To Clarify...

Weary Hag (seriously, check her out! She is absolutely awesome and fun and a wonderful writer), left a comment on one of my posts:

"Okay, I'm a little confused here. I thought you lived in an apartment or condo. Soooo ... can we talk about this SECOND REFRIGERATOR? Egad!!"

I do live in an apartment. It is about 800 square feet and I have way too much stuff. Having lived as an only child and being given the floor of a house (basement in last home, first floor in another), I have accummulated many things. I have three full sized bookcases, three short bookcases, one medium bookcase, two beds, four DVD racks (although one bookcase is for DVDs), two CD racks, a TV stand, a large dining room table, a piano bench, two beds, a night stand, a dresser, a large wire rack for my closet that doesn't fit in the closet, two filing cabinets, a large desk chair, a small desk chair, and a large desk. I also have two leather chairs, two small tables, and various wheelie carts. I also have two refrigerators.

Yeah, there is no reason for me to have all this stuff. But, I can explain why I have two refrigerators.

Going back to 1997, I started going to college and lived in the dorm. When I moved in, I was given a small refrigerator. The main purpose of it was to keep soda cold and allow me to keep a few things inside. It had a "freezer" section that held an ice cube rack and maybe a pint of ice cream.

After moving in and checking out the cafeteria (the forced meal plan), I found out how disgusting food that my mom didn't make could truly be. Now, I'm not saying I can't eat anything my mom didn't make, but there are problems with cafeterias sometimes. Especially those cafeterias that don't really care and can force students to pay for food whether or not they eat there. This cafeteria had a salad bar. The day I went to add a bit of cheese to the brown lettuce and found mold is the last time I ate there.

My parents, being the loving folk they are, decided that Christmas would include a much better refrigerator. This one is a little taller than my waist level and has two shelves inside and a vegetable drawer. The top also has a decent sized freezer. This kept me being able to eat decent food for two years at the dorm.

When I moved out of the dorm to an apartment, I kept the fridge. It came in handy when the first apartment had a bad refrigerator and I had a roommate who was a vegetarian. I was able to keep the meat I wanted to eat in this fridge. When I moved in with Adam, this fridge came with and was used to store alcohol mainly. (He was more of a drinker than I.)

When I moved into this apartment, it followed. It is a good refrigerator and no need for me to get rid of it. There is not much in it, except for a few cans of iced tea (which I've never drank and don't know why I have). I use the top of the refrigerator primarily for extra storage for scrapbooking materials.

Now, understanding that I am a bit of a packrat (I get it from my dad) and I cannot get rid of perfectly good appliances, you may wonder, "What happened to the little refrigerator?"

There's a story behind that. That fridge lasted one quarter at school in my possession. A friend actually got it from me after I received the other fridge for Christmas. He received it AFTER we decontaiminated it.

During winter break, the dorm was off-limits to students unless we paid for extra boarding. My parents lived twenty minutes from school, so I returned home during break.

Winters are a bit cool in Minnesota and so the dorms wanted to make sure that the pipes did not freeze. This required each student to leave their room with the heat on. When returning from break, it was nothing to walk into the building and realize it was about 90 degrees inside. We were also required to unplug all electronics.

This should not have been a big deal. Except for the fact at the back of that miniscule freezer was a small piece of meatloaf. I missed that completely while cleaning out the fridge and three weeks of extreme heat does not help keep meat fresh.

Let's just say the smell was less than pleasant. We took the fridge home to the garage to try and decontaminate it. We were able to mask the smell finally with vinegar. Tomato juice cut it down, but did not eliminate it. Vinegar worked great. I gave the fridge to my friend (refusing payment since it was a smelly fridge).

He thought the vinegar was a weird smell so he washed it all out. Then put it back in. He did keep the fridge for a couple of years because it is college dorm life.

And that was a random story for the day.

By the way, I am still sick at home. I tried to eat last night and it was not a great experience. I feel a little better today and think I'll be able to return to work tomorrow, but need to try and get some food in me. No karaoke for me tonight. Sorry Dana.