The Charles

The Charles in His Natural Habitat

I'm having one of those days where I feel very appreciative of my husband. So, in lieu of Pugtastic Tuesday, I'm having a Hooray for Hubby day.

For two days in a row, he's taken care of Austin's bedtime and morning routines, just so I can go to bed early and get up early to run and go to work. And he rotated the laundry for me. And cleaned up the kitchen. When I came home from work this morning, I hardly had anything to do. It was an extra-nice surprise.

Sometimes it's easy to fall into the pattern of thinking only about his faults (few though they are) or the times when we don't always get along so well. I have to remind myself to focus on the good stuff, because there's so much of it. Like this:

The picture itself isn't much. But the fact that he still has it on his computer nearly six years after snapping it with a cell phone? Awesome.

Things They Don't Tell You About Husbands

You'd think that since Charlie and I lived together before we got married, there wouldn't be a whole lot of surprises. I have news for you, kids. It's just like a box of Cracker Jack; there's ALWAYS a surprise, and most of the time it sucks. Here's a few of my favorites:

1. When you really need to pee, he will camp out in the bathroom and take a paint-melting, bowl-shaking, stinkier than a bullfrog's armpit, giant explosive CRAP. And fail to use either the exhaust fan OR the air freshener. Ideally, this will occur in the downstairs bathroom, about three seconds before dinner guests arrive.

2. It will seem at times that the longer you are married, the dumber (or deafer) he gets. The truth is, he's acting dumb on purpose so that you will stop asking him to do things.

3. He will go get you Krispy Kremes at ten o'clock at night. (Or refuse to get them for you, depending on your current diet status.) He'll also eat them in bed with you while watching old movies.

4. Occasional gifts will become less romantic and more practical. Perfect example: Last night, I was given a pooper scooper. Because, you know, nothing says "I love you" like a set of tongs used to scrape dog dookie off the grass.

5. Not much has changed since he was ten. He still likes cereal, Transformers, and fart jokes. Now he just knows about BJs.

6. You will love him more and more every day, even when he tells you his favorite show of all time is "Saved By The Bell."

This one's for you, Hubs. I love you!

 

You Drive Me Crazy in the Best of All Possible Ways

That's Love

I love my husband.

That was the first thing that popped into my head this morning. Before I opened my eyes, I felt the weight of his arm on my hip, flopped over across my stomach. I could hear him breathing, not awake yet. This is my favorite time of day, my favorite way to wake up. Love. Love in bed next to me, dozing in soft morning light filtered through a thin curtain.

Then he wakes up, the mood is broken, and we descend into ridiculous tickling, belly-button poking, pulling of armpit hairs (his). But love's still there, just like always. It runs under the surface of everything, every day. Even in the middle of a fight, the blood thumping in my ears beats out love for him.

You Are My Goober, and I Love You - 4.01.07

iTunes Tells No Tales

I made a Twitter/Facebook post yesterday about Charlie's iTunes content; I was using his laptop, opened iTunes, and put it on shuffle. The results were a little scary. My friend Mike wanted to know what the "ten weirdest songs" were. That's hard to say, but here's his top ten most played:

1. "Boys of Summer" The Ataris

2. "I Drove All Night" Celine Dion

3. "Genie In A Bottle" Christina Aguilera

4. "White Flag" Dido

5. "Hot Stuff" Donna Summer

6. "Falls On Me" Fuel

7. "You and I Both" Jason Mraz

8. "One Step Closer" Linkin (I just threw up a little in my mouth) Park

9. "Miserable" Lit

10."Sweet Home Alabama" Lynyrd Skynyrd

To his credit, the highest play count on any of these is two. Meaning, he rarely listens to music on his computer. And these aren't the strangest or the most "O DEAR GOD WHO DID I MARRY"-inducing tunes, by far. I have the same reaction now that I did when I first perused his CD wallets, back when we were dating. Britney Spears? Ashlee Simpson? SAMANTHA FOX?! Holy hideous pop catalog, Batman!

Sometimes I wonder how he tolerates my music-nerdiness, my totally hypocritical snobbery about the pop music that I secretly enjoy. I wonder how a Camaro-driving, wrasslin'-watching, NASCAR-loving redneck ended up with me: the former emo queen, who only recently gave up vinyl for CDs, and downloaded more MP3s by more obscure bands than just about anybody I know. How did two such polar opposites end up dating, getting married, and having a kid? Oh yeah...'cause we make each other happy, we make each other laugh, and (maybe most importantly) all these little quirks actually bring us closer together. I tolerate Staind, he tolerates my random OCD urges to do stuff like, oh, count the silverware in the middle of the night.