Monday, April 26, 2010

Can you spare a square


So camping apparently took a little longer to recuperate from than I realized. How did I realize this? From our lack of toilet paper.

The weekend before last, was spent camping with friends on the beach. As a proud former girl scout, I spent the week before hand readying all our gear and supplies. Always be prepared...and normally I am...mostly. Normally I have the written list of what I need to pack and also a secondary list for packing up the car. However, this camping trip was lacking in the list. Which meant I forgot to bring a few things. Nothing major really. I mean, who needs knives, right? I'm not sure how those taters were gonna get chopped up...luckily others were better prepared in that department.

Other than the knives, there was only really one other thing I forgot. Well, I didn't really forget to bring it. I forgot to buy toilet paper for the household. In all the shopping and preparing for the camping, I apparently forgot to buy toilet paper. Not a big deal. I knew we had a few rolls left.

However, on the day we were leaving, I reached into the cabinet to replace the empty roll. There was only one roll left. Instead of taking a spare roll with us, that roll would stay home and await our return. I wasn't too worried. So far we have been well taken care of by our state park's bathrooms...they're not always the best smelling but always stocked with paper. Plus, we were having a friend come over to feed the cats. I know that had I brought the last of the toilet paper with us, our cat sitter would have gotten a severe case of diarrhea...that's just how it works.

Our camping weekend finished, we headed home back to our normal life. Sunburned, tired, and a little sore from walking in sand for four days, we spent the next few days in a state of severe relaxation, otherwise known as laziness.

By Tuesday, that last roll of toilet paper was long gone. There was a box of tissue in the bathroom to hold us over, but no real feel of urgency to head to the store for more toilet paper.

Thursday found us at the dollar store for some cheapy goodness. I moseyed over to the paper isle for a cheap roll of paper to hold us over until we hit a real store.

Friday rolled around and that tissue box was back out. Found out that Dollar store toilet paper is cheap because there is less paper on the roll than normal rolls.

Saturday night as I reached into the closet for our last box of tissue, I realized that I needed to just buy some damn toilet paper.

So Mario, and I headed out to our local target to finally purchase some toilet paper...and cat food(totally the same story with the cat food...why do you think we hit the dollar store earlier that week? I was getting a lot of 'tude from the cats about them not having any moist food)

I'm not sure why we put it off for so long. Really, why would I put off a trip to target for any reason? It's never mattered how tired, sunburned or broke I have been, I always am up for a trip to my favorite store.

Cat food and toilet paper purchased, we happily headed home. We knew that we wouldn't have to leave the house for a week with all the toilet paper and cat food we have. I headed to the kitchen to feed the two vocal cats demanding food, while Mario took the toilet paper to the bathroom to restock the roll and the cabinet...and that's when he found a full 12 pack of brand new toilet paper in the linen closet that we didn't know we had.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

First and foremost, I would like to thank my husband helping me keep the apartment clean. Not just this week, but for the last four years. I really appreciate the help and work he has done...but between all of us, can we discuss having to reload the dishwasher?

For someone that has OCD tendencies, he sure as shit does not know how to load a dishwasher. There were bowls face up, a huge bowl using up the entire top shelf, plates randomly put here and there, and lots of random empty spaces every where. It really didn't make sense to me at all. Then there was the problem of food stuck to all of the dishes. I had to pull the most offending dishes out to rinse them off. Then I reorganized all the dishes and added a bunch more. It's amazing how many dishes fit in the dishwasher when it's all organized and lined up.

Mario and I joke about his OCD, but really the OCD only goes as far as he can see. If he shoves it in the closet and closes the door, it's clean baby. If all the stuff is lined up on the counter, it doesn't matter that the toilet paper doesn't belong in the kitchen.

And not to be completely ungrateful...it's really honestly more of a curiosity, but why can't he go to the linen closet to get clean towels? I'll clean the kitchen and put the dishtowels in the laundry hamper. Mario will go in the kitchen, cook dinner, and use all kinds of paper towels. When he's out of paper towels, he'll go into the same linen closet and get more paper towels to restock...but not grab any dish towels....?

