustrated and impatient trying to find him. Obviously I found him, but as a couple, we now have a rule whilst in Ikea ~ always stick together! Come to think of it, it's not such a bad rule for life either!

Now when we're in a big box type store or sports stadium or what have you and we need to separate for a short time, we always have a muster area because, as we say, "Remember the Ikea incident?"