on marriage…
Last night, both of us getting ready to turn in for the evening were undressing, putting laundry away, brushing our teeth, etc… the typical nightly routine one goes through after being married nearly 5 years. No more secrets. The toothpaste you put on your pimple so that it dries up by morning? Your husband sees it, and if he’s cool enough, he’ll try out your toothpaste on his next zit.
“Sorry…” Paul says as I walk from our bathroom, into our bedroom.
“Sorry for what?” I respond, wondering what I missed while I was washing my face. Then I smell it… the oh sweet Jesus, what crawled up in your ass, died, and began rotting fart. My eyes watered.
“For the love of all that is holy, Paul!” I said, hardly able to breathe. The look on his face was of sincere apology as he too had to endure the wrath of his own digestive tract.
“Yeah, that one’s bad,” he admitted.
I pull down our duvet and fluff the pillows in an attempt to move beyond the fart and continue with our nightly routine. After a few minutes, the smell dies down (or my nose just becomes immune). Paul and I each get in bed. I pull up the covers, open my book, and then…
“Sorry, again…” is quietly uttered from his mouth. I look at him and think to myself, why on earth do you always mumble? And then I realize why.
“Are you kidding me?! Seriously, Paul!!!” I say, sitting straight up in bed, looking for an escape, this time clearly unable to breathe. The dog even smells it and buries his face in his bed in an attempt to cover his nose.
“Can you not get up and go in the bathroom or something?” I say out of desperation, wanting to hide under the covers from the rancid smell of his ass, but knowing that would be far from a safe haven.
“Yeah, I guess I could,” he responds, again feeling bad for the smell his body has projected into our bedroom.
“I will next time.”
Yeah. Right.
french press coffee friend
jackson and i had our first official playdate this morning. it was delightful, to say the very least. my new friend and her husband have two little girls, ages 4 and (almost) 3. we played, we coffeed, we talked… i’m honestly not sure who enjoyed the visit more, jackson or me.
as time went on and my new friend and i got more comfortable getting to know one another, the typical “mom subjects” of discipline, schedules/routines, siblings took a turn to deeper, dare i say, political viewpoints. and it was at this point in our playdate when i knew i had found a mom-friend here in annapolis who i could really get along with.
my new friend had poked around at my blog before our play-date today, and so that was our jumping off point for conversation…
“i imagine it would make me feel vulnerable to put myself out there like that… you have no editor to run things by… it’s just out there upon clicking ‘publish,’” she said.
“yeah, but that’s kinda why i like it. instant gratification. what you see is what you get. no apologies.”
and that “style” is very me… and so we started to delve into that a little bit. both my new friend and i are married to dudes in the military. and while it is a nice resource to have an instant community of sorts, i have found that it’s not always the most accepting.
“so i saw on your blog that you consider yourself a liberal,” my new friend said.
(((smiling))) “yup. sure do,” i responded.
“i’m interested to know… how do you reconcile that with what your husband does? i guess what i mean is, in your experience, do you find yourself standing alone on issues?” she very honestly asked.
keep in mind, i did not know her stance on anything, but was interested and loved the manner in which she asked these very candid questions. so we continued to talk. i shared with her about how i grew up in a very conservative home, but with age and life experience have come to identify myself as a liberal individual. i told her that while paul’s current employer doesn’t lend itself to many of us, we’re out there… stirring the pot.
she smiled at me and then confessed how she has felt her own stirrings from within, a sort of new found independence in some of her views. we then proudly discussed how we voted this past election, and she shared with me the name of another obama-supporting neighbor.
i’ve always known that it’s more or less understood that military wives are conservative. the military itself is conservative. and so therefore it would make sense to have the stereotype that those of us who support those in the armed services (via marriage) would fall in line accordingly.
but i don’t. never have… and not planning to either. and i’m really content in knowing that. some of my greatest conversations are with conservative folk (you know who you are) and i love that. but i also loved finding a pal who shared some similar thoughts to mine this morning.
so thank you, new friend (if you’re reading this). thank you for the hospitality and intellectually stimulating conversation at 8:30 am. and thanks for the french press coffee. it was splendid.
snow days bring out the crazy
as of now, annapolis has roughly 6 inches of snow on the ground with fresh powder dancing around in the air and more to come this evening. surprisingly for this region of the country, a snow day was declared. schools closed; and for me, this meant that i had another day with paul around at home, which in turn made for another set of hands to take care of jackson’s poopy diapers. yay for snow days! mommy likes!
i’m finding though, that regardless of the region you live in, snow days bring out the crazy in us all. if you are a true northerner, your crazy comes out in the form of anger and irritation with the southerners (like myself) who are racing to the grocery store for essentials. and, if you are a true southerner, you do find yourself at the grocery store stocking up on baby formula, milk, eggs… or in my case, kahlua, baileys, and swiss miss hot chocolate. apparently my form of crazy includes cocoa and liquor. anyone care to join?
jackson’s form of crazy is especially excitable with the snow day… kids trampling around in and out of our apartment building, creating noise that has led me to put both ear plugs in my ears and then headphones over my ears so i can concentrate while writing. (or maybe i just need the extra focus since i have a buzz at 2:30 in the afternoon?) regardless, jackson’s crazy is at an all-time high today. he has napped for a total of 40 minutes and has spent the majority of his awake time squawking like an animal and blowing zerberts on my face.
paul and i did bundle up our snowmagoo this morning and take him out to experience his first real snow day. we don’t have a waterproof snowsuit for him, so we bundled him up in a fleece onesie over his regular onesie, two pair of socks, hat, two hoods over the hat, two sets of mittens, and his winter coat. taking a plastic trashcan bag with us, we planned to plop him on it (thereby providing the waterproofness we do not have) and have our photo op.
jackson sat for almost a full minute before deciding to check things out for himself. he was off the plastic trashcan bag shortly thereafter and experiencing the snow in his own little magoo way. being unable to move as quickly and easily as usual with the multiple layers of clothing we stuffed him in, jackson frustrated easily and got over the whole snow day real quick.
and speaking of crazy, i think i might actually find myself busy this week here in good ol’ nap-town. tomorrow morning will be jackson’s first official baby playgroup with some of the moms in our apartment complex and their little ones. of course it falls right during jackson’s morning nap, but he didn’t take one this morning, so he may as well not take one tomorrow either. 
wednesday there is a wine tasting (umm HELLO!) event at a little local bistro that paul and i are going to in the hopes of making non-navy friends (as i am in dire need)… which leads me to my next crazy item on the agenda and that is WE FOUND A BABYSITTER!!! she came and interviewed with us yesterday and is a doll. we were given her name and info from one of the moms in our apartment complex. this girl will be sitting for us one afternoon a week and one weekend evening a week. jackson took to her very quickly, letting her hold him and play with him. paul and i will be able to continue our date nights on weekends, and life may actually begin to function in a manner that i have not yet experienced.
so bring on the snow and bring on the crazy… and cheers to a hot totty on monday!
Have a Sip
