The Peanut Butter Jar Debate

I knew that moving in together would present new hurdles for me and Blake.  We both have been single and living alone for so long...how could we not develop some habits that would seem downright silly to each other?  For instance, I tend to leave half empty glasses wherever they are.  For days at a time.  When I finally realize they need cleaned they usually look like a science experiment, but I just dump it down the disposal, throw it in the dishwasher, and hope for the best.  Blake seems to find this unusual and disguting to say the least (so do I, but I guess not enough to change the habit).  And apparently I never eat restaraunt leftovers, which I didn't realize until Blake started eating them.  "Hey, I was saving that!"  "Really?  Because it's been in here for a month."  I guess you could say that's one of his quirks-he'll eat anything.  He thinks he's impervious to any food generated illness.

Blake, on the other hand, is of the opinion that if you use it everyday it doesn't need to go in the cupboard or pantry.  So at his apartment nothing was in the cabinets, and I think milk only made it in the fridge because he likes it cold.  Needless to say I nipped this one in the bud as soon as we moved in.  I took over unpacking and organizing the kitchen immediately and got it all in the cabinets before he could claim counter-space for say...peanut butter.

Fast forward a few weeks.

Blake has been wonderful about trying to keep up with my constant rearranging of the kitchen, since we keep finding more kitchen stuff as we unpack.  Most of his things end up back in the cupboard they belong in when he's done.  There was just one teeny tiny little thing that was driving me a little crazy...

We have two peanut butter jars.  A very large fat-free version and a small regular version.   Blake uses the fat-free PB on his morning toast every morning.  Every morning he would stack the very large jar back in the pantry on top of the much smaller regular jar.  Every morning after he left and I started to fix my breakfast I would inevitably knock into the stack and send both jars flying (thank God for plastic).  I would restack them with the large peanut butter on bottom and go about my day.  The next morning, there it would be again-the large PB jar taunting me from the top of the little one.

Finally one morning I opened the pantry and saw the jars, stacked big jar on top of little, and turned to face Blake.

"Why do you stack the big peanut butter jar on top of the little peanut butter jar?"  (*I had already had my morning coffee and this was said with some actual decency and more than a little curiousity)

"BECAAAUUUSE!  It's REALLY HARD to put everything AWAY when I use it EVERY SINGLE DAY and I'm not LEAVING IT ON THE COUNTER and then I have to MOVE THE OTHER JARS OUT OF THE WAY and I'M TRYING REALLY HARD HERE!!!!"

I'm probably a really terrible girlfriend, but I laughed.

And then I moved the little peanut butter jar to the bottom shelf, out of sight and away so that he had one less thing to have to remember.  Because he is trying so very hard to put up with my constantly changing demands and kitchen organization.  Because he is more than patient with my mercurial nature and unpredictable whims.  And because even though I don't want the peanut butter jar on my counter, I don't want him to have to change who he is completely for me or anyone (and I still don't want the peanut butter jar on my counter).

Epilogue

Two days later...

I open the pantry door to retrieve something for dinner and see, once again, that oversized PB jar on top of the ridiculously small one.  I turn, hands on hips, to face Blake, who says, "What?!"

I reach into the pantry and remove the large jar, a million variations of "Haven't we already discussed this..." running through my head and ready to burst out of my mouth.  As I lift the jar, I see a small sticky note attached to the jar below:

I love you :$

(that's the emoticon Blake gave me...he says I have a million dollar smile and that's why he fell in love me.  I know, it's disgusting isn't it?  I love it!)

I think when I turned around my face must have frozen somewhere between "I can't believe you stacked these jars like this AGAIN after I MOVED that little one for you!" and "I can't believe I'm such a jerk to complain about stupid peanut butter jars".  Blake nearly fell over laughing, and then wrapped me in his arms and said with a big grin on his face, "I've been waiting two days for you to find that."

Which pretty well ended the peanut butter jar debate.