A Blog Post Literally Complaining About My Fridge

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When we bought our house almost three years ago, the fridge “did not convey”. It was the first time my husband and I got to pick out our own appliance, so I put a ton of research into the thing! There were certain features that I was super picky about. It had to be black to match both the existing appliances and my emo heart. I also specifically did not want a water dispenser on the outside because I thought my little toddlers would turn it into a shower. We spent a lot of time browsing until we found the right one. Black, no water dispenser, and the double doors we’ve always dreamt of. There was also this special feature of an alarm that would go off if the door was accidentally left open. Very kid friendly I thought.


Well… yeah.


Don’t get me wrong this is a super nice fridge, it’s just…

First world problems but it doesn’t fill up the space like I thought it would. Which is my fault for not measuring correctly / being cheap and choosing a smaller fridge. I thought it would look okay but as soon as they put it in I was like … ew. The gap was so wide that I tried to utilize it by storing my brooms there but that just looked worse honestly. Plus whenever my kids played around the fridge a broom would slip out from the crack and smack them on the heads like a ghost from an old timey cartoon.

Okay and speaking of ghosts. I guess I should have taken it seriously when more than one review mentioned the “scary sounds” coming from the fridge. Because now every time someone comes over they think the thing is haunted. “Sorry, I know that sounds like the windy whisper of Hannibal Lector eating Fava beans, but it’s actually just my fridge.” One review said he kept getting “scared sh*tless” by the noise of the fridge… but only in the middle of the night. I remember laughing and thinking that guy was dramatic but he was UNDERSELLING IT. This fridge will randomly drop a pound of ice at three in the morning and it sounds like a burglar smashing his way through the wall like the Kool-aid Man.

Oh my gosh that ice tray too. It will fill it all the way up to the top and the freezer is so fricking small that when I try to shut the drawer over the box of Uncrustables, several ice cubes will just shoot out and roll all over the floor.

Also I swear the ice smells like wet dog sometimes? I’ve never heard Daniel complain about this. So maybe I have a brain injury I don’t remember about.

That door alarm that I thought was such a useful feature HAHAHAHAHA. Now it’s just a stressful race to put your groceries away in under ten minutes or get screamed at.

That’s not even all the sounds we have problems with. The waterline in the back is like a freaking wrecking ball or something. When you fill up your kids little plastic cup with water it’s like KaCHOONK KaCHOONK every single time you press the button. And my wimpy little finger can’t hold the dang thing down so it’s KaCHOONKING the entire time which drives my husband nuts. I have a standard size Hydroflask and it takes two entire minutes for it to dribble and kaCHOONK full.

I thought that water dispenser inside the fridge was SUCH a selling point with little kids. But what I forgot is that kids are not toddlers forever. And at some point they’re going to start filling up their own water glasses. But when they’re too small to reach it they will actually climb INSIDE your fridge and stand on the ledge to fill their cup. Then when it takes them too long, that FREAKING DOOR ALARM GOES OFF. And your child is traumatized and crying for you to rescue them from inside the refrigerator.

TLDR Pros: keeps food from rotting, can hold 2 gallons of milk if you push the shelf in. Cons: whispers like the souls of the damned, throws ice at you, sounds a fire alarm when you’re trying to put away your cream cheese, freezes your child to their pull-ups as they kaCHOONK water.

Getting Vulnerable About My Antepartum Depression

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Hi so this is sort of awkward but I don’t know why. It shouldn’t be. I wouldn’t have really said anything except that I felt like if more people (especially other creatives) had told me their experience I might have acted sooner. Or at least have been willing to act sooner.

I knew I always had anxiety, but the anxiety also dictated how I managed the anxiety. As in, I was too scared to do anything about it. Particularly when it came to medication. In college, I may or may not have once taken my boyfriend’s prescription pill. (For legal reasons I may not have lol). And you know what? It sucked. I don’t recommend taking prescriptions that aren’t yours. (For legal reasons I especially don’t recommend it) It completely inverted my personality. I had no emotions one way or the other. No joy. No crazy anxiety. Nothing. I was this empty robot. I actually felt empty. Like walking around with a spotlight and a skull in my hand lamenting that I lost all my mirth and what is this quintessence of dust? So that really misshaped my perception of psychiatric medicine. I felt like all meds would make you robotic and weird and passionless.

I also had this other fear about my writing. Would meds interfere with my creativity? Because writing is a massive MASSIVE outlet in my life. It’s so deeply a part of my person that I would rather suffer indefinitely than have my creativity taken away from me.

So when I got pregnant with my daughter, I was unbelievably sick. I think I had to have a total of four emergency IVs? Maybe five. Just sick as a dog. And I didn’t recognize the depression that was creeping in on me. until one day I started crying uncontrollably. And I remembered that sort of feeling after I had Jack. After Jack I had gone through PPD/PPA without realizing what it was. Because when it’s your first child you don’t realize crying for 24 hours straight isn’t normal. But this being my third child, I realized that I was experiencing something out of the norm. And I hadn’t even had her yet.

After I recognized something was wrong (which is the first really hard step) I called my OBG and told her my symptoms. They ended up giving me a survey over the phone and when I heard the questions I was like “ohhhhh…. yeah.” Sometimes you don’t realize how bad things really are when you’re silently experiencing them yourself. I was eight months pregnant and suffering from antepartum depression, which I had never before even heard of.

