Swedish Death Cleaning on Valentines Day

Good news! I did a load of laundry! Well actually, Grayson started the load but did it wrong somehow (Delicate cycle I think) so when I went to switch it none of the soap was dissolved. So I re-washed it and then I guess at some point Doug switched it to the dryer and the point is…I have my Vuori joggers back.

Soft, clean, stretchy, low maintenance. No self-respecting Social Media Manager of a person with glioblastoma grade 4 wants to lounge on the couch all day eating brownies and…wearing jeans. That would be insane. 

I thought things were off to a great start today because 1. V-day 2. Doug made me Avocado toast for breakfast 3. I had a free morning while Karie and Laura ran errands. (And don’t forget 4. Clean pants) 

But it turns out I don’t know how to be a normal, functional human anymore. Or at least, I can’t snap back into the role all that quickly. The ADHD has been severely ramped up. 

I got a call from Max. He was making a Flourless Chocolate Cake and asked a question about the recipe. All of a sudden I thought, since I had some spare time, maybe *I* should make one too! (I have cooked exactly once in 4 weeks.) I got out the pan, found the Crisco and greased the pan, went to look for the almond flour, couldn’t find it, cleaned some old food out of the freezer, looked in the cupboard, organized the cupboard but still couldn’t find it, got distracted and answered a few texts, looked at Laura’s MealTrain, used the restroom, aaaannnddd…then went back to Laura’s house. Leaving a greased spring form pan for Doug to clean up. Sorry Doug.

During the afternoon, Karie and I—with Laura directing—did a lot of cleaning and organizing. We cleaned out a lot of stuff from the upstairs rooms and organized some of it into the Laundry Room/Office downstairs. All part of Laura’s continued effort to Swedish Death Clean (which started weeks before all this chaos started) and get her house in order.

Later, the six of us (Karie/Todd, Laura/Jeff, Doug/I) had Cardiff Crack Sandwiches after several different iterations of Valentines Dinner Out didn’t happen. This option ended up being easy and delicious but half way through the meal, Jeff broke down and started crying. That set Laura off and she ended up full on sobbing. So basically, there were a lot of tears today. But not from me. I kept mine shoved down.

The first rule of Cancer Club: Everyone can’t cry at the same time.

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day from the Narita Tokyo Airport!

Top Row: Soy Sauce flavored KitKat, Sakura (Cherry Blossom) flavored drink, "The American Potatochips Salt + Milk Chocolate", and Panda candy of some sort.

Bottom Row: Valentine goodies and curvaceous soda bottles. Because everyone wants a sexy Lilo and Stich drink.

One way or another, it's all about dressing up.

It was my freshman year of college and I was living at The Glenwood in Provo. As Valentines Day approached, my friends and roommates and I contemplated what do do in our boyfriend-less state.

I'm pretty sure it was Christina who made the suggestion the day before V-day. A friend of Malia, (Or was she a friend of Joanna?) I envied her petiteness and the fact that she could pull-off white blonde hair in a pixie cut with funky glasses. Anyway, she suggested we hold a Halloween Party...the very antithesis of the gooey/lovey/hearty-farty affairs planned by many of our more lucky-in-love neighbors.

We agreed immediately and plans (and phone-calls) were made. First, we had to decide on costumes. Luckily, my closet was filled with thrift-store finds including a vintage lace old lady dress with matching shoes (my costume), a florescent green disco dress with matching hooker boots (worn by Rama) and various polyester work shirts with patches baring names like Steve and Ric. (Worn by other roommates.) Once arrangements were made and costumes settled on, we decided we need to increase the number of invited guests.

(Before the party)

Now, The Glenwood was layed out with all the guys apartments on one side, and all the girls apartments on the other. We, of course, went immediately to the guys apartments and started knocking on doors of complete strangers. The guys who had plans were getting ready to leave or were already gone, but we were surprised to find so many stragglers. Guys with no dates, sitting around either alone or with a roommate, watching t.v. in the dark.

We burst into their apartments and invited them to the party starting in only an hour.

Malia's costume was a string Christmas lights and after Ang and I gave our pitch, she'd ask politely, "Mind if I light up?" and proceed to plug herself into the nearest outlet. A lot of total strangers showed up that night. One guy even called the next day to thank us for inviting him.


For me the highlight was when the Accordian Player showed up to serenade the party with love songs. He'd been hired as a singing telegram and since the recipeint was at the party, he was redirected to our apartment.
I don't remember many of the details after that, but I know the party was a success. It became a tradition and for the next few years. While I had roommates, we had a Halloween Party to celebrate Valentines Day.
(This was one held at the Old Mill and hosted by Anna, Michelle and I. We invited the pizza delivery guy and he came back and joined us after getting off work.)


I have to admit, I do miss those Halloween parties but I'm pretty happy with the upgrade. I love having a perma-Valentine. Afterall, I got delicious French Toast in bed this morning (with vanilla ice cream, syrup, strawberries, apple sauce and spray whip all in little custard cups on the side.)

Tonight for dinner it'll be my turn to cook and I'm going to make Four Cheese Pasta, French Bread, and something gooey and chocolatey for dessert. But of course, not everyone has a significant other to help them celebrate the holiday of all things heart shaped. If that's the case, I highly recommend you consider Halloween as an alternative. Because after chocolate truffles, the next best treat in the world is Candy Corn!


Happy Holidays!