In October 2006, my husband and I got married. It was less than a year after we started dating. Our relationship was a whirlwind. We started dating the weekend after Thanksgiving in 2005; I moved into his apartment on Valentine’s Day 2006. By the end of February that year, I had proposed to him. We decided on a fall wedding because the weather is better, and I love all things fall. Originally I wanted haybales with pumpkins but settled for large planters of mums. It was perfect! Now, if you did a little math, that means you’ve probably figured out that this year is a big year for us. This year we’ll celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary! 

We decided for our anniversary this year we’re going to celebrate with a big vacation. We haven’t been on a big vacation since our honeymoon in 2006. We aren’t going away, people. Honestly, for many years, we couldn’t afford a trip to the movies, much less a big vacay. So this year, since things are looking better for us, we decided to celebrate. On a whim, I started scouting out beach houses up and down the East Coast. In December, I found the perfect home; it was HUGE! Much bigger than two people needed, but it was perfect. The only catch, the house was only available for Memorial Day weekend; that’s a few months ahead of our anniversary. We discussed and said, “why not?” and booked our vacation home. Then we started to invite friends. Memorial Day weekend is a tough one. Kids are still in school, people aren’t ready to take their summer vacations, and it’s a holiday. So we ended up with a small band of friends joining us for the week. Honestly, I wouldn’t change anything; it was perfect. 

This momentous occasion brings me to our title. A few days before our vacation, I emailed to find out precisely what the kitchen situation was like and was told it was an OVERSTOCKED kitchen. The rental agency for the house sent me contradictory statements about the status of the kitchen. One email told me there was a fully stocked kitchen, and another told me there was nothing in the kitchen. Being a newbie to this vacation rental process, I didn’t bother to email back and asked what made it overstocked—a mistake. After 10.5 hours in the car, we arrive with two dogs to find that the kitchen is bare. There is a set of plates, glasses, and silverware, but nothing else. Some of the cookware’s seen better days. There isn’t even salt and pepper. I think back to the email stating that the kitchen was overstocked and laugh.. We made it through, spent a ton of money on simple things, like salt and pepper. If I had known then what I know now, I would’ve packed up our kitchen because we barely ate out while we were there. The only thing I can think of was that one person’s version of overstocked is another person’s empty. 

When we got home, I filled out the survey for the house and the rental company. I asked them to stop using the term overstocked in their messaging about houses unless it’s actually true. I also suggested that they include a list of things you might want to bring for the kitchen for newbies to the rental process. Lord knows, if I saw that I needed salt and pepper for the kitchen, I would’ve known from there to pack my whole pantry. 

Honestly, I wouldn’t change anything about our big vacay. It was like our marriage. Some things have been very different than what I was expecting. Times have been lean, and they’ve been filled with short-term riches. We’ve had struggles and fantastically wonderful times. We’ve confused each other and helped each other grow. We started with a blank kitchen, and for 15 years, we’ve been filling it with memories, spices, new recipes, and making it our home.