"oh. my. god. my refridgerator was gross!" and other news since last we spoke

my house is almost always messy. it's pretty small -- maybe 1200 square feet and almost no closets -- and we are a family of four (including one adult with packrat tendencies and one really kinetic three year old boy). another of us (not the aforementioned adult, i'll have you know) cares about keeping some semblance of tidiness, but the other three of us care not one whit. what that means is that the house is almost always messy (and one of us is almost always frustrated).

but messy and dirty are two different things. it is my goal that under the mess, things are relatively ... well, if not clean, exactly, at least hygenic. i'm the first to admit that i fall short of this aspiration more often than i like to admit, but on the whole, i feel fairly confident that if you use my bathroom, eat food prepared in my kitchen, or put your baby on the floor to play, you and your baby will not get ill.

or so i thought until i cleaned out the fridge the other day. oh lord. i knew it was bad, and i was prepared for that, but i had no idea. apparently we had been pushing the leftovers back and cramming more in front for a month or more, because i found stuff i barely even remembered. eww.

i'm choosing to view it as symbolic. cathartic. it was a difficult fall. the fridge is now pristine, the tupperware drawer is full again, the condiments are consolidated, and everything in the fridge is edible. things are looking up!

in other news...

last weekend i took the most decadent trip to visit one of my best and oldest friends, jennie, in chicago. jennie actually lives in iowa, with her husband and toddler, but her very generous sister betsy lives in chicago, and we decided to meet for a kid-free weekend. i flew out friday evening, despite ominous weather in the forecast, and returned on monday (mlk day, so julie and the kids were off), without any weather-related incident. in-between, jen and i stayed with betsy in a lovely, 17th floor apartment over-looking the city and the lake. i slept three uninterrupted nights; walked a lot, shopped (with betsy as my personal dresser) and ate without a kid on my lap; and came home each evening to a bottle of good wine and cheesy t.v. jennie (who is blogless, or i would link to her, hint hint) resolved to finish her dissertation before she begins her full-time job this summer (right jen??), and i came up with multiple schemes for what i'm going to do with this next phase of my life. it was bliss. on a plate. we were definitely cracking betsy up with our simple needs ("are you kidding? this couch is the best bed i've ever slept in!") we plan to do it again soon.

finally, can i just say how much it rocks to be working with two la leche league leader applicants who are smart, thoughtful, organized, dedicated, enthusiastic, reliable, way cool and just plain fun to be around? and how lucky am i that one of them is the inimitable jo? i believe that the lovely and astonishingly well put together mia is currently blogless, i would send you her way as well!