05 June 2014

Logistic challenges in having multiple homes

I'm the type of person who doesn't make a shopping list to buy groceries. Nor do I even (usually) have to open the cupboards to know what we need. I usually just know what needs to be bought because I've opened the cupboards and fridge umpteen times in the last week, and I remember what I've seen or looked for and what we'll want to have.

So I was a bit surprised a few weeks ago when I bought salad dressing herbs only to discover that the salad dressing wasn't anywhere near empty. Apparently my system of remembering wasn't working that well. It is only when I returned to Lansing that I realized that my memory wasn't the problem. The salad dressing is almost empty here: both in my house as well as in the fridge at work. The problem is less my memoy and more the challenge of having three different kitchens in my head, and my brain can't entirely unsort them from each other.

All the information runs together and makes my normal way of doing things more difficult - this seems like a fairly adequate metaphor for my whole life in this inbetween time. On the bright side, though (and this is pushing the metaphor a bit far), just like the contents of my three kitchens provide much more interesting food to eat than my previous single kitchen, the changes and this move bring with them the spice of new challenges and experiences.

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