New Digs

Well. Such a changing life I lead right now. My wife has left the bay area and gone back up to Canada. This was planned... no falling out or anything. I stay and save money. That's my job now.

So I've moved from our 1.5 bedroom cottage in Palo Alto to a house with 2 other roommates in Santa Clara. Needless to say the savings are impressive.

One of my roommates, and the owner of the house, is absolutely anal about keeping the house pristine. Every surface in the kitchen that is used to store something has 2 layers of paper towel put down first. The top of the microwave, under the water cooler, along the edge of the window etc etc. He even paper-towels the shelves in the fridge -- just in case a bit of moisture on something, god-forbid, actually touches the metal of the fridge shelf.

I've only been in there 2 days so far but have already been told that the hardwood floors scratch easily, so be careful with them, and that anything other than water should not be allowed to sit on the marble vanity in the bathroom (and he even wasn't so sure about the water).

Ok. This sort of 'cautious' living totally freaks me out. Floors get scratched, scuffed, marked up dirty. It's a by-product of LIVING on them. And why would someone install a bathroom vanity that shouldn't have liquid sit on it? I mean.. the vanity has a SINK in the middle of it. You brush your teeth there, shave there, put on deodorant there... and it is expected that none of these substances will ever be left to sit on the counter?

Because I'm was so paranoid about having my security deposit docked if I screw up in the slightest way, I decided to store my bathroom odds and ends in the vanity drawer. I wash up, brush, shave and put them all in the drawer. That night I get home, go to brush my teeth, and lo and behold, my drawer is exactly as I left it, but now miraculously has a sheet of brown waxed paper and two layers of paper towels separating my items from the drawer bottom. Just amazing. I feel like Bill Bryson when he stayed at Mrs. Smegma's place. I'm just dreading being called in to the bathroom and shown one of my turds that wouldn't go down.