a tidy man!?

Who knew there was such a thing? But it's a fact. I am married to a tidy man.

I met Wally my first year of university. He lived at the end of the hall on 5th Mac. (That would be the fifth floor of MacKenzie Hall-UofA student housing complex). The first thing I noticed about him was just how well groomed and well dressed he was as he made his way around the floor. He never left his room without every hair in place, shirt neatly buttoned and tucked into his belted, slim fitting jeans....You get the picture. He looked neat and tidy even when he was slumming around the tv room.

When I was first invited in to his room, I was equally impressed. His clothes were hanging neatly in his closet. His bed was made. His books were stacked in an orderly fashion on his bookshelf and on his desk was an open book with pencils and pens waiting patiently in an actual pen holder at the back of his desk. I was impressed!

Then he showed me his stereo, which was state of the art and ultimately cool but the best part of the visit was his album collection. Seriously! He had dozens of albums stored on a shelf - IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER!! Fleetwood Mac? just shuffle through to the "f's" Abba? right there at the front in the "a's".

The most attractive thing about Wally was just how completely neat, tidy and organized he kept his life. And then we married and I moved in! I had never been particularly tidy but being with Wally made a believer out of me and over the years I have grown to love cleaning and organizing and everything in between. Nothing is more exhilarating than cleaning closets for date night. A new shelving unit sends shivers up and down my spine! Rearranging furniture is still one of the most fun things we do together. I love my neat house and my tidy life!

But we're approaching 30 years together and occasionally his tidiness can get on my nerves.

The other morning I got the milk out of the fridge and put it on the counter. Then I took a glass from the cupboard and set it on the counter by the milk. I'm sure you get the picture of how this was going to work out for me.

I put bread in the toaster and took the butter and jam from the fridge and put those items on the counter beside the toaster.

Then I realized I had a moment to run downstairs to the laundry room to move the wet clothes to the dryer and the dry clothes to the basket to bring upstairs, etc. etc. I mean, really, it takes about two minutes for toast to pop and I am the queen of multi-tasking. I was getting things done!

I deposited the basket in the bedroom just as I heard the toast pop. As I entered the kitchen, you'd never know I'd been there 2 minutes earlier. The counters were completely bare, the food safely stowed in the refrigerator and Wally was just putting my CLEAN glass in the dishwasher.

The popping of the toast combined with my entrance sort of startled him. He got this puzzled look on his face and then he said, "Oh, I bet you wanted that stuff out, didn't you?"