Today as I was unloading the dishwasher and putting away the dishes, I realized that we have been using the same 3 or 4 dinner plates all the time, and just re-washing them. I have about 10 other dinner plates, but it seems like they have never seen the light of day. This is how it goes:
Joe eats breakfast- plate in dishwasher (ok, usually the sink and Heather puts it in dishwasher) Heather eats breakfast puts plate in dishwasher. Heather eats lunch, puts plate in dishwasher, Joe and Heather eat dinner, two plates go in dishwasher. Next morning, Heather unloads dishwasher, puts plates on top of the stack, and process starts all over.
It occurred to me I could just start putting the plates at the bottom, but who wants to lift 10 heavy plates to do that? Then I started looking at my cupboards, and I had to just shake my head. When we got married almost five years ago, we did the usual gift registry, mainly at Crate & Barrel. As I looked at 10 ice cream dishes today, 10 milkshake glasses, and 10 margarita glasses, I wondered what was I thinking?
Oh yeah, I remember- it went something like this:
Joe and Heather in Crate & Barrel on a Saturday morning, in 2002
HEATHER: Oh look at the cute ice cream dishes, honey…won’t these be nice for when we have kids?
JOE: What do you mean?
HEATHER: Well, when we have kids, we’ll all have the same nice dishes to eat ice cream in.
JOE: Okay, how many do you think we need?
HEATHER: (not even taking into consideration they are a thin glass that a baby, toddler, and basically any person under the age of 18 would break, by just looking at them): Ten should be good, then we’ll always have enough even if some are in the dishwasher.
(Heather inputs 10 in the scan gun. Joe and Heather continue down the aisle.)
HEATHER: Look at these adorable milkshake glasses. These will be perfect for the kids when I make milkshakes for them.
JOE (assuming the reasoning is the same as it was for the ice cream dishes): Okay, how many do you think we’ll need?
HEATHER: Well, if we have a few kids, and then if they have a few friends over, and then we want one, and then if one breaks, maybe 10 will do it. I guess we could always get a replacement one if we need it.
(Heather zaps 10 milkshake glasses in the scan gun. Moving on down the aisle)
JOE: Hey, those are pretty cool margarita glasses.
HEATHER (excited he was finally excited about something in the store): Yeah, they are. Those would be great when we have people over, or have Mexican Food Night.
JOE: Let’s get eight.
HEATHER: Might as well make it 10 in case one breaks. (enters 10 in the scanner)
Back to modern day-
Well needless to say, it will be a cold day in h*** before I would give my kids the glass ice cream dishes, or milkshake glasses. At least I did consider one of the milkshake glasses may break, but having people over for Mexican Food Night? I wish I had time to make just myself a margarita- let alone entertain with a Mexican Food Night.
If I knew then what I knew now, we would have skipped Crate & Barrel and went right to the Tupperware kiosk and stocked up on plastic plates, plastic bowls, sippy cups, washcloths (to clean up the ice cream and milkshake messes) and then went to the liquor store to stock up on pre-made margarita mix from the bottle.
As it stands, everynow and then, I’ll have a dish of ice cream in my ice cream dish, and I have probably made at most, two milkshakes served in the milkshake glasses. I have never hosted a Mexican Food Night, but in the rare event down the road, if Joe and I can ever manage to find some time to pour the pre-made margarita mix from the bottle into the glasses, (salting them would be another bonus), we’ll at least have very nice glasses to drink from, and could each drink 5 before we’d have to stop and wash the glasses again.
