When moving to Chicago last year, Hubby & I ended up buying a full-size bed mattress and frame from IKEA. The thought was that I was going to use it as my bed until Hubby officially moved from our home in Suburban Detroit in April of last year. Then we’d move our queen-sized bed from Michigan and move the IKEA bed into our guest room.
Now it’s April of this year, and Hubby & I are still using that full-sized bed . That’s because we never did end up moving that bed … yet, anyway. And let me tell you, I’m sorely missing our thick, plush queen-sized mattress.
Not that the IKEA mattress isn’t comfortable. Let’s just say that the bed frame is just a little … lopsided.
To explain this more, if you’ve ever owned an IKEA bed, you’ll know that instead of having a box-spring mattress, they use a slatted bed base. Depending on how soft or firm you want the mattress to feel, you can choose from a variety of different slatted bed bases.
Now, for us … the slatted bed base wasn’t the problem. The problem lies in (no pun intended … kinda) how the slats fit into the particular bed frame we chose. Which was on sale, by the way. (That should have been our clue … ) Let’s just say that the longer you sleep on the bed, the more the slats start to slip downward off the frame of the bed on one side or the other. And well, that just makes for an uneven sleeping surface.
No matter how many times we’ve fixed the bed, over a period of time it starts to become lopsided once more. And now … well let’s just say that both sides of the bed have slipped off the frame; one side on the upper right and the other side on the lower left. Thank G*d for the midbeam; otherwise the mattress would have sunk down completely!
Obviously the cats found some balance in the bed!
Anyway … the other day, Hubby and I were talking about our sleeping experience with this bed … which, despite the nuisance of being lopsided, is actually quite comfortable. As I was getting ready to turn in for the night, I asked him when he’d be coming into bed. His response was, “Soon.”
“Good,” I told him. “Because when you’re there, I feel more balanced.”
And then we looked at each other and grinned; knowing full well that I meant that literally and figuratively.
I’ve been itching to get a tattoo. “What?,” says those few ApronStrings Readers left. “You mean you don’t have one?” And my answer to that would be a surprising no. Especially seeing that my early 20’s were spent at the height of the tattoo revival in the 90’s.
It’s not that I didn’t have the opportunity to get one or two (or three) over the past several years … it’s just that I never knew exactly what I wanted. And if I was going to get something tattood onto me permanently, I needed it to be something I knew I could live with for the rest of my life.
And since our Honeymoon, I’ve loved Hawaii
That was one of the two criteria that had to be met before I would even seriously think of getting a tattoo; aesthetics. My tattoo had to be something that was both personal and meaningful. And it had to beautiful; well, at least in my eyes.
The second criteria had more to do about wherethis tattoo would be located. In my career as a bedside nurse, I’ve seen enough tattoos in various areas that most people wouldn’t want you to see. Well, unless … (go ahead; use your imagination … ) Regardless, it’s seeing how some of these tattoos start to morph into shapeless blobs with age or worse, change in body-type (read: weight gain/loss, etc). So that was my second criteria: I had to be satisfied with where this tattoo would be displayed. It couldn’t be in any area that I knew would eventually sag or expand.
And the older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve also realized that I need to find a “strategic” area to place this tattoo. Because I’m now in a position at work where I’m more visible to other vendors and associates outside of my immediate department, I would need to think of an area where it might not be as noticeable.
So how to make it tattoo-like?
So why have I been thinking about finally getting a tattoo? Well, it’s not because I don’t know what I want to get; because I do. And it’s notbecause I don’t know where to get it; because I have a good idea about that, too. It’s really because I just had a co-worker who got her first tattoo.
You see, I’ve actually known what I wanted to get for quite a while now. And I’ve had a general idea of where I would place this tattoo. But the thing is, I want to have Hubby design it for me. I want his artwork to be part of my body. So until Hubby is able to make my design a reality, I won’t be getting my tattoo.
I just realllly hope it’s before I get any older … because I never know what part of my body will begin to sag next.