It's the same with bathroom towels. I'll take the towels out of the bathroom to wash. He'll go in and take a shower and instead of just opening the door and grabbing a new towel to dry off, he'll use a tiny hand towel or even worse my turby twist to dry off.

I know, I know, why don't I just replace the towels as soon as I take the dirty ones out? Well, because I am curious at what point he'll actually just go get a clean towel. I know I'm the one who is really loosing out here. My poor turby twist has seen things it should never see, but still I'm curious what will trigger him to get a clean towel out of the closet. Well, and also because my ADD causes me to walk out with dirty towels and then see that the bed needs to be made or some shiny thing catches my eye...and then no clean towels go up until I need one.

I'm almost to the point where I will just take care of it all myself. There are already chores that I just automatically do myself like cleaning the shower, doing the laundry, hanging the shower mat back up after showering...yes this is a chore. It is something that I have to do every day or it will never be hung up to dry. I've stopped fighting with him about it.

Maybe I'm just wondering at what point in our marriage I'll take over all the chores because his way is never good enough for me? This is really not what I want, but I see it happening. I've always hated when I see women doing all the work and the husband sitting back relaxing...however, now I understand it. It's a forced situation on the part of the woman. Let me tell you if this happens, Mario and I need to hurry up and have kids so I can convince them that cleaning is the funnest thing there is to do and cleaning mommies way is the best.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The Long Awkward Good-bye

Mars has a friend that he's worked with and known for years. I'm very fond of him and his family. He's one of those guys that is very laid back and yet is a stress case. He talks a lot of hearsay. And he always sounds like he's stoned! He's one of those guys that is amusing and frustrating to listen to all at the same time..try listening to a very stoned republican surfer for hours...it's an event. At times I think Mario has the patience of a saint. However, sometimes listening to them go on and on for hours, I know they are friends for a reason.

After knowing him for four years, he's decided to change up the goodbyes when leaving.

I have a feeling it's all my fault. I feel like it all stems from us running into him and the family at a store a few months back. We were wandering through Mario's man store, otherwise known at Frys Electronics, when I saw the wife and kids hanging out. Of course we walked up to say hi. We chatted for a little and when we said good bye, I gave her a quick hug good-bye.

*On a side note, his wife is an amazing gardener. The last time we watched their dog for them, she gave me three grocery bags full of home grown, beautiful, fully ripe, amazing tomatoes. They also give us fruit and other yummy stuff....how could I not hug her every time I see her!

Ever since that day at the man store, Mario's friend says good-bye with the most awkward hand shake/half hug/loud wet kiss on the check...and did I mention the awkward. The thing is, I know to expect it. But he still goes in like he's a fourteen year old on his first date. It's just weird. Just make up your mind and go with it. If's going to be this strange combination of shake/hug/kiss fine but throw some confidence in and it will work. I'm very fond of the goodbye kiss and hug...ok I do have a problem with friends and hand shakes. We've been friends too long for hand shakes. Either way, you've decided to go with this type of good-bye, go for it.

Today, I got three of those awkward shake/hug/wet loud kisses. I blame Mario, he kept taking things out to the car, so his friend thought they were leaving. Now that I think about it, Mario was laughing the third time the wet kiss landed on my cheek. That jerk probably set me up.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Eager

The last few days I have been eager. First thing I am eager about, is camping. This weekend we'll be camping with some friends. I. Can't. Wait. Pretty much this week has been devoted to camping. It's all I think about. I know, it's silly how excited I am. What can I say, I love camping. Thursday can't come soon enough. We've hunted down some firewood, bought food, bought supplies, the car is pretty much loaded. Which makes it harder to wait until Thursday...WE ARE READY TO GO!!!

The second thing I am eager about are my veggies. I know they have a long way to go. Loooonnnng way to go. But I love checking on them daily to see where they are. Once they start sprouting they seem to grow so fast...ok fast and slow. They seem to grow fast and then not fast enough. I love it.

