Even that had a more or less happy ending. I spent a long, restless night, and when I woke up I had certain devilish thoughts running through my head, but it was clear she was going to sleeping in and I was only bothering her, so I got up when the baby cried and changed and fed him. He lay back down, so I went downstairs to make breakfast. (the bigger boys slept in until almost 11:00 a.m.--grandma and grandpa had worn them out.)
The floor in the kitchen was in terrible shape, so I decided I'd sweep and mop before I cooked. I had scrubbed about half of it clean of mud and dog hair and baby cracker crumbs when my wife came downstairs, gave me a long kiss.
Quote:
"Whatcha doin'?" "I'm gonna cook breakfast, but nobody was awake and I got fed up with the floor so I'm cleaning it first." "Oh. Well, I'm going to take a shower. Wanna come?"
So . . . that went well. Then I cooked her breakfast and we ate together with the twins still abed, and the kissing continued. I honestly have no idea why we didn't kiss like this before. I had every intention of changing, but I don't think I really made much of a change--but life is certainly different. Now she's off in the bigger nearby town picking up the twins' birthday cake for their pool party tonight, and the baby and I are typing this post. He's a big help at the computer.
Random vignettes and ideas:
1. Yesterday, I leaned too close to my wife and nearly killed us both. She was driving and we were on our way out to see the garage sales and have fun. I said something she liked, leaned a little too close to her and . . . she decided the road could take care of itself, turned 90 degrees to her right and attempted to kiss me passionately. This time it was my fault, because I shouted a warning as we continued to roll toward the intersection--and the car stopped at the stop sign ahead of us--which caused her to break off. I missed out on that kiss, but on the upside we didn't die in a car wreck, so we've got that going for us. Later I demonstrated the technique of waiting for a red light before kissing one's spouse. A few times. It was a good time.
2. Now that I've talked to all of you for awhile, things I never really noticed are blaring out at me. It's often an odd sensation. Years ago I bought my wife a book of "women's erotica" written "for women, by women" and edited by a Ph.d. I know; who could have guessed that this would not be a good way to awaken passion in my wife? A dirty book edited by a Ph.d should be a surefire thing. Anyway, a few days ago I found it as I was clearing the bedroom and took a look through it. There was a story about a slightly older woman working with a college student described as "stereotypically handsome." She's excited by him but worried that he thinks she's too old. He tells her he's going to take her to a local beach because she can't leave without seeing it. She demurs, but he answers every excuse firmly and continues to driver her to the beach. Eventually, of course, they have hot sex on a blanket. But that's not what really stopped me cold. What got me (this would be a day or two after S&A's long post) was this line:
Quote:
"She had been dating an appropriate man, a lawyer her own age. He never took her anywhere; he was forever asking her where she would like to go."
There was no other description of this loser; clearly the author was confident that mentioning this one aspect of their relationship would be enough for (female) readers to get the message that it was awful. This could not be good. This guy was obviously written in as the unnamed throwaway boring guy the heroine is going to dump as soon as she gets home. And the description of him sounds like a description of me. Never "take her to" the movies, dinner, a park . . . . always ask her where she wants to go. I was so sure that was the right thing to do, I thought I was being such a good husband. But here this author can sum up the archetype of a terrible relationship by casually mentioning the way I treat my wife. Not good at all.