Perbuatan baik untuk hari ini: Nope; no dollar bills lying around today. However, there was something elselying around on the ground when I went to take our Kozzy-girl for a walk tonite. Because on Monday I happened to inadvertently steppedin one of those yucky doo-doo’s. SO … yes, I picked it up in our handy doggie bags and threw it away. And no Hubby, it’s notthe same one youleft behind last night because *I* forgot to reload the doggie-bag container. 😛
Rasa syukur untuk hari: Grateful thought of the day? That would be that Hubby cooked dinner for me tonight before leaving for one of his Meetup groups. Which he totallydidn’t have to, but because he knew I had an incredibly busy day at work again … he did it so I didn’t need to cook when I got home. Can you tell how much I love him? Now if he’d only design my tattoo …
I usually hate this weekend; the weekend where we turn our clocks forward one hour. I find that losing that one hour totally screws with my circadium rhythm. And the older I get, the more it takes my body to readjust.
Earlier this week, I told a coworker of mine about my hatred of these “Spring Forward” weekends. This coworker, always the optimist, had told me he was the opposite; that he always looked forward to Daylight Savings Time in spring.
“What’s not to love?,” he asked me. “We might lose an hour, but we gain an hour of sunlight.” And all I could think was how right he was.
So I think I’m going to take a page out of my coworker’s book and look forward to longer and warmer days.
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Buena Acción del Día: Today was a day of pequeño good deeds. One was patiently waiting for a couple of older women walk up a set of stairs at a restaurant so that we can follow our hostess. Another little good deed was allowing others to use our surge protector to plug their laptops. In any case, any little good thing we could do, Hubby and I tried to do.
La Gratitud del Día: I love date night. Tonight Hubby & I ended up at a movie theater to watch Shutter Island. There’s something about movies that make it such a great activity for us old married folk to do on a laid back date night.
I actually started writing this post on my iPhone on the drive from Chicago to Detroit. Ah … The wonders of modern technology!
Click on to the picture to find out about this "store front"
Typically on the 5-hour drive, Hubby usually gets the “honor” of being behind the wheel. And there’s something about his driving that usually lulls me to sleep. But today, despite staying up late last night and putting in a six-hour work day, I’m surprisingly wide awake. Maybe it’s the Real Fruit Berry Slushie from the Sonic in K-zoo? Nah …
In the past, whenever we’d go on long road trips, Hubby & I would make it an event. We’d stack up the CD’s and pack some snacks and have so much fun. And in between Van Morrison and CCR songs** Hubby and I would have these incredible conversations about our life together, our future, and our hopes & dreams.
Not that we still don’t have awesome conversations now on our round-trips between Chi-Town and Motown; it’s just that they don’t always happen during every trip … Especially with Hubby’s uncanny ability to make me so nice and relaxed when he does the driving.
And because those conversations were really in the earlier years of our relationship, there was more to find out about one another. There was more about us, as individuals, to share. There were more dreams of the ideal future to discuss.
There was none of those shared worries or disappointments. There was no shared heartbreaks for futures that weren’t realized. There was only hope.
It’s because of those things that these awesome conversations happen less … But when they do, they are so much more exciting and fun.
Today, Hubby & I had one of those fun conversations. Since learning more web apps, he’s been dying to either a) start up and design his own blog, or b) take my blog and move it to my own domain so that he can have all the fun in playing around with it while designing it. Now I’m totally for Option B here*** but I’d also love to see Hubby write his own blog as well.
Anyway, a couple days we were trying to come up with potential names for his blog. Unfortunately, we never came up with any that would “stick.”
Today on the drive to Detroit, I came up with a name that I thought would make for a great new blog title … For me. Except when I told Hubby about it, he thought that I was talking about a blog title for him.
The title? “Spare Parts” which would have been great for an infertile living child-free like me, who still has all her lady parts. Except … well, except they just don’t work. So yeah. Spare. Parts.
Hubby, on the other hand, thought that I was talking about a blog name for him, where he’s just the “spare part” to me. In which he proceeded to say to me, “What does that mean? That I’m so old and broken? And that I’m replaceable? For newer parts?”
He was serious, and yet I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Of course not,” I told him. “I was talking about myself!” and then I explained to him the reason I came up with the name.
But that still didn’t stop Hubby from calling himself as “Spare Part” for the rest of our drive home. Or referring to particular Hubby behaviors as a “Spare Part” behavior. Like, for instance, the fact that he has a tendency to ask multiple questions at one time as “Spare Part questions.” Or heading in the wrong direction towards the freeway as “Spare Part directions.”
Later on that night, as we were closer to home I told him that he was irreplaceable. That there was only one Hubby for me. And if anything, I was the one who was replaceable … with my broken parts.
