celebrations!

It's autumn here.  Really autumn.  Not that 90-degree hogwash that we've had for the last two years, but chilly-morning, crisp-blue-skies kind of weather. We went for a fall hike last Sunday, and it was perfect.  We were all rubbing at each others' edges, wanting to be together (Dan leaves this weekend for a month), but needing a little space, and for us a hike usually gives us both.  Plus there  are fungi everywhere you look, which can't help but enchant even a grumpy person. Right?

I can't think of a better way to celebrate fall than with a hike through the woods, but we were also celebrating my birthday this week - a bit early, since Dan will be gone.  The day we were having our potluck (which is the way we seem to do these things), we got a new refrigerator!!!  I know, holy wah.  We've been needing it badly, with a drippy, leaky fridge and a freezer that needed to be taped shut, and our landlord acquiesced, so yahoo, a new fridge showed up at the door.  

Now, while this is a fantastic deal, I decided it was also a really good time for a meltdown. Talk to my hormones, I'm still figuring it out, but really - instead of feeling deeply grateful for a new clean! place to put our food, I sat on the couch for a good 10 minutes and cried.  And then I tried to explain to my bewildered kids why I was crying.  I told them it was because the doors opened on the wrong side, and that I was feeling ashamed for feeling so ungrateful, because we really needed a new fridge, but the doors were opening on the wrong side and I was really really disappointed. 

I was also feeling overwhelmed with the amount of food I dug out of our freezer. Several fist-sized bags of rice.  Three bags of black-eyed peas, 'cause I could never remember that I still had some for those two times a year I like to make them.  Several dead glow-sticks.  Old chocolate. (why am I admitting to all of this????? Good gravy.)

the freezer pile

And then, after venting for a bit, things got so much better.  I kept asking Ani to give me space, telling her that I was having some huge feelings and I didn't want her to feel that they were about her, and she kept moving in close because "Mama, I just want to give you some sympathy!" So we stopped bungi-cording (away!-close!-away!-close!) and settled on filling the fridge together. What a sweet kid.  My wise friend S stopped by and gave me a huge hug and calmly explained that you can easily move the hinges and handles on a fridge. Gulp, really? (Did I mention she's 20? And so wise.)  My friend J showed up and got really excited about the miscellaneous little packets of grain from my freezer - she took them home to cook up for her dogs, alleviating my huge guilt over the waste.  My friend ET showed up with a beautiful cake and she and J plotted for their handy partners to do the fridge adjustments as an early birthday present for me.

Their partners showed up and had other ideas - they were ready to drink beer and tutor Dan on How To Alter Your Fridge and Make Your Sweetheart Happy.  It was awesome entertainment, and I can now actually feel truly grateful for our new fridge.

doors? who needs doors?

I highly recommend the home-improvement-as-entertainment theme for your next party.  Add tasty beverages, highly artistic head-gear, ice-ax cake cutting and homemade confetti, and you will have yourself one heck of a memorable shindig.

I'm very serious about having fun

It was my favorite kind of party, where the unexpected happens, the company is great, and the laughter just keeps going...