I’m 50 and I live in a dorm!

So I don’t really live in a dorm.  I live in a regular house.  It just happens to be occupied by Mark, me, a seventeen year-old, and a twenty year-old.  Let me start by saying that I am really, really glad that Emily and Matthew live with us.  I am not ready for them to leave.  Emily is still in high school.  Matthew is in nursing school and has huge amounts of homework.  He stays here to save money and to be able to concentrate on his school work.  Nursing school is no joke.  They both need to be here and I am delighted to have them.  

However, having two little mini adults in the house with us presents a few fun challenges.  

We have no clean drinking glasses. Ever.  Mark and I each have our own beverage containers.  We take them with us to work and wherever we go for fear that they will be taken.  There are dirty glasses everywhere.  Matthew will use three glasses for water before lunchtime.  They will then be placed in various locations throughout the house.  He might walk past some of the glasses on his way to get a new glass.  He has even suggested, many times, that we need to purchase additional glasses.  When all of our glasses are clean, they fill the cabinet.  

The washing machine and dryer are always full.  Notice that I did not say “in use.”  “In use” would indicate that someone was actively using them.  That is not the case.  There are always clothes in our washing machine and dryer.  There is no telling how long the clothes might have been in there.  I think the machines are viewed as a closet extension. “I will look for clean clothes in my closet and in the dryer.”  So when we want to do laundry, we must first take care of the laundry that is already there.  If the child whose clothes are in the way is there to attend to them, that’s great, but that never happens.  Matthew and Emily are usually not available during the same time frames that we are.  I am the mom, so I finish their laundry and put it away.  Mark dumps it on the floor and does his own.

Food.  I buy so much food.  Yet, there is never any food.  Some food I buy gets eaten immediately and everyone wants more the very next day.  Some food is apparently on the “old news” list and sits and rots because no one likes it anymore but no one bothered to notify me.  I keep a grocery list on the fridge.  It is right by the cup where we keep writing utensils.  I kindly ask that when someone uses the last of something, or better yet, something is running low, he/she write it down on the list.  This is apparently too complicated.  Just leave the empty package on the counter.  Too complicated.  So I will be mid-recipe and realize that we are completely out of something and no one told me.  These mini-trips to the grocery store are quite invigorating.

I think we run out of so much because there is so much cooking going on here.  All four of us are on completely different schedules now, sadly.  I work late most nights.  Emily works at night.  Matthew cooks fourteen times a day.  Literally.  He will make spaghetti at 2:00 AM.  My pumpkin spice wallflowers have a really hard time overpowering the kitchen smells.  I go to bed with a clean and sparkly kitchen and wake up to a kitchen with dirty pots and a grease speckled stove.  And drinking glasses on every flat surface, of course.

When our kids were younger, we had toys laying around everywhere.  Not now.  Now they leave other things laying around the house.  Laptops, stethoscopes, trail cameras, socks, sunglasses, hair accessories, shoes, boots, sandals, flip flops, backpacks, water bottles (yes- even with all the glasses), hoodies, folders, and chapstick.  Their bedrooms have clothes in lots of places that are not drawers or the closet.  Clothes on top of the bed, on top of chairs, and clothes on the floor.  I have learned that not all of these clothes are to be considered dirty.  Some are completely clean and some are just a little dirty.  I was not familiar with these shades of dirty until I lived in the dorm.

Living in the dorm keeps me very up-to-date on the latest fashion trends among the trendy.  As soon as I step out of my bedroom, Emily assesses my OOTD and gives me an appraisal of my look.  I’ll be honest, I’m passable at best most days.  When I shop with Emily, she does point out things she thinks I should buy.  Every single time I buy something she suggests, I get a ton of compliments.  She clearly has good taste.  Some days, it is so bad that I do have to go and change.  Other days, she doesn’t see me until the end of the day and is horrified that I looked like that all day and possibly was seen by people she knew.  You have to have pretty thick skin to live here.  Emily doesn’t mince words.  

Life at the dorm is sure different than it was when the kids were younger.  But hearing them open the door and yell, “Mom” is my favorite sound in the whole, wide world.  I plan to enjoy every minute of having them here with us.  There will be plenty of time for a clean, quiet house later on.  

1 thought on “I’m 50 and I live in a dorm!”

  1. I am showing this to my mom for Halloween. She will be horrified. She will not sleep. She will never allow us over again.

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