And of course he told me that *I* had no spare parts; that I was perfect the way I am. Most importantly, he told me this: The two of us separately can be seen as “spare parts.” But together … well, that just makes us whole.
Today’s Good Deed: At work, I had scheduled a vendor meeting for my entire team (not my first choice of days during the week). This, unfortunately meant that my telecommuters had to come in to the office for the day. Hubby gave me the brilliant idea of bringing in some treats for the team. So we stopped off at Dunkin’ Donuts on the way to the office and picked up a dozen donuts; for no other reason other than to celebrate that it was Friday and that we were all together in the office. The best part? As I stepped out of the elevator, three of my team members were waiting to climb on to go down for a morning snack. And guess what they were going to buy? That’s right peeps … donuts! Hubby obviously had a sixth sense about stopping for this particular snack.
Today’s Gratitude: Every time we go back to Metro-Detroit, we make it a ritual to meet up with our friend, J. And of course, we try to meet up at our favorite local tavern for some good burgers. Tonight was no exception to our meet-up, but… being a (questionably) good Catholic, I refrained from eating meat on a Friday during Lent. (I know!What restraint!!) I may have mentioned in previous posts that we consider J one of our closest friends; so today I’m grateful for this friendship and the incredible conversations we have whenever we get together.
So that’s it for today … it’s actually quite late as I’m finishing up this post. Truth be told, it’s already Saturday early morning … but since I technically didn’t sleep yet … this is still Friday’s post. And that’s how I’m going to date it.
So there. <sticks tongue out>
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** Because there’s something about those classic rock songs that just make you wanna sing them at the top of our lungs while driving long distances …
*** Hey, why not?! It’d be relatively free for me!
Grams from “Dawson’s Creek” has come along way. So has Carol Hathaway from Cook County’s “ER”. Come to think of it, so has Mr. Big … well, actually he’s just a recurring special guest star.
Yeah, amongst the other TV shows I’ve picked up this year is NBC’s “The Good Wife.” Now, I admit that I started watching it because I’ve always loved Juliana Marguiles since her days on ER. And I must admit that I like seeing the Chicago skyline on the small screen. What I didn’t realize until I watched the season premiere was that this was a lawyer show. And me love me some lawyer shows.
It must be some inherent need for me to live vicariously through these shows. Or maybe it’s just that Hollywood makes it look so glamorous. But regardless, I love listening to lawyers debate. Well, at least in court; where there’s a formality to their arguments.
You see, I’m not good at arguing. In fact, I’m pretty bad at it.
Don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.
Oh, I can hold a conversation and find logic in arguing a point. I can even concede if the opposition has a strong rationale for their position. But throw emotion into it? Well yeah, then I’m a mess. And let’s face it, unless there’s that formal structure for debate … when isn’t there a situation where emotions eventually come to play?
So yeah. I suck at arguing.
I have no other reason for bringing this point up other than the fact that I love Juliana Marguiles’ character on “The Good Wife.” Somehow her character, despite her own personal mess, always manages to find a way to keep her emotions in check. And I really wish I had the talent to do that.
Guess that means I better cross “lawyer” off the list of possible new careers …
Random Act of Kindness: I can’t believe I actually did this; especially since some days I still feel like I’m still a “tourist” in the city of Chicago. But yes, I *actually* managed to give restaurant recommendations to some visitors attending a conference in the nearby Hyatt Regency. I stumbled on the poor souls on my way out of the building this evening and they just looked so pitifully lost. So I took it upon myself to ask them if they needed any assistance … and, yeah … little ol’ me managed to help them. Yee-haw!!
Because only a "Good Wife" would put such a *great* picture of her Hubby ...
Thanks & Gratitude: Can I tell you how much I love my Hubby? Not only does he drive me to work everyday (so I don’t have to feel all rushed and exhausted just getting to work), but he also manages to meet me every day at the El Station with our Kozzy-girl just so he can walk me home. AND … the poor guy is so awesome that he not only cooked dinner tonite (and most nights) but he also cleaned the cats’ litter. And if there’s any chore I hate to do the most … it would be cleaning that litter. So thank you VERY MUCH, oh dear Hubby of mine. Much much love from your Not-So-Good Wife.
Grams from “Dawson’s Creek” has come along way. So has Carol Hathaway from Cook County’s “ER”. Come to think of it, so has Mr. Big … well, actually he’s just a recurring special guest star.
