Tag: laugh

Overwhelmed with stuff

Posted on by jplatt27

This is what our apartment looked like when we got home from work on Monday:

No we weren’t robbed. This is how our apartment looked when we prepped for the bed bug treatment. That’s our dining area filled with stuff from our closets, under the bed, other miscellaneous things.

Yep, that’s our bath tub full of trash bags filled with bedding, clothes and shoes. And that’s our bed standing up (there’s nothing else in our bedroom aside from furniture).  And that’s our entry way filled with more trash bags filled with more clothes.

And that’s not even the half of it.  We’re using the vacant studio apartment next door to store most of our clothes.

This process totally sucked before the first treatment when we had to spend an entire day prepping our apartment by cleaning out our entire bedroom and all of our closets and washing pretty much every fabric we own. But then we went to Florida and got a break for the weekend. And it hasn’t been that bad.

But at this point we’re starting to get overwhelmed by the clutter, by the amount of laundry that keeps piling up, at the fact that we can’t find things.  A lot of my pants are snug because they had to go through the dryer and I usually don’t put a lot things in the dryer, and definitely not on high heat (recommended to kill bed bugs). And we’re only halfway through!

A bottle of shampoo spilled in the tub (unbeknownst to us) so when we pulled the bags of bedding out to wash so we could go to bed on Monday night, we ending up getting shampoo on our floor and then we stepped in it and almost slipped. Then when we got back from the laundry room, I got some shampoo on my sock which then got on my leg when I sat cross-legged on the couch.

Packing to go home for Christmas is going to be such a treat. At this point I don’t even remember what clothes I own.  We’ll spend most of the night tonight doing laundry. And at $2 per wash and $2 per dry, this isn’t a cheap process either.  (Though I really can’t complain because our building has been wonderful and is paying 100% of the exterminator’s fees.)

But there is one source of joy in our apartment:

It’s not our best Christmas effort but it’s doing the job. There are four presents under the tree: two for Mike and two for me!  I’m excited to open them at Mike’s parents house on Christmas morning.

#MyMarriedLife

Posted on by jplatt27

I thought about posting about these two moments on Twitter (@thingsafterings) when they happened
with the tag #mymarriedlife but I’m not sure I could get them under 140 characters.

First one:

One night last week I remembered that I had a lunch meeting the next day and wouldn’t need leftovers for lunch.  Within 5 minutes Mike was in the kitchen.  When I asked him what he was doing he said “snacking and combining your lunch with mine.”  Wow, that didn’t take long.

Second one:

Mike and I were on the bus on the way home from the grocery store.  We weren’t sitting next to each other and when I looked back at him he was smiling.  Of course I smiled back, almost blushing that my new husband was admiring me from afar.  When we got off the bus Mike was like “did you hear that guy snoring on the bus?” “No,” I said, “is that why you were smiling?  I thought you were admiring me.”  “Well I was doing that but I also wanted to get your attention so I could tell you what you sound like.”

Get Candy

Posted on by jplatt27

Happy Halloween!  When I think of Halloween, I always remember this bit from Jerry Seinfeld. Enjoy!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MarBVyZVe9s]

So tell me…

What candy were you after as a kid?  I’m still after Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. And has anyone else noticed that the standard size are so much better than the smaller size? 

What was your best Halloween costume as a kid? Oh, you mean the years I wasn’t a cheerleader?  One year I was a rabbit in a hat.  That was before I had any shame.  Though to be honest, that’s the kind of Halloween costume that is cool at my age now.  It would be better than a slutty fill-in-the-blank, no? 

operation bed-bug

Posted on by jplatt27

the friday after we got back from ocean city, mike noticed some bites on his stomach and hip.  “maybe they’re bed bugs?” i suggested.  we did a quick google search and the images that popped up looked kind of similar to mike’s bites but we couldn’t be certain. we checked our sheets and bed and didn’t find any signs of bugs.

when i got back from the gym the next morning, three laundry baskets sat piled high in the middle of our living room and i could tell mike wasn’t in the happy, peppy, post-workout mood i was in.  “i’m really worried about bed bugs,” he said.  sighs and pacing followed.  not from me, from him. though mike thoroughly checked our sheets and mattress for signs of bed bugs we spent the rest of the day doing laundry.

