Files

When I first met my husband in school, he had this huge desk in his room. A desk an executive would have, not the ikea special all other students buy. And in that desk, he had his "files". They were extensive and they were organized. It was like he was the dean of students as opposed to just another kid trying to graduate. But he was organized and always could find what he needed, and when it came time to fill out the bar application, he was the only one who had all the necessary paperwork handy without having to call home to his parents 100 times asking them to send important life documents.

Fast forward to after graduation, when he moved into his own apartment. The files were packed in a box, and he just never got around to upacking them.

Now shoot to present, where for the last 2 years since we got engaged, the kid has basically thrown all our bills, paperwork, passports, and important information into what I have lovingly referred to as "shit pile". Yes, we have two rubbermaid bins filled to capacity with papers, in no particular order, not even neatly piled up. We have approximately 4 drawers in the house equally piled high with various receipts, invitations, ticket stubs, bills etc. I refer to these as the "shit drawers".

Any time that we are looking for something, I get angry and say "why don't you look in the shit piles?" The frustration over the disorganization is two-fold. First, no one likes to be that disorganized; and second, this was not what I had signed up for. I know how the other half lives, I've been to the other side and let me tell you, coming back has been hell. When I signed up, I thought I was getting a completely organized system of filing, not bins full of crap...

So after more than 2 years of saying that he was going to "do our filing" my husband organized the filing this weekend. And we are back to the man I fell in love with. Back to the age inappropriate executive desk system. Back to anal retentiveness regarding our files. And I regret every joke I ever made about his crazy files while we were in school. I now know their value. The value of a life lived in a systematically organized household. And I will never complain again.

Two things of note occurred during the organization process. First, my husband found my law school transcript, looked at me and said "it's your transcript, can I look at it?" Am I the only one that thinks once you are married, looking at your spouses' transcript is a given?

Second, I was looking through his first year of law school phone list, and saw the name of a girl I did not recognize. I asked who she was, and my husband replied "I don't remember." A few minutes later we were in the basement together and I headed upstairs first. I told him I wanted him to stay in the basement until he thought about who "Kristin Wurmuth" is, and then he could come up. Is it wrong to be upset over your husband's apparent calling another woman enough that it warrants putting her number on the phone list he made 7 years ago?

Incidentally, my old roommate did inform me that Kristin Wurmuth was in our class and I knew her during lawschool, so the crisis passed and I let my husband come up from the basement.