A coworker, Elizabeth, posted once about how difficult it was to buy herself a Nice Thing that wasn’t food or alcohol, and that didn’t require a substantial outlay of effort to maintain or support the Nice Thing. She finally found something, though – an indulgence that truly worked out for herself that she didn’t regret later or think, Why did I bring this thing into my life?

Her purchase? A pillow. A pillow that she loved so much, it inspired an entire blog post.

I am jealous of her pillow. She adored this pillow. Though she didn’t go into details about the things I’m about to write, I have filled them in based on my imagined perfection of this pillow. It was just the right firmness, had just the right fluff. It gave enough for her comfort, so it wasn’t like laying her head on a stack of newspapers, and it wasn’t so soft that her head sank all the way through the down to her bed, with pillow closing in on either side of her face.

I have not found a pillow that I love so well. Our pillows are like the bears’ beds in Goldilocks. One is too hard, one is too soft — only there’s not an option that’s just right.

I want to find the one that’s just right.

When we shop for pillows, I never know how to buy, how to test, what to look for in a pillow. I’m probably looking in the wrong place. Maybe Target isn’t the best venue to search for the perfect pillow. I remember buying a pillow once from JC Penney, and rather than displaying pillows with a bed nearby to test them on, the pillows were packed in plastic bags and stacked on shelves or tossed in a wire cage like beach balls at the grocery store in summer. I picked them up and listened to plastic rustle as I squished the pillows between my hands.

But what does squishing a plastic covered pillow between my hands tell me about how the pillow is going to feel against my ear? How the down is going to poof under my head? Whether my neck is going to hurt in the morning.

I need to lay my head on the pillows, and lay my body on a bed. I need to test the pillow. How do I choose? How do I know what kind of pillow will work for me? I need a buying guide for pillows.

Thanks to LRose for the “buying guide for pillows” writing prompt.