Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Grasping At Straws

While adjusting this week to my oldest having flown the nest, I realized that while children do grow up and leave, there is still a relationship in my life that is until-death-do-us-part forever, a comforting constant in an ever-changing world; and it's a relationship that I have been sorely neglecting of late. Yes, that's right, ladies - my refrigerator has been crying out for attention, in the only way it knows how.

The other night Larry managed to spill an entire container of homemade salad dressing in my over-crowded, crying-out-for-help refrigerator. That's when I realized it was time to focus on my refrigerator's needs instead of mine for a while. Because, really? Green globe grapes doused in vinaigrette are not ever going to be the hot new thing in the culinary world.

So we both dove in and removed all the vinaigrette-drenched items, and I got to hear Larry say things like, "What's this second jar of salsa doing open?" Yeah, I know - he must live on another planet, right?

But I mustn't rag on Larry too much. To his eternal credit, he discarded the reeking zucchini last week. I guess he was afraid that otherwise I would decide to start over by buying a new fridge. You know, I haven't forgotten that sweet little number with the French doors at Best Buy. Ooh, la la!

Where was I? Oh, yes, so I decided to stop moping about my missing child - a child, by the way, who happens to be of the male persuasion, unlike my friends' missing children, who are girls and don't mind communicating all sorts of fun information to their mothers back home. The upshot of which is I have endured all my similarly bereaved friends saying things like "Didn't Theo tell you about the orientation sessions? Vicky told me it was all sex, condoms, STD's..." or "Katie says the dining hall food is awful - what does Theo think?"

Just twist that dagger, will ya? I mean, Theo e-mails me; but it's more along the lines of "Thanks for the cookies" (What? He's been gone almost a whole week, you know...) or "Can you send me the CD's I left on the computer desk?"

But even though a guy doesn't communicate the way the girls do - with all those wordy-wordy words - he's still able to get his point across efficiently. As I cleaned out the refrigerator yesterday (remember? this is a fridge post - try to keep up), I came across a half-full jar of applesauce. And next to it? Another applesauce jar, opened by Theo the day before he left. Because how could he leave me with just one open jar of that stuff in my fridge? He never has before.


Who says guys can't be sentimental?

11 comments:

  1. My oldest has finally figured out that it drives me crazy when I find multiple containers of the same item open in the fridge...Soooo, he has been putting the *extra* open containers back in the pantry. We're lucky we didn't all die of food poisoning before I found out about it!

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  2. Trust me, I worry about this with 4 boys and only 1 girl. I guess you have to look for the little things.

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  3. in boy-speak, that second jar of apple sauce says i love you all over.

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  4. Awww, Theo left you something to remember him by. And your husband cleaned out moldy food? My husband can't bear to throw away food. He just keeps claiming that if we peel it or cook it or whatever, it's still edible. The scary thing is, he does almost all of the cooking.

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  5. He wanted you to be able to make a double batch of applesauce spice cake? My favorite, thought a pour half of the batter in a cake pan for the kids, before I add the raisins and walnuts to the other half for mine and hubby's cake. :)

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  6. I called, texted and Facebooked to see if my son survived the first day of college. This morning he answered my text and wanted to know what I wanted. "nevermind" I said "just seeing how your day was"
    He promised to call later but it is later so I guess I moved back down on the ladder again.

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  7. I'm sure he opened the applesauce because he was too choked up to tell you how much he will miss you. Perhaps you should send the jar to him with his CDs.

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  8. As a mom of all boys, I felt like crying at the end of your post. I'm trying to master text messaging so my son will "talk" to me when he heads off to college.

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  9. I bet you'll never throw out that half-eaten applesauce until it's totally green, either. How sweet!

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  10. Not sure if I should address the fridge situation or the kid-leaving-home issue....... Applesauce is my nemesis...I sometimes have THREE open jars. Even though I buy the teeniest tiniest jar there is. And as for the kid....wait until he comes home with the laundry in a bag over his shoulder yelling "what's for supper, Mom?" Classic.

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  11. Sweet! Those e-mails remind me of the letters we used to get from my brother when he was a missionary in Guatemala- Little one paragraph things like. Dear Family,
    Last week when we went outside there was shooting on the streets. Luckily we didn't get hit.
    Love, Curtis.
    I was always glad I wasn't his mom, but I don't think I'm going to fare any better with my boys. It's like dragging info out of wild horses when they're right in front of your face.

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