My parents got new linoleum in the kitchen and the little bit of carpeting at the very top of the stairs is no longer there. Every time I head downstairs, this small change almost causes me to pitch myself headfirst down the stairs, screaming mantras from The Design of Everyday Things. I’m not sure what it is about the missing carpet that is turning me into such a klutz, but my mom says it took her a month to get used to it herself. When I’m at my parents’ I realize that my dominant memories of the house are from my childhood (well, duh), because everything looks like it has shrunk. I am reminded of Joan Cusack in Grosse Pointe Blank describing her high school reunion: “It was as if everyone had swelled.”