DIANE MAKAR MURPHY College boy comes home for the futon; sofa, so good

I have developed the habit, in the past three weeks, of hunching my shoulders up and my head down as a buttress against the ice cold wind. And that's the way I ran from my car into the lobby of the B & amp;O Station restaurant in downtown Youngstown last week.
My black wool coat was drawn around me, my hands were tucked into my pockets and my sonar was on. After all, you can't see when your head is hiding inside your coat. In the lobby, I waited for the rest of my family, who evidently were not as distressed by the cold as I was.
This was to be a farewell lunch, because Josh had come to visit from Ohio State University for the long weekend, and by some strange twist of good luck, Hannah was both off from high school and not scheduled to work at Panera. Both John and I were free for lunch, too.
Futon trip
It would be nice to think that Josh is a bit homesick, and I do think he misses us. But the truth is probably two-fold. First, he wanted to see his girlfriend, and second, he came home to retrieve his futon. (That's OK; I'll take what I can get.)
A futon, you may be thinking, what a good idea. The guys can lounge on it, or fold it down into a bed if visitors come. But you would have to have a student in a two-man dormitory room the size of a walk-in closet to appreciate the scope of this proposed acquisition.
The first day Josh arrived at Baker Hall in September, we loaded up three rolling bins with his stuff. There were boxes and boxes of clothing, two guitars, a computer, a stereo and this, that, and certainly the other. And since that first day, Josh has been repacking it and bringing it home incrementally.
"Don't need this."
"No room for that."
"Too much of this. Don't want that."
"Too many clothes."
"Can't hang this picture."
"This was ridiculous."
"Don't need a laundry bag AND basket."
"This won't fit."
And so on.
The rearranging begins
And through the first quarter and the start of the second, Josh and his roommate, John Lowry (also a Boardman High School graduate), have become furniture-rearranging professionals. Had they set up a video camera in the corner of their room, I've no doubt they could be a series on HGTV. Kind of a "This Small Space" meets "Mission: Organization" meets "Design on a Dime."
One bed started out lofted, with the other half-lofted. One variation became stacked beds -- bunk-bed style. Another reverted to the loft and half loft, but turned them into an L-shape. Then they lofted both beds and slid their desks underneath.
In the latest evolution, they have somehow found a way to cram the proverbial 10 pounds of stuff into a 5-pound bag. And don't you think I'm not proud of them!
They have found a way to add to their current mix -- two lofted beds, two desks, two shelves, closet wardrobes, the patented MicroFridge, a combination refrigerator, freezer and microwave appliance (invented by a former OSU student), two file cabinets, two desk chairs, TV, stereo, Nintendo, DVD player, two computers, a 6-foot-tall guy and an even taller guy and a full-size futon couch/bed.
So anyway, that is why the boy is home and that is why our last moments together this trip were to be lunch. A futon was waiting at home to be disassembled and crammed somehow into the trunk and back seat of a Chevy Lumina before their slated departure of 1:30 p.m.
What's to come
But, as I say, I'll take what I can get. It won't be long before our Hannah is a senior and then a college student too, and I will be buttressing myself against more than the cold. And I will be happy any time either one of them comes home for any reason, whether it is because I am missed, or for something less spectacular, like a futon.
murphy@vindy.com