It's not like he wasn't forewarned...

Most of you who read this online journal know me personally, I call the majority of you close friends. Well, for the people who know me this won't be a shocker, for those of you who only know me in this arena I will let you in on one of my biggest flaws...I'm a slob. But, I will say, I'm not one of those really disgusting slobs that has food crusted plates under the couch and funk growing in weird places...no, I'm more of the cluttered variety of slob. I hate doing housework, I hate washing clothes and the thing I hate the most is the vacuum cleaner. Just the sound of that stupid machine make my teeth clench. Guess what Phillip is...a neat freak. Yep, so you can probably guess what our first argument was about. In my defense, I told him before he moved in that I was a slob, Terra & Lyndon even made jokes about it. It's not something I'm proud of, I try to not be slobby, but I just can't. But, I will say this, I"m weird about the bathroom, mainly the toilet. I might have a pile of clothes on the floor of the bathroom that needs to be washed, but my toilet and bathtub are typically CLEAN! Now, the counter surface around the sink...not so much. I don't know why it's so hard for me to put things up when I'm done, but I'm also a little freaky about when I DO clean there is a specific spot for everything and if it isn't in that spot once the cleaning is done, all is not right in the world. Usually, I have makeup scattered about, my contact case is on the sink along with the contact solution, a couple of hairbrushes, my toothbrush has to be plugged in so it's out and my Chi iron stays next to the sink. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, Phillip & I were at Target and he suggested that we get a shelf for the bathroom. I wasn't sure what for, since everything has a home, but I went ahead and got a little, white decorative shelf. Before I continue telling you about the shelf, let me first explain that the week prior to that I was noticing little, red beard hairs around the sink. This seems odd to me, I didn't understand why he couldn't aim his beard trimming directly over the sink. Anyway, so last Sunday when I got home from church, I walked in the front door and he said go check out what I did in the bathroom. I walked into the bathroom and noticed there was NOTHING on the counter around the sink except a yellow kitchen sponge, then I looked to my right. Everything that was on the counter was now lined up on the little, white decorative shelf. I took a deep breath and the conversation went a little like this...

Amanda: What did you do?
Phillip: Well, the bathroom counter was disgusting, so I put the shelf up and moved all of your stuff to the shelf.
Amanda: But that stuff doesn't go on the shelf, now the sink looks like a hospital sink. We need the pretty stuff around the sink.
(I proceeded to put the makeup in my makeup box, the hair styling stuff in the hair styling box, the lotion dispenser and electric toothbrush base back on the counter, etc... The only thing left on the shelf was my glasses, contact case and solution)
Amanda: See, everything has a place.
Phillip: (voice raised, ever so slightly) I can't brush my teeth or wash my hands in here, it's DISGUSTING!
Amanda: (voice raided, ever so slightly) DISGUSTING! What about the little beard hairs between the faucet and the mirror???
Phillip: How am I supposed clean up the beard hairs if your stuff is all over the place???
Amanda: Why can't you trim your beard over the sink?
Phillip: You ask any guy with a beard, the beard hairs fly all over the place. You need to start putting your shit up!

Now what I heard was you're a slob. And, it's perfectly okay for me to call myself that...but not the man who supposedly loves me unconditionally. So, I just look at him and walk out of the bathroom. I go and change clothes and I started doing something in the kitchen, then I hear him walk out the front door. While he was outside I walked upstairs so I could clean the bathtub and the toilet. When I lift the seat of the toilet to clean it guess what I saw...there was evidence of a man around the toilet. As gross as it is, I cleaned the toilet then got my scrubbing bubbles out to clean the tub, that's when I noticed it. The spot on the wall where the little, white decorative shelf once hung was now bare. The only proof that I had that the shelf was there were two little holes. So, I go flying down the stairs and I look at Phillip and say...

Amanda: Put the shelf back up.
Phillip: I can't.
Amanda: Why
Phillip: (with a smirk on his face and half giggling) I threw it in the dumpster
Amanda: YOU DID WHAT?!?!
Phillip: You didn't want the shelf, so I threw it away.
Amanda: Just because I said that I didn't want the bathroom to look like a hospital???
Phillip: No, because it's DISGUSTING AND YOU DON'T SEE IT!
Amanda: YOU WANT TO TALK DISGUSTING?!?!? HAVE YOU SEEN THE RIM OF THE TOILET LATELY, AND GUESS WHAT...I KNOW I'M NOT THE ONE THAT MADE THAT FILTH!

Two Hours go by without any words spoken.

We end up sitting on the couch and he puts his hand on my knee and we both look at each other.

Phillip: I don't want to fight anymore.
Amanda: Neither do I. But you have to let me know when things bother you.
Phillip: I didn't think the house bothered you at all.
Amanda: It doesn't really, but there are times when I'm like, OK, it's time to do something with the house. But, can you honestly say that this is all my mess?
Phillip: NO.
Amanda: You act like you weren't forewarned. I told you when we first started dating that I was a slob, you even visited here before you moved in. Did you think I was joking?
Phillip: No.
Amanda: Did you think I was making it up?
Phillip: No.
Amanda: I will try to be better at picking up after myself.
Phillip: Why didn't you say anything about the toilet before.
Amanda: I didn't see it until after we started fighting.
Phillip: Oh.

So, there you go, a run down of our first fight. Surely we're not the only couple that has argued over shelves and toilets...right???

Until next time...

Amanda