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Domestically Challenged
I enjoyed my weekend off, but today I’ve got no pages. Sometimes it happens after a weekend off, I just have trouble getting back in the groove. It’s one of the reasons I so seldom take an entire weekend away from work. Sigh.
Jon had a doctor’s appointment this evening, just a check-up, and Trinity and I did errands. By the time we were all back home, it was too late to have the dinner I had planned. As in, dinner would have been at Trinity’s bed time. We have staff to help organize us during the work day, but no one in the evening. At night, it’s just us to do the whole grown-up thing. Some day’s we’re better than others, but today was one of those moments when I thought, wouldn’t it be nice to have a wife? Not a real wife, but that 1950’s ideal that never really existed. Someone that is organized and helps you be organized, and makes sure that we don’t forget that to have dinner before bedtime, we have to start at X o’clock. I ended up going out and bringing in food. It was healthy food, sort of, and we ate. Trinity is now tucked into bed, and we are finishing up so we can go up soon. So we got everything done that needed doing, eventually, but when I realized that I’d missed the window for dinner, I felt like I’d failed.
There are days when I think, wouldn’t it be nice to have that organized grown-up in the house. But it’s not me, and though Jon is more practical than I am, he’s not the most practical person. But, you know what, I’ve never been attracted to anyone that was terribly practical. Even my first husband wasn’t organized or practical. In fact, one of the things that contributed to our divorce was that both of us kept looking at the other person, waiting for them to notice that the lamp shades were dusty, and the dinner needed to be put in the oven, or purchased from the grocery store in time to have for dinner. Now, my Chief of Domestic Operations, Sherry, takes care of the dust, and someone else buys the groceries, after I make the meal plan, so all we have to do is cook it in a timely manner. You’d think we could manage it, and most days we do, but every once in a while the absent-minded professor/artist kicks in, and we just forget. But, in the end, we got dinner, and the kiddo in bed, and it all got done. But it is one of those days when I think longingly of having one extra more practical person in the house, but let’s face it, even if Jon and I could find a third adult that we wanted to cohabitate with, we’d never be attracted to someone organized and practical. When we were both dating, our choices ran high to artist, techies, writers, and scientiests. None of these jobs, or degrees are likely to net you an organized mate. Now, now, I know there are some out there in all those categories that are the exception to the rule. Those professor types that are far from absent-minded, must be out there, but I never dated them, and neither did Jon.
So, even if we added another person to the household, we’d be no better off. We might have fun, but the chance of us bringing someone into the house that would actually help us be better in a practical manner, is slim to none. I think one of the reasons that Nathaniel in the Anita books is so domestically oriented is pure wish fulfillment on my part.
But as one good friend said recently, simple, and well-organized is boring. Well, yeah, but there are days when I wonder what it would be like for someone in the household not to be an artist, or a techie, or both. It wouldn’t work, but the lamp shades would get dusted, and dinner would be on time.