little things
April 1, 2008 by jennasuz
I was thinking about shared lives this morning while in the shower. I grabbed for the shampoo, and squeezed the bottle only to find conditioner in my hand. Which makes me think of my husband. Which makes me laugh.
Those little things we do, our idiosyncrasies, our habits, both bad and good, our annoyances and complaints… all adding up to a marriage or a partnership. The things that make him himself and me myself and us… ourselves…
Silly things like his aversion to odd numbers: The way he sits on the edge of the bed with his feet hovering over the floor and his eyes glued to the digital clock, waiting for the number to change from 3 to 4. Will not set a foot on the floor while that clock reads an odd number, no matter how much I push, pinch and tickle. Or how he used to panic when I would change the volume on the television and the level was at 13 or 15. “14 or 16! No odds!” He would admonish. Now I know better then to leave it on an odd number.
And me personally? I’m all about the odd numbers. Odds and primes. There’s something special about them. My favorite numbers: 2, 7, 11, and 19. His favorites: 2, 4, 6, and 8 and really any combination of those.
Or his shower combo: shampoo and conditioner mixed together in the palms before application. “Saves time,” he says. “You know, they make a product for that purpose. It’s called Pert Plus,” I tell him. “Yeah, but it’s not made for hippies, so you wouldn’t buy it for me,” he retorts. Yes, this is true. He knows me so well.
Of course, I have my issues too… my glassware problem for example… half empty glasses of water strewn about the house, and every morning it seems I lose my coffee mug somewhere, only to find it later that evening on a closet shelf or in the pantry cupboard. He used to get so annoyed at this, but now shrugs his shoulders and chuckles as he gathers the 4 or 5 glasses I’ve left on the dresser, on the nightstand, on the bathroom counter, in the microwave…
I leave cupboard doors open when I cook, so that by the time I leave the kitchen to put the meal on the table, 90% of the doors are open. He shuts them all before sitting down to eat, shaking his head in wonder.
His unabashed love of ice cream.
My unabashed love of vegetables.
These are a few of those little things that make up our marriage…
What about yours?
Ah, glasses. . . reminds me of when The Wife asked me, in good humor, to “bus the headboard”
Those glasses will come in handy when the aliens invade.
(That makes sense if you saw the movie “Signs.”
I think I’ve told you this before, but Paul won’t wash the cat’s dishes in the same load as our dishes. He also insists on using both soap and body wash in the shower (in that order), because he doesn’t think body wash by itself will render him clean enough.
I would say that he and I are (or were, up until now) the only two people who know that when he tickles me the only way for me to get him to stop is to scream, three times in rapid succession, “No tickle me Andrea!”
As for me, I’m completely normal and perfect. Except for the neuroses when it comes to food touching other food and, not unlike you, needing to have a glass of water with me at all times, which results in many-a-glass strewn around the house.
Our own little worlds….
–A
Our weird little things:
Ryan is fanatical about not eating food that is even close to an expiration date or even has a tiny speck of what could be mold (which is really usually a spot of flour or a seed in the bread). If the expiration date is one day before today he throws the whole container of milk out or if he sees a white spot from flour, he’ll throw the whole loaf of bread out. I’ll never understand.
I’m scared of fuzzy caterpillars, which is weird enough to outweigh his weird food thing.
Shaun will never eat an apple without washing it first…. I always argue that a little rinsing of water and wiping with a towel will not take off any bacteria, insecticides, or other germs, but he insists. He even wants to wash “pre-washed” veggies and salads. I guess since I grew up in a place where you need to soak all veggies and fruits for 30 min in iodine, the produce here in the “states” seems so squeeky clean
He thinks I’m crazy for packing so far in advance of our trips. For example, we leave for Hawaii in a week, but I’ve had my pile of things to pack accumulating for 4-5 days now. I’ve been planning what to take for even longer and I just couldn’t hold back the packing any more
He’ll wait till the night before (or the morning of) and complain that he doesn’t know what to take. I think one trip I started packing with 4 weeks to go. You don’t even want to know about moving!
I wonder if I should find clues in all this for my not having ever been married.
Hi Jenna
Your hubby’s even number idiosincracy is amusing. I’ve been single now for 6 years and feel that my habits have become quite unusual and a partner would have to be quite patient with things like my waking up at 4:00am, my stringent diet, etc. When I was partnered I was overweight and did not get up early for yoga.
cheers, Arturo
you know you’re making it hard for the single girls with this post, dont you? its very sweet.