refrigerator game

it is a fine, amusing kind of calculus that keeps my food from spoiling:

if i want ice, i have to take out the eggs and vegetables and crank the coldness setting, and then remember to take the milk out at the last minute, or all of it will freeze and the eggs/vegetables will go to waste and the milk will be a solid block, useless for tea or cereal or coffee. once the ice is frozen, that comes out and everything goes back in and the setting goes down. the bread goes at the top since everything at the top freezes, which means i have to remember to buy small amounts of vegetables at a time because i can only keep them on the lowest shelf. i once accidentally froze apricot jam and half a bottle of vinaigrette while trying to make ice. i wonder, does frozen and thawed yeast still rise? i bought it for rolls a while ago and it's been frozen and thawed over and over by now.

but if i turn the coldness setting below four to keep things from freezing, the fridge thinks i am sending it on vacation and turns itself off so everything gets warm and gross, and i have to ask the guy downstairs to throw the circuit breaker to turn it back on again. the best is when in the morning while i am not home the circuit goes out, and i come home to a big pool of water from the melted freezer on the floor, a bunch of warm, squishy chicken sitting in there, and a tub of spoiled yogurt in the fridge. learned my lesson, now i only buy small things of yogurt if at all.

so eating is strategic depending on what setting the fridge is on and how often it has been breaking lately, and what i need for dinner or breakfast the next day. no wonder i am beginning to enjoy more things in cans...this isn't even a regular size fridge. it is a mini one and yet it is so fickle! and the top part is so much colder than the bottom bit, even though they're only about a foot apart. like it has a mind of its own.