Monday, July 25, 2011

command center

The kitchen is absolutely the command center of the house...without my command center I'm feeling a little powerless.  I don't know where to put myself!  I've been without a kitchen for a couple of weeks now and I have to say, I'm feeling the pain.  No, it's not the lack of cooking.  Honestly, I don't really like cooking, so this construction just gives me a handy excuse for my laziness. Take-out it is...at least 2 meals a day.  It's not the mess...that just gives us all a reason to let loose and free our inner slobs.  I'm just feeling all out of sorts.  It turns out the kitchen is where I spend all of my time. I never realized that until I didn't have a kitchen.  Now, that seems a little strange, given that I don't cook, but it's true.  It's where my computer is usually set up (and we know how much time I spend on that...too much), it's where the kids do their projects and homework, it's where the phone is, and it's where I putter.  Yup, just putter. Doing what, I'm not entirely sure, but it filled up my time.

It's kind of amusing to me that I am missing my kitchen since I complain about so many of the activities that take place in that room:  the homework (goes without saying), going through the mail, cleaning off the counters a countless number of times, doing the dishes (over and over and over again).  So why do I feel so lost without it?  I'm not doing ANY of those tasks during construction.  I'm hoping nothing important is coming in the mail, because I'm not even sure where it is.  I'm hoping whatever is in there will keep.  We bought enough paper plates and plastic cups to feed an army, and we've already discussed my lack of cooking, so dishes aren't an issue. (Except for my crystal scotch glasses.  I lovingly wash those...no scotch out of plastic glasses for me.  Just call me Zsa  Zsa.) No counters to clean, and the dust and dirt are so out of control, nothing else is worth cleaning either.  My kids are in heaven.  Anarchy.

I'm sitting in my bedroom now.  The past two weeks I've logged more waking hours in this room than in all the previous 4 years that we've lived here.  Add to this the fact that there's air conditioning on much of the time so the door is closed, and I have a little sanctuary.  Or prison.  Tomato, tomahto...  I come out every now and again for a snack, feeling like I'm sneaking downstairs in a stranger's house. Snacks in the bedroom?! Unheard of previously, now, not that unusual. (Gasp)  The kids don't get told to go to bed (there's no sense of time in my sanctuary/prison) and they don't really have their chores to complete. Anarchy.  The troops are out of control.  I'm feeling a little like a commander in hiding.  It's time to get back to the battle...I need my command center back.  Hoo-ah!