This is not Dave.

This is Dave.

Leaving home as a young adult leads to all kinds of daring adventures, such as drinking straight out of the milk carton.

By this measure, Dave is reliving his second early-adulthood. Yes, he is drinking from the milk carton. I am not. I have some standards.

This development would be disgusting, but we have not entertained a single guest during our 370-day occupation of this hotel suite and I don’t drink milk, so Dave is making a rational choice that also happens to reduce the pieces of dirtied dinnerware we produce. I have a hard time arguing with that, nonetheless, the minute we land on Canadian soil, I am going to keep a wood ruler in the kitchen. Dave makes a wrong move toward a milk carton and there will be consequences.

Youth-associated poverty also leads to certain economic measures, such as forgoing the traditional ironing board and using the mattress for pressing clothes. Our suite happens to have an ironing board, but somewhere along the way we started ironing clothes on our bed. I can’t remember exactly when or why this domestic devolution occurred, but it is actually a great thing. No more sliding clothes around on a too-narrow board. Just lay the whole thing out and ironing is suddenly easy. As if on cue, we’ve noticed Swiss shops are selling over-sized ironing boards – yes, ironing boards so wide you can lay your trousers out on them without having any portion lap over the edge. Sweet.

How could this not be a great idea?