My doctor prescribed me Sertraline on the spot over the phone and I was so nervous. I read the pamphlet front to back and felt panicked that I was about to lose my ability to write. My husband is a Pharmacist and he comforted me. He said if the medication didn’t work for me I could always go off of it. So I decided to give it a try and this was the important thing I learned:

The medication didn’t stop my creative process, the depression did.

Suddenly, I had my energetic ability to write again. And other surprise side effects that I hadn’t realized were related to my depression/anxiety.

Growing up I always had panic attacks about getting sick. Legitimate panic attacks. And the first week I was on the meds, I got a terrible virus and was throwing up (plus pregnant sick, so that required another IV). But for some reason I was like “oh darn I just threw up in the Bobby Que parking lot. Whatevs lol.” THAT HAS NEVER BEEN MY MO.

Another one was suddenly I could watch Forensic Files with my husband. Before, even just hearing that narrator’s voice and cadence gave me heart palpitations. And now suddenly I’m not terrified of true crime. I read about The Toy Box Killer and the West Memphis Three crime within days of each other. And was like “Yucky, that’s disturbing.” And then NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT IT AGAIN. No ruminating details for the next week or feeling like I was gonna puke late at night thinking about it.

After that I realized okay… probably shoulda been on this medication a way long time ago.

Suddenly I had all this motivation to get things done. Unfortunately for Daniel that meant a butt ton of Amazon purchases as I started fixing up and decorating my house. I also started dressing up. Even if it were for myself in my house and my newborn spit up on me. I’ve honestly never felt more aligned with my true self.

I will add, because I think it’s important, I also was doing “the work”. Being honest about some difficult things that had happened to me in the past and giving up things that didn’t serve or work for me anymore. But all in all I think I’m in a much better space and that was in part the medication.

So that’s it. In all my vulnerability. I wanted to talk about it just in case someone else had the same fears or concerns about meds that I did. Or even if someone is having a really difficult pregnancy and didn’t know that antepartum depression is a real thing. Sertraline really did work for me if that helps.

How My Weeklong Resolutions Went

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WEEK ONE: WAKE UP EARLY

Alright well first off I obviously didn’t realize that starting this goal the morning of New Years would be a bad idea. So I opted to start on the 2nd. Heh heh oops. First impressions, wow my house is a lot cleaner doing this. I thought the days would drag on getting up early but they still zoom by like nothing. I definitely have a lot less patience with the kids haha. Days one and two went fine and then Day three was like NO! SNOOZE SNOOZE! WHY HAVE I DONE THIS?! WHY DID I RUIN A GOOD THING!? But I pushed through and actually went to bed on time that night haha. By the end of the week I started to get a stomach bug. On Friday I still got up early and got my kid ready for school but afterwards I was like… there’s nothing in the rules that says I can’t take a nap right now with my toddler watching YouTube kids. So I did. Is that a cheat? Probably. But I felt much better. My take away from this week was Yes I was absolutely more productive doing this, even with cheat naps. And yes I did find myself spending more time with my children because tasks were finished earlier. Bottom line is I feel a lot more open minded to early mornings than before I did this challenge.

WEEK TWO: NO SUGAR OR CHEESE

Day one went better than I imagined! I loved everything I ate and didn’t have any sugar withdrawals. I think it really helped that I prepped beforehand. Switching to sugar-free alternatives to foods I already ate regularly was the biggest reason this challenge wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. Day four, I was like WOAH I have way more energy… but then two hours later, I TANKED. Day five, food started to become really boring. Does that make sense? Like I was getting bored with the limited options and nothing excited me in the same way a massive sugar overload would haha. All in all this was more doable than I thought it was. And making tiny sugar free switches is something that I can easily carry into the rest of the year.

WEEK THREE: TAKE KIDS OUT EVERY DAY

We went to Top Golf the first day and then the mall the second and third day. I love our local mall. It has a few play places and you can go there rain or unbearable Arizona shine. Right away I realized why I never take Casey out very much. Not only have I been pandemic trained to fear leaving my house but also **BABY**. I will say that it has been way more enjoyable than I imagined. I definitely plan on going to the mall once a week. Because Casey and I agreed that was our favorite activity. It’s interesting how these weekly challenges have been making real doable life changes. That wasn’t totally my intention but just showing myself “I could do it” naturally helped me to see what small things I could incorporate.

WEEK FOUR: KEEP A DAILY READING SCHEDULE

I learned quickly that one does not simply schedule quiet reading time with small children. So I basically just read whenever I found time. It was really fun and I was happy to prioritize it. I do wish I could have a scheduled reading time though and I may have to schedule it into my designated writing time if I can. Another thing I learned is that I don’t have to be scared of this. I know that sounds dumb, but I struggle with all or nothing mentality and it feels like I have to read a whole book right then and there or else I won’t. But this week I learned that I can read for enjoyment. Not because it’s a school assignment, or someone told me to, or I’m “researching my industry”, or I’ve set some unrealistic goal. But just simply for the pure enjoyment of devouring a story.

So that was how my months of challenges went! It was even more successful than I dreamed and genuinely helped me to find meaningful but doable changes in my life! So if you’re scared of making a change, try it for just a week!