“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.  Specialization is for insects.”
-A. Heinlein

Yesterday was the second day of school and I had already made a life changing discovery: my husband  will, for all intents and purposes, be dead to me for the next few years.  He’s in class from 8-12, then in the library from 12-5 when I’m done with work.  We go home, one of us contrives to make something edible, and then I take him back to campus for study groups/work on projects/meet and greet representatives from large firms trying to seduce the students early on/whatever else is going on that night.  Then he has homework until at least 11. 

So in response, I’m doing what I do best.  Mobilizing! 

Last night with Venice’s help (J. was at a firm reps meeting) I put together the shelving we bought for the kitchen.  Living, as we do, in the ghetto of our university town (it’s not that bad, just old.  Nearly fossilized, in fact) we have two cupboards in our kitchen, and the shelves in them are bowed with age.  Putting cans or even plates on them for as long as we have has been supremely of foolish of us, but necessity being the mother of desperation, we put off getting shelves for a while.  No more!  The kitchen is cleaned and organized and, if all goes well, it will stay that way.

I went shopping for food, inspired by the ever fabulous Hammy (Hat Tip to her for this idea!) and loaded up a bowl on our table with snacks.  I bough an armload of Ramen and instant macaroni and cheese for days when neither J. or I will be able to muster the strength to make lunches.  I’ve stocked up on crock pot ingredients which can all be dumped in together on my lunch break so we have something to eat during the approximate 4.6 seconds J. has at home.

Tonight I’m doing laundry and taking on the migratory herd of cardboard boxes that have been accumulating since our wedding, they’ve been making the rounds through our entire flat and have been grazing on whatever it is cardboard boxes eat in our office for weeks now.  Said herd shall be thinned, ruthlessly.  I already bought an office filing contraption and have moved critical things like marriage certificates, tax info, and the like in (partly to get it out of the pile on my desk, but mostly to keep J. from throwing it away again). 

Why the frenzy, you ask?  First of all a house in order is easier to keep in order long term, so if both mine and J.’s potential chore-doing ability has evaporated, let’s get the house put together before one of us has a breakdown rendering us incapable of sustained linear though.  Second because it really needed to be done, I’ve been putting the house off since we got married.  Third?  Because I am an AWESOME wife!  Who knew?