a week later, i woke up scratching my arm.  and then i noticed some bites.  there were quite a few in a concentrated area.  i showed mike and went on to eat breakfast and check email.  about 20 mins later, i could sense some stress (perhaps after a few sighs) and mike admitted to being worried about bed bugs again. he said he wanted me to visit a doctor so we could find out for sure.  as a compromise, i said i’d ask around at work and see what people thought. at work, reviews were mixed. i did a google image search this time and thought that the bites didn’t look too much like mine. thinking he’d come to the same conclusion, i told mike to do the same.

when i got home that night, mike said “the more i think about it, the more i think those pictures look a lot like yours.” he had a website about bed bugs up on his computer and told me to take a look.  i start reading and clicking around and the website said something like “if you need evidence of bed bugs so that a landlord or management company will send an exterminator but don’t have evidence of bed bugs on your sheets or mattress, only bites, then you’ll need to catch a bed bug” with “catch a bed bug” hyperlinked.  out of sheer curiosity, i clicked on the link.

the article described an old-fashioned way to catch bed bugs: put vaseline on the legs of your bed frame so that when the bed bugs try to crawl up, they’ll get stuck.  this seems like an easy test.  i share this with mike and he heads to the linen closet to get the vaseline. he sits on the floor beside our bed, pulls up the bed skirt, dips his fingers in the vaseline and gets to work.  i come running in with the camera.  “please don’t take my picture.” snap.  “i said, please don’t take my picture.”  “why not,” i giggle, “this is so funny.” when i try to take another, mike gets mad.  “stop!” he says.  i run away, mad that he won’t let me have some fun with this.  when we get in bed that night mike says that he doesn’t want people to know about this, that it’s for-lack-of-a-better-term embarrassing. i still think it’s super funny and ask if i can write about it if it turns into nothing.

first thing the next morning mike grabs the flashlight to inspect our trap.  fortunately no bed bugs. mike read that it can take a few days to catch any so he reapplies the next night and we wait a few more days. at this point, there are still no signs of bed bugs so i think we’re in the clear.  we probably have one random bug every now and then, i mean something is biting us, but thankfully we’re not letting bed bugs bite.

don't leave laundry in dryer overnight.

Posted on by jplatt27

this morning i woke up about 6:30.  mike was already at the gym and due back soon and i like to get out of bed before he gets back.  i head downstairs to get the sheets and towels i left in the dryer overnight. about 7 minutes later, i pull two heaping baskets of laundry out of the elevator one at a time and set them in front of the door.  the washington post is gone, mike must be home.  i go to open the door and it’s locked.  ugh! i knock lightly on the door for a bit.  no answer.  he probably can’t hear me, must be in the shower, and i don’t want to knock much louder and disturb the neighbors. though trust me, i wanted to bang my fist against the door until mike answered. but i realize that this can be a source of frustration and anger or a funny anecdote that we can share a laugh over.  i’ll choose the laugh.  so i start to fold the laundry, giving a light tap on the door every two towels or so.  no answer.  i continue to fold the laundry in the hot, humid hallway. i hear the ironing board open inside (mike irons his clothes every morning) and know that he’s definitely inside and out of the shower.  he still doesn’t hear me knock.  i’m just laughing to myself.  the laundry is folded nicely in the two baskets, ready to be put away.  and i’m still in the hall.  i decide to sit down.  if i continue to stand and pace and look around, i will get annoyed. so i sit down and relax. i see the neighbor’s newspaper and consider picking it up to read but don’t. i figure that worse come to worse, mike will see me when he leaves for work at 7:15. then i hear silverware clanking inside the apartment.  i imagine mike making an egg sandwich and sitting down with the paper in front of the tv.  then i realize that since we moved, mike doesn’t leave til 7:45! and then i realize that if i can hear the ironing board and the silverware drawer from out here, he must be able to hear me knock.  so i knock again.  the door opens and i look up at mike in the doorway.  he looks down at me and says, in all seriousness, “what are you doing, lover?” 

we share a laugh over the fact that he locked me out and i’d been sitting in the hallway for about 20 minutes.  and i’m glad that i chose to see this as a lighthearted mishap and not an infuriating oversight.