Buyer's Remorse

As you all know, I signed a lease for my own apartment recently and entered the place with only a computer desk for furniture. My clothes are still in suitcases, my books are still in boxes, my TV rests on a huge rubber bin, my DVD player and VCR sit on the ground, I don't have a chair for my desk, I sleep on the floor, and I yearn for a kitchen table.

What was my first furniture purchase? A bed would have been the logical choice. After all, I wake up every night with a horrible pain in my back from trying to sleep on top of this ratty body pillow I have. But I've never been known for being all that logical in my personal life.

No, not a bed. A dresser. And not just any dresser. An expensive-ass dresser. It cost $265 at this antique store. I don't know how old it is (the lady said it's from England and is between 30 and 70 years old - is it still considered an antique?) I don't know what kind of wood it's made out of (for all I know, it's stained plywood slapped together with rusty nails.) Yes, it's gorgeous and all, but I could have used that money to fly to NY or to do a million other things. Why did I buy a dresser?

My first serious case of buyer's remorse hit me about four years ago after I bought my first nearly-new car. I put $1,500 down on a three-year-old Chevy Prizm (which, I'm convinced, is the best, most durable car in the world). The day of my purchase, I tooled around Portland, happy with the knowledge that I could easily go grocery shopping WHENEVER I FELT LIKE IT. The next day, however, I called the car dealership and told them that I wanted to give it back. "Give it back?" said the female voice on the other end of the line. "You can't do that."

The female voice said I could trade the car for something else, but that I was stuck with it. So I called the Attorney General's office and found out about a little something called the buyer's remorse law. Apparently, in some states, people have three days in which to return large items (like a car) if they are feeling they made a mistake. Unfortunately, Oregon isn't one of those states. Needless to say, I still have the car, and it's been wonderful to me. Five payments to go, and it's all mine.