june 25th

there is milk in my fridge that will be around longer than us. Ok, maybe this is weird, sort of an OCD tendency if you will but whenever I have a big date coming up I always think of the time elapsing in relation to the expiration date on my milk.

Since we drink milk rather slowly it usually is in the fridge until the date printed on the milk (or a few days after) so this count down works well for me. So, for example I’ll think, “that milk will be gone 2 days before we get to go on vacation” or “only one more gallon of milk before school is out” (hey, whatever gets you through teaching the first year) or “this milk will go bad exactly one day after my curriculum unit is due.” I remember buying a gallon of milk that was imprinted with the date September 2, 2006 and thinking “we will have a baby before this milk is gone.” And we did, although I am sure that milk sat in the fridge long after that date. It was sitting alone on the shelf through our hospital stay and a week of new baby euphoria with me acting as super woman until the sleepless, weepy, overwhelmed mama set in.

Milk is a good measure to me since we always seem to have it on hand and I glance at it frequently as I grab a glass with a cookie (ok, or 6) or to pull it out to rearrange the crowded top shelf real estate. It occurred to me today that our milk is dated 6/29/08, 4 days after we leave the states. Crazy! We are leaving soon. That is what my milk is telling me.
So, anyone have an OCD tendency you want to share? C’mon we all have our weird thing….