Okay...OKAY!

Alright already!

You're right, communal food doesn't really work. At least not in our experiences...but it seems to be working for my roommates. A few clarifications:

1. I was merely venting yesterday. If it was a real problem, I'd talk to them all about it in person (I did this with a dishes issue we were having). Absolutely NO snippy notes. I agree wholeheartedly.

2. I've tried most of your suggestions in the past - with success - I had a mini-fridge in the dorms where I kept most of my food, my roommate last year and I split the fridge in half and if we used up something not ours we replaced it in a day. I think, though, that I'm not going to buy another mini fridge for just 9 months. And, well...it's awfully tough to split up a fridge into 5 sections and have everyone have enough room for their groceries. I think each situation has it's own good solution, and this one, for me, is to try and ease up on the OCD about food. I can live just as easy on cereal (and I'm not really picky about cereal when it comes down to it) as I can on granola. Sometimes there needs to be a compromise to preserve a relationship you love. Picking and choosing your battles - now there's a lesson I could use some practice in. At the same time, I think if it gets bad, I'll put my name on everything (in my roommates' defense I got home last night and there was an unopened jar of blackberry jam a few weeks old with my name on it) and I think my roommates will understand. And I do indeed eat some of their stuff sometimes. Which leads me to the next thing...

3. I think living with other people who grocery shop separately from you introduces a "grass is always greener" kind of mentality about food. You buy what you think you want, or what you're used to buying; and then they buy something you hadn't thought of - something your eyes glazed over as you scanned the grocery aisle...and it's new and sexy to you and immediatley all your food seems dull and unappetizing. It's the same thing that happens at the lunch table at elementary school - the trading of different items in lunches to make exactly the lunch you never realized you wanted until you saw it in other people's lunchboxes. Anyway, I think this is the phenomenon that perpetuates the communal food policy in many houses. It gives us OPTIONS we wouldn't have with the food we buy ourselves.

In any case, thanks for letting me vent, and sharing your stories, and offering up advice. You're sweet to think of me.

I'm working 12 days in a row (currently on day 10 of 12) so I'm prone to blowing off work this week...keep your eyes peeled for more posts! (Of course, now that I've said that, I've jinxed myself into a week of business and lack of creativity for good posts.)