Furniture shopping and thoughts on religion

In prep for moving into my own apartment next weekend, I went furniture shopping in the last couple of days. I set my budget at $1200 for all furniture including mattress. So there are not many places I can afford to go to. Ikea is the no-brainer choice.

A few years ago, I wouldn't believe how excited I'd be stepping into a furniture store! The things in Ikea are SO cheap but flimsy at the same time (there were woks were $4!). It's a good thing that their furniture seems pretty solid. I went around and noted down the furniture that I wanted on a piece of paper and pencil which they conveniently provided. I heard that Ikea is famous for their Swedish meatballs, so I had to give it a try. I was surprised at the number of meatballs for just $3.99 (one can only guess the meat quality). First one, mmm not too bad, second one, tastes better with all the sauces, a few afterwards, this is getting gross, last few, I was tossing up between whether it's better to throw them away or ending up with a high chance of throwing up. I settled on chucking them away. After lunch, there were suddenly tons of people and I had to avoid bumping into people or stepping onto kids, I started to feel like I was at the airport - not good! I quickly went about finilazing my orders, which actually took about 2 hours. Finally I was ready to tell them what I wanted and have those delivered to my apartment this coming Friday (delivery fee is only $49!). But Ikea can only hold on items for you for 2-3 days, so I'll have to go back this Wednesday and pick out my things then.

Today I drove to Fry's in Anaheim (40miles away) to get this microwave which I really wanted from seeing online. Yes, Fry's is the only store that carries it in stores and the closest one that has it is in Anaheim. I got my highly sought-after microwave. I also got this all purpose toolbox for assembling my bed and dresser etc. I'm so looking forward to it! I wonder if I should enlist some help? No, I'll do it by myself, it's going to be a little hard and perhaps frustrating but I'll appreciate my own place all that more!

I then went on a few more shopping assignments. Outside one of the stores. there was a man preaching to everyone and anyone who walked past, 'Jesus Christ is coming, never forget that!' (I wonder how can one forget something that they don't even know). He reverts between this line and the following 'Jesus Christ is coming, be prepared to greet him!' (hmm how shall I greet him? 'Why hello Jesus, what brings you to our humble place?'). I tried hard not to laugh. Do people not realize that most if not all religions are 'mental institutions' conjured up by those who use it as a diversion for their own purposes, namely control and power?! And there is this reward-punishment system of heaven-hell after you die. How convenient! No dead man can come back and prove or disapprove it's existence. You may say that having faith helps people through the hard times. That is only beneficial for those who do not have faith in themselves. Life is what you make it, you can either pray for it to be better and go through the motions, or strive for it yourself.