The Armoire

One of the bad things about living in an old building is the lack of storage space. I got thoroughly spoiled with my walk-in closet at my last apartment, so it made things tough when I moved here and had to share a closet half that size with Mike. And believe me, that boy has clothes. I think it's a combination of his love of pop culture t-shirts and the fact that he thinks buying clothes at Goodwill is a viable alternative to doing a load of laundry. Anyway, he doesn't really throw clothes away, so between the two of us we have that closet crammed full. And that's just full of summer things. Our winter things are in trunks in another closet.

Today I did a ton of laundry, and as I folded it up and put it away in the closet I lamented about the lack of space. We had registered for a small armoire for our wedding, and even though it was only two feet wide it would still ease some of the congestion.

After I had finished up, Mike's mom called. She was at Farm & Fleet, and they had armoires for sale. Normally they'd be more than a hundred dollars, but they were marked down to fifty.

That made me sit up straight. Fifty dollars. Sure, Mike and I were pretty poor, but we could swing fifty dollars for something this important. Besides, what a great deal! Plus it was five feet tall and over four feet wide, with drawers and shelves. I was just about to ask which Farm & Fleet they were at when his mom said that if we wanted it, she'd get it.

Here's the thing...Mike's parents give us a lot. Mike never goes over to their house without leaving with a pallet of bottled water or a twenty dollar bill. When they visited the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows recently they brought souveniers back for us and had paid to have a Mass said in our name shortly after our wedding. They're generous, giving people, and it drives me completely insane.

See, in my family, there was a lot of emphasis placed on independence. My parents never really consciously taught it to us, but they were always so proud whenever one of us kids would do something or pay for something on our own. I remember that one of the times my dad was proudest of me was when he saw me in my tiny apartment in college, and I showed him how I had to use a combination of devices - universal remote, power strip, and thumbtack - to operate my TV. I was making due instead of looking for a handout and I was paying my way all by myself, and my parents couldn't be prouder.

I thought fast. I wanted that armoire, but I didn't want it from Mike's parents.

"It's four feet wide, did you say?" I asked. "I dunno. The one Mike wanted was two feet wide. I'm not sure that we'll have the space for it, and he's not home and I can't find his tape measure," I said as I picked up his tape measure and slipped it into a toolbox.

"Well, I can always get it and return it if it doesn't fit," his mom said.

"Or I can return it," I said, thinking that I could just give her fifty bucks and say that I had taken it back. "You know, I don't go back to work until the end of August, I have a lot of spare time."

"Oh, it's no problem, I'll just take it back," his mom said.

"Well, how deep is it? Our bedroom is kinda small, it may not fit against the wall," I said.

"I'm not sure," his mom replied. "But Dad can bring it over and assemble it for you, so you can see."

"No, no," I said hurriedly, "I'm sure it's fine. I mean, I'm sure it's not six feet deep or anything."

"It's a very nice armoire," his mom said. "It's got nice door pulls and everything, and we have some of this same brand. It's good stuff."

I bit my lip. I shut my eyes. I sighed. I wanted to be independent, but I also wasn't sure how to tell her to just let us get the armoire. And I really, really didn't want to miss out on this sale.

"That would be great if you could pick it up for us. Thanks," I said.

There are worse things than having generous in-laws. I know this. And I am grateful.

But damn, old habits die hard.

Tiny House

I know I cannot have a tiny house.

I know that it's impractical. I know that with two adults, four cats, and perhaps a kid in the next few years, it's a bad idea to have a tiny house.

But I also know that I want a tiny house. And I know that if I had one, I would spend at least the first half-hour in it walking around saying, "Isn't it small? It's just so fucking small!"

Maybe someday after I retire...

I <3 The Big Lebowski

If you love "The Big Lebowski" and you love My Little Ponies, you'll love this.

Heat Wave

It's been unreasonably hot here in Wisconsin, and it has everyone behaving strangely. Lately Lucky has been determinedly chewing the grass in my artificial flower arrangement. At the same time he's been completely ignoring my real plants on the other side of the kitchen. Now the grass in my blue vase looks like it was mowed, but my actual plants are thriving.

Meals have gotten weird too. Neither Mike nor I have had much urge to cook, so we're foraging for whatever we can get. Last night my dinner consisted mostly of water and Mike'n'Ikes. Mike ate marshmallows dipped into things. To be precise, yogurt and peanut butter. When I asked him how it was, he said that the yogurt-and-marshmallow combo wasn't too good, but the peanut-butter-and-marshmallow was like "eating a little piece of heaven."

The only consolation is that the heat has apparently killed the night spider which has been living on our window for the past several weeks. Unless he's just hanging out in his web int he daytime now with all his legs curled up.

I wouldn't put it past him. The heat has affected everyone's judgement.

Cropped

Since people liked the picture of me holding the flower, I cropped it to remove the coffee mugs in the background. I also made it all sepia, but I think I may like color better.

Anyway, here it is.



I love taking pictures, but I'm an amateur compared to Mike. His photoblog has some pretty cool images. I think it would be pretty cool to sell photos online, but I have no idea how complicated it would be.

Anyway, enjoy!

Love will keep us warm, and the weather will keep us warmer

It's too hot outside. Here in Milwaukee the temperature is hovering around 98 degrees and the humidity makes it hard to breathe. It's so hot that all I want for dinner is Tic-Tacs and ice. Damn!

This weekend Mike and I went to Antigo, a city about four hours north of here, for a wedding. It was a lot of fun, and it was the first time I've seen Suzy and her now-husband Mark since I graduated. Mike and I didn't know anyone at the wedding except for Suzy, which made her feel bad, I think. She tried to introduce us to some people we were sitting with at dinner, but we mostly kept to ourselves.

It's kind of funny, but we had been looking forward to this wedding mostly because we wouldn't know anybody there. Taking a date to a wedding where you know nobody is fun. Well, it is if you're an introvert, anyway. Mike and I spent the whole evening enjoying the dinner, dancing during the slow numbers, talking, joking, and laughing. It was similar to when we'd go someplace on a date. Just because you don't know anyone else there doesn't mean you don't enjoy yourself.

Plus, if you get extremely drunk, there's a minimum of people there who can remind you of it later. Not that Mike or I got drunk. It's just nice to know that the option is there.

Bleh. It's too hot to type. I'm gonna go find some Tic-Tacs.