Of course there has been a little bit of mystery as to some foot prints in my garden. First I noticed some peas smooshed down. Then I noticed some of my tiny onions smooshed. Well, I found the fat butt that did it...the cat. Am I surprised? Not at all. Bob was the cause of great lettuce loss of '09. That shit. He was rolling around in the little hairs of onions that were growing in. Maybe they already have that stink that animals love to roll in. Looks like Mario was right...a fence needs to be put up.

The third thing I'm eager about is my website. I am in desperate need of a new website. I have been putting it off since January. Mostly because I've decided to do it myself this time. I know what I want, all I have to do is start.

Of course in the middle of me getting my shit together to start the site yesterday, I got a call from a photographer friend. Her business pretty much died with the economy. This was a shock to me, she always had lots of shoots going. Circumstances got the best of it. However, now she's found something else that is working out well for her. She thinks like me, everything happens for a reason. There's a lesson in everything.

She was awesome enough to offer me her website. Swap out logos and info with hers and I'd be set. She had the designer make it completely back end ready. So I can add pages and photos as needed. Hopefully, I can edit enough of the html to make it fit my aesthetic. I'll be sad to part with my current site design. I get so many compliments on it. Unfortunately, the content is dated, the photos don't come close to representing my work and I'm afraid it's just not working to display what I need. So, I'm very eager to get her website. It might be the one thing that keeps my mind off of camping for the next two days...maybe

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Movin Right Along

Last Friday, Mario and I cruised up to the Bay Area to visit with my family, see my sister's new house and have dinner with some girls I went to elementary school with. We totally lucked out and decided to visit on the weekend that they were moving into the new house. I love moving...right. But of all the moves I've been a part of, this was a cinch. Quick load, quick unload, no stairs. Gotta love it.

The move went smooth and I had the kitchen unloaded by the end of the night. I had the office half unloaded by the next night. The only hitch was one ceiling fan. My sister wanted to replace the fan in the living room...why she didn't like the 80s bronze beauty of a fan that was already up there, I don't know. Mario and Lindsay's boyfriend, Tim, were in charge of the fan while we worked away on the office. What should have taken half hour tops, took 5 hours! It was a tag team effort between the boys. One would get fed up, start cussing, and then walk outside for a break, while the other one went to work on it. It went of like this for a while. Until they decided to try a two against one approach. Lindsay and I walked in at one point and saw them with a pry bar and a hammer working on the fan. Needless to say we turned around and walked right back out of the room. Although, now that I think about it, I should have taken a picture.

After many hours of listening to them cuss and hammer at it, they finally gave in and figured out that fan was just not going to work. There was a reason it was so cheap, right?

After letting the men cool down for a bit, it was time for me to go home and get ready to meet the girls from Highlands Elementary! I was so excited. Four of the girls I had last seen at high school graduation. However, one I hadn't seen since junior high. We had a blast! It was all the fun, but with much higher self esteem and a lot less pimples! I already can't wait to meet up again! We told all kinds of embarrassing stories and caught up on our lives. Three pitchers of beer in, my sister showed up to visit with us. We got to laugh about how we tortured her by taping her underwear on the front window of our house and how I used to make her step in dog poop. It was fun!

This is before four pitchers of beer...


After...can you tell the difference? Notice the beer I spilled all over my shirt right before we took a photo...classy!


We ended up staying until Tuesday. It was a long exhausting weekend of unpacking, moving, and shopping, but it was great! I'm very proud of my sister for buying her first home. It's cozy and happy...she couldn't have done better!

Oh and don't think just because we are away from home that Mario doesn't talk in his sleep. He woke me up quite a few times talking about my sister's house. The first time he was talking about how nice the wood floors were. I was laughing so hard as he went on and on about her floors. Then in the morning, I caught him complaining about that fan not working. That cracked me up. He couldn't let that fan go, even in his sleep!