In a single week this June, my daughter turned 18 and graduated high school. Now it’s September and the kids are shouldering their backpacks and sharpening their pencils, but in our house it’s still Summer Vacation. There are Back to School signs in the store windows, but instead of settling my girl into a tiny dorm room somewhere halfway across the country, I have a new roommate. In certain key ways, she’s very like my old roommate. Except she’s an adult! This is exciting!
She’s taking a gap year - a phenomenon that only seems to have sprung into existence in the last ten years. When I finished high school, it was called Not Going to College Yet. She launched into her year of adventure with a six-week backpacking trip around Europe and Morocco with her boyfriend. Now she is home and she is my new roommate.
It occurred to me shortly after her return from Europe that I was no longer the parent of a child and it was thus no longer my responsibility to keep the fridge stocked at all times with tasty, nutritious, affordable food. If you have read any of my former posts, you will know that I’ve never been any good at this anyway. But now it turns out I don’t have to be. Because I share my house with my adult daughter and she has a car and she knows where United Markets is!
There are other advantages to sharing my house with my adult child, if that is not a contradiction in terms. These are as follows: I don’t have to do laundry or clean or wash dishes. Because my roommate will be doing all of this. Soon.
The other day, my new roommate informed me that our sheets smelled bad, and this was because I had left them in the washer too long. I tried explaining that I had not been home when the wash cycle finished, but this did not stand up in court. Apparently, I should not do laundry unless I am going to be home for the entirety of both cycles. Who knew?!
However, the problem of poor smelling sheets will soon be solved, because NR will be doing the laundry. I’m excited.
I threw a dinner party the other night. It was a complex meal, one that I love to make for dinner parties because it is very tasty (Irish cooking has two secrets to its success: butter and cream) but it sure uses a lot of dishes. Late that night when the guests left, the whole kitchen was hidden beneath piles of dirty dishes. Three days later this was still the case. I know, that’s really bad housekeeping and irresponsible and could invite cockroaches into our home. The only reason I am admitting to it is to explain that my new roommate’s powers of observation seem a bit sub-par. Of course, they were my dirty dishes and I should have washed them. But I was busy. And my roommate seemed just fine with living without a kitchen for a few days. The existing dirty dishes were added to by bowls of half-eaten cereal. I am not sure how this will play out.
The fridge also remained unchanged for a while. At first glance, it looked pretty full, but as my new roommate loves to point out, when our fridge is full its fullness consists mostly of a) condiments, b) bread in various stages of decay and c) cheese. This is because I love to cook elaborate meals for dinner parties but when I’m alone I like to dine on cheese sandwiches. It’s not that I’m lazy. Good grief. Just that by the time I notice I am hungry, I am way too hungry to endure the preparation time for a healthy nutritious meal. I must eat, immediately, and thus l make a cheese sandwich.
The other day NR informed me that she wished to go grocery shopping. I showered cash on her immediately. That night the fridge was full of tasty nutritious food. It felt great. Then both of us weren’t home much for a few days because we are busy and important. Some of the food went off. I threw it out, feeling terrible. Then our fridge was full mainly of condiments and the ingredients for cheese sandwiches.
I’m not saying anything. Really, I’m just going to keep my mouth shut. This is me, shutting up about it. As my eldest brother once ruefully commented on the subject of parenting, saying I told you so just isn’t as satisfying as I thought it would be. Plus the local Home Goods just reopened, after a 9-month closure following its roof falling in. We have decided we are going shopping for new bedding in order to solve the laundry problem at least for a few weeks. Turns out my new roommate thinks just like I do. I believe this is going to work!
No comments:
Post a Comment